Gateway to Prayer: The Oxpecker and the Parable of Rain - Rabbi Daniel Glatstein

reping in progress okay dear friends a chabas gateway to I'm very excited to uh share with you this week we started this two weeks ago I want to thank my dear friend rabito Rose of Los Angeles for dedicating this she brother be family I want to share with you something very personal many people have asked you know Raba you went to South Africa and we know that you were on a safari over there and you gave a lot of sh about animals but since you're back we haven't heard about too many animals we haven't heard about rhinoceros we haven't heard about zebras and we certainly have not heard about oxpeckers you know the whole time you were there you never said one word about oxpeckers well it's your lucky day that's all I have to tell you because you would have known this you would have thought this is just going to be a Shear on well through the oxpecker we're going to understand an amazing thing that we began to do this week and that is ask for rain rain is uh we have two seasons of rain we have the yra and we have the Mal Y is the rain of the Autumn before the winter and Mal comes at the end of the rainy season in uh really in the spring rain is a dominant theme in the Tyra in many places When God says he's going to bless us he says the rain will fall at the right time when he says it'll be curse he says he will hold back the heavens it speaks at length about the order of if the rain doesn't fall you know by the way it's very interesting does anybody know the as is there are for I don't know if you remember your Yesa days do you remember youra days they used to have for BAH many people conveniently made sure to DAV with Bal during bah because daving miraculously would be 40 minutes uh shorter on those days let me tell you what bab is bahaba is the first Monday Thursday and Monday after sukus and PES um the is to say it's brought it comes from because since over uh one of the reasons is women dress up lavishly perhaps somebody uh had improper interaction and or were looked improperly and therefore there is a series of what used to be three fast days and today in in most Yas they say bab Monday Thursday and Monday however usually it ends up being in the second half ofan in other words the bab series does not start until after the on the first available Monday Thursday and Monday and usually RW points out it would be observed in the second half ofan and not in the first half one of the reasons is is because um it's much easier to fast in the second half ofan because the days are very short so they push it off a little to make it a little bit easier to fast but the other reason is because says we begin to ask on the seventh ofan if the 17th ofan comes and the rain doesn't fall the begin to fast so therefore bah is usually observed about after the 17th ofan now Anyone who reads all of these in the will wonder that that's the for doing mitv you're telling me that if I live a life of T and love Hashem with all my heart and all my soul the reward I'm going to get is rain that's all there is why the emphasis on rain rain that's all that's what I'm going to get out of all this in fact RAB says one time a clergy men from the conservative movement came to me and he glowed Ed on the so to the progressiveness of the conservative movement that they took out the second par of K from the Sid that the conservative movement took the second par of Kish out of the Sid why he says uh this conservative Rabbi said the second par of Krishna talks about request from rain for rain which is an archaic request only back then when it was an Agri cultural society that they need to ask for rain and they had a convention and um in a in a farmer Society it may maybe they only kept Mito to be terrain but nowadays maybe we should add something like something about Bitcoins or the stock market but it's aric to talk about the rain um and R said it pained me that the this conserved Rabbi never said the second of and the reason is because it starts off so basically they're declaring that this is not part of their religion listening to the T and loving God okay so RAB says something really out of this world everybody knows how important rain is without water life could not exist but still is the purpose of our that it should rain and this is repeated in so many places say in the very beginning of barus it says why why didn't anything grow kazal explained what what happened was the grass stood at the entrance of the ground until adish came and he prayed for mercy and the rain fell also the Torah says here on the words that's and the reward is friends do you see rain is not only listed in reference to reward for keeping the toyra it's spef specifically connected to you see how in bous the grass didn't grow because the rain didn't fall and the rain didn't fall because we didn't pray for it or in if you serve God with all your heart the rain will fall and we make such a big deal of saying there's such a deep connection between rain and prayer why is that by the way did you know if you leave out the phrase you don't have to repeat if you leave out you don't have to repeat if you leave out you do not have to repeat but if you leave out you have to repeat if you leave out you have so one second if I leave out Hashem heal me listen to my prayer I don't have to repeat essay but if I leave out these mentionings of rain isn't that astonishing that these are primary aspects of SH now definitely [Applause] there is no question is a reference to the physical gra rain without it life could not flourish in it says the med explains even a king that rules from one end of the world to the other end of the world needs the rain and without the rain his whole malus would end but says RAB there's a much deeper message of the rain and you're wondering what where does the rhinoceros and the oxpecker come in you have to be patient says RAB where does rain come from it's the moisture that rises from the earth slowly slowly the moisture in the air the moisture in the atmosphere Rises until it becomes cloud and all of that and then it condenses and it falls as rain but the it comes from the atmosphere it comes from the the sky it comes from the the rivers it comes from the Seas it comes from the oceans like it says in Hashem gathers all the water in storehouses and then he puts it the clouds and it comes back to this world so think about the cycle it's in a way a symbiotic relationship Hashem ingrained in the nature of this world that the clouds receive the moisture from the earth and after the clouds fill up they pour it down back to the Earth and after the rain falls down in the earth and there's and the rivers fill and the Seas fill and the oceans fill and there's moisture in the atmosphere they rise again they form clouds they condense and it falls back again where the world is what we call a a NeverEnding cycle of evaporation condensation precipitation evaporation condensation precipitation it's a NeverEnding cycle this is what it means to like him that the world is a self contained ecosystem where the world supports itself where does the water of the clouds come from what do you mean it comes it's in the oceans it's in the rivers it's in the seas and they fill up the clouds where does the river water in the rivers come from it comes from the clouds