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19 Weeks of Blessing - 9th Beracha with Rabbi Daniel Glatstein
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uh is uh that kind of touches people's
hearts in a certain sense it
speaks to people's uh vulnerabilities
in a major way something everybody can
readily understand
um as being a necessity you know
maybe there are some of the earlier is
the person that has to be more
spiritually oriented
to understand the necessity when it
comes to this bracha this is the 9th
hashem you should bless us please bless
us with sustenance
and um and with prosperity
and so this uh this is a very special
bracha
and i wanted to start by thanking our
sponsors for this evening
um this uh this class is sponsored by
michael and betsy senker and it's in
memory of betsy's mother and
grandmothers
and their names are these names are
recently refreshed
uh the senkas went to visit the cemetery
and actually
updated the exact spelling and
names and shows the connection they have
with uh their uh their ancestors with
their
parents and grandparents i'm sure
they're giving them amazing amounts of
through themselves through their
children and their names are
mendel mindle mendel
betsy if you want to correct me just on
you please
and there's mildred gerson
[Music]
thank you very much for that sponsorship
and also sponsored by rabbi aron and
getty golding in honor of gedalia
schwartz
kidalia schwartz i understand is very
much responsible
for helping the torah of our speaker our
speaker this week
is uh rabbi daniel gladstein and dalia
schwartz
has been instrumental in ensuring that
the world can uh
can get a taste of rabbi gladstein's
unique um unique torah
just a minute a word from our sponsor
literally
is the one that changed it
okay yeah and speaking of mrs berkowitz
i also just have to mention the
amazing staff that that works behind the
scenes tirelessly
to make the whole show run and this
program is included so thank you to mrs
berkowitz
to to leia lubell of course rabbi
tendler
um we all collaborate work together to
make these amazing programs happen
so anyway thank you to the sankers i
thank you to the goldings for this
sponsorship
rabbi gladstein is about to come come to
you live not
or live in my computer um it's actually
a wonderful recording
it's it's both physically appealing
because he used very high quality videos
he's very well known
uh for his torah anytime videos and
that's the screen that you'll see he
used the torah anytime camera so thank
you for any time for that
um and he has he always has like a a
like unique angle
that you've never heard of before and
yet it's very solid and based on solid
sources
so uh that's that is uh what has
become rabbit gladstone's um trademark
and uh he does it for us here in this
series so it's going to be an unusual
presentation of this bracha but very
very clear
and will present to us a new way of
thinking about this bracha and
and the blessings in general so i'm
going to display
the video here for you all and then
we'll reconvene
in about 30 35 minutes and gosh just a
second as i get the screen loaded
okay can you see whatever glaston's
image on the screen
okay here we go
welcome everyone to the special 19 weeks
of blessing
program it is uh my great fortune
growing up as a kid one of my favorite
books
was tales out of shul i never would have
imagined in my wildest dreams that i
would have the privilege of giving a
class
from out of school so it's a really
distinct
privilege and pleasure to be speaking to
the
beth jacob community of atlanta
and berchus rabbi feldman and rabbi
foxbrunner thank you so much for giving
me this uh
sukhos and this great privilege to share
with you some thoughts about
the ninth bracha of shmona esri
and let's begin by noting that this is
the
only bracha with the exception of the
first bracha
which of course begins baruch which
begins with a blessing
this is the only blessing of the 19
blessings that begins with the word
barach with a word which is similar to
the word baruch
blessing so that certainly gives us a
clue
that of all the blessings of shema esri
the ninth
blessing is one that symbolizes
blessing and bracha more than any other
let's begin with the very interesting
comments of the tour the son of
the rash the tour of course codified
the main corpus of halacha into
four general categories of halacha
and the laws of prayer the torah
categorizes in
what is called the section of the way of
life
and the tour says that the ninth
blessing of shema esri
has thirty words
and the torah says what is the
significance that this is the ninth
blessing of shemonia estran the torah
where the gemara says why is the ninth
blessing of shema esri about
sustenance parnassa it's interesting you
know humorously people say
that all of a sudden when it comes to
the ninth blessing of shamanism
everybody wakes up and people are
davening and praying with great intent
and great devotion
because after all yes we won best and we
