The Seven Neviot - Mrs. Leah Feinberg

Welcome as we continue our journey through the chevanote and this week we're going to be exploring the niba of so again there is so much to say about her um we are going to explore two aspects rather than just not just her nua but there is a very close relationship between prophecy and prayer and they're really two dimensions of the same coin. The way some people like to put it, prophecy is Hashem speaking to us and prayer is us speaking to Hashem. Um I think it's a little bit of an oversimplification, but it that is definitely there's definitely uh something to that idea and Hana of course excels in both realms. So we're going to explore both of the both sides of that coin but we'll begin with her prophecy. So again back to the who are the seven and again the brings a proof text for each of the is where we see that she in fact [Music] prophesied. This is in the Shir of Hana. It's alf perkbet, the beginning of Pericbet. In Perk Alf, we had first met Kana and heard her story. Kana, of course, is the beloved but barren wife of Elana. Elana is working very hard to reinstitute the custom of Ali Algel, the mitzvah of Ali Alarel, encouraging people to go to the Mishkan in Shilo. And Elana has two wives. Kana is shame. She's the the first most beloved wife who has no children and his second wife whose name was Panina had many children and the family would travel together to Shilo every year for the Shalos Galim and while there Elcana showered favor upon Kana but she was very much made to feel her position as the motherless as the childless mother wanting you know want to be wanting to be a mother um but not having any children as Pineina her rival wife would sort of rub it in, take that opportunity to say like, "Oh, I'm so busy. I have to take care of all my many children." And oh, Kana, oh, you know, you don't have any children. I'm so sorry. And and would would just agitate her. And Kana became very upset. And again, El Kana favored her, but that didn't fill that particular void. And at one one of these visits, El Kana sort of becomes a little frustrated and turns to Kana and says to her, "What am I not good enough for you? Aren't I better than even 10 children? like why and and kana holds her peace, doesn't say a word, but stores up her her emotional state and eats to make her husband happy. And when she finishes eating and drinking, she goes to the Mishkan in Shilo and she pours out her heart to Hashem in silent supplication. A the Cohen at the time in Shilo sees her. He thinks that she's drunk because the custom at that time was to pray aloud and she's whispering and he sees her lips moving but doesn't hear a sound. So he accuses her of drunkenness and she says, "No, I'm not drunk. I'm embittered of spirit and I'm pouring out my heart for Hashem." And silent prayer allow allows for more intense connection, intense supplication than praying aloud. We don't have to worry and nobody else is hearing it. It's between us and Hashem and we could just let it all out. Put everything into that. And that's what she was doing. And Ay saw that. He understood that and he therefore blessed her that her would be heard by Hashem and that she would in fact have a child and she walks out of the Mishkan with the knowledge with the satisfaction feeling that trust in Ali's words that she will in fact have a child. The child is born um she had promised she had made a nether in her to dedicate the child to Hashem and when the child is born she raises him for the first few years at home. She nurses him. She gives him what Salviche calls I I just I love this word his words here as only a Jewish mother can the tremor, the heartbeat of Judaism while playing, singing, laughing and crying. We imbue our children. It's the unique kak of the Jewish mother to imbue our children with the spirit of Yiddishkite. And she did all of that in those first three years when Shuel was under her care. Um we know she made him his little coat which he brought with him. Asherimo that grew with him throughout his lifetime. She invested tremendously in his early education, planting the seeds of tremendous love for Hashem and love for Kali Israel. And when he was weaned, she brought him to the Mishkan as she had promised and left him there with a to serve Hashem for the rest of his days. And that's when having done all that, that's when she turns to Hashem and she opens her mouth and pours forth this beautiful Shira, which is where the Gmorra says that's where her nua begins. When she sings her Shiraat to Hashem, after having experienced barrenness, after having turned to Hashem in intense supplication, having built herself up spiritually, having withstood the challenge, the trauma of living in a household that was hostile to her own spiritual ambitions. And she rose above it all and did dedicate that, you know, she put so much into wanting this child, bringing this child into the world and then turned him over to Hashem as it were and at that point sings Shira to Hashem. And this Shira says the Gamarra is her prophecy. The Shira opens with the words, "My horn is elevated through Hashem. It's my heart rejoices in Hashem and my my horn is elevated. What does that mean? My horn is elevated. So that means I I can literally if you are trying to understand the literal meaning within the context, it means that I can now lift up my head in pride before Hashem because Hashem has so graciously given me a child. I can now hold myself