The Development of the Tefilah Text | Rabbi Yossi Goldin

B to everybody nice to see everybody um and um as always as we continue to navigate um very very important and very complex times we we dve in that our learning today should uh should be a for all of our that all of our should come home protect hasem should protect all of our soldiers hasem should bring the to all those impacted by this war and as always he should give guidance proper guidance to our leaders to make the right decisions for all of Isel okay so we are continuing um in our discussion on the overall history and development of of and what I wanted to do today was to focus on specifically the text the the text of the where that comes from um where and and meaning how the text that as we know it of as we know it today uh developed and and try to hopefully through that gain more understanding for why there is a set text and the Val of having a set text now um as we've mentioned before our our conversation today is going to be focusing on one specific part of theah because as we as we've mentioned theah that we have today the sitter that we have today the the the regular that we have today is made of a number of different components some of those components are mid Ora or biblical in nature such as the Sha or certain suim that we say at various times throughout the year what I want to focus on today which is what K refer to as quintessential is going to be the when in thear term when thear refers to what it calls it's referring toon because is the main quintessential text of the um everything else that we have generally the are either meant to be a preparation for ultimately or are are separate as we mentioned before when we say Shai every morning that's actually a fulfillment of a of a separate mitvah from the Fulfillment of of of accepting upon ourselves the Yoke of Heaven even though it was put together as part of what we call it really is a totally separate uh separate Mitzvah and as I mentioned So today we're going to focus mostly on on on on Shon and you use that as a as as a spring point a springboard to discuss the concept of having a set F and why it's important to have a set a set text um so we're going to start at uh as we often do with our with our main text the main text for any conversation on is always the ram because the rambam really in very very organized fashion uh outlines the development of the um and and although this might some of this might be a review it's important to see the structure as the ram develops it so we're in Source number one the ram outlines initially his opinion which is his well-known opinion that is is biblical is a MIT is a Biblical commandment every single day Source number one section Al MIT it is a positive commandment every day to D every day as it says the says the Torah says you should serve Hashem we have a a a a a a a a tradition thank you thank you I'm losing my English we have a tradition that the here is referred to how do we know as it says in another you should with all of your heart says what is this what does it mean to serve with your heart what is service of the heart this is continues the ra biblically there is a commandment to but the number of as we know as we've mentioned is not biblical the repetition of the the fact that we say it more and once that's also not and it also has no set time okay many of this much of this we've discussed in the past continues the r in Source number two therefore women and servants and are obligated in according to the r at least it is considered to be a Mitzvah that is not time bound then what is the mitah says the ra he's now says I'm going to describe to you what is the actual biblical Mitzvah this is what it is excuse me that a person every person needs to pray and and dve hasem every day you need to start by praising hasem and then afterwards you can ask for what you need to ask with with pleading and ding to and then afterwards you need to end by giving praise and thanks to thanking Hashem for all that he has given you okay so although the rambam doesn't outline a specific text he does outline a specific order of how this needs to go okay he says it could be personal everyone can do it in the OWN way but it needs to follow a certain structure and that structure is you start with praise you then go to asking and you end with as many of us as as we mentioned a number of times this is the basic structure of as we know it which used to have 18 now has 19 hopefully we'll get to that at some point it starts with three that are what we would call praising and then it has the main part would be the the middle section which is which is really 133 where we're asking Hashem for all the things that we wanted that that we're doing for and then we end with we thanking Hashem for everything that he that he has done for us yes so it's a it's it's it's a it's a very very very good question it's a very good question you're asking specific specifically about theom why why Isom considered to be a a as opposed to as opposed toha so I I I I can't tell you for sure but my initial my initial reaction would be and again it would really involve look going through the braa itself but I think if we go through the bra itself it's not just a Bak it's ALS meaning the length of that most B most are Bak are relatively quick in short it's really I want this please give me this a couple of lines maybe is a little bit longer but Shalom the length it implies that it's not just and again it requires sitting down and going through the actual text itself it's a it is a bakas but it's also a sense of fking hashm for what he has given us and then asking that we should continue with that um but it but it requires requires a little more analysis it's a very good question okay uh so now the question is where did the raham get this from meaning on some level it's logical on some level it's logical as we've talked about before in interpersonal relationships if you would like something from somebody you don't just run to them and you say please give me you know your car or please give me somebody you go up to them and you say you're a really great person you're very special I really appreciate you by the way I could use X Y and Z right some of this is just logical even though obviously aadh is different it's not just about trying to get something from it's about us learning proper etiquette and proper approach to interpersonal and all