Zohar and Nefesh HaChayim

Both texts address prayer (tefillah) with intention (kavanah), but Text 1 (Nefesh HaChayim) emphasizes the internal psychological/emotional dimension—'מעומקא דלבא' (from the depths of the heart) and achieving wholeness/completion in connection with God ('ישתכח לביה שלים בקב"ה'). Text 2 (Zohar Achrei Mot) describes an experiential mystical ascent involving sensory encounters (hearing voices of cherubim, incense) and mystical attachment ('אִתְדַּבְּקָן'). Both presuppose kavanah as essential to authentic prayer, but Nefesh HaChayim focuses on internal intention and emotional sincerity, while Zohar emphasizes experiential mystical communion and celestial phenomena. The underlying disagreement concerns whether prayer's effectiveness derives primarily from sincere inner intention or from mystical-experiential communion.