up. Before I was like downcast, you know, feeling embittered and now I can stand up upright and serve Hashem with pride. The gamarra says is a reference to the malut of Davidid and Schlommo. David of course would be later would later be anointed by the very child that Kana had born. So this is a rama my that the karen that which was anointed with a karen with a horn and the oil of the sheish the anointing oil was poured from a karen and not from a p not from a um like a little jug. [Music] David and who were anointed with the horn their would endure but Sha and Yu and sayim that's something that already had happened but Sha who would be also would be anointed by but only with a jug of oil not a Karen alone their mal would not endure. So this is her prophecy says the gar the the the sh is really talking about the malut the kingship of the two different kings who would be anointed by her son whom she had born miraculously. The mal of sha she's prophesying the mal of sha will not endure because he is only going to be anointed with a karin and with a sorry and the mal of Davidid will endure because he will be anointed with a p. Okay. From there, the Gomorrah goes on to explain, not as prophecy, but just give beautiful explanations, midashic explanations of two more of the Shira, which we'll hopefully we'll get back to. But just points out really I I sort of um already interpolated his explanation in source number two. The counts as one of the seven as we just [Music] saw. So this is really an important point that he makes. It's a most pretty much everybody agrees with this. The garra is not saying that her prophecy was limited to that. The Gomorrah is implying that's the beginning of her prophecy and the entire Shira was given over prophetically except for possibly the last which is understood as either a a nwa or a but certainly the bulk of the garra the idea that the garra is not by saying this by interpreting this puk as prophecy is not saying that the prophecy is limited only to that puk the entire shir is said prophetically. This is just the beginning, the inauguration of her prophecy. And then he explains after she gave birth to she fulfilled her promise and she brought him to the house of Hashem to the Mishkan. By doing that she achieves full perfection the full perfection of her own spiritual character and then and that's when she becomes a nu that's like the apex of her spiritual development there she can't go any higher in terms of her own personal life she has achieved total fulfillment of her own character in her personal life therefore she now takes on a greater role visa v the entire nation and becomes a nie It's like she she just she reaches the pinnacle. And I think this is a process that we've seen with with all the women that we've been discussing that they all experienced challenges in their personal lives and they all used those challenges to grow spiritually and achieved a certain personal spiritual fulfillment and at that point become you know reach the the level of prophecies. The Zohar points out. There are two women. Come and see. There are two women in this world who who uh spoke praises of Hakaresh Baraku that no man ever reached the level of speaking. And the who are these women? Dvorra and Kana. Two women who offered words praise of Hashem through Shira. And we spoke about Dorah last week. So now we're going to focus on what what is it that spoke regarding Hashem that no man ever achieved that level of uh praising Hashem. And again, this is really what the is based on first says there is no one like Hashem and the entire text of the Shira. So like said the first puk is only the beginning. The entire text of the Shira is prophetic and this is a level of praise that no man ever achieved. Why? She opened the door of for the entire world. The sh of is a such a high exalted expression of faith. This enables us to have to develop our own faith in Hashem. She opened the door for us to have a greater degree of faith in Hashem to connect more profoundly with our own belief in Hashem. So now we have to explore the Shira from that perspective of wow this is a shir that opens the door to growth through amuna that's that's something I really want to hear about. So the the puk that the Zohar sites was inadashm which is the second puk that the garra brings afterashm the garra brings the the in the third line of source number one which literally means there's no one as holy as hashem as sanctified as hashem literally means there is no one other than you right hashem is unique um singular This is a very um common midashic technique. Read it not as it's written rather play around with the letters a little bit with the a little bit. Read it as what does that mean? Hashem is different from male obviously. In what way? Human beings. If we create something, and I'm using create in the sort of um the way we use it, not not in terms of the way Hashem creates, but we we put something together in this world. We work in a laboratory. Um you know, Jonas Saul, right, invent or discovered the vaccine for polio. His work outlived him, right? It didn't it didn't disappear with him upon his death. His work outlived outlasted him. And that's the mid of when we build something, we create something in this world, it outlasts us. That's why we like to we like to do that. We have uh you know you know my son-in-law, for example, when when his grandmother was ill, she she had made uh needlepoint talis bags for all of her grandsons. And