kinds of relationships so we could just argue this is logic that the raham got this from logic but the truth is is that there're actually is a gamar that initially talks about this the ra got this from the gamar if you look at source number two we'll get back to the to the of the r but if you now go to Source number two already discusses the need to open up your with what he calls Source number two a person should first begin with praise and then he should how do I know what's the source for this so the says from because in the beginning of explains his to allow him to enter it says into I pleaded with hem and what how does it start how does mosha open up his request he doesn't just go straight to hey hasem please let me go he says you began to show me all your greatness and your strong hand there is no God like Hashem who has who has done so much and has so much strength and then afterwards it says please hasem let me enter ER is so Moshe already in one of the probably one of the most powerful that we have in in the Torah Moshe begins with thanking Hashem or Praise of Hashem and hashem's strength and then only then goes into the request so says the gar we learn from here that a person needs to whenever they're going to Davin the proper way to Davin is to begin with praise and then and then and then continue with Basha and so the r based on this establishes that when we talk about the biblical commandment to our daily should follow this same structure it should begin with praise it should again continue with the bakas and and again the gar here doesn't discuss ending with that there's also much logic to that that again you begin and end with something different than just I want I want I want or please give me you really begin with a relationship then you get to what you want and then you end closing with that relationship as well and so the ram has taken this gimar and turned it into not just a recommendation but really the definition and the structure of hour of our daily question sorry absolutely thank you yes yeah I of course and and I I would say it even more than that I I would say I would say that even more than yes I mean and I think that's true it's a very good point correct meaning the she said she said she said she would think that the praise is really not for hasem but it's really for us to understand and to recognize and that's true of most of our as we've talked about before in the end of the day the isn't as much for as it is for us to learn lessons and to understand how to relate to so I agree with you it's about understanding that this is number one is about appreciating what Hashem has done for us although you could argue that that was the purpose we could really mention at any point during this but but it's also about us understanding that this is how a person should approach these kinds of of opportunities beginning in a certain in a certain structure but you're 100% correct yes I think we have to know who we're asking if asking the janitor to also true correct yes that's also a fair point meaning meaning part of what we're doing when we're when're when we're praising Hashem is it's reminding us who we're talking to that he is the source of all that we have and therefore it's appropriate for us to turn to him correct true so I was thinking this might be a paradigm for you know we've got the Govern every day that's a beautiful idea correct it's fascinating that that that that the source for how Arta should work is from moshu who ultimately he was not granted this specific request and perhaps that's also a message for us which is that we doav and we approach doing appropriately and we hope that our F will be answered in the way that we view them to be to be answered but sometimes that does that doesn't always occur and that and that example is very very powerful correct okay one more question before we go on or comment absolutely correct absolutely exact is he's saying that this is also a lesson in interpersonal relationships as I mentioned meaning this isn't just about how to how to talk to hashm how to talk to anybody anybody that you are talking to requesting from you always want to also you should also begin with something positive that's just the way that's the most effective but it's also the most appropriate 100% much of and the way is patterned is also meant to be a source for our uh understanding how how we're supposed to speak how we're supposed to speak to others okay so that's that's that's one piece now let's go back to the rambam the rambam continuing in Source number one he now continues to discuss the development of as as we know it we're in gimmel now so number one section gimmel so everybody has to have these three elements has to have and then how did it usually work in the past Source number in section number three if this was somebody who enj who who for whom speaking was something that was normal and appropriate he was a talkative type of person someone who liked to speak so when they would DAV they would say a lot they would they would be Marb they would say a lot of T of daving and of requests if there were somebody who had trouble speaking is reference to M who also was somebody who could not speak for VAR whether it's a physical impediment or even an emotional impediment somebody who is not talkative not necessarily someone who is comfortable speaking so then they would speak a little bit then every person used to basically say as much as they wanted whenever they wanted Jewish history the way it worked was how many times a day did you dve in as much as you wanted to that was what it used to be based on the biblical nature of the Mitzvah there were some who had ding only once a day and then there were some who had D lots of times depending on what they felt and what they what they wanted then adds that one of the key Parts was that whenever a person would D in he would always dve in facing where facing y okay that's something hopefully we'll speak to speak about as well why we all need to face I mean there's something very logical about it but there's a lot of significance to that by the way it's it's it's a little bit interesting you ask a lot of people a lot of people who come from America you to ask them which when they're in Israel which way am I supposed to Face they always say East not not not 100% correct if you're in America you should always face East if you're in AR Israel you should face yush wherever