Understanding Teffilah Part 31 (Rabbi Dovid Gottleib) (Teffilah - Prayer)

okay so um we've been talking about the various aspects of of prayer fil and what I want to do today maybe tomorrow how much fast it goes is to look at T the fos not the long one the short one that you say every day in the C it's on 133 so first I want to take a look at the basic content of it and then I'll tell you what the r says about the function of it the function will lead us to some very deep themes I think I have to calibrate this again no no I did calibrate it's okay yeah no I did Cali just telling me that I'm WR okay so let's take a look um I guess you say V we don't say that okay to said to God I'm exceedingly distressed middle of page 133 let us fall to hashem's hand for his mercies are abundant but let me not fall to human hands compassionate gracious one I have sinned before you sh full of Mercy have mercy on me and accept my my please in other words here I'm confessing sins that I failed now comes this section from Psalm number six which is really as you let's just read through it do not rebuke me in your anger nor chastise me in your rage favor me for I'm feeble heal me for my bones shudder my soul is utterly overwhelmed you Hashem until when desist Hashem rescue my soul save me as benefit your kindness for there's no mention of you in death in the lower world who will thank you I'm wearied with my sigh every night I drench my bed with my tears i s soaked my couch my eyes dimmed with anger and aged by my Tor tormentors leave me all EV doers for hasem has heard the sound of my weeping hasem has heard my plea will accept my prayer let all my foes be shamed and utterly overwhelmed they will feel regret and be instantly shamed so the basic two themes here are I'm guilty I'm guilty and I feel overwhelmed by my guilt and I'm facing enemies and I'm vulnerable to those enemies I'm asking hasem both for help with my own failure and with the fact that my failure has made me vulnerable to enemies that's the theme here now go to page 137 which is where continuous on a weekday I mean on it's not on Monday and Thursday is every day Guardian Israel protect the remnant of Israel let not Israel be destroyed those who declare hereo Israel guarding unique Nation protect the rant the unique people let not the unique Nation be destroyed those who Proclaim uh the oness of your name guardian of the holy nation protect the r of the Holy people let not the holy nation be destroyed will declare threefold sanctification of the Holy in other words we're in danger protect us all of it is just poetical elabor ation of the idea that we are in danger and here it's the Jewish people who are in danger and now it's a expression of confidence that that we will be saved you will become favor through compassion become AAS through please when we plead with God become favorable and appease to the poor in generation charity and kindness we do not know what we we should do but our eyes upon you we're we're lost we we can't uh recover the situation remember your mercies your kindnesses for they from the beginning of the world may your kindness be on us hem we look towards you we you know we trust in you we're hoping for you do not recall against us the sins of the Ancients which could possibly happen May your mercies meet us swiftly for we have become exceedingly impoverished gracious to us okay over and over again we're in trouble we've committed transgressions we're vulnerable to our enemies and we need your help both to rehabilitate our transgressions to save us from our enemies R in his section on until the fourth part of the of the way of God we we've mentioned this before I'll just do just mention the idea and then I'll tell you what he says about this in particular we said that that F has seven Parts three steps going up to the top then there's the top itself and then three steps coming down and they're parallel there steps going up or parallel to one and coming down or parallel to one another on the way up the first step is the carbonos there are four worlds and what we're doing is this in the first part of the prayer we're linking world number four to world number three for those who know the term terminology the second part of the prayer which isra the Psalms we're linking world number three to world number two that's in the third part of the prayer which isma and His blessings we're linking world number two to world number one that's brius in the fourth part of the prayer we are addressing the world of aus on top we're speaking to it and interacting with it and the purpose of our interaction with the tus on the top is to Institute instigate justify a flow of divine energy from 1 to two from two to three and 3 to four so the process here is very interesting first you join four to three then you join 3 to2 then you join 3 to one and then you interact with one so as to justify a flow downwards one thing that tells you is the purpose of the flow is to get to the bottom so if you don't have the bottom linked to the top don't talk about flow don't try to justify it don't try to to to uh to uh influence it because if it isn't linked to the bottom it's not going to flow if you link two to one and try to talk to one and get a flow to two it's not going to happen because the purpose is not for the flow to get to two that's