Connecting to the Creator: תפילה בעת צרה (Prayer in Times of Trouble) by Leah Feinberg

and thisa for him it was an eight Sara he was he was feeling distressed that he couldn't find the key to take care of his Reb's needs which was his custom his every every single day and from that distress came such tremendous kavana that hisa transformed his reality and the key surfaced in his pocket where it had not been before and he found out afterwards the key actually had been in somebody else's possession and somehow miraculously it ended up in his pocket now this story is told over byid and it is definitely understood literally by them but it's it also has like many stories inas are true on more than one level it's true on the literal level but it also has metaphorical truth a key is very symbolic right a key opens up new worlds so the fact that it's dafa a key that he was looking for and that threw his with such kavana he was able to find the key in his pocket it means a new new possibilities opened up before him that tilila has the power to transform and to take us to places where new possibilities open up before us rabi and the Kari deals with this he he talks about um the the the king in the kuari if you know the structure of the the kuari it there's a aim who is sort of a fictional character based on truth based on real history there was a king in of the kazars who converted to Judaism in the Early Middle Ages and rabi hudah Hali took that story and he used it to frame his own to work of philosophy he puts questions in the mouth of the king and then he has this Jewish philosopher who answers the king's questions and that's how he puts forth his own Jewish philosophy it just makes me more interesting reading so the King asks him what's the point of daving if everything is decreed on rashan yum kipur everything is already signed sealed and delivered why do we need why do why do people need to dve in and he answers daving changes us if we really DAV the way we're supposed to we emerge from not the same person as we were when we started and that's how we can change the even that which was signed sealed and delivered because that g was issued for the person we were then but it can change it can be modified if we change ourselves and one of the ways that we can change ourselves is througha so now we're going to go back to the Mitzvah of and I have on the sheet some of the sources there is a sheet Source sheet in your booklet some of the sources that zamira was alluding to we'll see inside we won't belabor them too much because she did explain them but we'll just review the the rambam as explained in this is in the he says the same thing in it is a it's numbered among the 613 that we have to dve in every single day there is an aspect of that is D and that is he says the last line the number of the text of and the time of are Allan but the idea that we have to turn to Hashem in prayer every single day that's a where is it learned from the that we say every day in we have to serve and learned what's service of the heart that's a statement in so the r says well and the Torah says then it's a to serve hasem with some kind of heartfelt some kind of heartfelt again as you were saying sometimes it's difficult to be so boxed in with the time of or the specific text that we have of that it is still a to do that every day and we'll come back to how we can do that if we don't feel sort of moved within ourselves to do it but according to the rambam very minimally if you at least want to get the Mitzvah say anything turn to God and say what's on your mind no fixed text no set time no number of to just turn to Hashem once a day and say something that's not so hard or okay we'll see that's the r the ramban says I disagree he cites it in the beginning he's the ramban has umot sort of notes on the rambam's saer hitot in many cases in most cases he agrees with the rambam's count of what the 613 MIT de are that's based on a gamar by the way there's a gar taught that there are there are 613 he told us that there are 63 but he doesn't enumerate them in the Gar so later on theim tried to figure out what are exactly the 613 to which he is referring so the rabam counts every day as one of them raban says Noah every day is not one of the 63 MIT not that it's not a Mitzvah because again it is a Mitzvah but it's not and he brings several proofs for this that show they're technical proofs that show that in several other places seem to indicate that is exclusively a and he says rather than looking at it as a I'm on the first line in Source number two it's not obligation this is a beautiful concept it's not an obligation when people say and how often do we hear this right from our husbands especially when the baby starts crying you know or it's like crazy hour all the kids have homework and you just walked in from your own job I have to go Davin right I have to and we say it ourselves I I I have to go Dava now but the ran is saying no don't say I have to go Dava now it's a this is an incredible that gave us free access to him at all times that we can approach who is he will hear us and answer us respond to us in some way he hears everything we say at any time can you imagine having free access to the Presidents of the United States to the king of England it's still weird to say that right the king of England you can pick up the phone and call King Charles at any time and tell him what's on your mind unheard of we have that access toes at all times it's like the ultimate get out of jail free card we can use it at anytime just you know play the card call out to Hashem and he hears us that's an amazing and that should be how we approach says the ran it's not an obligation to call out to Hashem every day it's a privilege to be able to call out to Hashem every day okay so is there novah all so