Kabbalah Secrets: What Really Happens When You Pray?

[Music] God said that I give the power of blessing into the hands of the Jewish people the sages explain you know yob and ASA were brothers the blessing of Yakov is the voice of Yakov the voice of prayer and the voice of Torah that is the weapon of Yakov that is the job of Yakov and we of course are the descendants of Yakov what is asa's breath blessing it says that ASV will live by the sword that's the the BR that ASA took 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 the and including the blessings of shon es the blessings are ultimately a the vehicle through which we Channel Down divine blessing you know that's that's what we say when we make a blessing the word Hashem means blessed are you God that's the simple meaning many explain it to be a praise 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 we receive blessing as an attribute we're saying that blessed is like an attribute it's the same construct bar is like R and R and mean merciful and compassionate so in the same Hebrew form means that God is bar 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 and many that's a basic understanding but the deeper more real meaning of what it says is more active the word b means to Channel or Draw down so when we say what 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 BR 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 explain what it means in any event the result of of these blessings are to 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 yov it's as if to 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 for like one is for healing one is for par parnasa which means livelihood one is for Redemption one is all of the different blessings in represent different needs 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 AA is is literally drawing down bless 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 person wakes up and says many blessings in the morning many blessings in and unfortunately people don't understand that it's a 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 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 for my prayers we say words they don't I 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 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 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 rabbis 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 kabalah 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 AL to create the world it says God spoke and he created the very letters and words that he spoke is were the foundation of creation so the blessings as well hasem especially God's name y that is a holy name saying the name of Hashem has a power behind it it's not just like speaking in another language and with this we'll appreciate it's a side point but it's very important to mention is's a very unique unique law about prayer one can pray in any language did you all aware of that one could pray in any language that he understands but there's a difference between the rule of praying in in in a 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 uh you know I don't know your 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 on water if I say the word water if 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 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 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 comprehend what I'm saying that's not called praying that's not called talking in English but in Hebrew the has the opposite a person can pray in Hebrew even if he doesn't understand Hebrew and he fulfills his 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 with 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