Torah Down Under: Sydney; Tefilla - Journey of a Lifetime

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com okay good morning everyone um welcome it's an honor to be here thank you for your kind attention this morning I have a very exciting revolutionary approach to tilila that could really Elevate and upgrade our appreciation for what we're doing when we're davening sometimes it becomes a matter of routine and I think uh this presentation will really upgrade our entire approach to daving let me Begin by telling you a story that's cited in the medish the medish tells us about the Roman Siege of the B mikdash and thear tells us that ultimately after surrounding the walls of Yim they breach the walls of Jerusalem and they're standing at the threshold of the temple and they're sort of apprehensive to go inside they heard the stories of people people who went in unauthorized and what happened to them and they wanted to test the the waters a little bit and they they decided to choose a guinea pig they were going to send in a Jew to the temple to defile the temple they would see what happened and if he made it through they were going to go in and Destroy so who's going to which Jew would agreed to go into the temple and defile the temple they chose a Jewish traitor his name was Yi Misha Yi Misha a heretic a rebel a traitor they say Yi go into the temple and whatever you take is yours you could take anything it's like you know when my father tells me okay uh Donnie go into my drawer and take whatever tie you want you know you could take any tie no no don't so they said take Whatever item you want so Yi goes in he's looking around he sees a shulan he sees the AR he sees the Mana he likes the Mana he grabs the Mona he walks out with the Mana and the Roman Governor is looking at it he said no no you could take anything not the Mana you can't take the Mana the Mana belongs to the general you go just go in again take anything else whatever you want you you have you have good taste you know you you have good taste you took the wrong item you could take anything else you could take the AR you could take the shulan whatever you want no thank you what do you mean no thank you it's worth millions of dollars no thanks Yi we're telling you to go in we're not asking you we're telling you to go in I'm not going says Yi if you go in we're going to relieve you of taxes for a year I'm not going y be going we're going to reward you handsomely I'm not going Yi if you don't go in I'm going to we're going to torture you to death I'm not going y Misha the traitor the rebel the one who violated the temple the first time did not go in again and he gave up his life Alem so the pun would ask what happened to the man minutes earlier he was willing to go into the temple and defile the temple and now he's willing to give up his life ales what happened to the man says upon what happened to him was he went into the mikash and when one goes into the B mikdash it changes you you become a different person you become elevated and he was transformed from a Rasha to a sadic by entering the Bas H mikash you know the famous contradiction in the beginning of it says by the carb he has to bring the carbon he does it willingly so the gamar asks does he have to bring it or or does he do it willingly so the says until he says I want to do it but would explain as follows would explain here you have a guy he sinned and he's not really interested in bringing a carbon because in his mind the furthest thing from his mind is the desire to gain atonement the desire to come close to Hashem the desire to cleanse his soul from a sin so so to speak we have to C him okay go to the temple go to the B mikdash bring a carban he doesn't want to do it but the moment he steps foot inside the bikash and he sees the A and he sees theim serving hem he sees people who they've given over their whole lives in the service of hem now he wants to do it so at first we had to coax him into it in the end he wants to do it if only we had the opportunity to enter the Bas imagine what it would do to us imagine how it would change us and what I would like to share with you briefly this morning is that we do have the opportunity to enter the B mikdash and we could do it quite often let me Begin by sharing with you how this whole approach developed for me I want to share with you a very interesting Hal so you wake up in the morning um what's the first thing a Jew does when they wake up in the morning morning you say I thank you living and enduring God that you returned my soul with Mercy K pause great is your faith many people make mistake they say with great Mercy now that's incorrect it's with mercy and then what do we do next what's the first thing we do in the morning even before this you're not allow to touch food you're not to touch your eyes you're not to touch your ears you're not all to touch your nose you wash your hands three times because in the course of the night time the soul goes up to shamay when the soul goes up to sh the body becomes a vacuum of kadus so all the forces of imp come on to your body so when you wake up in the morning and the Soul returns to your body the soul banishes