Towards Meaningful Tefilla -Mrs. Zemira Ozarowski

The first half of the section of requests is all personal, right? And we um we went through and we did the the first the first half of that half, right, was all spir was more spiritual, right? We had the asking for the knowledge and the slanu and hashu, right? Um and that was a spiritual requests for us as individuals. And then we got to the physical requests for us as individuals, right? And that was Raa, right? Rafa. Um, and now we're up to Baralinu. Okay, Baralu. Um, sometimes seems a little bit distant from us, right? We're asking Hashem to give us rain and we're not farmers. So, I'm not sure how much, you know, we really feel when there is, you know, if there's not enough rain, do we really feel it? Right. And I remember there was one time when we were told we were going to have a water a water it wasn't a shortage it was a water outage. They were working on the water pipes whatever in my for 8 hours. 8 8 hours is a long time without water. So you know we were like filling up buckets and bottles of water and bathtubs of water like just cuz we said you know we're going to need it for so many different things. We want to make sure just to flush the toilet even right so we wanted to make sure we had enough water. Um, and beyond that minor discomfort, we suddenly realize, you know, like I was thinking about it with my kids and I was like, you know, we take water for granted. It's something that we always have. Um, and you know, like in past generations, in order to get their water for every single thing they needed, they had to go down to the well or down to the water and bring back buckets and it was like a it was a real thing. Um, but today we don't we don't feel that, right? I mean, we don't really we don't really think about, you know, farmers do. Farmers think all the time. If there's enough rain, their crops aren't growing. But we don't think about it. We just go to the, you know, sink, turn on the water, go to the grocery store. We don't need to worry about crops. There's, you know, all our vegetables and fruits are there. Everything everything works. Um, but the commentaries explained that the kalinu is not only about agriculture, right? It's also about parasa, about livelihood in general. Um, right? Agriculture is one example of a means to having a parasa a prana but um and that used to be one of the most common ways that people earned their living and got their food. Um but there's many other examples right and in this braa we're really domining that we should have a good parnasa we should have a good livelihood um and that is obviously something that is very relevant to all of us. So let's look at the words, right? We say Hashem should bless us this year. Um um and all of the different types of produce should be for good. The or depending on the season, um you should give us you should give us or you should give us dew and rain for blessing. um on the face of the earth and we should be satiated from its goodness and um he should bless our years like the good years. Blessed are you who blesses the years. So the um which was written in the 1700s he points out that this needs to be recited in a very heartfelt way, right? should be very emotional, right? Even if somebody is wealthy and has everything that they need, we all know that these are things that can be switched around in a moment, right? And so some he says the way he writes it he says I'm translating but he says to my dear brothers and friends if a person says this and asks asks for rain only with his lips and doesn't concentrate at all what he's asking for certainly it is not considered a request for before the one who is who examines what's going on inside our heart the deeply embarrassing this should be for all of us right we're coming to Hashem and we're asking him, "Please make sure that we have money for everything that we need. Please make sure that we could put food on the table." It's one of the most basic requests. And how many times do we stop to think what we're actually asking, right? We just run through it. He says, "How can it be? We're ask like it's not even like we're saying some word, some esoteric words, and we don't understand what we're saying. We're asking for what we need." And yet many of us maybe not people in this room but many people right can just say just say without even thinking for a second pausing to think what they're actually saying and Hashem's looking at us and he's like you're asking me to give you a parnasa but you don't even hear the words that you're saying so why would I listen right and it's really it's the same thing really for all many many of the are things that are really our basic needs and somehow even so we manage to just kind of mumble through them. Yes, sorry. I actually I was like about to go over to you and ask you right before I was I was going to ask you like I really still want to hear your mother's connection to Tab and now I forgot to even say her name but it was in my head. Um, so sorry this year the entire series is sponsored by Carol Goldberg for the nash of her mother makashva but yitzk shalom and thank you again and I'm sorry I forgot to mention it but it's totally there as I was saying it but and I see you right in front of me so it's like I I'm thinking it but everyone should know. Yes. Um okay so so this this braha is a braha that we need