even if Y is west or north or south you face yush but we're used to saying East but it means you're always supposed to Face yush okay so says the ra everybody to face and this is the way it was all the way from mhu up until the times of Ezra was biblical once a day it needed to include the structure that we discussed but everybody did it in their own way and whenever they wanted then says the ram something changed what changed what changed was the galut the first Exile after the destruction of the first once am is went into Exile as a result of of of the attack of the king of ban all of a sudden all the Jews were exiled and they started now being being spread out across different countries Persia Greece and other nations they started to have children and grandchildren they started to now continue to grow communities excuse me in what was their Hebrew began to Decay a little bit they started to now speak the the language of where they were whether they were in Greece or they were in Persia orever or they in Babylonia wherever they were the laying their their understanding and their and the depth of their Hebrew knowledge began to began to erode and now whatever English they had what I mean whatever Hebrew they had excuse me used to there you go exactly case in point whatever Hebrew they had began now get mixed up with with with the local language right I'm not I'm not someone who's well versed in Yiddish but from what I understand Yiddish is basically a combination of Hebrew and German and all these different and Aramaic in there some yeah you have all these different languages That's a classic example of a result of of gut of Exile it's interesting now that most people identify that more than anything else with with with Yus and with you know like the mamash but it but it on some level Yiddish is a symbol of Exile because it's the Hebrew mixed in with all the other with all the other languages what happened was people had trouble expressing themselves in the proper Hebrew language because they were just mixing up all the different languages I'm thinking about it myself as as I'm saying this I'm thinking about my my my own children who have grown up uh with American parents who speak to them in English but also grow up they've all they've all been born here in AR so they all know here they're all fluent in Hebrew and sometimes especially my youngest is now is now three he'll sometimes you know mix in both of them together heish well he'll be like in one sentence he'll be like half Hebrew half English um and that's and that's that that that's here Earth it's Isel but that's a symbol of somebody being not in their natural in their natural habitat as the says some people would speak this and other people would speak that they weren't able to speak fully uh Hebrew rather they were speaking the language of where they were says the r now what was the result of all of this whenever somebody in he would speak in very very short terms because he didn't feel comfortable expressing himself in in Hebrew he didn't feel like he knew L Kesh he wasn't they weren't as educated and therefore they had trouble expressing themselves they would soah became very short and very Cur it's a good question he does refer to later refers toes I'm not sure I think here is's referring to the same thing but I'm not sure but I'm not 100% sure it's a good question I don't know meaning you are you are you are correct that before he was referring to it as as that I understood to be was was he was referring to Hebrew um and then later on he refers to I'm not 100% sure but it's a good question it's a good questioning also true right so I don't know if he's ref meaning I think what you're referencing is the fact that you have something called modern Hebrew and then you have something called lashes which is Biblical Hebrew versus modern Hebrew I don't think he's referring to that per se the ram because I don't know how different back then I don't I don't don't I don't know if there was something called modern Hebrew that was that different from the Biblical Hebrew back then so I don't exactly he referring to when he says you did here I do believe he's referring to the just the Je KES but I but I could be wrong but it's a good question yes there is certainly today there's a big difference between what we would call Modern Day Hebrew and uh Andes I'm sorry yes exactly correct yish is a com it was basically Hebrew mixed in with the local dialect how did it develop I I I I I can't I can't say I meaning I 13th century German and while in Germany German developed in the Jewish communities which were often Poland and who knows where it did not develop did not develop so it remained the 13th century kind of interesting and then slowly got mixed in so you had you had you had you had basically they kept to the to the English they they didn't fully immerse but then slowly slowly it seeped in I mean I yeah I don't I don't know enough about Bish but that's meaning it's clear that That's a classic example of when things get get mixed up so says so says what's the result here but the result here was that Ezra realized that what was the result here this is what's important for us people w't doing people were daving or they were doing very very quickly because they couldn't Express themselves in the appropriate language that they were meant to so what did they do so what did Ezra do Ezra know Ezra and his they established something that we know as the 18 in order the first three are praise the next three are thanks and the middle ones then then that's where you request everything they are like the main categories aot here doesn't mean forefathers aot means like the main categories of what a person should be diving we'll get to this soon but basically they picked the 13 Maj categories that they thought we should all be doing for ah so actually according to what we're gonna see that is the an this we're ra doesn't refer to them as an but we're gonna see the so yes this is the very good okay they did this as a set text so that the text would be would be it would be every so that everyone would be able to to be aware and understand and understand the text sorryim seems to refer to people who are not eloquent people who have trouble speaking in order to ensure that those who had trouble speaking would be able to pray and Dav as much as those who were more eloquent and they were able to to DAV a complete as as as good