Shnayim Yomi - Vayikra - Rishon - #1 - Rabbi Moshe Schwed - Service of the Heart

It is my greatest honor to be invited to share seven divrei Torah on parshas Vayikra, one for each aliyah, in conjunction with the Shnayim Yomi program. Thank you, Rav Lau Daniel, for inviting me to do so. And we begin. Parshas Vayikra is all about korbanos. How are korbanos relevant today? There's a well-known Gemara in Maseches Brachos that teaches us, in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, tefillos connected to me them tikknum. Our daily prayers were established in place of the korbanos, and specifically the korban tamid, which is a korban olah. The temidim were olos, our tefillos, which are connected to me them, in essence, require the specifications of a korban olah. You start learning the pesukim, you see that the korban olah required, and not like all the other korbanos, required a hefshet, skinning the animal, taking off its skin, and nituach, cutting up the animal, and then kalil isha, it was totally put on the mizbeach, every bit of the korban, and burnt as a korban to Hakadosh Baruchu. How is this relevant to our tefillos today? Rabbi Shimon Schwab says we find this process brought in halacha, the halacha of the halachos of tefillah. The Mechaber in Siman Tzadik Ches writes that the chasidim and Anshei Ma'aseh were misboded. We know hisbodedus, they isolated themselves with thought and mechavein in their tefillah ad sheyagiu leshpashtus hagashmius, until they removed their physical layers. In essence, they left themselves with their hearts and soul ready to pray to Hakadosh Baruchu. That was step number one. Step number two, tzorech sheyachshev bedivrei hamachni'a es halev. As the pasuk says in Tehillim, lev nishbar venidkeh Elokim lo sizzeh. What kind of tefillah does Hakadosh Baruchu like? A tefillah from a heart and a soul that's humble, shattered, and broken. And this is the fulfillment of cutting up, cutting up the animal. A person cuts themselves up, so to speak, breaks themselves down till their heart is ready to talk to Hakadosh Baruchu. So now, after we've done the hefshet and nituach, now a person begins davening. What does he say? Baruch Atah Hashem. With fire and passion, as if we're being makriv ourselves, our lev and our nefesh to Hakadosh Baruchu. Shimon Schwab says that is why we begin our tefillah, Hashem sefatai tiftach ufi yagid tehilasecha. Hakadosh Baruchu, I just did a hefshet, I did a nituach. I don't have any of my natural body there to give to you. I need you to open my soul, to open my heart, and to move my lips in order to allow the depths of my heart to daven and talk to Hakadosh Baruchu.