to really stop think about it's not a braha on a general level right it's not we're saying we're not saying give rain to the entire country we're actually asking because again this is the personal obviously we can have it in mind and we care about the entire country but it's actually a bucka for ourselves um now if there's global prosperity it's going to impact on us So obviously we want it but in the end of the day we're asking per on a personal level. We say alu right alu right hashem should make it a blessing for us and rabbi monk in the book points out that there are some times when there can be blessing in the world right there couldn't be he he talks about agar where there's there was a time when there was lots of grapes right but they were so expensive that nobody could afford them right so sometimes it doesn't matter that there's blessing in the world but we want baralu that blessing should come to us um le tova It should be for the good. What does that mean? Why are we asking should it be for the good? Like you said, if there's a surplus and and it's too expensive, then you can't buy it. So, it doesn't help you also, right? But also, sometimes we don't know what we need, right? We don't know how much is good for us. Sometimes if we have too much, it distracts us and it takes us away from our goal of serving Hashem. We want to have enough that we can serve Hashem properly and we don't want to have too much that's going to distract us and we don't really know what what that amount is. So it should be for good. Rain rain has to be for good right rain is like the the mashall of all types of livelihood right but rain we see very clearly right in a physical sense that if it's too much it's going to ruin everything. So if we have too much um parnasa it could be not good um and we should be satiated from its goodness and says that we can learn from these words it's not the but we can learn even from a little bit of the good right um we should be satiated even if we don't get as much as we thought we should and as much as we felt we needed whatever we're given We should feel that um sova that that satiation we should feel satisfied with whatever it is that Hashem gives us. Um right because without that ability to be able to be happy with what we have so no matter how much Hashem showers onto us we're just going to feel a lack. Right? So we want to be able to feel the the we feel full from whatever it is the whatever the amount is of the good that's in this world. Um um and we ask Hashem, right, that our years should be blessed like the good years. Um and on level it seems to mean, right, we want this year to be as successful as the most successful year that we ever had, right? Think back to like the during that time everything was amazing. We want it to be like that. Um but the adds that also we're asking on a different level, right? that um we should be on a spiritual level no matter like he says right a lot of times what happens is that when we have too much money too much materialism sometimes that distracts us from our our our spiritual role in the world so he says that we ask Hashem please give us the material please give us all the the financial comfort but it should be that our years should still be like the best spiritual year we ever had it shouldn't take away right sometimes in order to connect properly to Hashem, we need suffering, but we don't want to have suffering. So, we're saying, remember that year when things were so hard that like I dab into you every day from my heart and when I said this, I didn't skip over it cuz I really needed the money, right? So, like remember that year when I was so connected to you, Hashem? I want my spiritual year this year to be like that, but my physical year should be a little bit more comfortable. We want everything, right? Um and so that that um but the most important thing really is stop concentrate we just need food on the table. Please give it to us. Just that moment that second of concentration changes the world. Okay. Um we are now at Taba which is so fitting. I I feel like during this time period where we start with Yumat and now we just had Yum Shalim. Um, this is the this is the okay, right? Sound the Greek chauffeur for our freedom and raise a banner to gather in all of the dispersed exiles and bring us all together. Gather us together from all four corners of the world. Blessed are you, Hashem, who gathers in the dispersed people of his nation of Israel. Okay. 100 years ago, there were only about 56,000 Jews living in Israel. And today, we're at a million. How many? Million people. Seven million. Right. A million people. I think Jews. I think we're at I think we're at 7 million. Jerusalem. Okay. In Jerusalem. Yes. Right. Now we did just celebrate Yum, but somehow Yum still gives us that feel of like, wow, we're all here, right? But in Israel, there are like 7 million Jews and 100 years ago there are 56,000, right? Which is like when you think about it, like that's a crazy crazy um um amount. Yeah. So um and and we see it ourselves. We see Jews from all over the world are making aliyah every year. Um and we're actually watching the in gathering of the exiles. We see it so clearly. And it's an amazing thing to be living at a time when the words of this fel to Kabashad are in fact a reality. But it wasn't always the case, right? There were thousands of years after