he's the youngest. He was the last one and he was still a teenager and she was ready she she saw that her kot were waning. So she made him a talisman before he was even of an age to to even start dating so that he would have it because she knew it would outlast her. He still uses it to this day. So our work outlasts us outlast has you know there's no no beginning and no end. Hashem outlasts all of creation. So that's what it's a foundational principle of amuna that was here before the world was created and he will outlast the world opens the door to amuna. This is a again fundamental principle with one of the anime mountains. It's one of the the 13 amuna that hashem outlasts the world. Another one, another example that the Gamarra brings. Again, it's like readed, change the a little bit, change the lettering a little bit. It's a midashic technique. She says, there's no there's no rock like Hashem, meaning like there's there's no one nothing as you can rely on as solidly as you can upon Hashem in this world, which is also a foundational principle of Amuna. And but the the midash the gum explains midrashically there's no artist like Hashem. This is one of my favorite quotes. I say it all the time when I go hiking with my husband. Like I just stand there and wonder and look around. Wow. Hashem planned all this, drew all this and and put it brought it into being. It's amazing. But that's not exactly how the Gmorra understands it. A person draws a picture on a flat surface. Alakotel here doesn't mean the like the hotel. It means a wall. A person draws a picture on a wall or on a flat surface. And we can't invest in it. The living spirit, we can't put, you know, organs into it to make it function independently. Not only does create a living, breathing, thinking human being, but he's able to place another living, thinking being within that one. So, and certainly was, you know, she experiences, she's speaking here on a personal level that gave me a child, which I by this point in my life was not expecting, right? I I had sort of she had she hadn't given up. That was the thing. She had never given up. She thought that her husband had given up. when he said to her, "Aren't I even I'm not good enough." She saw that he had given up and that's why she went to Davin for herself because she saw that he's no longer dabbing for her because she had reached a point in her life where it was perhaps no longer expected that she would have a child. Nevertheless, there's no limit to what Hashem can do. It might seem impossible that such a thing would happen, yet Hashem can make it happen. We can be creative to a point. Hashem is the true, the one and only creator. That's why I said when we create something, I'm using it sort of loosely because we we can create with a lowercase C. Hashem can create something from nothing. We need materials to work with. Hashem doesn't need materials to work with. He can make absolute miracles from nothing. Again, fundamental principle of amuna that enriches our understanding of. We talk about this, but you know, she gives us a new she opens a new doorway, a new window into understanding this. Hashem can create. Hashem can animate. Hashem can invest life can bring life into places where you wouldn't think that life could exist. Radak in verse number four brings really three approaches to on the simplest level. This is still the second. This is part the we can understand her whole entire on a personal level that was expressing tremendous praise and gratitude to Hashem for the child that he had given her and it's a that he should succeed he should grow up. he should be well and live to serve Hashem to his fullest ability. And that and and on that level alone, it's a beautiful, inspiring and perhaps even prophetic because of course was not an ordinary child. He was going to grow up to be the leader of AmI is he was both vini. He's the one who sort of um transitions the entire nation from the period of the to the period of the and he's both a chauffe and a navi. People came to him for judgment. people came to him for guidance and ultimately he was the one who ushered in the the by um by anointing both Sha and David as we saw excuse me so on on on the simplest level that's herbs he then quotes I didn't bring the full text of taramon because it's in rather complicated Aramaic. So, we're just going to go with his uh sort of summary here. So, the first thing that we see inserts the words inserts the words right there into the text. Read the as if it says imbued with the spirit of prophecy. She says my my son is destined to be a prophet over Israel. and and that so that's one sort of overview of the is that she's speaking about not only in terms of her personal you know it's amazing that a child was born to me which again it was not one doesn't take away from the other on a deeper level not only it's amazing that this child was born to me but wow this child was born to all of Israel this child is destined to be a Na'vi who is going to change the course of history in terms of cla and we look at the Shir in that light. Yonatan continues and broadens the Shira even further. the import of the sh even further. The entire Shira is not speaking only about her personal salvation but the entire future history of AmI [Music] isukhashmar aliv malad the ash of the king of ash who would in the future conquer theatim the 10 tribes take them to kud in Assyria alu al tarbu Um don't don't arandise yourselves. She prophesied about