as people who were eloquent with in order to make sure that every single person every single member of the Jewish people could feel comfortable davening in front of a and feel as comfortable as people who are more eloquent in their language that is why Ezra and his b establish what we know as the now of course the question that now the r the ram here again he doesn't mention an but the becomes where does the Rah get this from it's clear as well that the raham got this entire thing from the gamar as well if you look at source number three the gamarra there the refers to them as not as but all indications are that they are this one one and the same Source number three is much shorter than the r the r is definitely adds to the development but the gar says something very simple says in the name of established the following things they established the concept of we're not going to spend time on that what exactly which BR are they referring to we're not going to spend time on that now which we're going to see soon in another source seems to be referring specifically to which seems referring to KES the of Kes and havdalah the texts of Kes and the text of havdalah okay so we see very clearly this is an the doesn't refer to them as an but he refers to them as Ezra and his and that seems to be one and the same as we're as we're going to see just one one one a couple more minutes I want to just get through some of these sources also mentions this as well where does come from we learned in someone by the name of shim he established 18 and he established this in front of was the gut was the head Rabbi in yav and at that point established ask the G or what doesn't ask first the gar just comments we have another statement where it says 120 elders and included in that 120 were many many prophets they were the ones who established to be on in a specific order and the gar then goes on to show how each bra we're not going to spend too much time on this now how each bra actually the exact order is a reference to C because the as the G says right now how do we know that we're supposed to say the as the says how do we know we're supposed to talk about which is the next these are in order and many of us are familiar with this fromal shabat in and the gar goes on to show how all of shim the order itself actually corresponds to various PIM inim in the now that's something that hopefully we'll get to when we get to the specifics of the themselves but what we see here at least right now is another understanding of who are these Anika we have the anik was discussed they're mentioned earlier then we said that they're now 120 rabbis included in that group is many from the ramb we know that this is somebody who was headed by Ezra and his b so we see we we're see we're getting AIT a fuller picture as to exactly who this who this group was but then the gamar says wait a second if you told me that the that the rabis are the ones who did it so what did Shimon do look at the second part of section number four if you're telling me that 120 elders and some of them are they're the ones who set up the the then what did he do the rabis are the ones who set it up so what exactly did this Shimon what what what what did he add if was already established answers the what happened was at some point in the process the this these these were forgotten even though they were have been established by the comes Shimon and he reestablished them now that that answer thear is a little bit challenging some of the Reon him say wait a second but if this is something that is now being said every single day by all of the Jewish people how exactly would they would they forget it so some say that they that the order was forgotten and then shim EST reestablish the order okay but the point here is at the very very end what we see very clearly is that the source for our the text sway is from somebody is from the Ana who we know are 120 Elders who were gathered by Ezra um and and included in them many yes excellent excellent question excellent the question that was asked was if the reason that it was established as we saw in the ramam was because was because people were not able to to to to express themselves appropriately then what about the challenge which certainly we can see um with the based on the fact that people might now not understand what they're reading it's a great question I want to hold that to the side we're going to just we will get to that it's a very good question it's an important question uh but I want I want to hold off on that first because I want to First finish just discussing the development and then we'll we'll get we'll get to that question it's very important question okay so what I want to just do is take a minute to understand once again we've talked about the Ana we have this concept called the an they're the ones who established who exactly are the an we know that there are 120 rabbis we know that there's Ezra that's involved in them I'd like to just first look at a couple of sources that kind of outline exactly who we're referring to so that we can better understand who it is that established the text as we as we know we're going to skip to Source number six the rambam in his introduction to Parish has a very very well-known in description of the development of the oral law and in it he goes through a history of how things were passed down and included in that he discusses specifically the anah and their introduction to to uh to Shon so we're in Source number six says the ram the following ker made yosua when yosua passed away yalom he then passed down what he had been given um and he gave that to the Zak the elders and he also included in that any new additions that each generation developed that point says the ra there was no such thing as because so far it was just again we're not gonna get into too much of this detail but basically what happened was this was passed down from Moshe Moshe passed down to Yeshua Yoshua to the zakim this may sound familiar if you ever learned the introduction okay and and then so says at that point there was no yet this was just basically the M being passed down from one to the next anytime there was any kind of disagreement what did they do then what did they do if then they went by the [Applause] majority and that's why the P Inu refers to the zakim who continue to after passed away then took what they learned they taught it to the the prophets would