the second exile when there were a few handfuls of Jews living in Israel and they were always persecuted and it was almost impossible to really live here in Israel. And um people would davin all the time from all around the world to come back to Israel. But it was like a dream. It's like one of those things you daven for, but like you don't really believe they're ever going to happen. It's just like, can we please all come back to Israel, but like it can't be because it's such a like it's a country that people can't actually live in. It's not even possible. Um, and the reform movement actually in the 1800s, right, they basically said, "This is an impossible dream. Why do we keep why why are we praying for this? It doesn't even make any sense." And they said throughout history, if you look, you never see any nation ever go back to its homeland. It doesn't happen. And it's been thousands of years and it's not going to happen. So, we're not going to keep domining for something that's not that's not reality. Um, and they said even if somehow a Jewish state will be created, like most people are not going to live there because they're not going to be protected and they're going to it's they'll just be persecuted. So, like maybe there'll be a few hundred thousand Jews that will live there, but it's not going to be a successful country. Um, and so what did they do? They took out the words um it's from this really took it out. You could look you can look in in a reform sitter. they took it out. Um, so when we say this tila and we see it coming true before our eyes, right, we should realize the enormity of the fact that we're living a dream, right? Something that was so clear to everyone that it can't happen. Maybe not everyone agree with the reform movements where it's changed its file, but bas basically people understood that yeah, like this is a far-fetched dream, right? And we're living it. We see it. It's like we say it and we're like, yeah, that makes sense, right? Cuz it's happening. Um and we need to ask Hashem to continue this process, right? We see it starting. We see people coming back and we want um to make sure that all of the people from all over the world are going to be brought back. Um now we we mentioned in the beginning that this is like right in the middle. This is right in the middle and it's marking the transition. Everything until now was all the personal requests and now we're getting to the communal requests and we say basically right we quoted a monk um where he said basically that in this what we're doing is now we're going we're like transitioning we were individuals and now we're asking Hashem to bring everyone together um bring us all together and form a nation and once we're a nation now we're ready to dab in for our national needs. Okay. So let's look at the words inside. We begin by asking that the sound that says sound the great chauffeur for our freedom. What chauffear are we talking about? Is there going to be a chauffeur? Right. So right on that day beginning of the a great chauffear will be blown. And it might be there might be some huge loud chauffar that's going to be blown and we'll hear it all over the entire world. Um but it also could be Schwab writes right it could be understood metaphorically that um the same way that if we would hear a really loud noise right everyone in the world hears it it's clear. So um the the it's a proclamation right it's um it's a time where the entire world is going to recognize the Kesh in such a clear way there are things that like originally we would say like that's that sounds like it's not even possible. How could the entire world hear the same thing at the same time? But with technology we know that yeah everyone could get the same message at the same time. We all get sirens on our phone at the same time. We all you know like things could happen. So, so it very might well be um also literal but it also just is like that that clarity. Um same thing raise a banner to gather our exiles. Now it could be that there'll be some I don't know what the banner would look like but something that we can all see. You saw it yesterday. What did you say? I said yesterday was a flag parade. So everyone could see the flag, right? So you're saying everyone everyone could see the flags, right? There's there's a flag, right? People can see the people can see the flag. But how can someone see all over the entire world the same thing? I don't know. But but the same way that we know that we could all hear the same thing. I'm sure there is a way and we'll find out in the next technology. Something in the sky. Something in the sky. turn on your screen and we all see something. I don't know. But it but it could be something that we'll all see. But it also is understood metaphorically, right? That's something that if everyone can see something so high inside, we can all see it. So that means that there's this clarity that the entire world is recognizing Hashem with such clarity. um and we say um that we should be gathered here not only physically to Israel but we should be brought together the we should have unity unity right the most important thing um and it's not enough for us all all to live okay great we're all now in the same country but if we're all fighting so we didn't we didn't fulfill this this this yet so um there's there's two parts to the bra we want everyone to be here