not the purpose the purpose is to get to four and therefore four has to be linked up before you make any in any any appeal at all he says exactly the same thing happens with Fain put the thin on the arm which is to involve the arm and the heart because the Chamber of the T is opposite the heart and then you put it on the head and what happens is that justifies the flow from to the head and from the head to the heart from the heart to the arm so you think well wait a second if the flow is going to go from my head to my heart to my arm why I put the The Filling on the head no because it's got to get down to the lowest element if the lowest element isn't isn't connected nothing will happen nothing will happen there can't be a flow just to the Head only when the heart the arm and the Heart are link to the Head then there could be a flow because the head also because it go all the way down to the bottom so there's a theme about how deals with the universe when Moses goes to to heaven to get the Torah and the angels say don't give it to them give it to us there's a whole argument back and forth and one way to understand the argument especially with Rashi is mosh says to the angels you are superior to us you're greater than we are you have greater Powers than we are if the were given to you you in fact would keep it better than we do but you're not living in the mud where we're living you're not at the bottom wants a flow to go all the way to the bottom that's why we have to have it because we live at the bottom and the Angels were very happy with that because it acknowledged the superiority of their abilities and the superiority of their position it's just that that's not the purpose purpose should go all the way to the B so the the way fer works is linking everything up and then addressing Aus in such a way as to justify a flow all the way down to the bottom now when you do that when you say you you you recite the silent and that's where you are interacting with theas to bring the flow to the bottom then the accusers appear the critics appear speaking about angels now and they say to what's going on here here look at this person who's doing what a what a um outsized project he's set for himself he's going to link 4 to3 3 to2 2 to1 and speak to Aus to bring a flow from atus down who is he let's check him out let's see whether he's worthy of this does he deserve to be engaged in this project in particular let's take a look at his liabilities let's take a look at his liabilities is he always successful in serving you does he do everything in a superb way no then he has no business engaging himself in this glorious process that's what saying sray triggers it triggers that critique now what are we going to do with respect to that critique how are we going to respond to cut off the M the way we respond is by saying yes you're right truthfully we have failed numerous times and because we have failed numerous times we're not worthy of this engaging in this process and we're asking for forgiveness and for healing and for cleansing and for protection against you who are our enemies who are coming to destroy our efforts because we recognize that we're not really worthy of it because R told us to do it it's a Mitzvah we have to do it but we know that we're not really worthy of it we know that we're failing and we're asking for help and for and for protection that's how we try to cut off the critique of the accusers who say that we're not worthy of doing it that's what Tak is doing here says R you got a question yeah well two questions the first one is do we see also the structure [Music] of and in the in the structure of of how fing process is built mean it's filling yeah like with the hand as we said and then we we link the heart the and then the head with the with the heart and like the whole is it like somehow also that's a very interesting thought but that would mean that the head which is the SE could be could be associated with Bria and then I think if I did that what I would say is that Aus is corresponding to D to speech because that's the highest element in you being the speech sort into some ways of looking at it it's a nice thought yes the AR the arm does correspond to and the heart if it's Ru terms of NE and so and so on would would be would be good for that and the shma would definitely be good for for the SE we said shma means to understand is one of the ways we explain shma Al together so I think it's a it's a nice thought it's very nice thought very good very good okay so that in rough terms is what Tak is doing yeah oh sorry yeah second question yeah I mean I know it's different structure in this that but there is like even that is brought in the structure like there's like and and then like there like like that structure which is well now I think like the 13 attributes of well that that's not that's that's that's that's something else I mean you say it as a and we say it as who have the European we also say that's not called is what you say in month of and you say so that's that that's the now um it's true that the come at the time when comes it's the same time of the prayer so I don't think it's called officially the the um the Germans the EAS put it into the they put the anyway let's leave that aside for now but the qu the question I want to raise is this what