pass it down from one to the next says the continues the r says the r don't think that this was all just a matter of passing down from one to the next there was always going to be what we would call new idea new questions new applications every generation was always going to have new scenarios that were going to be raised what would the of each generation do they would they would first take in the M from previous generations and then they Not only would they learn what the previous generation had taught them they would then also based on that establish new laws new takote new decrees depend on what on what the generation needed but the main things that were passed down there was no then we got says eventually to the who are the Zar malra he's naming some of them these are many of the well-known Nim as well as personalities from from from included them was e these are the people that led the return from B after the destruction of the of after the in anticipation of rebuilding the second bdash him so what happened was Ezra as he's now coming back from B to to rebuild the second he includes he now brings with him all of the the end the last few niim that were in and the great he establishes something called the an 120 120 great leaders and these people what did they do they looked around they understood the needs of the generation and they established new degrees and new because they wrote based on the needs of the generation who was the last one the last member of this was shimik who we know was also again the continuation of P shimik was the last of the to pass down pass things down from generation to generation so who are the they were a group of prophets and who were gathered at towards the end of the First galut with the creation and the rebuilding of the second B Ezra and this group realized that there were certain needs of the generation and they established a number a number of different a number of different things among which we know includes if you look at um Source number seven the per the kahti kahti is a well-known per on the mishna he summarizes this for us um in a in a very very in a very um good way it was a gathering of gather together that he gathered them in when he came back from B and they established many many important new in order to strengthen the learning of Tor and and it lasted for a couple of hundred years until until Shimon shimik yes that's a good question that's a good question um I think again the understanding was that morai was involved in in in I mean again this is this is more of a historical question that I'm not 100% clear on but it seems that morai was a part of this but then eventually returned back to to to Paras meaning he was he was amongst the people that that kept going back if you look it's very interesting if you look at the very beginning of the m and the PK says so Rashi there quotes the mid that says that kept going back and forth that he was exiled a number of times why does it repeat because Mor kept going back toim and then he was exiled and then he went back and he kept trying to go back and forth it seems like morai was a personality who was on the oneand very involved in the return but also at the same time also very much a part of the of the of the community in in in Paras yes correct according to M was yes so it seems like yeah the the players are all again we sometimes see these things as linear because we see them as separate Sim but very often many of the are there's a lot of interplay between the different between the between between the different ones yes well again we're talking about a large a l a large a large time I I think when initially the list that we have is they were all living at the same time but but then this Ana continued for a couple of hundred years so it must be that as people passed away they instituted they brought they brought new people in because we are talking about the time that let that that that span over a large a large amount of time okay so now now that we understand the reason why it's important to understand this is because when we talk about the text we're not just talking about some Rabbi that got up and and wrote a text we're talking about the is included within them are theim led by Ezra who was one of the leaders at the time of the of of of the Jewish people that realized there were a number of things that needed to be established and one of those was the development of of of of now one of the questions that that that comes up when we ask when when we we talk about the establishment of the text is okay well what does that mean we talk about we mention that they established the text of does that mean that that that none of this was existed that none of the existed until they came around so there's actually an interesting range the rambam seems to suggest that yes correct that until Ezra came around the entire text of the Shon at least the way he seemed to describe it there was no text everybody said what they wanted and comes an and they establish the full 18 BR and then later on a 19th BR was added until that Point these did not exist that seems to be the simple understanding of the RAB um I don't know the exact year but it's later on in the times of the the gamar mentions it's it's it's addition but I don't remember exactly when that then but if you but in fact if you go back and you look at source number uh five we're not going to see it inside just just for time for time purposes but I'll just just to this is a you do have a source that seems to indicate that even in the times of the first mikash some of these BR it did exist this Source number five they suggest that the First of aot and the of and andad actually did exist in the times of the first bet mikash and only later on did the were were the rest of the brod added on so you do have historically whether all of was established by or whether some of it had already started to be said earlier and it was only kind of formalized and brought together by the an one interesting Source regarding on on this opinion that I on this issue that I saw only last night after I had sent in the source sheets the sh who's one of the one of one of the one of the Reon um on the gamar he he actually suggests he actually suggests that none of the were were were were were created by an and that they all were developed over over Jewish history and it's fascinating He suggests that when was the instituted when aam was saved from