where do the water and the clouds come from it comes from the Seas so the world is it's built in M the world is self sustaining God created a self- sustaining world that the Seas support the clouds and the clouds support the Seas that's God created creation to do do where Hashem makes the bodies of water support the rain and the rain supports the body of water it's man God made it that every creation sustains the other for example so who supports the lion the Sheep who supports the bird the worm who feeds the worm the plants and who eats the bird the Cat every part of creation feeds the next but so you say well the cow is being supported by the grass so it's a one-way relationship no it's not cuz listen the cow eats the grass the cow then excretes its food and fertilizes the Earth to cause the grass to grow so the grass is supporting the cow and the cow is supporting the grass it's not just it's not a one-way relationship it's a symbiotic relationship the cow walks around eating P pasturing from the field while he's walking he's fertilizing the field so it could produce more or take a look in this picture you see on the top of this rhino on the top of this rhino is an oxpecker now does the rhino charge the oxpecker rent no he does not charge him rent the oxpecker has free rent on the Rhino he Parks himself on the Rhino and he has free rent so You' say this is a one-way relationship the Rhino is housing the oxpecker no The Cheeky red beaked black feathered bird hitching a ride at top a rhino's back is an iconic image it maintains in a symbiotic relationship with Africa's white and black rhinos they Feast upon the insects parasites ticks that agitate the Rhinos liberating the horn Giants of these tiny pest the birds also serve as an alarm system for the poorly Vis visioned Rhino when danger approaches the oxpecker creates a commotion promptly warning the Rhino of an approaching threat like a lion or hyena a recent study found that rhinos who enjoy the company of oxpeckers are more likely to avoid getting shot by poachers they sound the alarm to an approaching uh human increasing the chance for Rhino to avoid being killed or what about the zebra there are two types of oxpeckers the yellow build and the red build while their beaks may be different colors their role is the same they spend their days clinging to large animals such as giraffe Buffalo Rhino hippo and Antelope feeding off the parasites they find infesting the animals fur now what's ironic is these Ox peckers are sanguinor anybody know what a sanguinor is okay it's a good thing you came to share today sanguin means related to blood so a sanguinor is an animal that eats blood so the little oxpecker he's a blood sucking vampire the big Rhino is a very uh is a very soft herbivore isn't that ironic that the rhinoceros is an herbivore and the and the little bird on on on top of him is a sanguinor in any event otherwise the r rhinoceros or the zebra or the giraffe they would be covered with ticks and by the way when the tick attaches itself to the animal it creates this big lump it's very painful uncomfortable and it could really be dangerous for the animal so the oxpecker moves on to the back of the Rhino or the back of the giraffe or zebra they get free rent and they have to provide alarm system service and cleaning you know they clean the mucus of the nose they eat the drainage of the ear and they take care of their host animal this is all part of the Bri where the Bria becomes so to speak self- sustaining not that it doesn't need Hashem of course it it it's that's how Hashem created the world that all of creation is dependent on on each other so where does this come into the rain the way it is in the um he says another example is the the bees suck the nectar of the fruits and they thereby pollinate the flowers and cause the flowers to be pollinated and grow more fruits so the bee and the flower enjoy this symbiotic relationship did you know that it's like that in the spiritual world so how's that I thought in the spiritual World God is in heaven and if we want to get close to him we have to get close to him no God loves when we thank him he loves when we sing to him he loves when we praise him like we say zimra God selects the songs of zimra God so to speak is he desires the prayer of the sadim when we thank Hashem or we praise hasem God takes our and through our and think about it you would think it's a one-way relationship if we want to learn Tyra we learn Tyra if we want to uh praise God we praise God no it's a symbiotic relationship as much as we need God he runs the world as if he needs us and he enjoys our prayer and he enjoys our and he desires it and when we pray to him God gives really what is that analogous to sprinkle on you the purifying Waters the rain so when we when we arouse ourself in prayer and song God responds in kind we give God like the moisture that rises from the atmosphere and then like the moisture that rides in the atmosphere the moisture condenses come back to us when we arouse ourselves in prayer and in song so to speak that Ras comes back down to us and God responds in kind and he says I love your prayer I choose your prayer I wear it as a crown I desire it and just like God gives us Ras the mush to that is he gives us rain and man with his he brings braa to the whole world so it's not that the reward for mitz is rain rain is a mush rain represents the same way the rhinoceros and the oxpecker need each other the the oxpecker needs a place to live and the rhinoceros needs a good cleaning and alarm we and God we both we need each other and the reason why prayer and Rain are so connected is because that's the mush of how we and the are connected and that all of our efforts in are not a one-way street we have a symbiotic relationship with our KES that God In His Infinite humility allows himself to act as if the same way we're reliant on him in a certain sense he is reliant on our Praises so is not only a physical promise it's also a parable that when we fulfill which is God will give us which is a of a of and a of all kinds of blessing to this world so if I could just Briefly summarize what we learned the last three weeks three weeks ago we learned that shabas is a mraes it's dedicated because it's a happy day a day of enjoyment a day of delight on this day we could really say if we would ever be put to the ultimate Challenge we would be we would give up our life forem and that's why saying kadus on shabas is so important last week we learned about how do you pray with all your soul the words of your words are your life life are the debur you say and when we pray to God we are saying my life which is being expressed in my words I offer to you Hashem and today we're learning about the critical connection between rain and rain is a Mas because rain and shows so to speak the symbiotic relationship that we have with the ream rabai there you have it the ox pecker has made it into the sh okay have a wonderful shavas shat Shalom closed loop what the world is a closed loop closed loop that's a good expression okay depends upon everything else why is it called an oxer it's on top of a rhino oh the million doll question why called an ax pecker but something you know that's beyond the scope of this year that's Al Caba on aabis thank thank you for the jars enjy okay one second recording stasis