about the days in which we don't say like kanah what about those days don't the MIM appear the the critics appear we're saying the same we're trying to accomplish the same thing to bring the shefer to bring the Divine energy down from Aus down to the other worlds we do link them all up like we do on on on all the other days what response do we have for the MIM on those days now if I remember correctly what I'm saying is my own is I don't think I saw this in the ram well on many of those days we have hollow and that should give us a pause for Thought Hal is standing in for that's when you recite it right after this what's the message how is an expression of sim could it be that Sim does the same job of cutting off the makim sim although it's a very different process is not like confessing your sins and asking for for cure for your sins and and expressing your distress you soak your bed at night with your tears and so and so it's certainly not the same process but it could have the same outcome and I'm inclined to think that that's true we saw in the of rash Kipper that what cuts off evil is the rejoicing of the sadik so there definitely is a connection between rejoicing and and cutting off evil so let's and we do have a Mitzvah of to serve out of Joy what exactly does serving out of Joy canote what does it what does it express what does it accomplish and maybe if we understand that we can understand how an expression of sim would have the same um the same effect protecting us from the critics and by the way before I before I go through the simpar part through the hollow part of it not going to do hollow in detail that's that's something something we do on other occasions I want to point out there are days in which we don't say and we don't say how what days are those those are days when there's a Sim when there's a present or when there's a bris or when there's the the Sanic of a bris or the Bal bris these are people who have special syus and the idea is that the community knowing that one of their members has this joyous event also participates in the joy and that cancels T so it does seem like the idea is that Joy that's canceling T so I want to remind you of something that we've said on some occasions and then try to use that as background for what I want to say now we've talked about two types of Mitzvah there are Mitzvah that are obligatory says I command you to do the Mitzvah if you do the Mitzvah you'll be rewarded if you don't you'll be punished because I commanded you to do it and then there are mitzvos which are voluntary says I'm offering them to you and if you do them you'll be rewarded but if you don't there won't be any penalty like for example eating an apple in Suka you are required to eat certain things in the Suka bread for sure cake uh According to some even drinking wine uh but apples you're not required but if you do you make a make a according to many and everyone agrees you're being Mitzvah it's just as a voluntary Mitzvah not an obligatory Mitzvah so we have two types of Mitzvah voluntary and obligatory and according to the tradition the obligatory Mitzvah is more important more significant more more you get great reward for it than the voluntary and when people hear that especially people who aren't conversent with the Jewish tradition they find that hard to understand because and here's their thought the thought is both right and wrong at the same time the thought is um when you do something that you're obligated to do what are you showing about yourself what are you expressing well you're expressing the fact that you are dutiful you're obedient you're responsible those are important traits no question about it you've accepted the authority of when you recognize yourself as as obliged to do what he says but when you volunteer to do a Mitzvah voluntary Mitzvah you're showing that it's precious to you that it's valuable to you that you're inspired by it that's why you would volunteer to do it isn't that much deeper much more noble than just being obedient and dutiful and responsible and wouldn't that make the braa more precious and the Mitzvah more precious when your highest values and aspirations are are motivating you to do the Mitzvah so the answer is that although the psychological description is correct the conclusion is the exact opposite because the psychological description is correct that's the reason why it's less valuable and not more valuable and there are two explanations the one I'm mentioning it because it's there and because it's well known T says you're you get more reward because it's harder because when it's only voluntary then the rebellious side of your nature says don't tell me what to do don't push me around and uh uh when it's oblig obligatory um and and and wants to Rebel precisely because you are ordered to do it and therefore you have to overcome that part of your character your character your psychology and because you have to overcome it it's harder and therefore you get a greater reward that's T's explanation but the r and and and the maral have a different explanation not in in contradiction to T but in addition to tus and that is if you measure how much of the action you do is has in it and how much has you in it when it's when you're doing something obligatory he ordered me to do it and I'm just carrying out orders