and goes on she prophesied about anti and she prophesied about and the the whole purum story. She spoke in general. Thank you so much about the the fate of and the punishment of so essentially in this she prophesies the entire future of Israel. We began by saying she prophesied about that her son Shuel would anoint he would usher in the period of kingship with the anointment of Sha and David. And Yonatan takes it further and says she's speaking about the entire history of Malut in general that first there would be a strong malut in Israel and then ultimately that Malut would not fare so well and beyond that there would be a period of destruction where kings foreign kings would come in and conquer the kings of Israel and conquer the land of Israel and exile its leaders and exile its people and we would find ourselves in all kinds of terrible situations. throughout history and in each each time Hashem would intervene and Hashem would make sure that everybody gets their due. And that's true not only of kings but of all individuals. All sadikim will get their just desserts and all will get their just desserts. Ultimately there will be the magog and hashem will come in and there will be a tremendous salvation and the shra concludes with so it's it's again this broad sweeping view of history and specifically the history of the of the malut first is then the arba maly all the muyot that will threaten mut is and will threaten the existence of am is ultimately the malhoot of melamia. So beautiful understanding of the Shira as a prophetic declaration of everything that will happen throughout Israel and then says but there has to be a literal meaning within the right there's there what does it mean just going through the words so you would think that thehat was what he said in the beginning that the is right but that's not what he says On the simplest level, what we need to walk away from this sh with iso throughout the sh's talking about those people who arandise themselves, who become arrogant, who think that the world runs on my say so and then I'll unve They are the humble people, the meek people, the people who who kind of suffer through and take what comes their way without feeling that they need to be in control, without feeling that they need to have their say. [Music] So teaches us in her hashem sees everything and Hashem raises up those who are humble, the the the humble people who kind of sit back and say let Hashem control the world. Ultimately, it may seem to us as when we look around that those people are getting stepped on there that they're low. But Hashem brings them up. He'll bring down those who are arrogant. How does illustrate this so vividly? Because she says that's what happened to me. I was suffering and I I swallowed everything. I didn't open my mouth. I didn't hit back. I didn't answer back. I swallowed it all. I kept it inside. I only poured out my heart to Hashem. And Hashem heard my and Pineina was ultimately brought down tell us tragically Pineina suffered the death every time Kana went on to have seven children and every time a child was born to her Kazal tell us one of Pineina's children was was Nar left the world until Pineina came to Kana and said please dabin for me and Kana davened on behalf of Pineina that she shouldn't lose any more children and that's Tina's remaining children are attributed to to because really say that Kana had seven there are there's a contradiction in the text one place says she had five children another says she had seven so explained that she had five biological children but Panina's remaining two children were attributed to Kana because they remained alive due to her intervention but the the idea that hash she was able to speak from personal experience and this is so powerful you know when we when we hear somebody's personal story. Why is it so powerful for us to hear personal stories? Because it we we can universalize them. If if something happens to one individual, that shows it can happen. Hashem, we love to hear miracle stories. We love to hear stories, right? Like, wow, story. But really, every minute is just those stories that illustrate, you know, they they like bring home, they drive home what's a universal truth, what's around us all the time. So that's what Kana was able to do. She was able to tap into her own personal experience and universalize it and say from me you can all learn that don't look around you and despair of the world. Don't look around you and say forget it. Hashem Hashem is not in control here. Hashem left things. Hashem is like, you know, he's busy doing something else and he's letting history run its course here. Hashem sees everything that's going on and ultimately everybody will get exactly what they deserve. You see that for me I I was able to suffer through terrible torment not only because of what was missing in my own life but the way that other people treated me because of it. And nevertheless and I held held on to my faith throughout all that time. I believed that Hashem could bring about change in my life. And in fact he did. And that shows us that can happen in real life as well to anybody to any individual and to any nation. And that's the the doorway to faith that opened up to us. Listen to those personal experiences. Listen to those personal stories and understand from them the the might and the ability of Hashem which knows no limits. Hashem can do. Hashem can effect. He can put someone in a in a circumstance whether good