which is didn't happen yet we see the process and we see that it's going somewhere But we want everyone here and we want us all to be that we're all living together um with unity. Um and finally um Rashi has this beautiful Rashi in talks about the gul and he says how great the day of the in gathering of the exiles will be and how difficult it will be. It's as if Hashem himself has to hold the hands mash literally is kumo of every single person, right? Hashem, it's not like snaps his finger and everyone comes in. We all know, we all have our personal aliyah stories and people coming from all other kinds of countries, right? We have our, you know, western world aliyah stories, but people that come from Ethiopia and wherever they're coming from, France, Iran, I don't know, wherever they're coming from, right? Every person has to have Hashem hold their hand and bring them to Israel. make the circumstances work out that they're able to get here, right? It's it's an amazing thing. Um because it's like, you know, we think about, right, Hashem, this like all-encompassing being is looking out for every individual and figuring out a way to get them over here. Um yesterday um Rabbi Abby Burman the head of the U Israel we had like a a brunch for and he mentioned he said if you think about it like it's it's a funny thing he said but he said like we always talk about right Hashem brought a nation out of Egypt to Israel but he said okay like that's not such a big deal don't take that out of context right he said okay so you know he took a nation that all lived moved in one little country of how many people? 600,000 people or whatever it was, right? And they all spoke the same language and they all didn't want to be there and he took them to a country that was in walking distance, right? And that's an we, you know, we keep talking about that, but think about um right now the goula process of bringing millions and millions of Jews from all over the world with all different languages and all different cultures and all right and getting them over here and they're all, you know, wide, you know, far away different places and getting them all over here. It's it's that much more, right? And and it's happening and we're watching it. Um so it's really it's an amazing thing and when we when we say this feel we really need to think about it's amazing thing that we're we are living it right. For so many years people davened it. They wanted it. They didn't know when or how if it could ever happen. Some people took it out of their their their watching it happen and we're part of it and that's that's amazing. But we want to continue to dav and that it should continue to happen and we still know many many many many people that do not live here yet and that hashem should hold their hands and find the ways to bring them back and to bring us back in unity. Um okay so that is chauffar. Okay. Okay. So now as we said we're moving into our national requests and we start with right I didn't skip any right. Next one. Um, okay. So, here we're going to talk about the leadership. And if you had to make a checklist of the things you need to buy for a newly ordained king, right? What would you put on your list? A newly ordained king. Yes. A crown. Right. He needs a crown. What else does he need? A robe. Wow, you're jumping. a robe, a scepter, a throne, castle, I don't know, right? He palace, right? He needs a bunch of things. But you probably, unless you're you wouldn't put a safer Torah on the list, right? But um the the the Torah, right, says no, we need to have a safer Torah. We see that in the Rambam writes in that not only does the king need to write a safer Torah, he has to carry a safer Torah with him everywhere he goes. It's pretty heavy. He's got to carry the saber Torah with him wherever he goes. Um why? Because he needs a guide. He needs a leadership manual. He needs to take it with him. Can't just like sit there in the corner. He needs it as he's going out dealing with all the issues that come up. He needs to have his guide with him. He also reminds him all the time what he's doing. Yes. Right. And and every given moment he needs to make sure that Right. If he needs guidance, he's not sure what to do, he pulls out a safer tour. Um and right we know that in the past when there was any kind of uncertainty what would they do should they go to war should they make a treaty with the enemy we see in Tanakh what do they do they ask the Nvi they go to the mar they had a way of getting clarity for these big questions right and that seems to be something that's like beyond right like maybe this will be you know the same way that I talked about takabashar where we're like like they were like it's very nice but we we can't happen so we're How does this happen? Right? It doesn't it doesn't seem something that we would ever be able to have. Um right, we're very happy to live in a Jewish country with a Jewish government, but we all know that it's not like every decision is being based on the Torah. Um and in writes from there's one that's stuck in the middle there, right? that like it's hard to understand the P right we say to you or on your behalf my heart says seek my presence your face I am requesting I'm seeking like it's a it's a little bit of a you get to that you're like who's talking what's happening right um so the explains it in a very beautiful way and he says