I'm just a sort of appendage with which his will gets done in the world there's very very little of my character and my values and my inspiration and my nobility in it it's just the creator of the world said to do it so I do it the voluntary M of just as we said has a great deal of me in it it's my inspiration it's my nobility it's my sensitivity it's the the no nobility of my values that leads me to do it and all those four descriptions have the word my in them it means to say it's a great deal of expression of my um elevated character when I'm doing it and precisely because there's so much of me in it it's inferior not Superior it's inferior the higher action is the one that's more Godly it's more Godly when it's he acting through me when it's voluntary has a great deal of me in it so that's going to make it inferior okay that makes it inferior but says the N Shalom if you imagine a person whose whole life is doing obligatory mitzvos there's a dimension of his relationship to God that's missing at least it's not expressed it might not be missing it might be there but it's not expressed directly and that is doing out of love because doing out of love precisely wants to do even that which is not obligatory doesn't mean you couldn't do the obligatory ones out of love you can but love wants to volunteer love wants to go beyond what's specifically required and serving a out of love is the highest level of service and like the r writes in chapter 28 of the path of the just where he says the highest level of serving kbu is out of a desire to give pleasure whatever that means which would mean whether I'm obligated or not if I know that he'll be pleased with it I want to do it because he'll be pleased with it you show that motivation specifically when you do things that aren't obligatory again I said you show it I didn't say you didn't have it for obligatory ones you could have the motivation but you don't show it so what does Joy do if I serve out of sim what I'm showing is how important it is to me it's important to show that that's why if I do even the obligatory ones with joy I'm using the obligatory ones to show that and showing that is very important so now I have said I'm trying to bring down the flow from Aus to the other worlds and the critics come and say who are you who are you you're trying to do this gigantic foundation of the whole creation you're you're not worthy of it you're full of transgressions failures if I can show that there's at least part of me an element in me that serves with joy then I could show that serving with is something which is very precious to me yes there are failures it's true there are failures I'm not perfect I do things that are wrong that's because other things get in the way and I don't manage them in the in appropriate way but it's also true about me that serving is very precious to me and then can say to the critic you're right he's not perfect you're right he does fail in certain ways but look there's part of him for whom this is the Precious part of his life that makes him worthy of of uh of saying and bringing down the flow from the top all the way to the bottom I'll give you another analogy to this we said when we spoke we spoke about the shma love is broken with all your heart and with all your soul with all your heart we said meant when you're living your life when you're making your decisions what to do and how to do it think to yourself what does good want all your soul means that even if you have to die because the enemy is saying to you worship the idol or I'll kill you you have to be willing to die and we said that those two requirements are not redundant because different people could could have one or not the other in both directions you can have people who on an everyday basis are focused on and they make their decisions in terms of what wants but when the guy with the gun puts a gun to the Head they just go to pieces and they say but I can't die I know I'm supposed to but I die that that far I can't go I just can't do it and it happens vice versa also here's something which you might not expect but we know it from Jewish history where a person when it comes to the two for one sale in McDonald's for the BAC and cheeseburgers says kosher kosher yeah I really I really should I want to keep kosher yeah next week when there isn't the two for one sale because with the two for one sale you know I just can't resist that you know or scuba diving on Shabbat and so and so on but when the non-jew comes and says bow to the idol he says that I don't do I don't bow to Idol no absolutely not yeah sometimes I slip up with shabas I slip up with K but bowing to Idol absolutely not you can kill me I don't bow to an idol so he will fulfill loving God with all his soul even though he doesn't consistently fulfill loving God with with his whole heart now how is good br going to look at that person look he has problems with shabas has problems with kosas but he died for me he died for me when it says that a person dies Alem he goes to the highest position in the after World it doesn't say only if he didn't have other transgressions the ability to give up your life is a gigantic ability so there you see that treats this person with the highest level of accomplishment even though he has these failures which accompany him and which weren't