or bad and then ultimately flip it. Do the exact opposite. Don't think that because something is happening now that's the way it is forever. Things can change. That's as a these are all prophetic teachings that again the the in its entirety is not just those first few or theukim that are highlighted but the entire like the zohar said the the entire text of the sh is prophecy and this is all these are things that is saying not only can happen but will happen. So if you look around you and you see things, we seem to be locked into a neverending situation of of despair of tragedy. There's no such thing. There's no such thing as being locked into that situation. There is a prophecy that will change. Hashem is that's the prophecy. Now, we can't talk about at all. I know I'm not saying everything there is to say about by a long shot, but I think it's it's like impossible to talk about and not talk about. And like I said in the in the opening, and are closely related. They're both part of a dialogue that we conduct with. We turn to Hashem and he responds in. So now we're going back to uh oh actually sorry this is still the parag sorry it's alfbet so still the sh but the sh not in terms of the sh in terms of because this and what what the midrash is discussing and some of the deal with not all but some of the question why if this is au it's introduced with the words Okay. It's an interesting question, right? It we just we just learned from all these different sources that the second her second is au but it's introduced with the words. So that's why I said a little bit to to view and uh and as sort of one is Hashem speaking to us and the other is us speaking to Hashem is a little bit of an oversimplification because there is the potential for dialogue in in both. We find even while experiencing conducting dialogue with Hashem sort of responding to Hashem from within their prophetic state and we also clearly we find you know that is that that's responded to in ways other than a person feels um that that you know sometimes we walk away when you like a really really good dabing and you walk away feeling like Hashem heard me like I just know I I feel I feel like I was heard and it's in it's in Hashem's hands now and I can walk away and whatever happens I I have I trust in Hashem that it's going to be taken care of. You have experiences like that. It's a brah like when you those those moments when you can have a like that and that's like I feel heard. So soil and are not two separate things necessarily. So and that's both. It's a and it's a and says this is interesting because it sounds like a statement right from here we learn that women are obligated in prayer not necessarily that's not this is not if for those who say that women are obligated in prayer and to what extent it's it's a more complicated discussion I don't think any of them bring this puk as the proof text that women are obligated in prayer. But you do it in English. He says from here we learn that women are obligated in prayer because Kana prayed because she because she prayed from the words she prayed. Therefore we learn that women are obligated in prayer. So it's I don't think it's a teaching in this context. The chimon is not a midrash. It's an agic midrash. Um, but we could say that from here we learn certainly that women can davin and perhaps that women should daven, but not necessarily halafic obligation to davin. And then that would still leave open the question of what exactly does that mean? What what text, what times, all all of those details that the midrash here certainly would not address. Again, it's an agade midrash. It's not but he seemed to be yes he's speaking specifically when he says he's speaking about how do we know because if you look at the rest of it he goes on to say she a parallel text sort of her was a text that parallels the 18 of now you're gonna see a couple of interesting things the first puk rabashem parallels The first that's an easy one second. There you go. Sorry. Um and so source number five. Yeah. You have the first three of which are fairly you know they match up pretty nicely. Main [Music] abraamot and kadushe. The next one he killed deotashem. Hashem is the god of intellect of of knowledge. Right? Those who who f who fall who fail who slip up they they gather their might together. Right? If you you fall and you pick yourself back up again. Parallels, Hashem brings people down to the depths and back up again. Hashem is very forgiving. People might deserve punishment, but they do cha and then they're forgiven. So parallels the go I rejoice in your salvation. So again, personal salvation, the salvation of Israel. Go El Israel. Hashem is the redeemer. You lifted me up from the depths from the from the dust. Hashem heals the [Music] sick the right of the the produce regarding the produce of the land. She talks about being satiated with food, with bread. So, Hashem watches out for those who um are loyal to him, faithful to him. Is ultimately Hashem will gather back, gather in all the scattered people of Israel. Hashem will judge people to the ends of the earth of justice. will ultimately be silenced in the darkness. They will ultimately receive their punishments. We say in Hashem should punish those who intentionally harm us. Hashem will her says in her hashem should give strength to the kings of Israel present tense, right? Right? We see all the are present tense because all the like go is we're living through a process of