Sefer Chareidim, written by R' Elazar Azkari of Tzfat, in the 16th century (really it was the 54th century), a contemporary of the ARI Z"L, deals with the Taryag mitzvot. Mitzvot are organized by positive and negative, and by parts of the person "in charge" of the mitzva. Positive mitzva dependent upon the hands. A prohibition concerning the eyes. Etc. He writes that even though Prayer is essentially a mitzva of the heart, it also heavily depends upon the mouth, since a person has to utter every word of davening with his lips, and with great attention paid to grammar and pronunciation, and with a soft voice, so that he himself will hear what he is saying. The SAMAK (Sefer Mitzvot Katan) writes that one should be careful with each word of prayer as if he were counting gold coins.

The SH'LAH HaKadosh exhorts us to pronounce every word of prayer meticulously, careful not to chop off its ending or beginning, careful to properly pronounce all vowels... for if one changes even one dot, it could result in the change of meaning of a word, which can, G-d forbid, occasionally result in disrespect to G-d.

The Beit Yosef writes that there is a custom among S'faradim that after reading the Torah on Shabbat, V'HU RACHUM Y'CHAPEIR AVON... was said to atone for inadvertent mistakes in the Torah reading.

These were a few of the quotes in the introduction to EIM LAMIKRA HASHALEIM by R' Nisan Sharoni of Ashdod, the book which was the original inspiration for the TBDATR column and the mainstay of its content for these past three and a half years. I know that my davening has improved, and not just the saying of the words but the understanding and feeling of davening.