the furnace in this all if we go all the way back to the story we know the Meda tells us that was Sav in the furnest that was when M was developed and he says when was M developed when was saved at the AA and then he and and what and what he says that all of the BR really are symbols of various points in Jewish history and at all those points in Jewish history that's when those BR were actually created and then what what what an did was they actually just collated it all and established it as a set text for all of am Isel now that's a very fascinating opinion whether that's actually what we believe actually happened or or or what it what it is highlighting which maybe as a m could be highlighting is that the brot really just symbolize the totality of Jewish history I think is an interesting question but it's a beautiful it's a beautiful approach but we see is there's a whole range of opinions regarding exactly what what aneka established but what's clear is that they formalized it all they formalized the text at least according to the mainstream opinion they formalized most of the text at least according to main opinion and if if they didn't formalize all of it they definitely created it as to be the way the way the way the way it is right now now why why did kazal do this so we saw that according to the Rah the Rah gives one answer the ram suggested the reason why kazal established this was because because am Isel as a as a result of galut were no longer able to express themselves they were no longer able to properly Davin and in order to ensure that the continuation of throughout the generations we could even suggest perhaps as they anticipated Amel once again returning to galut and therefore this idea that they're now going to need to stay connected even in Exile perhaps what what what what what they what they what they established was to have a set text to ensure that every single day every single Jew what what what what what doav that's a good question I'm not sure about those I I think those I think those were established separately and well for well obviously we know as we know the the question was what about the of of the and and rash and Yip so certainly certainly the first three and the last three are the same meaning when every every every sh has the same we do know that for example rash the gar talks about having have the the various texts um I assume this I assume it was similar in R whether that was a result of or just kind ofal over the years establishing that I'm not 100% sure it's a good question it's a good question okay what I'd like to share with you is a couple of other approaches to why exactly K did this the Ram's approach was one approach Ram's approach was that as a result of of of of Gus therefore Amish were no longer able to properly Express themselves and therefore resulted was a set text to ensure that they would continue to Davin if you look at source number eight by Jonathan Sachs uh we I think we even saw some of this in an earlier in an earlier sh but it really is is a beautiful beautiful piece where he outlines the history of as we know it and in particular focuses on the history of the text of of of he opens up by basically contrasting two different modes of of of worship what he calls and the other one he calls corbane and he notes that whereas in throughout Jewish history corbane were very very rigid you had to bring this Corban in this way had very specific were specifically not rigid for the reason we mentioned before because we wanted to make sure that people were going to express themselves appropriately and therefore what did fil consist of throughout history basically a person said what they wanted to when they wanted to because we wanted it to be with with heres with feeling and there and that was was basically spontaneous in any way that a person wanted whereas you had Corban which were much much more rigid over time suggests Rabbi Sak what happened was had and corote combined with each other and therefore the that we knew as spontaneous adopted the rigidity of Corban note look at source number eight throughout the Bible we find two different forms of religious worship one is prayer outside the book of Psalms there are some 140 references to people praying in 97 cases we are told the words they said aam prays for the cities of of of the of Sodom and Amur Jacob prays for deliverance before confronting asov KH prays for a child these prayers are direct simple and spontaneous they have no fixed formula no set text there are no general rules these prayers have no fixed time place or liturgy they are improvised as circumstance mans the other form generally known as aod service is sacrifice sacrifice cannot be less like prayer as set out from Exodus to Deuteronomy the sacrificial service is minutely specified it has its prescribed order which offerings can be made when and by whom it has designated place the Tabernacle the mishan in the wilderness and later the temple in Jerusalem there is no room for spontaneity when two of our own Sons die not who make a spontaneous offering of incense they die certain sacrifices such as Sin offerings involve verbal confession Psalms were sung in the temple and the mishna details the prayer said there but the sacrificial act itself was wordless it to it took place sorry supp it took place in silence so we have two quite different Traditions prayer and sacrifice one spontaneous the other rigorously legislated one that could be taken undertaken anywhere at any time by anyone the other which could only happen in a set place and time in accordance with detailed and inflexible procedures how did these two forms of worship become one the answer lies in the National crisis and renewal that occurred after the destruction of the first temple byanar in 586 bc. in Exile in Babylon Jews began to gather to expound the Torah articulate a collective hope of return and recall the temple and its service so you see what by sax is suggesting is thata as a set text began already in Gus it didn't begin specifically with Ezra upon the return after the first Exile it actually began in Exile because how did the Jews relate to the lack of B mikdash they can no longer go to the B mdash they they would create but take which is literally means houses of gathering houses of where they would come together and they would begin to pray and therefore the beginning of a set text began in Exile began to to expand