redemption. Everything that's happening in history is bringing us closer to redemption. It's a process ongoing building of ultimately Hashem will raise up the Ken the one who was anointed with the horn at right. That's that should renew. There's no one like Hashem upon whom we can rely like the rock of our salvation. Hashem hears all of [Music] our. So this is interesting because this is the braha of rit the braha of aod which um the conclusion the midrash brings the conclusion of the braha for which we insert into that braha here in every day and more limited on more limited occasions. But rather than concluding which is the way the braha concludes the she the midrash chooses to conclude with the thanking shalom which is interesting also the implication that true peace can only be achieved through the restoration of When hashem gives strength and restores then when we'll see so from her we learn that we too should and again it's this idea of speaking I think what what what the midrash highlights for us sort of in light of the the different approaches to understanding her nevua is that when we damage estray we should do so through our the lens of our own personal experiences and like relate to the braot through the lens of our personal experiences and sort of broaden them and apply them that when we dish we're dabbing for the entire cl and we're also davening for our own Yeshua. So this this is like Hana's um innovation or or sort of the the door the window that she opens up for us how to relate to our not just words that we're saying but infuse the with our own personal experiences with our own the the understandings of the that are meaningful to us in our own through our own experiences in our own lives. Now we're going to look at Kana's first go back to perk alif theim described he's embittered of spirit and in that with that bitterness she turns to hashem because she has nowhere else to turn alashem and sheed alashem notice it's with an which usually means like upon so it's many of the will say you know read it as if it's with an as if it says L but it doesn't say that. So we want to understand why does it say Alashem and she was crying bitterly and she made a promise and she promised that if you give me a child I will give that child to you Hashem. The child will be totally dedicated to Hashem and as she was dvening with intensity and she went on and on a coh noticed her and she he saw that she was again. She is speaking above her heart. I have to understand what does that mean? Only her lips were moving but her voice could not be heard and a felt that she was drunk because that was not the normal mode of of prayer at that time. The Gomorrah takes note of these and says we we learn so many several of important of from these regarding is speaking to above her heart or to her heart. has to involve the heart requires. This is a that we learn from only her lips were moving. We you can't d by scanning the words with our eyes. We learn from that we have to articulate the words with our lips. The words it should be visible that we are dominating. Thirdly, but her voice wasn't heard. From here we learn and these are this is the gar this is not an agotic midash this is these are in fact that we learn from that we don't raise our voices in again can be more intense more powerful more profoundly connected to our inner feelings if we dab in quietly and we're not supposed to disturb the people next to us we I once worked with an English teacher who um she used to have her students proofread they would write you know do a writing assignment and in order to proofread, she wanted them to read it aloud back to themselves to see how it really sounded, not just like scan because sometimes you miss things when you're just scanning with your eyes, but if you're speaking it, it it's you hear what it sounds like. So, she used to say to them, and this was, you know, a classroom full of students who had just written something and now had to read it back to themselves. So, she would say, "Use your dominating voice." by which she meant like use your dominating voice, articulate it so to the extent that you yourself can hear what you're saying, but the person sitting next to you should not necessarily hear what you're saying because they have to focus on what they're saying. So there's a dovening voice, right? this this just the right um level of volume so that we hear ourselves so that we know that what we're saying we're infusing what we're saying with meaning and it sort of comes back to us and we hear the impact of what we're saying but we don't affect the people around us. That's uh I thought it was a it was a great insight. I don't remember how it came up but it came up I guess once in the teachers room and I thought it was like that's so smart. That's okay. Um, okay. So, those that's the we learned from and lastly thought she was drunk and he rebuked her. So, from his rebuke, you can't den when you're drunk. We learn from or the episode surrounding Kana that we cannot when inebriated. And then she says, "No, I'm not in fact drunk. I'm just bitter of spirit." and then the whole story that ensues. Now, Rafal Kako, I I want to address this. It's a little bit peripheral to what we're talking about, but I I do want to I don't want to leave it as sort of the elephant in the room because I know, you know, people ask why do people why do women have to be barren? And very often the answer that's given is sort of this like pat answer because