which weren't perfect so the same thing could be true for for Joy Joy can qualify a person for tremendous Divine recognition even if even if not everything he did was was perfect and then when the when the accusers come he can say but look I do serve with joy at least sometimes yes I do transgressions you can't say that I was serving Hashem with joy when I did a transgression I wasn't serving him at all I was rebelling against him but there are times when I serve him with love and that could serve the same purpose of cutting off the critics and preserving the the authority and the I don't want to use the word authenticity because it is thankfully in ill repute now turns out that all the psychology that was talking about authenticity has been refuted by poor definition and and and no statistical basis let's not talk about being true to yourself in Shakespeare terms um but in the fact that it's a it's it's a it's a genuine part of your character to be able to serve a c bral with joy that in itself could Silence the Critics and preserve our uh the appropriateness of our um being able to address AOS and bring the the shefer down yeah just where is that Joy expressed or how do we express that joy into structure it's not in the T structure on let me like like an idea that we should no no no no no no no no no let me let me go back through the the reasoning because it it's the opposite it's an alternative the question was like this in we're addressing a the very highest level we're bringing down the says that excites the critics you know it's like with say um when a person puts himself in danger then the med that attribute of strict Justice says so what we going to do we're going to save him from danger that's a big deal saving from is he worthy of it because he put himself in danger he He makes himself uh liable to a very strict examination of the way in which he's been behaving okay so I'm I'm reading the ram saying a simple thing about you said the same critics who will criticize your your viability and and look for your vulnerability when you put yourself in danger are going to do it when you you D who are you to do that so that's when the critics come in and I have to protect myself against their critique tlin is one way to protect myself against their critique they're going to say that I have failures I say I do have failures and I regret them and I feel terrible about them I'm pleading with the to save me from from them that's how I say to the to the to the critics yes I'm aware of my failures and I'm doing chba for them and I'm hasing for the question arises then if I don't have t to protect myself with what do I protect myself with and the answer I'm suggesting is that since what relieves us of Tak is is Joy sometimes we say h and some but it's it's Joy maybe feeling the Sim also protects us in a different way from from the from the critics so it's not that the is done with joy it's that without the we don't say the because we have joy and joy can protect us from the critics critics in its own way that's the suggestion that I'm making okay so you see that what you asked is not is not is not in the in the I see I see but I just wanted to like perhaps also it could be said in C with certain Joy like to to to acknowledge where we were I think that's right applies to all service of hem and that would include saying but it's not the joy in the that does the cutting off it's the sadness and the and the and the honesty and the feeling of guilt and regret and so that's what's doing the cutting off right in the other cases did you have a question did you hand go no okay okay now um all right we have some time let's take a look at B this puzzled me for a long time this is Page 139 we open the ark we're going to take out the Torah we take out the Torah for reading the Tor let's see what this quotation from the Zohar at the bottom of page 139 says blessed is the name of the master of the universe blessed is your crown and your place may your favor remain with your people Israel forever may you display the salvation of your right hand to your people in your Holy Temple benefit us with the goodness of your luminous luminescence that means shedding of light and to accept our prayers with Mercy may it be your will that you extend our lives with goodness that I be numbered among the righteous that you that you have mercy on me and protect me all that is mine and that is your people Israel's looks to me what bels to Jewish people it is you who nourish nourishes okay third person I would have written you who nourish not nourishes you a second person all a stains all you control everything it is you who controls Kings kingship is yours I am a servant of the Holy One Blessed Be he prostrate myself before him before the glory of his Torah at all times not in any man do I trust put my trust nor in any Angel do I Rely only on the god of Heaven who was the god of Truth God is whose ter is truth who prophets of true and who is generously who acts generously with kindness with truth in him do I trust to his glorious and holy name do I declare Praises May It Be Your Will oh you open my heart to the Torah that you fulfill wishes of my heart and the heart of your entire People Israel for good for life and for peace that's a very long paragraph why is that the paragraph that we say before we take the