the ran says well there is an aspect of that's a as said and that is to call out to hasem not based on the is says the ran a broad category it's a directive it's not a specific Mitzvah it's a broad directive telling us that when we serve Hashem through through learning Torah through any service that we do of Hashem it should be it should be with all of our hearts it should be sincere and you know motivated coming from a a genuine place of feeling not it's not specific specific to what's specific to is the sources you have in Source number three theim that quoted blow the sound of the tra the sound of the tra is the right that's the sound of it's the sound of crying it's supposed to evoke the sound of crying so and that's our it accompanied the giving of the carbot these are sounds the the blowing of the chaar was not exclusive to R when the BET mikdash stood the chaar was blown along with K the long silver trumpets which you can see sometimes they have when they have te at the cotel sometimes they have they blow the K throat they have K throat already made ready and waiting for when mashia arrives at any moment and that was that would accompany the the giving of the corbane and theot in the bet mikdash so if there comes upon us a war in our land or any kind of and that's it could be an enemy it could be any kind of any kind of suffering that we're experiencing we have aah to blow the and says the that translates into a to turn to whenever there is a s okay R salvic so I actually quoted from a different Source there ra salvic spoke about this many times it's not it's not just in one place that he spoke about this m between the ramban and the rambam and tried to show that the rambam would have come back the rambam lived before the ramban my Mani lived they might might have overlapped by a couple of years but the ramban would have been an infant so that's um but he so by the time the ramban was writing about and his not not on the rambam the rambam was no longer alive so raic is kind of if the rambam could have come back and said you know the ra salvic also spoke so many times since I have extra time because not person after me I'll just indulge in in all these little Side Stories the the r salic wrote and and spoke you can I think you can see videos on YouTube but he certainly wrote in many places about how for him um he he never felt alone and the study of Torah he always when he he said actually this is he spoke about it in terms of how he got through the it was a very difficult year he lost his wife and um he he had a very hard time recovering from that and he says the if not for the study of Torah would have become lost in my depression at that time but the study of Torah helped me not feel alone because when I open my safer and I started learning the gamara all of a sudden Raa walks through the door and Abaya walks through the door and then the the rambam walks through the door and and and he felt that these he was accompanied by these nishas they were alive for him so when he says the rambam sort of responded to the ramban they they were there for him they were this was a real conversation for him it was an ongoing conversation it didn't end when when the person himself um when the body departed this world the Nama remained there for the R so he he says the ramb there's really no M because the rambam comes back and says to the ramban of course but in this source that I brought which is theim on on the gamar so in the gamar the the the rav brings a a statement in the gamarra that sounds very um strong and and somewhat shocking at first glance the the gumar that he cites the beginning of source number four wow right that is it's extremely strong language anybody who has the opportunity to Davin on behalf of someone else and doesn't take that opportunity is called aot he's a sinner so in in trying to explain this very strong language you know we could say oh it's a very positive value to doin on behalf of someone else but to say that well if you don't doin on someone else's behalf if you have the opportunity to do so you're a sinner that that's very strong so says the he go brings the there's a on the other hand the ramban says only the underlined line at the beginning of the second paragraph the ramban he says even according to the ramb there is a not just a but it's a to as the r says and the r also quotes the same that the ran quoted about that in the time ofar we turn to Hashem with true with that crying sound of the Theo and the rambam develops this idea in that when there's a mitvah to to doav and to fast when bad things happen to us he says this is all part of the process of chuva of turning returning to Hashem that when something bad happens to us we have to say to ourselves I don't know why this is happening but clearly it's happening for a reason Hashem is trying to send us a message and therefore we turn to Hashem and we say I I want to try to fix whatever is wrong I want to draw closer to you Hashem so that this sorrow will go away and says the r I'm on the underlined line at the end of that longer paragraph and on to the top of page two if we don't D if we miss that opportunity like says if we have an opportunity and we don't take it this shows that there is a flaw in oura in Hashem the it's equivalent to saying it's just a coincidence if I DAV so turn it around if I do Davin what am I saying Hashem I know this came from you and I know I believe that you are the world every single day in every moment existence is continually being willed Byes ifes actually says in earlier in in in where he talks about the idea of and Hashem saw that which he had made and he saw that it's good what does it mean that Hashem sees that it's good he it wasn't a science experiment how is this going to turn out oh came out great the VTO means that Hashem is