Hashem wants their low. So, which is right, it's okay. What does that really mean? And how does that I whatever you have some experience dealing with women who have struggled with this issue and they don't find that reassuring at all. I can tell you that. Right. Yeah. So so it's a it's a tough um issue a little bit. Rat Saddok has a mamar I guess poke aarim where he talks about the different aarim in Tanakh different figures who were barren and essentially from this what we walk away with from this is there's not one answer why people struggle with infertility there's not that's not true in Tanakh and it's not true in throughout history in in all of life people may struggle with the same thing for different reasons He does say in the case [Music] of so in the case of it was her that was required and from there some people say like you know and there are there are sources also that bring that idea with regard to the to other but it's not exclusive and he goes through different akarot and shows how there were different aspects of akar with the different women and why they had to go experience what they experienced for different reasons with so for her we needed her partly because of herself and what she had to bring and all of the the depths of meaning that she could add to our but also because of because of this nephesh this incredible nish that she was going to bring into the world This needed that extra measure of in order to be fully realized in this world. Her was so strong that it opened the gates of for her and for him. We're told this later on that until the time of was very limited. There were not a lot of there were you know some people who had individuals certainly is the most outstanding among them but was not something you could find everywhere. We will get to periods inaugurated a period in which nvua became very widespread. There were times during the during the time when the bet mikash was standing where you know you you couldn't walk down the street in without bumping into a navi of one level or another. So the kana really opened the gate to this kind of which was widespread in in Israel and in order for that to happen it needed a certain from down here it couldn't that couldn't obviously there's no no limit to what hashem can do but hashem wanted to see that we want it we have to express to hashem I want it. I once had an experience my early years of teaching had a very very bright student who did absolutely nothing in class did no work. She she knew she was very bright and she was a little bit arrogant and it was fueled by it's interesting. You see interesting things with students. I've had students who were very very bright and their parents say to them, "Okay, we know you're smart." I literally have had students whose parents have said to them, "The teacher knows that you know the answer. You don't have to shoot your hand up the first one every time the teacher says something. Wait a little bit. let give other people a chance and if you see that nobody else is answering and you know the answer then raise your hand. I also have had parents like this other child that I started talking about who the the mother came to me and said she's above everything you're teaching like give her give her something else. So I said I'm happy to give her enrichment when she does the foundational stuff like this is part of being a student. You have to you have to start you have to do the things you have to do and then you get rewarded with bonuses with extra. So you need that dilata you need the truth is I'm not sure that that student and actually she was moed to me years later she came back to me and she said I know I was out of line but um at the time I'm not sure she would have done the extra. It was the mother who wanted the extra. She didn't want to do anything. She's like I'm above all this. I don't need any of this. Hashem needs to see not that we're arrogant and says like I don't need the text of I'll just turn to Hashem and say whatever I want when I want. We need to show Hashem in some measure. We're doing what we have to do. We want more but we're starting with the framework that we have. Let me do it. I I feel this way sometimes about like these these women who want uh you know women who want all kinds of what they see as privileges associated only with men, right? And how come they get the men to do it? And and my question is always like are you so excellent in your avodashem like in in the avod that you can do? Like are you already doing everything you can in the avode that is prescribed for you that you want more or is it just because you somebody else has it and you can't stand that somebody else has something that you don't have you know like where is it coming from if it's genuine call you know maybe then maybe there's something to talk about Rash's daughter is reportedly warts fillin right although it's a little okay so when when you reach that level of perfection and you're ready for more kaboot. Are you are you really there? Is that are you doing everything you possibly can? So that's where this this idea comes in that Hana needed to be at that point where she was had really done everything she possibly could and then she was granted a child and she does that and that's where you know it's the same idea that we saw earlier with the mish that's when she merits prophecy because she really had she became in her hashem she through her so she she was able to open doors with her that were necessary for