the Torah articulate a collective hope and return and recall the temple these assemblies were not substitutes for the temple rather they were reminders of it the loss of the temple and the experience of Exile led to the emergence of regular Gatherings for study and prayer the next chapter in this history this story was written by Ezra who together with the states M neya reorganized Jewish life in Israel and after the return of Babylon for Babylon Ezra and neya were disturbed by the high degree of assimilation among the Jews who had remained in Israel they knew that without a strong religious identity the people would eventually disappear through intermingling with other nations and cultures to guard against this they set in motion far-reaching initiatives including the national reaffirmation of the nation's Covenant Covenant with God one of the most important developments was the first formulation of prayers attributed by the sages to Ezra and the men of the great assembly and so the result the idea of having a set text was was both began in galut as they returned to galut there was this awareness we need to change things around a little bit and that's where the text begins it's a little bit different a bit of variation from the way the ram describes it continues saxs the transition from sacrifice to prayer was not a sudden development a thousand years earlier in his speech at the dedication of the temple King Solomon had emphasized prayer rather than sacrifice through Isaiah God had said my house shall be called House of Prayer for all people sacrifice was the external accompaniment of an inner Act of heart and mind Thanksgiving atonement and so on therefore though the outer Act was no longer possible again as we're now talking about the end of the second bam mikdash the inner act remained that is how sacrificed turned into prayer what had once been two different forms of worship now became one prayer took on the highly structured character of the sacrificial service with fixed text and times the silence that had accompanied the sacrifice was transmuted into speech two Traditions prophetic prayer on the one hand Priestly sacrificial service on the other merged and became one that is the remarkable story behind the words what is the sacrificial service of the heart this is prayer okay and so rabak in beautiful language describes how this was much more as opposed to the rambam who seemed to declare assum was like a one time Ezra came and he established it this was something that developed over a number of years it began in galut it then continued as Ezra andya came back to the rebuild the mikdash and saw the need for a text and it even continued towards the end of the destruction of when the towards the end of the second mdash when there was no longer corote and therefore we needed a much more rigid way to express ourselves and that's how adopted at least according toak the rigidity of of of of of of Corban but there's one other element to this that I want to point out to you which again we're not because of time we're going to go a little bit quickly I apologize RAB RAB Schwab in Source number 10 we're not going to see it all inside but he points out there's another major difference something else occurred during these years that resulted in the need for a set text for Chila and that is the end of NAA the end of Prophecy the end of n ended really during the times of the second bet mikdash some say that Ezra was the last Navi this m whether Ezra was Mali or he was somebody else but certainly during these years Neva and prophecy as we know it ended as a result of of that suggest RAB Shimon Schwab there was a need for a set text because before that the con the proponency of Prophecy amongst the Jewish people meant people were able to express themselves more easily even regular people achieved according to Raab a certain level of Prophecy and therefore they were more able to express themselves properly once nvua was removed from the picture it became a lot harder for for Jewish people to express themselves in the proper way and therefore we no longer had the ability to DAV and we needed says RAB the text of okay so we have really three different approaches to why aneka established the set text one was according to the rambam was Gus caused a mixture of languages a confusion people couldn't speak anymore they didn't know how to talk and therefore kazal needed to establish a set text to make sure that they would continue to Davin according to saaks it was kind of developed more over a longer period of time a combination of necessity and Gus versus new realities in the second mikdash and the eventually destruction of the second mikdash and the end of Corban note that caused Corban not andem merge into one into what we know as aod with the rigidity of of corbane now being imposed upon and the third as describes was the end of Prophecy the end of Prophecy caused a you know A disruption within our in our in our relationship with and necessitated us creating a text so that all of Ami world could properly Express Express themselves which now brings us to today nowadays the question that we could all ask and this a question that was raised before is we all know that there is an inherent challenge in having a set text and that challenge is there very often we come to daving and we say the same thing three times a day it causes a it causes us to get used to it we say it by wrot we no longer think about it many of us don't feel that we properly understand the text of the and therefore if I doing with in a language that isn't necessarily natural to me and even those who speak Hebrew the language of biblical language is not always so so easy for them so so on the one it becomes it becomes hard becomes rigid and and I don't understand what I'm saying and therefore what is the purpose here so obviously we have to first before we even answer that question we have to really understand and realize and understand the value of what we're saying and why it's still important that even to this day we have a set text number one and this is what the r was highlighting I think it's all clear to all of us if if there was no set text and even nowadays each of us doed what we wanted when we wanted when were we doen when we were when we were when we were in distress and we were in pain what are the chances that each of us would DAV in every single day for 10 15 20 minutes we might start