Once we understand that prayer is one of *the* best ways to draw close to G- d Almighty and to rectify the world, which is our life’s goal, it becomes clear that nearly everything we do should prepare us for it. And that certainly goes for what we wear.

So we’re charged to adorn ourselves with tallit and tephillin before we pray in the morning so as to be more elevated than we’d been before, to be ready to greet G-d Almighty in awe and wonder (having been sanctified and illumined by the tallit and tephillin), and in order to allow for the transmission of G-d’s great and rectifying light throughout the universe.

The morning prayer service itself, as we’ll see, is a multilayered and subtle series of petitions, praises, and expressions of gratitude. And it’s comprised of four major components that correspond to the four Celestial Realms which are all adjusted to one degree or another when we pray, Realm by Realm. In any event, the sequence begins with the donning of tallit and tephillin, as we’d said, which then serves as a sort of initiation into it the process.

Text Copyright © 2005 by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org.