want mashiach and we want
but but we know we all want to make a
buck
people are interested and very concerned
about their livelihood
and the gemara asks why is this the
ninth
blessing of shema israel and the gemara
says something quite amazing
the gemara says that one's livelihood is
very much dependent on the economy
and whether prices are real or whether
they're inflated
and if you look in the ninth chapter of
tehillim of psalms
king david abraham prays that god should
destroy
those who jack up the prices what the
gemara refers to as the mafia shah and
those who cause inflation
so since king david since abraham prays
for the stability of the economy in the
ninth
paragraph in the ninth chapter of
tehillim of psalms
so too the ancient sagadola the men of
the great assembly who formulated the
shema esre
they formulated that we pray for
sustenance in the ninth blessing of
shamanic
and that's certainly of note who cares
that david prayed for the downfall of
those who jack up the prices
in the ninth chapter of psalms why does
that have to be connected to shema esri
furthermore the tour asks why are there
thirty words
in the bracha of barikaleno
blessed upon us hashem our god
this year yes and all the various types
of produce for good
this bracha has 30 words the same talon
and give do and reign for blessing
so if you add the words of the saint
halimat to the brah as we do in the
winter
on the face of the earth the sabbath and
satisfy us from your goodness
and bless our years like the good years
this of course is the one who blesses
the years
if you count up these number of words
you have 30 words
says the tour what is the significance
of 30 words in this blessing of shema
esri
says the holy torah because in the
humesh
there are two sukim that speak about
god's bounty and sustenance that he
offers the jewish people in the world
one is apostolic in devarim hashem
god should open up for you his good
story house
is the heavens says
to give the reign of that your land
needs
at its right time
to bless all of your handiwork
silva you will lend to the nations you
will not have to borrow
so this passage speaks about god opening
up the heavens and giving us rain and
giving us bounty
this verse has 23 words furthermore
the passage which we know as the
quintessential passage describing god's
sustenance to mankind paise
god you open up your hand um and you
satisfy
to every living thing ratson their
desire so this passage has seven words
so throughout the tanakh the tube that
describe
god's sustenance and life-giving powers
of
livelihood to man they are summed up in
a total of 30 words so since there are
30 words in the tanakh that describe
god's sustenance to mankind therefore
this bracha was formulated with 30 words
and again you could ask
why is it significant why is it
important
that the blessing with which we ask for
sustenance
should be paralleled after the number of
words that
describe god's ability to sustain the
world
in the tanakh why do the words why
do the number of words have to be
specific why
why is it of relevance the number of
words in the
in the blessing so it's it's quite a
remarkable thing we see that this
blessing was paralleled in concept
after the chapter of tehillim that
speaks about the economy
as well as the number of words in this
blessing
are paralleled after the number of words
in the sukum of tanakh that speak about
god giving us sustenance so i think this
opens up for us a very important and
fundamental idea about
prayer in general shmona esri
specifically
this idea might be a little bit
surprising especially in the context of
this
particular tefila program after all the
function of this program the objective
of this program which is uh i may say
really a remarkable program is to try to
enhance
our kavanagh but i think we need to so
to speak
redefine what is the purpose of having
added carvana in schmona esre
and let's introduce this with a comment
of a really fantastic safer a wondrous
safer
the name of the safer is magette
mesharam magen meisham was written by
the base yosef rabbi yosef karo
rabbi joseph carroll the author of the
shokanach
and he records what he was taught
by none other than his holy chavruza
and who was the harusa of rabbi yosef
karo
rabbi yosef carol learned with a
heavenly angel it's amazing
a human being could study together with
an angel and the angel
told rabbi joseph karo be careful when
you pray
not to think extraneous thoughts
don't even think about torah don't even
think about
torah subjects ki
just focus on the words of prayer
themselves
now let us study these this teaching of
the angel to rabbi yosef carol
the angel taught rabbi yosef karo don't
have extraneous thoughts when you pray
just focus on the words themselves
in his classic say foreign
the first gate the thirteenth chapter
the nefer
rabbi khan valajnar says listen
carefully to these words of the angel
the angel did not tell rabbi yosef caro
think about
the meaning of the words but rather he
said
