In the first paragraph of the Alenu prayer, we express gratitude over the fact that we are privileged to pray to and worship the true God, as opposed to the pagan nations, who worship false deities. We declare, "For they bow before vanity and emptiness, and pray to a god that cannot bring salvation – but we kneel and bow before the King of all the kings…"
The Ben Ish Hai (Rav Yosef Haim of Baghdad, 1833-1909) writes that one must make a pause between the words "El El Lo Yoshi’a" ("to a god that cannot bring salvation") and the words "Va’anahnu Kor’im" ("but we kneel…"). If a person does not make a pause at that point, and recites, "El El Lo Yoshi’a Va’anahnu," it will sound as though he says, "They…pray to a god that cannot bring salvation, and we, as well," God forbid. We certainly do not want to give any sort of impression of accepting pagan beliefs or practices, and one should therefore make a slight pause in between the words "El El Lo Yoshi’a" and "Va’anahnu Kor’im."