that right is king and he says um I'm the king, right? I'm the king of Israel. And so what do I need to do? I need to set up a system where the people are going to be in awe of me. Why? Because he's the king. Because he's the king. And therefore what? Right. And therefore, Right. Um they they'll follow me. Right. Okay. I need to set up a system where I'm going to be the king. People respect me. They're seeking me out. They they pay me respect. But he says, "But don't think for a second that I'm doing it for my own ego. Why am I doing it? What's my goal? for you. Um so he says for your sake I said in my heart I need to make sure the people are me I need to make sure people are requesting to be with me they want to see me they want to pay respect to me right like right that's why the like switches in the middle for you I said in my heart I need to make sure the people are my face um why in order that I can bring them to because I want to bring them to the point where because I'm representing Hashem then they're going to be not just they're actually going to be seeking your face then they're going to get to the point where they are saying I want to now seek out Hashem right this is the purpose of David's leadership right he wants to bring the people closer to Hashem so even though he needs to do it by all the pomp and blender that we know that you know a king a kingship comes with but in order to he does that in order to then bring them closer to Hashem. Right? So that's an amazing thing. Can you imagine a leadership where that's the leader's goal? His goal is to just bring the people closer to Hashem. Um and that's what we're diving for in Hashtu. Um the Abu Draam says that just like in the first six requests, we broke it down that they were personal, but we broke it down. The first half was spiritual and the second half was physical. So now that we got to the second part of the request which are all community- based, right? Those are also the first three are going to be spiritual and the second three are going to be physical. Um and sou is parallel to what I'll give you a hint. It has a similar word. You're right. In the terms of the chronology, it would make sense, right? But right, right. We had a we we said we we do last week before we did au right where we said that that was our spiritual GPS. Hashem, bring us back towards our goal. Remind us that we're here to serve you. Right? And that was on a personal level. Our personal spiritual request was bring us back to you to your Torah. And now in a national level, we're saying the same thing, right? We say, "Bring our national leadership back to what it was in the beginning." Um, we also need this national redirecting, right, of the GPS saying, "Okay, remind us again what we're here for as a nation. What are we trying to do? What is our goal? Bring us back to where we're supposed to be." So, we say, "Restore our judges as at first and our advisers as they were at the beginning. Remove from us sorrow and sighing and rule over us. you, Hashem, on your um alone with kindness and mercy. And righteousness and justice. Blessed are you, Hashem, the king who loves righteousness and justice. So here we're emphasizing this desire to go back to the beginning, right? To recalculate and bring us back to our starting point. Um so we can retrace our steps and begin again navigating towards the correct destination. Um and we go from there right this we go to remove sorrow from us. Why? Because clarity is the diametric diametric opposite of sorrow and despair. Right? When things are confusing and we don't know where we're going, that's when we feel the sense of despair. But as soon as we get into the right direction, we know Hashm is bringing us somewhere. So all of our sorrow kind of falls to the wayside, right? There might be some things that are, you know, going on, setback, suffering, but as long as we know long term we're headed in the right direction, we can handle those things. Um, and so we we then dab and then Hashem, our nation be led solely by Hashem, right? We said, right, Hashem should really be the one who's leading us, but we're not going to get rid of human leaders, right? The human leaders have a purpose, right? They are the emissaries of Hashem. But it should be very clear that this is really they're the emissaries of Hashem. Really, Hashem is the one who's who's leading us. Um, and everything they decide should be very clearly being based on the Torah and its teachings. Um, and that what their driving goal should be to bring us back to a lot of this seems very far off. It's not where we're at right now, but hopefully one step at a time, we'll get there. That's it. Um, okay. So, in this. Yes. And in all of them really. But um Okay. So again, this week we're going to focus on where did we start with? We started with Baralu. We were still in our personal requests, our physical request, asking Hashem for sustenance for parnasa, but asking Hashem like we actually realize what we're asking Hashem for. We really mean it. Um and then we went from there to the national request. We start with Tab Shafar, this in gathering of the exiles and really recognizing the amazing fact that we're living this dream and Hashem should continue and we should have unity and from there to Ashiva um really asking for how to have the kind of leadership that's really leading us to where we need to get