continually willing it's a Kum it's the kto is the Kum that Hashem is continually willing the world to exist and if Hashem were to divert his attention for even an instant Kal the world could fall apart therefore when we dve in we we're expressing our belief in that concept because we're saying you are willing everything to happen at every moment you are willing things into existence and therefore if I do to you you can change what's happening you can bring about change that's amuna and says the r if we don't DAV and we don't turn to Hashem with that idea that I believe that this reality can change because you're making it happen every moment then there's something wrong with oura he says the underlined lines at the end of that paragraph somebody who does not DAV at a time of suffering it's as if you're you're saying I'm walking with Hashem and it's all just a series of coincidences it's like expressing the opinion that everything is just left to to Nature to coincidence nature with a lowercase and and and it can't be changed even through so something's wrong with his belief in hashem's supervision constant supervision of the world and that's why he's called a the says if you have the opportunity to DAV on behalf of someone who's suffering and you don't do it wow that's sinful because that's equivalent to saying oh there's nothing I can do that's the reality I give up I I surrender to the forces of nature as opposed to saying somebody's sick I'll the same who made him sick can make him well like RAB said right remember the story RAB when his daughter put vinegar into the shabas candles rather than oil and he and he says so what are you upset about the same God who makes oil burn can make vinegar burn things the property nature can change we just have to have faith we just have to have amuna and this is such a tremendous principle this is a very F very interesting Chua zin the brother-in-law of was asked this question asked a question a person came late to SCH and he he has the he knows that at the end of davening in this particular sh they're going to say to Hill him for a person who's sick so he says should I skip Su zra and just DAV with the the Tor from wherever they're up to so that I could say to hilum at the end or should I say PUK di zimra quietly to myself and and then I you know at the end I probably won't have time to say to Hill along with them because I have to get to work and zilberstein said no no no sura doesn't say anywhere in halic literature that if you don't say PUK di zimra you're aot right which is probably a good thing for most of us on some days if if you uh you know it's a good thing to say PUK desra because it it raises our awareness of as the B it raises it brings us to the point of a more meaningful hopefully that's the goal ofra is to get us into the right frame of mind so that when we get to kma we get to we we have a better understanding and of what we're saying but we're not sinning if we woke up late and we have to get to work and you have to skip a little bit in order to get to the important parts and we don't say the fuk but the gar does say that if you have the opportunity to D for and you don't then you're so he says by all means Skip and say to him at the end for the for the and then at the end he adds something remarkable not I mean sounds like yeah obviously but think if you think about it it's really remarkable he says there's another dimension here sure you're getting closer to the B when we turn to we are bringing ourselves closer into a relationship withes but when we D in on behalf of someone else there's also a dimension of we are creating connection not just with the B but also with one another and this is a natural I think we're seeing this so vividly today in in our mat that as we strengthen the bond with one the bond with the other becomes stronger as well as we whether we're turning to first and then that extends to his children and we walk out in a more positive frame of mind and we greet someone with a smile and we build connection based because of the the frame of mind that we've established because we've strengthened our connection with the one above we're able to bring that connection down and shap share it with the people around us or it can work the other way that because we feel connected to one another that translates into a more positive relationship with when we strengthen the bond with one the other becomes strengthened as well and then when we dve in on behalf of of someone else we have both of these Dimensions working together strengthening the the connection with expressing our in that he is is constantly renewing the creation of the world and things can change things can get better and we also work on our we show we demonstrate caring and love for one another actually my R in bees um spoke about this at some point you know during these difficult days and he said that he he's also um he involved in an organization he's one of the founders of an organization called salash Shay and they bring religious articles to army bases around the country and he's been traveling as you can imagine a lot and bringing all over the country he says you can't imagine the the soldiers running to come get these religious articles not just the you know most of them have their in with them it's the the ones who don't have who want so badly talin why why why are we feeling this you know so obviously there's some element of there's no such thing as an atheist in a fox Soul which we'll talk about a little bit but it's also because of this by that we're feeling the connectedness that we feel with one another when we feel connected to someone we feel connected to their families as well right when we see a friend we haven't seen in a while how are your parents doing how are your kids doing and that's what we're seeing