and then after a week it's the same thing over again I don't I don't have much to add I said it all yesterday God you know what else what else do I need to say today the chances of us properly maintaining a set re real honest on a daily basis three times a day or two times a day or whatever we are that we're able to maintain is much less and so clearly kazal had the intuition to realize that if we want to keep as a Forefront as a major part of it needs to have a set text that needs to be the base that needs to be a part of of what we have I would take it even more than that and suggest that part of what kazal are teaching us this is hinted at a number of different sources that kazal are reminding us what we should be daving for we learn from Theon what our focus should be because if all we were doing was doing for ourselves what we wanted to say we would all be thinking about our own personal challenges I'd be one person be thinking about let's say someone has a relative that's going through an illness or another person's going through parnasa or this person's struggle we all have our own personal struggles and those are important things to talk about we'll get to that there is there is place for personal but what would we what would we fail to talk about we probably would forget to say we probably would forget to talk about is what are the chances we'd be talking about if we were all just doing ourselves and make and developing our own text and so what have done is it's really a lesson in priorities Kaz are teaching us that every single day when you part of that should be I'm not perfect it's not just about God give me X Y and Z it's about God please help me become the person I want to be you're the person who's the source of all knowledge please give me the wisdom it's opposed to saying God give me X it's God give me the wisdom to make the right decisions and so what kazal have established for us is that by the way it's not just on a personal level on a national level these are things we should all be thinking about but because of the vicissitudes of life we wouldn't be and so what kazal have done in establishing this text and the ra hints it when he says that these are all the aote of of requests is kazal are saying reminding us these are the things you should be ding for these are the things you should be thinking about these are the things that should be important to you and part of your daily life and so having a set text is so much more than just you know giving us the ability to talk it's teaching us lessons about about life there's so much more to say uh the the U I'm sorry just one second just because of time if you look at um at at the at the source number 11 I'm not we're not going to see this inside but two other approaches that I want to suggest to to the to the importance of a set text the uh in his is a is a commentary on points out and this is something that I think many of us he discusses this on a mystical level he says when we talk about the power of these we have to remember that these were written by which means that there is a power to every single word in these F that we don't fully appreciate this is this is something talks about all over this is very much his his is won Shang in general about the power of Torah lishma and learning Torah creates spiritual realities that we that we that we don't understand the same thing is the text of is not just St some Rabbi got up and wrote a few words these are texts that are imbued with a certain level of Kusa created by the last of the prophets that we had in the Jewish people and therefore there is a unique power to those words that even if we don't fully appreciate it and cl Legend the that I say today is GNA be different than the that I say tomorrow because it is imbued with a special special mystical power that we not fully appreciate and it's something that we should remember that these are not just words these are words that are established by the great leaders of our Jewish history and and the LA the last thing I would point out and this is something that's highlighted by the last couple of sources is that when we David we tap into the totality of the Jewish people and Jewish history the text of sax writes it at the very end in Source number 13 Don in Source number 12 when we Davin we're not just saying words we're saying words that number one are built off of suim and stories and the history of the Jewish people throughout the ages we're also saying the same exact text with a few variations that they're saying in Morocco that they're saying in that they that they're saying in Russia that they're saying across the world in Australia and therefore why is it that we could walk into any wherever we are and usually follow okay it's true that there are variations there are variations but fundamentally the text is the same and then when we do in we're not just doing we're d as part of the Jewish people we're doing as part of the entire Jewish Community all over the world doing theot that the Jewish that that the Jews have said for thousands of thousands of years and there's a certain power to that there's a certain Co to that and so yes is it hard do we not always understand what we're saying do we perhaps find it maybe it can be a little bit tedious and it could be and feels a little bit like too repetitive yes but on the other hand if we think about it what we're doing is we're tapping into something greater than ourselves and and and I I want what I want to and with his next week we're going to actually focus on the personal part of because none of what we're saying today is meant to exclude the fact that kazal did Institute within theot numerous opportunities for a person to also have the opportunity to add in his personal either during Shon or outside of Shimon meaning this is just one side of the coin the other side of the coin is that building off of everything that we have here building off of the kadus of the text and building off of tapping into the Jewish people or reminding ourselves the values of what kazal want us to think about there were built in or certainly numerous opportunities that not everyone is aware of aware of that are opportunities for us to create our own personalized fot within that text and that's something that that we hopefully will spend time uh next week I apologize I didn't take questions but I wanted to make sure they're finish everyone have a great week