banishes the forces of impurity they're left on your fingers you want to remove them you don't touch your eyes in the morning even on top of the eye before you washer even with the eye closed even with the ear closed even on top of your mouth you don't want the impurity getting into you preferably you do it as soon as you can within four cubits of where you're sleeping you try to wash your hand as soon as possible did you know that there's really another time in the morning you need to wash your hands either the last thing you do before you leave your house or the first thing you do when you get to you wash your hands and you make a you know you say it's a second washing it's a second washing because when you wash the first time time after that presumably you're going to the bathroom in the morning you're you're getting dressed you're touching your feet so your hands are going to be not clean again you wash them again before and you make the did you ever wonder why in the world am I making a don't you only make for bread I'm not eating bread in the morning you're not supposed to eat a meal before you pray why do we make the interesting question no you ever think of that so the rashba has a Chua and the rashba writes in the chu in a Chua that every morning for a Jew is inaugurating a new service of like a who would enter theik what would a do to inaugurate his daily service of the mikdash he would go to the Ki and wash his hands from the Ki every Jew is a is a in some sense you're you're a kingdom of of priests every day that you're serving hasem you're like a who's going to enter the bik you need to wash your hands and have enacted a so if I flew here I don't know few th000 miles from New York just to share that you got to wash your hands twice in the morning it's worth it it's worth it every morning you think right before before you DAV you could do it here wherever the sink is you could do it back at home right before you leave you wash your hands you say and you think I'm inaugurating my service of hem like aain who's entering the B mikdash you know I know in Australia everybody is very proper and courteous but I'm from I'm going to ask you a personal question now how many people here arean I don't think there was anybody because Gary got the C Alia I got the Le Alia I'm not a Ley my father wasn't a Ley going back many generations since nobody in my family was a Ley so nobody hears a but we all was in the morning to be like but we're not so why do we need to wash our hands like a who's inaugurating his also we don't enter the B mdash what's the name of this sh Central synagogue with all due respect is it the bikash don't answer that so what exactly is this that we wash our hands in the morning like a who enters the B now I want to share with you another and bookend this there's the most misunderstood help me out over here so Australia is south east of Israel yes yeah so you face Northwest yeah so the Ron is Northwest North or west north or west okay technically speaking when you pray you face Northwest one officially right I know every even in New York we have the same issues we have to do you know Southeast it's mostly East it's a little bit you know it's a little bit South but technically speaking you face North North West Northwest okay the tells us when you get up to DAV if you're standing in turn in the direction of the land of Israel okay so you do that but then says you should I think most people understand this to mean you should direct yourself toward Jerusalem and to the temple and to the holy of holies so I ask you one simple question you're standing in Sydney it's a nice place it's a beautiful city you're now moving North East Northwest okaying Northwest why to face the land of Israel so I'm facing north west now oh but that's not good enough cuz you have to face Jerusalem okay so what should I do now is there like a mill degree that I need to turn myself okay I'm facing Israel oh face Jerusalem okay now face the temple okay now what do I do I can further direct once I'm facing the land of Israel and Sydney I cannot further direct myself toward Jerusalem toward the B mikash and toward the holy of holies so what does the mean direct myself toward y and the holy of holies says the it does not mean you face you do not face Jerusalem when you pray you face Israel When you pray says what it means is think in your heart it is impossible to be facing these locations imagine in your heart and your thoughts made as if you're standing in the bikash you don't face the temple you don't face the holy of holies you imagine yourself as if you're standing in the temple in the holy of holies so that's that when you you close your eyes for a moment and you think I am now transporting myself from Bondi Junction where are we Bondi Junction pretty good it's it's 8:00 in the morning I know where I am from Bondi Junction and I am now standing in the temple in Jerusalem and the holy of holies I have a cousin you know um Hally you're not all to go to the harabas you know you can't go to the there are many Hal issues with going there but I have a close relative that goes there so he visited me recently and I said you know I go to the Temple