focus on the words themselves which
means when you
say the words of shmona esre the
objective is to picture
those words in your mind and just focus
on
unleashing those words the
intent and the understanding of the
meaning of the words are almost
secondary to focusing on
just unleashing those words themselves
says do you know who composed schwann
esri
it was composed by the men of the great
assembly
we're talking about people who some of
them were
prophets mordechai ezra
when these 120 men sat down to compose
the prayer
they were not using literary ability
poetic license instead they were
divinely inspired to compose those words
that would effectuate in the heavens and
all the various realms and worlds
that which we are trying to accomplish
they use the prophetic spirit to you to
compose these specific words because
they knew these
words have the spiritual energy and
power to unlock from shamayim
that which we are asking for whether
it's
whether it's for healing they knew that
these
were combination of words these letters
this system this uh
paragraph requesting from god healing
those words were then injected
and laid in with spiritual
nuclear energy to effectuate from heaven
healing and in our braha the ancient
sector understood
that to gain sustenance from heaven for
god almighty
to send down from his throne of glory
sustenance through the various spheros
which are
mystical realms and for that sustenance
to emanate from on high and trickle down
down down down down through the various
spiritual channels
until it materializes and concretizes in
this world
the way to access that is through the
power of these divinely inspired words
and that is one of the reasons why it is
important if one is able to to make
every attempt
to pray in hebrew certainly if one is
not doesn't
understand the language at times we will
allow
one to recite the prayer in a language
they understand for
for more meaningful prayer however
once a person is able to read the words
of hebrew even if they don't understand
it
it almost doesn't matter whether you
understand it or not
the words themselves contain spiritual
nuclear energy
because they were not composed by poets
and literary geniuses although they
were it was composed by prophets
and they knew these words are what it
takes to access parnassa from heaven
and now we understand part of their
divine prophecy was trying to parallel
the blessing after what chapter
in tehillim where certainly david melech
understood the workings of the heavens
and he prayed for the economy in the
ninth chapter of tehillim and therefore
the way to access sustenance is in the
ninth blessing of shema esri
30 words because that's the number of
words in the tanakh in these scriptures
about
god's ability to sustain us the nefer
shahim says
more important than knowing the meaning
of the words is just focus on saying the
words i'll give you an analogy
you don't have to know how a computer
works for it to work
if you're typing something and you need
to type the word
prayer p-r-a-y-e-r it's not really
at all important to understand
why when you press the letter p that
the the letter p will appear on your
screen you don't have to know the
computer code or how it works in any way
all you need to do is press the key
accurately
press that key tap it correctly tap it
definitively
give it the right amount of energy in
the tap
and that's all you really need to know
and it will do what it needs to do
because the computer programmer
programmed it to do what it does and
what it does best
it's the same thing with prayer you
don't have to know how
prayer works you almost don't even have
to know what the words mean
and i'm reluctant to say this in a
series about the translation and meaning
of prayer but before we understand the
meaning of prayer
it is important to know the words
themselves
carry inherent value and meaning so even
if you don't know what the words
bless upon us
hashem our god this year the first thing
we need to know is
the men of the great assembly already
programmed
that when those words are said correctly
and
accurately it will access paranosamina
the great objective of learning the
meaning of the words
in a way it doesn't make the te fila
more effective per se what it does is
it makes the the more meaningful to us
and our heartfelt intention and devotion
will enhance
the tfila but the thilo will do what it
does
almost regardless of whether we are
thinking of the meaning of the words or
not and as reluctant as i am to say that
this is what requirement teaches us
surely
our enhanced kavanagh will
enhance the efficacy but it will be
effective regardless
i'll give you an analogy from this
week's parasha this week's parachutes
parashat's valley
and in partial memphis pastor
dave chapter 49 verse 22
yaakov avinu tells joseph
and i have given to you an extra portion
over your brothers and you know where i
got this portion from
i took it from the amorites
with my sword of akashi and with my bow
yaakov says i won this property fair and
