Kabbalah Concepts: The Power of a Blessing - Rabbi Yitzchak Botton

[Music] slow mo Melek says that life and death is in the hands over the mouth the tongue we can speak and we can create and build we can also destroy through our speech God said that I give the power of blessing into the hands of the Jewish people the sages explain you know Yaakov and ASA were brothers the blessing of Yaakov is the voice of Yaakov the voice of Prayer and the voice of Torah that is the weapon of Yaakov that is the job of Yaakov and we of course are the descendants of Yaakov what is a sub breath blessing it says it ASA will live by the sword that's the the brother a soft taupe we have to understand where our strength is and we have to you know express that and we have to actualize our possibilities and our abilities through through our through using our mouth for the right things one of the most important things that we do every day that we wake up is make the morning blessings and including the blessings of Schwann answering the blessings are ultimately a the vehicle through which we channel down the divine blessing you know that's that's what we say when we make a blessing the word Baruch Hashem means blessed are You God that's the simple meaning many explained it to be appraised we are saying that God is the source of blessing the same way that we say that God is compassionate God is merciful so God is blessed in a sense that he is through him blessing we receive blessing as an attribute we're saying that blessed is like an attribute it's the same construct baru is like rahul and con una Rock'em and cuddle mean merciful and compassionate so bow who in the same hebrew form means that god is bow he's blessed meaning it's a characteristic of Hashem that he's blessed meaning that from him come all blessings that is one way that to explain the term blessed are You God according to the Mystics and the many Rochon him that's a basic understanding but the deeper more real meaning of what it says Bogota is more active the word baru means to channel or draw down so when we say Bogota Shamu we're actually doing is we're channeling we are drawing down divine flow from above and that increase of divine flow into the created realms results in blessing here below and according to this we're actually saying blessed are You Hashem we're really giving a real Braja because what we're saying is we want to cause more of God's divine light and divine flow to come into the world and that's much more real much more active that is the way the Mystics explained what it means Merck Akasha in any event the result of these blessings are to create benefit for us in this world and that's what it means and we started that God gave the power of blessing in the hands of the descendants of Yaakov it's as if by way of analogy it's as if you have a bunch of keys you have a building and many keys many doors and you don't know what's going on Hashem gave us those keys to open up those doors and spiritually speaking when we talk about the heavens so there are portals and channels that we have the keys to open up each blessing is like a different key opening up a different channel first like one is for healing one is for partner pernessa which means livelihood one is for redemption one is all of the different blessings issue enhancer I represent different means and each blessing is like theoretically a key which opens up that portal in heaven that channel in heaven to draw down the actual physical benefit that we're asking for so the deeper more powerful understanding of what Abraha is is literally drawing down blessing from above now with that we have we basically have a deeper more a better appreciation for what all these blessings that we say because you know everyone a gay person wakes up and says many blessings in the morning many blessings h1s right and unfortunately people don't understand that it's a real active thing that's going on meaning that the world and we need those blessings they're not just it's not just lip service it's not just the for a formal thing like when someone's acting and someone's auditioning for a play he's saying he's just acting nothing real is happening so we you know in these modern times we don't have a sense of the spiritual realms above and beyond us and we might think that you know what's the benefit of praying I don't see anything happen from my prayers we say words they don't even know what they mean sometimes and I don't think anything happens as a result it's very easy to fall into that trap is to think that really praying and making blessings is just a waste of time especially making them in Hebrew if I don't understand it it's an added waste of time so that we have to understand in a deeper sense the reason why those blessings were made in Hebrew is because Hebrew is the language of creation and it's specifically through the combination of Hebrew letters and words that the rabbi's you know they structured the prayer in a certain way that it's that specific prayer in Hebrew that blessing in Hebrew that has the power to ascend up to heaven and open up these channels the Zohar one of the major works of Kabbalah says that the letters and words that we say when we make blessings they themselves ascend up to heaven because remember these letters and words are unique in that they are the letters and words of creation it says that God used the 22 letters of the alphabet to create the world it says vaio Mara Shen God spoke and he created the very letters and words that he spoke is where the foundation of creation this is not the same with another language English French Spanish these are all real languages through which human beings communicate one to another but they're not the language of creation generally speaking a language is the agreement of a group of people to use sounds and symbols to represent objects or ideas for example in English we call this a cup of water who speaks another language over here anybody French why do you say cup of water in French okay in French that's how you say it I won't repeat you I don't get it clear but what does it mean that this means a cup of water in English it means whoever found that the English language had to find a way to exercise express the ideas in his head to another person so we have to agree that we'll call this a cup once we all agree that this is a cup then in English the way to ask for this item is to say give me a cup of water but the word cup and water don't have an intrinsic connection to the object that I'm holding right now it's just a symbol through which I can relate and ask someone else for this it's not the case in Hebrew in Hebrew the word for cup is costs the numerical value for the word costs is significant and each letter in Hebrew has a numerical value and an America value of the word costs equals something deeper the word for water is Mayan the word Mayan is the literal word that God said when he said let us create water the word would the word that creates water is my name it's written in the Torah so the blessings as well Baruch Hashem especially God's name you'd cave of K that is the holy name he's saying the name of Hashem has a power behind it it's not just like speaking in another language and what this will appreciate it's a side point but it's very important to mention is it very unique halacha unique law about prayer one can pray in any language well aware that one could pray in any language that he understands but there's a difference between the rule of praying in foreign language versus praying in Hebrew and it's like this if a person wants to pray in English then it only works if he understands English and he's also paying attention to what he says you cannot pray in English and think about your laundry or your you know I don't know your shopping list you have to be you have to say the words and you have to understand what you're saying because what's an English language English language is only a vehicle through which to express what I'm thinking the word itself means nothing if it's not if it's not conscious on water if I say the word water let's say you could teach a parrot or a monkey to say the word water is he speaking no because he doesn't understand what he's saying he's just saying sounds to him it's just sounds let's say if randomly a parrot starts making sounds and it comes out to be a word is that a real is that speaking no because speaking is expressing a thought through using the sound the combination of sounds and symbols so if I don't know what I'm saying in English it doesn't count as a prayer you know I can read all day long but if I don't come to me when I'm saying that's not called praying that's not called talking in English but in Hebrew the challah has the opposite the person can pray in Hebrew even if he doesn't understand Hebrew and he fulfills this obligation of prayer and this doesn't make any sense how can i fulfill my obligation of praying to God if I'm not conscious of what I'm saying the answer is that even without your comprehension the letters and words themselves have the same real meanings and they ascend to heaven and they affect in the spiritual realms what they need to affect of course the more you understand and the more you apply your concentration the better it is but at least with at least if someone just prays it still counts and that would that within that we see the unique difference between Hebrew and English and that's why it's important the way that these blessings were established in specifically Hebrew have a tremendous power and ability to affect things in the spiritual realms that English would not have okay these are some basic ideas to help us appreciate you know the different lessons that we have to say every day with this in mind hopefully we'll return to the blessings with added energy and excitement and appreciation for the opportunity that we have to praise God and to accept God as king of the world and also to bring down divine blessing from above may you all be blessed with the success in your future prayers [Music] [Applause]