here is that relationship withes and the relationship with clus is is because we're all connected because when we feel connected to one another we say how's your father Our Father in Heaven how's he doing through all of this how's the is also suffering when when we're suffering and we we bring him into the picture when we turn toes we say think of your children how are your children doing it's we're all connected so on behalf of someone else is so powerful because it has both of these dimensions of bringing us closer to Hashem and bringing us closer to one another so ultimately you know R Pinkus in his famous saer on says this is actually one of the most fundamental aspects of whether it's the essential Mitzvah not he doesn't get into that but it's philosophically it is the underpinning of old and he talks about this in Pinkus goes through a different the ten not of identify there are different terms in that are used to indicate and here he talks about at a time and Source number six this kind of turning to Hashem in a time of suffering in a time of pain is the under of all types of when we're talking when talk about in in the in a vague way and they just say without refining the terminology so that it's more specific we understand it as a that we're asking for Mercy from Hashem and every has to has to include some kind of like a poor person who is asking for something because his his need his lack of something and this is the teaching of the r that Samir spoke about earlier the idea that we are constantly in a state of need and we we appreciate this the fact that Hashem created us with needs is a gift so when we say B what do we say when after we eat and we feel satisfied we feel good we thank hasem for creating us with needs because it's our needs that prompt us to turn to him and that's that we we have we have needs and therefore we turn to Hashem and we connect to our creator so so says rinkus and rinkus points out that's what distinguishes us from everything else in creation this is unique to man this ability to perceive our own needs to recognize our own needs and to to feel that desire to use those needs to as a vehicle through which to connect to h no other creature on earth can do that an animal feels you know if it even can identify a feeling as hunger immediately satiates its need by looking around to finds something in its environment to take care of that need only human beings have to think about it right what what am I going to eat I'm going to prepare the food and and and we have the ability to recognize that we feel a need think about how to fulfill that need and recognize that both the need and the means to its fulfillment come fromes so that that is a gift that's like the ran said is a that it's a that Hashem wants us to connect to him when we use the the um metaphor of uh you know calling the king or calling the president but even if we think about it on a on a somewhat lower level like you know someone's the president of a company a CEO and his calls all go through his secretary but who has the right to get through without going through the secretary or he tells the secretary if this call comes through put it through without questions his family his children maybe you know his wife maybe maybe it's a way of filtering her calls we don't know but his children have access why because he always wants to hear from his children right a parent always wants to hear from a child even if it's it's mundane you know even if it's but you always want that connection from your child and Haku is our parent and he wants us to pick up the phone and call him and connect to him he wants that Casher with us so we have to uh we have to respond we have to not respond ideally we should approach Hashem however we don't always approach Hashem we don't always remember to approach Hashem and certainly if you hold like the ran that mitvah that daving every day is not necessarily then maybe we we don't take the opportunity to connect in which case unfortunately Hashem has to wake us up and he has to remind us that he wants to hear from us and sometimes he does that in ways that feel painful to us but R desler explains inah in Source number seven we shouldn't think that makes us suffer because there's something in the Suffering The Suffering is is you know somehow inherently good for us and that is just to get us out of that mat he says the the purpose of the suffering is to bring us to the point of it's to to create thaton that sense of that recognize that recognition that something is missing in our lives when things are you know are good we don't necessarily notice they're good there's that famous story of like pennies coming down somebody's walking down below this Empire State Building and and pennies keep falling from the sky and he just walks right by them and all of a sudden you know a pebble hits him in the head and God what are you doing why why did you send a pebble and he's like and God says well I was sending pennies all along but you didn't pick them up you you ignored them it's only when the pebble hit you that's when you looked up so unfortunately sometimes you know we forget to look up he says we say what comes first may meet me first you take away you put to death and then bring back to life and from that and the the word here from the root is not accidental it's not coincidental it's very carefully chosen how does a plant grow it bursts forth from a seed it destroys the seed right but first there there's a seed and then at a certain stage it looks like this is destruction and then from the destruction a plant begins to grow that's why we talk about mashia asav because there is this period that we go through of pain of suffering of apparent destruction and that brings forth Yeshua the the pain that we go through it's like the Pains of child birth