Talmud for I Kings 9:3
וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהוָ֜ה אֵלָ֗יו שָׁ֠מַעְתִּי אֶת־תְּפִלָּתְךָ֣ וְאֶת־תְּחִנָּתְךָ֮ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הִתְחַנַּ֣נְתָּה לְפָנַי֒ הִקְדַּ֗שְׁתִּי אֶת־הַבַּ֤יִת הַזֶּה֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בָּנִ֔תָה לָשֽׂוּם־שְׁמִ֥י שָׁ֖ם עַד־עוֹלָ֑ם וְהָי֨וּ עֵינַ֧י וְלִבִּ֛י שָׁ֖ם כָּל־הַיָּמִֽים׃
And the LORD said unto him: ‘I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before Me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put My name there for ever; and Mine eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually.
Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot
One verse says (Hosea 5:19) “I shall go, I shall return to My place”. Another verse says (1Kings 9:3) “My eyes and attention shall be there forever.” How is that? One’s face upwards, one’s eyes and attention downwards237(The parallel in the Babli, Yebamot 105b, replaces the verse from Hosea by one from Threni. The ruling here is credited there to R. Yose the Tanna.) The two verses speak of God. The first asserts that God has left the earth and is found only in Heaven, the second that God’s attention is always given to the Temple here on earth. Since prayer adresses God, it is necessary to adress it in the correct direction and how can one pray in two distinct directions?.
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