The Definition & Purpose of Prayer - Rabbi Menachem Nissel

Oh [Music] you okay good afternoon ladies this we are now resuming the Stila course after a couple of weeks of things happening so I'm going back to teaching to feel out but what I'm doing today is I'm introducing what's really going to take us to the end of the year because from now to the end of the year I'm going to actually teach you how to govern a shoe an x-ray and the red missile way which is really what my teacher for Shermer Volvo told me to teach which in turn is the way his teacher abdullah taught him to teach but before I get there I want to first go back and go over the main points that we spoke about in the first half of the year so those of you who are new here so we've got some new faces over here so there's going to be a quick summary of the main points that we made basically if I could summarize everything I said in half year into two big ideas it would be the following I want to say a little bit differently from the way I said it till now and that is the following what exactly is my definition of fuel how do you define the word prayer okay Shia strike I'm glad I'm glad you could you read we got that down pat but who remembers what I taught you because if you think about it talking to God if you if you're talking to God and say yo what's up God so you're talking to God we have not prayed and if you're saying a blessing you're talking to God and it's not prayer and if you say the Shema you're talking to God and it's not prayer and if you're saying songs of praise to God you're talking to God but you're not praying so what is prayer the point is as far let me just give you my definition of tequila I'm going to give you my definition and then I'm going to explain this a little bit because very important that we understand it my definition of Prayer is the creators that's us they're created standing in front of the creator that's God and saying I cannot survive without you I want you to remember this at least as long as you're in my class I cannot survive without you allow me just to elaborate just a little bit but you have to remember when a shame created the wall this is the first round hamish more or less the first Rashi he says Bastilla in the beginning when God created the world he created the wall with meat Assad in what has made us a den mean with the laws of judgment and then raha Shana ms KMS he saw that such a world cannot survive the laws of then the laws of strict justice cannot allow a world to survive and then Ahmad the she tapes emo minister ahkna me through God said I'm going to bring in my meter my attribute of mercy and that's how the world provides so you have step number one then strict judgments step number two the world cannot survive and step number three God brings in was called the world of Rahman uno the cadets okay ein-zwei-drei this is for opinion earned the tuam okay you got the three steps the first step is called then the second set is called the world cannot survive and the third step is called Rahman so for example for example Adam opens up his eyes and he sees a world that is made of hardened rock she brings his down he sees the world that is dark and gray without colors without the beautiful fruits and butterflies and all the things that make the world gorgeous a world that cannot survive he realizes that to survive he needs rain rain means something from upstairs coming downstairs he prays for rain the rain comes down in a few seconds the world turns into the Garden of Eden but when he was created that moment was a situation where the world cannot survive it cannot exist it cannot move forward so this is exactly how a shame creates the world people read that Rashi and they think that God messed up he tried in he saw it to the work and he brought in rock and no this was a a mahalik this was a system that God wanted he wanted to be one two three because he wanted there to be this in-between stage which is where you and I find ourselves constantly our lives are constantly unstable that's just the way it is I don't even know you people but if I knew each one of the ones that I do not a little bit so you look at your life a sham makes you like crazy and any given while your life is crazy so the different types of crazy there's healthy crazy you have to make decisions you got to figure how to out on how to make how to make ends meet some of you have she don't hang at all saying the dating and how to find you some of you your crazy is what am i doing for Shabbos when I going for say tonight this is probably the number one stress for in a vago okay now gay number one is always how am I going to it's basically your life revolves on Shabbos arrangements and food okay there's the stupid things that that fill your mind with stress but any given one with excess the way it is a sham makes our lives crazy and then we realize that the only way to solve that craziness if you take three steps one two three you enter into it call Hashem dwells there a Shem unleashes the Rahman when man turns to God in prayer that's the way of course borrow who runs as well that's the way that we survive so the moment of fear is the moment of that recognition that we cannot survive anything without him so just to take it to the extreme but really it's not extreme at all because it's the truth you put food into your mouth you just assume that everything's going to work out perfectly so the you know the protein will go to your brain and the carbs end up on your hips and you know and the waist will after a day whatever come out like a plows will come out and you'll be healthy and everything's going to be good but we know it's not that way we know as you say in in our prayer our shocks are that a tiny little aberration can cause incredible amounts of pain and a Shem is constantly taking care of us and make sure everything is fine and just to make an extreme point just to make the idea where you're welcome of the mirror my Rebbe is ready for some of all this Rebbe once said if we understood the frailty of the human body then we would instantly you know every time we count the bathroom was right in his words write a telegram to our parents to think that we're okay don't do this they'll think you're mad but if you understand it guys the body is so frail we cross the road we just assume we're going to get to the other side but then every so often you read that you know crazy drivers you don't know what's going to be some of you are from the West hamster who dominated forever calamari the awesome rather the community over there I was hit by a car that ran away and no one even knows the story behind it but that's it I have had my Rebbe and very wet study was on the rock his wife was hit by a car while she was doing her Sunday morning walk this is what happens so Jesus Hume you can cross the road certificate what's the most dangerous part of a trip when you're going from from from Jerusalem to Los Angeles I just did this like when asked Mortimer's what car the Jerusalem Tel Aviv highway for sure for sure this is that you know everyone's like worried about if I was Trump I wouldn't worry about terrorists I'll worry about you know the roads this is where they look like nothing is stable we don't know what is stable because Paulo who wants to remind us that a world is not stable then we take our three steps and we recognize it so a.m. Chris Rado who can take care of anything you can't see taking care of us if we could open our eyes it's a teeny-weeny bit more we'll see that with surrounded by angels every single one of us are being protected and of being loved and there being a lives of being shaped but we don't see it