Mount more often than you do he said what you don't go to them I said I go there three times a day every time that I you're going to the temple M you're standing in the holy of holies so now let's bookend this that means when I wake up in the morning I wash my hands and I make a like a who's washing his hands from the to begin his and by the time I get to I've made it all the way until the so is it that I wash my hands and I jump into the the moment that begins or maybe there's a process of how I get from washing my hands into the holy of holies and this is where this chart comes from you're welcome to keep it with permission from art scroll uh my wife designed based um on the approach of R shim Schwab of R shim Schwab and ryak and this is really an amazing uh approach it's not just that we wash our hands in the morning and we're like a Cen and by the time we get to we are in the holy of holies actually every single part and chapter and paragraph of daving parallels the temple so that each part is enabling us to make our way from the ezas to the ezas is to the ezas to the to the to the so let us begin this journey it's a journey that we make every single morning and having this understanding appreciation will really forever upgrade and Elevate our so what happened was was if somebody wanted to go to the temple in the morning Temple open for business at the crack of dawn but many people would come to the temple before the crack of dawn and what would they do they would stand in the ezas and they would say to and they would say Praises of hasem and those introductory prayers correspond to the ezas it's now time to climb how many steps L up from the to the is how many do we say 15 corresponding to the 15 Steps taking you up from to the how many are there they're 15 you think it's a coincidence that they're 15 of course not the 15 correspond to the 15 stairs that lead up from the ezas nashim to the ezas isra now you're up to the ezas isra little trivia question can a gentile go into the temple sure could a gentile bring carbano offerings absolutely but he can't go past the EAS can't go into e is there was a sign there no Gentiles allowed so it was a little bit of a sensitive entrance because basically the Jew that entered Had to Leave the non-jewish World Behind so it was somewhat it could be dangerous the part of ding that we say and we say the is a symbol of giving up our life represents the entrance from the EZ into the EZ is friends we're ready to go into the ezas now by the way it's a beautiful ding here in Sydney Monday uh today's Thursday an hour on Thursday n in New York you can't get away with an hour ding no way no it's a nice slow ding here it's like an uh it's uh very respectable I'm you know anyway that's if you come at 6:30 what time is baru here like 6:45 6 652 that's very good it gives you time to say carban yeah do you have to say carban certainly a nice thing to do is it obligatory the beer bones minimum carbon that you need to say is the okay so if you only have let's say you're running late by the way here's another thing the key of daving in a is starting with the that is the purpose of going to the definition of ding with minion is starting the personal with 10 Jews otherwise it's very nice you came to SCH you came to God's house but it's considered daving with a minion when you start the with the you need to do everything you can to do to navigate that which means if you come a little bit late you have to skip you'll skip part of if you need to only to allow you to start with the but you need to say a minimum carbon is the minimum carbon in fact says even women should say the I once said that says also that women should say the in no girl schools even in New York they don't tell them to say the but my my mother my wife my any you know everyone's been starting to say the a r in Lakewood heard that I said that when say he's a he said he never heard say it so they went they took it to all the I don't know all I know is wrote that women should say the and the also said I'm not here to tell you what women should do you ask your people but I'm just pointing out for men certainly the beer bones minimum ofb is if you could do more if you could say the if you could say say is in any eventon correspond to the E and so when you're saying carbonis in the morning you could take out your handy card and you could say hey I'm walking by the M I'm visiting the M I'm encountering the okay friends we're about to get into the inner sanctum of theam if you look on your diagram here theam is the widened entrance way right over here you see where I'm pointing the widened entrance way and before theam you have stairs you know how many stairs are there 12 stairs plus the platform is 13 you know what part of D corresponds to that the is is expounded with the 13 heru principles of exus whatever that means right the 13 mid that the Torah is bounded upon that corresponds to the 12 stairs and the platform leading up from the ezas taking you into the ulam we're now in the ulam you see theam theam is the wide entrance hallway before the he it has an entrance it has an exit the entrance of the is the exit of the is you have it on your chart