square with my sword and with my bow
but if you look in the targum if you
look in the aramaic translation of
unclas
he translates the word baharbi with my
sword bitsaloisi with my
prayer uvakashti and with my bow
uv with my request
so instead of translating the words that
yaakov one
shechem with physical brute strength
yaakov was saying i
gained shechem through my prayer but he
uses two different terminologies of
prayer
his sword and his bow his standard
prayer and his request
rav mayor simchavdevinsk
explains that there are two elements of
prayer
there is the standard prayer which was
formulated by the men of the great
assembly and that is the shmona estuary
that we say every day and that is
likened to a sword
in halacha any sword which is metal
if somebody kills somebody with it even
with a
small amount of force they are liable
for murder
because metal has the inherent ability
to kill so too our standard prayers
were already injected and laid in with
all the force that they need we just
need to unleash them
and then of course we have our personal
prayer when we have personal needs that
we cry out to god
from the depths of our heart in our own
word and those prayers are
only as meaningful as the
sincerity and devotion that we put into
them
but we have to recognize there is an
element of standard prayer
and this this great series will enhance
the meaning of the prayer to us but
recognize
that prayer is effective whether we
understand it or not and that is because
the words themselves
carry incredible power because they were
composed
by the greatest of men namely the men of
the great assembly the anse nasa
sagdollah now
let's come to barakaleno because this is
a
blessing for a request for sustenance
and certainly in our times this has many
levels of meaning because
we don't just want corn and um
and carrots and
wheat and barley even though us in new
york we think everyone in atlanta
is a farmer you know sorry you know
that's how just we think it's an
agricultural to society but
of course we know that most people are
not working in the fields and people's
livelihood depends on
commerce and business and
stocks and bonds and mutual funds and
economy and that is certainly included
in
the words
bless upon us this year not just our
fields but our commerce
bless our years like the good years we
know there were years where the stock
market
really rose we know there were years
where the economy was really booming and
that is what we pray for every single
day and the question is
friends why do we need to pray daily for
sustenance
isn't one the one of the basic tenets of
our emunah one of the basic tenets
of our belief is that on rosh hashanah
god decrees
how much money a person is going to make
that year
and whether a person works more or works
less they're gonna get what was
predestined
so the one thing it would seem not
necessary to pray for a daily and
certainly three times a day is
sustenance
hasn't it already been decided on rosh
hashanah
and this is a very fundamental question
and it is addressed
by none other than the ram khaler of
moshe lutzatto
in his classic work darakasam and ramos
sato speaks about the central
role that prayer has to play in the in
the life of a jew and he says that it is
god's
most basic desire and deepest desire to
provide
every jew
and every human being with a bounty of
livelihood not just for your basic
necessities but to live
in comfort and ample livelihood
however god programmed the world
that he only gives it if mankind
attempts to come closer to him
and that is the conduit through which
god
bestows parnassa and bounty on man so
yes
it was decreed that this year we should
make 250 000
at least however we still have to pick
up the check
in other words just because the boss has
the check
waiting for you in his office you still
got to go get it
not every boss is direct deposit into
your account
and god does not do direct deposit
god says yes i've decreed how much money
you're going to earn this year
but it's contingent upon you coming
close to me
i don't want you leaving anything in the
escrow
yes i decreed how much you're going to
make this year but you got to come and
get it
and the way we come and get it is by
coming closer to hashem that is the
conduit and the channel through which
god bestows upon us but then
hashem shares with us and really
bequeaths to the jewish people
a gem of an idea the dark hashem teaches
us
that the way god's set up that we make a
living is we go to work
now going to work although it has a
great advantage of earning a paycheck
it has a great disadvantage because we
cut become
very involved and immersed in
physicality and gash mia's kashmiris
the physical world one could be working
in an office
and one gets carried away thinking
this is all dependent on me my acumen my
good ideas will earn me the paycheck and
one begins to lose focus of god
one could be in an office where the
environment is uh
less than worthy where perhaps people
are speaking in a low manner perhaps