Torah out to read it does mention Torah two words in the last lines awful lot there that has nothing to do with Torah Torah study Torah practice reading the Torah and I couldn't understand how this was preparing me to hear the Torah read um in either of it's guyses reading the Torah I should mention this to you when you read the Torah there's a difference of opinion what you should do should you stand or sit I don't know what you do here in the Yesa maybe they haven't discussed it with you maybe the sh doesn't have a practice one way or the other if you sit is because it's a it's a a little bit of T study and sitting is our posture in which we study Torah if you stand it's because of reenactment of Sinai you're it's as if you're you're hearing the 10 10 pronouncements at Sinai there it says that the people stood but I don't see I don't see in the in this quotation from the Zohar a preparation for either of those and then it occurred to me we're saying this because we're opening the ark we're opening the ark which the Torah is residing maybe just opening the ark opens up something which could have a flow for us yes we're going to take the Torah out we are and we're going to read it yes we're going to do that that's true we are going to do that but maybe opening the ark is more than taking the Torah out indeed we ask for the return of the temple and that we should have benefits coming from the temple and the arc holding the seor is a certain link to the idea of the Ark in the holy of holies of the temple which had the tablets in it according to Su it also had a safer Tor in it as well so maybe the image here is interacting with something which represents the power of the temple and from which all these flows come by opening it up and then we take the seor out and we read it so then I think that we should when when you say this that's what you should have in mind should have in mind the idea that this is interacting with a remnant of the temple we spoke we usually speak about this in time in the summer when during when close to Tish that there are two mitzvos of relating to the temple which once was and is now destroyed which will be rebuilt inem I shouldn't say it that way Mar points out I should say it will be built inem in our own time it will be built there's not an will already promised that it will be built um one is remembering the destruction and one is mikash which means I'm I'm explaining which I heard from my that that is to remember and relate to What's Left of the temple still in the world I don't mean the rocks on on harabas I mean there's something of the reality of the temple in the world so that when we have in in the Seder or when we take the little seven seven days which is mikdash it means that we are doing something that is similar to what was done in the mikdash and in that way we are realizing and accessing what's left in the world of the mikdash and it occurs to me that when we say this Bri and we are asking for the rebuilding the temple and we're asking for the the energy that came from the temple which provided certain things for the Jewish people that's because the urin the Orin KES in the in the synagogue is very is s is similar to the the that was in the B mikdash which had the tablets in it and we are interacting with that so this is also a remnant of the temple and therefore we can treat it as something which we can ask for the flow that that came from the temple to be available to us as well so I think that's a a way of thinking about which is which gives us you know a a way to relate to the entire content of it um and not just think of it as opening the to take out the sa Tor to be able to read it um okay I just want to make one more remark and then I'm finish with in the middle 141 the next last paragraph 141 this is people say it quickly and with the safer to being open and they don't really pay attention May the father of compassion have mercy upon the people that is born by him all right amim and may he remember the Covenant of the spiritually Mighty May rescue our souls from the bad times and up braid that means to to criticize and denigrate the evil inclination to leave Those whom he carries so means to carry is p passive meaning those who are carried by him to to criticize and rebuke the AIL inclination to leave alone Those whom he is carrying that's a very very beautiful image When God says to Moses to care for the Jewish people in certain way he says am I their um omain that's like stepmother that I should carry this people and say yes that's what I want you to do right we here because is himself carrying us so we're appealing to his compassion for us on the grounds that he's committed to us we're appealing to him from a position where he's already committed to doing what we're asking for which is the best kind of appeal to make you're carrying us you're protecting us you're moving us from from one position to another position in the way that we have to go and here Along Comes this negative Force which threatens to interrupt the entire entire process from your position of carrying us please protect us that's yeah this word this is I I think this the only place that I know of that this word is used that we are the ones are being carried by him which makes this little paragraph a very poignant very poignant paragraph for me anyway