talk about like Le da it's birth pangs and it gives rise to something very new and very very beautiful there's um you know was talking to somebody earlier about the videos that we've been watching you whether you watch the videos of the horrors as the the hostages are putting up videos of testimony and things of the horrors of what happened on on the 7th of October I'm not saying whatever that's a personal choice to watch or not to watch but if those for those who are watching it's very important to balance them with there are also a lot of videos of Miracles that took place and there's one video it's I I think it's only in Hebrew I I haven't heard the story retold a lot of them the stories are retold in English and then have been told already in in many sources and I hope that you've heard them and that over khano was really a special time to share stories of the miraculous um but there's one that I've only seen in Hebrew where there was a woman and she doesn't specify which kibuts that she was from but it's from a a kibuts that was completely destroyed and you can see in the video her house is the only house standing and all the houses around hers have been destroyed and she describes what happened to her on that day she says I heard theim and I was texting with my neighbor and they were telling I heard the shooting and the the um Sirens overhead and the planes overhead and I grabbed the one safer who know you know she didn't look like she had very many spum on her shelf and she I had a safer house Zohar and I took the Zohar with me and I didn't go into my mamad because I was already hearing from my neighbors that the mamad wasn't safe that it was being penetrated and and you know you're backed into a corner so I went into a closet and I closed the door and I got under the clothes in the closet and I opened the safer ha Zohar and I started to read and I focused so intently on the words she said I could see the there was light radiating from the letters the letters were like coming up from the page and they they were filled with light and I started talking to rabish Shimon rabish Shimon in your z may I be saved and then I turned and I started talking to the bore and she says b am I'm in your hands I you do whatever whatever you see fit with me but please just let me use this safer to come closer to you that let me have this time in order to be brought closer to you and she said the the MIM came into her into the room where she was and somebody from the window they threw a remon into the room where she was and they show in the video the closet was untouched they were shooting all around the room nothing they opened the closet it didn't see her she was under the and she was the and her house was the only house standing in the in the whole thing and she she's it's only in the Merit of the fact that I turned to Hashem and I said to him B do with me what you will but let me be brought closer to you I want to to become to to connect with you that's using her own words I don't know if this woman ever daved in her life she had a say for she knew about about rabish Shimon and that rabish Shimon can affect Miracles and anything to draw closer to Hashem in that moment and as we said at in the opening words and like there's no atheist such thing as an atheist in a foxhole right that's when you really you turn to hasm because she said there's nothing else nothing else could save me there was nothing and no one else it's only me and Theon and if we can get into that you know use that as ation and I can't say you know we shouldn't be in that mat ever but to be inspired by that mat to get into a head space of it's me and the and only he makes things happen that can change our reality and not our not only ours but everyone around us for many people Sarah is a motivator to Davin right and when we what do you do pull out a safer to Hill him but but for other people it can be very overwhelming and it can be hard to DAV in at a time when the Sarah is so very intense it's it's it's paralyzing in a certain way like I'm stuck so what do we do so sayra desler in Source number eight nevertheless that's when we should feel I have to D if when we don't feel I want to I feel privileged what is it's then it's aah I have to why he says even if you're dobing and you you can't focus on the words your head is flying everywhere right you know my son my friend's son my this it's too much but because is an expression of even though it's it's a purely external aod it's not a at that moment it's just an external I'm just saying the words I'm mouthing the words that other people wrote for me we're still expressing amuna and that's when it goes from the outside in those words will start to work on us and I think I shared this with some of you at an earlier sh or before before all of this happened that this this is I had personal experience with this there was a time in my life I went through a crisis something was very difficult for me but because I forced myself to to Davin even though I it was hard I didn't necessarily feel it I was angry at at God in those days saying the words brought me back to not even back it brought me forward because since then my daving is different when you let the words work on you and you begin to connect through these words you know it's not when I say it's a text written by someone else it's not just anyone else we're talking about a text written by the using from the T the words of DAV people who knew what they were doing people who knew how to expressa so when we say those words they will impact us so even if we're not in a place where I want to Davin at this moment okay I have Davin say the words and by the time we're finished that rotone is going to start emerging and we're not going to be the same person we were when we started we're going to be changed