and we take a three steps we stand up go to the bar oh cool and we ask the coach borrow who make my life normal God willing over the next couple of months we're going to talk about me myself eyes not just my little ego in my little world but we are obligated to think in terms of Chloe's wrong and you think in terms of the Jewish people so so the world is really crazy the world is really I'm not going to get into it now but we it's my rabbi Shapiro you still like to say we live in the Garden of Eden of fools we always live in this thing and then people say what are the big problems of as well we forget I just read this morning to see I just put on my headlines I saw that Hamas is now regained all their missile POW Hamas is like a teeny weenie compared to his voila that has enough missiles that can take out every single house god forbid in her nose you know I mean exactly has a guided missiles so say shall we send this tune away to the missile home the can do that you start to think about that and then you ask hers welcome to protect his people it's a different way of governing and every so often as my sister who lives in Lawrence says every cell from Hashem stop speaking to us in Hebrew and stop speaking to us in English because Americans somehow think America it's the land of the free is protected so every so often will send me another reminder it could be in Orlando it could be in a freeway somewhere near Los Angeles or in Boston just some kind of you know a communal event and you who remind us everything can stay well nothing has to be the same tomorrow the way it is today what do we have we had the power of prayer Hashem tells us take you three steps talk to me I can fix anything I'm actually God I'm actually more powerful than Trump believe it or not I'm more powerful than everyone leader put together I can do whatever I want whenever I want I mash em I see the beginning of time the end of time to do whatever I want well I'm asking you to take those three steps that was the first big idea that we spoke about and the second big idea that we spoke about which is in fact more important is why does Hashem do it this way it's a pretty pretty a pretty and once again I usually look crazy it sounds like I've been watching Disney movies but I'm saying if it is a crazy way to run a universe you started with then and then the whole thing is unstable and then we have to take three steps and turn it into rock on him why does he do it that way I'll give you a reminder to missile to charme right in acting a parachute test he says there's only one way that you can taste the wall to come here in this wall if you want a little bit of a taste of what it's going to be like his definition of the world to come is the world to come is Lena bruja adam ela Liz oh my gosh M is the extreme pleasure of closest to God just to back up those who have never heard these ideas before if you ask yourself what is the things that you really really enjoying life again - stepping back in again the reason why guys borrow who created as well because he wants he wants us to constantly take three steps and talk to him why so just a quick reminder how a Shem runs as well if I ask you what's really really pleasurable so if you're brutally honest with yourself if you think through it carefully the things that give you real pleasure you can't buy with money that right it's it's a Beatle song if you don't believe me your comp value love you cannot buy with money you can't buy friendship with money those are the real things that employee can't feel the in feeling that your life has value with money all you can do is create relationships and that's where you find the sweetness and the goodness in life if you think about it the people that you love and they love you back that's what I have a go matcha aqua that's what you feel that you have connections to people and those connections make your life meaningful in the end of your days so to quote Barbara Bush when she spoke in Wellesley College I think it was who's an old lady of college with all these high achieving colleges when you reach my age you look back at your life and you say we're not there wasn't that extra deal that you want or that extra position that you gained they made your life meaningful but it's just an extra moment with a child or a grandchild or the extra time that you spend with the loved ones that's the moments of meaning that you find in your life is wise wise words from this lady very wise words and it's always like that so basically there are two things that feel really good one is a friendship one of the censorship is a special Center like a marriage and the other is the feeling that that I did something for you of real value that feeling is a god-like feeling yes MA Hashem the might of God is happy when he sees these successes creations and you feel that happiness when you see that you have had an impact on the people around you that's not why you do it you do because the right thing to do but when you've done it you feel that special feeling inside it's a godly feeling well guess what all of these is a taste of the taste of a taste of what is going to be like at the end of days when we had the outcome pleasure where you and I together all have this relationship with Hashem says the mistletoe charm we can taste it now every time you take three steps translation the beauty of life is the beauty of the relation with a coach Bronco is finds its natural expression in the world of prayer so whenever you take three steps you instantly feel that pleasure of being close to correspond cool because you put your heart out to him and then you feel that he's close and he's listening to you and that's the moment of intimacy which is a taste of the world to come it's interesting that the kuzuri reviewed a lady in the states of kuzari since there's two places where you can taste the world to come one is in prayer with the other one yes Shabbos Shabbos it's a beautiful thing but I'm not going to explain it fully now but Shabbos is in a way greater than prayer because Shabbos is basically taking all those relationships that you love so much but it's with Hashem so if you think about Chavez's food you've got to be food friendship right families all the apps the k-fashion the Rosie like to dress nice and but it's with Hashem you take a widow Kurdish powerful so in a sense Shabbos is even greater than fuel because Shabbos it's step number one is in relation with the Kurdish powerful but in prayer step number two step number one is you pour out your hearts set another one you cry to God because you feel that your life is unstable and he's the only one that could fix it but step number two is having felt that you haven't addressed to talk to him that he's listening and he will do what's best for you that moment is that secondary moment that's the high of that feeling of closeness which is a taste of the world to come so the bottom line is is that the world is unstable and a Shem gives us this challenge to fix our lives and ultimately it's we're going to talk about later on this year to fix the world which is the great goal of humanity to fix the wall in its entirety to make this world into the world for Shem hair club to all these challenges that we constantly have but in the end it's really really ultimately so that we can get close to him which is the goal of the goal of all goals this honor Coliseum to become closer Shem it finds its natural habitat in the world with fuel everyone's with me any questions at this point everything I've said till now which is basic going over the left half of the year it's just too simple powerful ideas complain they leave that good okay