people are dressed in an indecent manner
going to work has a certain
danger challenge and pitfall to it
what could what what is our safety net
that we don't get dragged down
by making a living that the workplace
that the environment that the
immersion in our handiwork doesn't
take us away from hashem and our safety
net is
right prayer because before we go to
work
during our work we're praying god help
me out
give me parnassa help me be successful
so that what that does is it puts a
framework that even if i'm at work now
for the next nine hours
i'm not going to get dragged down
because i understand
that whatever i'm about to do is
dependent
on god's good will so well how do i know
that i'm aware of that well you prayed
didn't you
didn't you enunciate the concept that
you believe that your success is
dependent on god
so when we go to work our work is now
being framed in bahrain
we're going to be careful now that we
don't get carried away and think well
this is all dependent on
my own acumen my own handiwork i'm not
going to get drawn after
the physical environment of the
workplace because
i've already declared before i go to
work after i go to work that
this is not a physical activity this is
a divinely assisted activity god is with
me in the workplace
says in the the ramhal prayer
especially barikaleno will be our safety
net to ensure
that our that our working will not
pull us away from the almighty
i would not now like to present to you
a um remarkable idea it's not my own
idea
this is the thesis of rav yeshua heller
and i told rabbi fox bruner
that perhaps my presentation will be a
little out of the box and i hope
you'll enjoy it and this
was really eye-opening to me there is a
comment in the usame
the ishami was talking about various
amaraim who had a
difficult time focusing during the shema
esri
these comments of the usami could be
found in yushami brahes paragbays
shmuel said this is how i ensure that i
have kavanaugh
i count the birds
don't we all right what in the world
does
mean that the way he has kavanagh is by
counting
the birds well rav yeshua heller wrote
an entire compendium
explaining this statement of shemoel
that he
counts the birds in order to facilitate
his kavanagh
and rabishua heller explains as follows
if you look in
parashas shemini
that speak about the birds that you're
allowed to eat the birds you know to eat
so biblically we're allowed to eat any
bird as long as it's not on the list
of 19 or 20 birds that are mentioned
in parashat shmini and respectively
in fact in the list in one of the lists
there are 21 birds
in one list they're 20 birds however if
you look in the gemara and khulan
the gemara khulan teaches us and this
gemara is found on that
days the gemara says the ayah
and the daya are all one bird
gemara says further the
aya they're all one bird knowing that
if you then count the number of
non-kosher birds mentioned in these
parasitos
you have 19
non-kosher birds says yeshua heller
there is no question
that everything in the physical world
reflects the spiritual world
the 19 non-kosher birds reflect
19 avenues of
sustenance that mankind and the jewish
people are dependent on god
the 19 non-kosher birds correspond to
the 19
blessings of shema esri and if you want
to really understand
each blessing of swansea you have to
study the bird
that corresponds to that particular
blessing i'll give you an example and
we'll come right away to the
blessing of barikalino the first
blessing listed in
the first bird listed in parashashmini
and pasha's rei
is the nesha what is the defining
characteristic
of the nesha well rashi tells us
now there is actually a dispute what is
the nasher is it the
eagle or is it the vulture let's go with
the
traditional interpretation that it's the
ego the eagle is the highest flying bird
and rashi tells us in pashas
israel that all other birds carry
their young in their arms
because they're afraid of a predator
coming down swooping down and taking
their child away from them
so they carry their child on their arms
however the nesha is the highest flying
bird
it has no worries that a bird will swoop
down upon it
what it is worried about is maybe a
human being will shoot from below a
missile or projectile
and hit their young so the nesh or the
highest flying bird
flies with its young on its wings and it
says
i don't have to worry about anyone
flying above me i only have to worry
about the projectile that might hit my
young
better the projectile hit me and i will
be
what for my young i will be
a shield for my young
i will take i will take it on the chin
i will take the bullet in me to protect
my young
you want to conjure up an image of what
god means when he
when we say mugen avraham you want to
understand what it means that god is the
shield of abraham and the shield of the
jewish people
conjure up the image of the nesha the
eagle
who's willing to take a bullet in it
and protect its young god also says when
i took you out of egypt i carried you