by oura it's like ready or not here I come like it or not we will be changed by our um okay we are running out of time there's a beautiful piece in which I I used to I love teaching this piece when I taught the in Source number nine ra um he talks about the and he cites the fact that the rambam even though if you look at theah of the in Source number three it's two separate the first one talks about and the second says seminar so we should mention on special days on days of meeting points in time with likees we also blow the sound of Theo along with the not so you would think you have here two separate at a time of we turn to when we blow the and a time of we turn to we blow the the ram says no it's one in the same Mitzvah why is it one in the same Mitzvah it's two different things says based because again knew this very well he David wrote whether it's whether it's I Turn to You hasem with SH and says we learn from here whether it's whether it's judgment there's a common denominator they both bring us to the point of turning to why do they both bring us to because underlined lines at the end anything that changes from hairgel that from our habitual da to day just you know today tomorrow yesterday it's all one and the same when something happens that shakes us up that's from and that's it wakes us up and causes us to draw close to and that lifts us up she when we turn to Hashem that in turn like rler said lifts us up there's a and brings us closer to and of course we DAV that that should come in a good way but you know we have to find the good even when there's so much going on that's bad there's good I was saying to somebody earlier my daughter unfortunately my daughter's 19 years old and she is in her second year ofi um and she unfortunately has lost three boys from her extended Circle so she she's been to three funerals of boys that she knows her age or a couple years older today is the scham of oneir Franco has and then she has two more bam hash is coming up in the next couple of days and um and uh the donon family particularly she's very close with and she was at the Shiva every day and she went into it very very you know the day that she found out she was she was really really broken and I spent a lot of time with her and you know helped put her back together a little bit and she went into the Shiva very broken and at the end of the week she came home and she said Mommy I feel so uplifted she said I am so blessed to be part of the Jewish people you can't imagine what an what a special week it was the family the people who came the the manim people came from all over the country AF when I was there the the whole Hal the the Risha and the rim from kirona came that's where he was learning in his heiva and they all came down from kirona Under Fire came to pay shivil with to to share with the with the family she said there's no one like the Jewish people we are so blessed to be part of this nation and it was uplifting so in the darkness there are moments that are uplifting but we should we should be to better days and I really wanted to end with this beautiful Torah from the K Lei and it's a Torah from from the Kad from Kaneka and I know we're we're leaving Kaneka but as we we move forward in the year from Kaneka the month of Tade is the darkest month of the year but from Kaneka on the days get longer and there's more light we're bringing more light into the world more light is is accompanying us as we move forward from T and the and the first K says the Miracles like those that occurred on Kana help us realize as we said before that the world is constantly being renewed hes intervenes to change nature and when a miracle happens it sensitizes us to the fact that that's going on all the time we spoke about that this is Hashem that's part of the aspect of that we have to believe that Hashem is constantly changing the world that's we it becomes evident through the big Miracles right the big Miracles sensitize us to the smaller miracles that's why it's called kanuka he says because there's a it's a new beginning it's a a an inauguration that begins on khaka a recognition of this idea that Hashem runs the world and intervenes miraculously and then in the fifth kadha he says there are three different types of Miracles one is a nigla a gal which is like the Redemption from MIT with called yamu that's the big wow nobody can ignore it n gal and then there are Nim there are hidden Miracles and hidden Miracles can further be divided into two groups one are the hidden miracles in which Hashem doesn't need human assistance at all human beings are manipulated to make it look like things are happening coincidentally like in the yosf story or in the puram story but really it's hash it's all and then there are hidden Miracles that require human effort as well that's he says that's like the N of Kaneka where the had to go out and fight their battles and there had to be human effort and human cost but it was still a hidden miracle and says the Ki so beautifully mes we have a principales we only go up when in matters of kadus so as we move forward from khaka we move forward from a time of the lowest kind of Miracle the Nar that requires human effort alongside it next comes purm where there are it's yes it's a Nar the hand of Hashem is hidden but it's all Hashem it's all Hashem we don't have to do anything we just sit back and let it happen we let ourselves be put in the right place at the right time we're without even knowing it we let him do the work and ultimately that takes us to P in which we experience we should move forward on this trajectory asav says in if we call out to hasem will save us it should be quickly we should see open and revealed Miracles bringing us to the G and and see see the light without having to go through any more pain so good to be back with