Israel for all of us and certainly for herself in terms of ali this is a a beautiful idea and it's connected to the pel al hashem as well you see we only have very few minutes left and I want to get this in it's the there's a beautiful midrash brought in Esther rabba and the maharal expands on it in his work on pur and also inot the midrash says Ham bibbo, right? He This is when Ham comes to in the middle of the night if he wants permission to to hang Morai and instead the king says to him, "What would you do to a man whom the king wants to honor?" And Bay Hambo, "Who would the king want to honor more than me?" Right? And then he comes up with this whole plan of riding on the king's horse in the king's clothes, etc. Hambo says the midash he says in his heart are under the control of their emotions. We find it with Asa as they're all ions are under their control under their the control of their intellect. Where do we see this? Is the power to communicate intelligently. Intelligent speech. It's the ability to think and speak knowingly. [Music] She's intelligently controlling her emotions. They in this way man mimics Hashem who is in control all the time. We can control our emotions. [Music] What does it mean? She like took her burden and she threw it up upon Hashem. When she turned to Hashem and she davin, she threw her burden upon Hashem. Now there are two ways of understanding this on the simplest level. One is um she just gave it over to Hashem in that sense of like I spoke about before is like we dab in sometimes feeling like that's it. I gave it over to the hands of Hashem. It's in his hands now. Whatever happens happens. And and that feeling of like walking away like I I I'm, you know, gave up my It's like the the rhino the ancient mariner when the the albatross falls off the the deck and I I can I can breathe free. I can walk away because my burden has been lifted. So I gave it over to Hashem. That's one way of understanding it. In the context of the gamarra, it's understood a little bit differently. It's like she said to Hashem, you created me this way. you created the problem, now fix it. Like, and she calls Hashem, the also notes that she's the first person to dab and call Hashem Hashem, Hashem, the the master of hosts. Like, you you made women able to bear children. So, no, like give me my child. That's the way women are. Women are supposed to be able to have children, right? So, anybody, again, anybody who has struggled with this, like sometimes you turn to Hashem and you say like, I don't understand. you're not allowing me to fulfill my role in this world like that's you know you why are you making this happen so that's the way the garra understands it ref has such a beautiful explanation of this whole puts this all together this is the last source on this section of the graim also Right? When we honor Hashem, it's not because Hashem needs us to honor him. It benefits us. When we recognize the glory of Hashem that brings us to greater perfection, we understand more about how Hashem conducts the world. It's only to our benefit. Sometimes we are striving so hard that the striving like overcomes us and we're overcome by a certain emotion of wanting to draw closer to Hashem which requires intellect. In order to draw closer to Hashem, this is very the more you know Hashem, the more we apprehend about Hashem's world, the more we appreciate Hashem, the closer we grow to him because like you can't not, right? When we when like that in like wow, I want to be closer to Hashem. He's amazing. So we in that process we're sometime it's an intellectual process where we apprehend Hashem but sometimes it becomes very emotional and we allow our emotions because he says that is that kind of emotion that overpowering emotional desire to be close to Hashem is very holy and we allow oursel we we make an intellectual decision to suspend our intellect and let emotion take over for an instant. And that brings us closer to Hashem ultimately. That's the and that's where Kana was at when she was dvening pelat he then she was al lib and vat pel al hashem she is throwing things towards hashem and she she lets go of intellect for a minute allows the emotion to take over but it's an intellectual decision to let emotion take over in order to connect with hashem to the fullest extent possible And that is the the spirit that infuses her that this is a burning desire at the end. He says her her stormy desire. Why is she allowing that stormy emotional um feeling to take over her? It was for the sake of achieving greater perfection in the world. She knew that the storminess of her emotions would help us connect with her and with her words of and through that to Hashem and therefore that that's greater than her intellectual achievement which he had already achieved. At the center of her is a recognition of Hashem and certainly that recognition that we spoke about of Hashem as you know she talks about all these opposites all the things Hashem is he can do he brings people up he raises raises people up brings people down if necessary everybody connects to Hashem because we see we apprehend Hashem is in complete control of the world in ways that are meaningful to us personally, on an individual level, on a national level, and ultimately will bring about not only individual personal perfection in our own uh quest for spiritual character perfection, but the perfection of the world through the coming of Mashiach as as Kana concluded in Herzil. Amen.