like on the wings of the eagle like
i took you in my ananya covered my
clouds of glory
and when the egyptians were shooting
projectiles i said better it should hit
me
and i will protect you so if you want it
the imagery
of magen avraham think about the nesha
the eagle and you'll understand what it
means that god is a shield of abraham
we are now in the ninth blessing and
therefore the ninth
bird mentioned in parashat's shemini
is none other than the nates and the
nates is
the sparrow hawk and if you really
and truly want to understand the
blessing of barclay and if you ask what
do you mean i looked in pasha shmini
that's not the ninth bird
remember what i told you the ayah the
daya the ra
they're all one bird and in fact the
ninth bird then is the
nate's the sparrow hawk
and the sparrow hawk if we could study
this bird
for a few brief moments we will gain
a deeper appreciation and a
fuller imagery of what we should think
when we say the bracha of baricaleno
the issue is that we don't exactly know
what a nate's is
we for convenience purposes translated
as sparrowhawk
and of course if we want to understand
what this bird is we have to go to a
very
mysterious gemara so i invite you to
join me
for some bird study
in a gemara in baba basra and kafei
the gemara says that four
winds blow every day the north
sorry the real cliffhanger i'm just
going to open up the second file that he
sent
they were supposed to have been stitched
together but it didn't work uh just one
minute
hold that thought
okay i apologize for the technical
difficulties
um i don't i can't find the second file
um
so what we're going to do is i contacted
the office they're
uh looking for it now um if
if the new the second file appear
they're very large files you can see the
quality is very clear
sort of a glass can sent two fly two
files
they're supposed to be stitched together
so they can place uh
seamlessly but apparently only the first
one was
uploaded so oh one second here they are
okay they can't access the second file
um so what we're going to do is we'll
pause this year here
at that cliffhanger um we will we will
uh
wrap up for tonight then i'll send out
an email
with a link to the second half of this
year that you can all
access um yourselves
um and i welcome any further uh comments
on this year
so far the two the two ideas that
uh i found to be very fascinating i'm
sure you did too
just to recap the first idea was uh i
guess sort of iconoclastic
in the sense that this program is all
about understanding the brahmos
the gladstein brought some
pretty interesting primary sources that
indicate
that in addition to understanding the
words of the bracha which obviously
draws us in obviously creates that
connection
but just saying the words themselves
have
such incredible potential that the words
themselves are glowing
with meaning and with depth and with
spiritual power
that's something that on one hand one
might
recoil at the idea you know just saying
words i don't understand
how is that supposed to mean anything
but on the other hand
to recognize that hashem embedded into
the world
spiritual power that's available to us
by accessing it through torah and
through dominic
is a um is an exhilarating concept
so that's uh that's the first idea that
one of my takeaway ideas from this year
that we've heard
half of so far and uh the second idea
very
uh unusual this is really very
gladstone-esque
of uh connecting the ninth bracha to the
ninth
non-kosher bird presented in the
excuse me the ninth bird presented in
the torah
and to learn about that bird and thereby
drawing us into understanding the bracha
is another idea that i'm looking i'm
looking forward to seeing the second
half of this video
so without further ado because you have
to get some sleep so that you can
see the next video tomorrow night i'm
going to let you all
go i'm going to wish once again to thank
our sponsors
wish all of you here um a uh
a week full of bounty and sustenance
by number one taking the time to invest
tonight in understanding this bracha and
number two as the gemara says
that uh there's a saying in the gemara
that sometimes
you receive reward for uh for action and
sometimes you receive reward for
inaction
so in this sense we have an inaction and
that we can't get to the end of the
of the video right now but that desire
to reach it
should also be part of this class desire
to learn more desire to strive desire to
go beyond our current understanding
so that's what i'm getting also from
this little intermission that we're
sharing together
so um thank you very very much for
tuning in
um i will be sending out an email to the
death shakable list with a link to the
second half of the class
and we'll also upload it to our youtube
channel so that it can be readily
accessed
by anybody thank you very very much i
apologize for i apologize for that
technical
uh glitch but i think there's what we
learned from it
and uh thank you for learning together
have a great night and a wonderful week
you