the entrance way the exit is by the way if you were in and you would look up to the ceiling there were chains that came down from the ceiling say that the young kohanim would climb up and down these chains because on the ceiling in the in theam were two crowns one was of Z and one was the and the zra is compared to chains because one paragraph ofra leads to the next we're now ready for the Hool spot on earth or almost and that is the Kesh so if I'm entering the Kesh from east to west who knows what vessel was on my north side and what vessel was on my South Side to my left as I entered the Kesh to my right in the north is the shulan that had the showbread to the my left on the south is the man that is why the gar says that when you pray if you want to become wealthy turn a little to the north the Simon is the shulan is in the north if you want to become wise turn a little to the South the Simmon is the Mana in the South let's say you want wealth and wisdom you're not going to have either I would go with the wisdom cuz then maybe have a chance of holding on to your money but if you just get the the money and you don't have any wisdom you'll probably lose it anyway so move to Australia move to Australia then you're facing you're in the South but what are you facing North West Northwest yeah South yeah yeah that's why Jews came to Australia because they want to become wise did that work out you let me okay friends there are two ways to recognize God in this world one way is to study the physical phenomenon of the universe the human body the celestial spheres the different the ecosystem the the processes of the body which are all miraculous by studying the physical world we recognize God that is represent by the shulan in the north the shulan in the north represents the physical universe that in the is represented by the bra the longest that was ever composed that represents the shulan but there's an even greater way to recognize God in this world not by studying the physical phenomenon of this world but by studying Tyra studying Tyra gives a Jew the intuition and the conviction of the reality of the Creator more than studying nature studying when a person learns your you recognize the one who created The World God gave us the T to understand and recognize him that is is represented by the Mana the Mana represents the TOA and or represents the man the man represents the light of the T do you remember in K if somebody would say a good in learning a good idea in learning the compliment given was buttons and kns I would have a Reb in if he asked a good Kasha he would say oh buttons and knobs so because the influence of Tyra would come down to the world through the medium of the Mana so you have these two cm the is represents the physical world that is reflected in the bra the represents the is reflected by the front and center is a which M the the incense what is brought on this not animals carbonis I'm sorry incense incense you don't eat it you smell it the soul smells it that represents K friends I want to share with you something very important one of the primary kavos to have when one says K is that if ever put to the ultimate Challenge one would give up their life that is what it means accepting the Yoke of heaven with all of your soul when one says sh they should have at least two kavos before they say sh one should think I am now fulfilling the biblical obligation of saying sh one should also think if ever put to the ultimate test one would give up their life represents the the is something the soul benefits from sh is the offering of the Soul we have one more item in the bikash before the holy of holies the the represents the and when you're stand when you're standing Ray you imagine yourself standing we in the holy of holies so it's not that you woke up in the morning washed your hand like a Kain and when you got to oh boom I magically found myself in the holy of holies is literally a progression starting with the 15 blessings we make in the morning that take us up the 15 Steps the prayers before carbano takes us through the EAS correspond to the the 12 steps and the platform leading us up to the the entrance by the way how many are in 13 how many Praises in 13 how many segments of 13 all of by the way is patterned after number 13 13 segments of 13 Praises in how many requests do we make in you have the first three introductory Bros the three at the end 13 middle requests so 13 is the building block of the is the the the curtain is and when you you're literally standing in the and therefore when we complete our listen to what we say we say God Almighty you have allowed us so to speak virtually to enter the holy of holies please Hashem we're ready for the real thing please bring the actual temple to us so we could do the actual AV in the temple but until then every Jew has an elevated status every day we enter the holiest spot on earth and therefore every single part of our is infused with great significance great meaning all of our should always be received thank you for um sharing your kind attention and all the best you what you say the starts 6 on Thursday ends you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com