Series on Prayer (Part 1) with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] good morning everybody this is the first introduction introductory session of our executive learning program and we're going to mostly be dealing with prayer and mainly in the mornings we'll deal with a very short verse and become more familiar with the prayers but I wanted to give an overall a bird's-eye view and then a very in-depth teaching about a lot about prayer so if we notice in Psalm 109 verse 4 King David said I need Fila that is for me my life is all prayer and we know in the gomorrah that the stages said alibi if only i would be praying all day long so we really want to know what it means prayer what does it feel a mean because even to translate it this prayer it's not there's not the best translation so i brought here the first quote is from the Rambam in parshat bow where he discusses prayer and the purpose of all the commandments is that we believe in our God and be thankful to him for having created us for we know no other reason for the first creation meaning man there was a few things that we discussed earlier and that is that land named her fourth child yehuda which is based on gratitude and being thankful to a Shem for having received much more than she expected and that is why the Jew is called you da UD Jews based on Judah because we are walking gratitude creatures we are creatures who are to me full of gratitude and God the Most High has no demand on the lower creatures excepting one thing that man should know be thankful to God for having created him so it's a full our mission in life we should be constantly in a state of gratitude or prayer a will think we'll see what the definition of prayer really is the purpose of raising our voices in prayer you must ask why do we even have to raise our voices at all it doesn't God know what we think and what but what's on our heart and of the service and the synagogue's why do we have to go to a synagogue to pray what's so important as well as the merit of public prayer it's precisely this the people should have a place wherein they assemble and express their thankfulness to God for having created them and supported them and thus proclaim and stayed before him we are your creatures so what I decided was the first thing to bring was the introduction the overview of prayer from the art-school daily prayer book and what every time he brings some type of a source I wanted to go more in depth so we'll try to go through a little bit and then work backwards and downwards meeting in depth first of all we translated to feliz prayer but it's not really a great translation but we'll get a better understanding as we go along when we think of the word prayer we think of our needs and requests and a litany of endless heal me enlighten me and rich me redeem me glorify me forgive me as if it's all about me perhaps our concept of prayer has been all wrong as children we would ask God to grant our wishes just as we asked our parents take us places Tobias toys please father take me here mother please buy me that please God give me this rather than full to the modern trap with insisting that man can control so much of his life and environment that he'd be not pranked let us examine what prayer really is and always was when we are done we will realize that the commandment to pray is no less binding today than ever and that our need for its benefits is perhaps greater than ever now what is the word for a human being as a synonym for human being the mission bava kamma uses the word mother that is a very unfamiliar word in the Tomlin and is derived from the root word that I am hey which means to pray so I could be recap like we said if you look in Bubba , the Mishnah it talks about four primary damages that what these are very relevant today even though it sounds like it's not because who has an ox today but we do drive in cars and we do get in accidents and we do walk down the road with carriages or carts and perhaps perhaps it fits into one of these categories so the four primary damages the Mishnah tells us is the Ox depict the mother which is not defined it's just a little explained this Martha which we will define according to one opinion as the human being and fire how they air okay so just to recap on what the mission is actually discussing is that there is a difference between what an ox does damage as a human being due to damage and one of the main differences is that the Ox if you own the ox and the ox Clause is damage to somebody the only thing you're obligated to pay is for the nesic for the actual damage itself but if the human being does the damage not through an intermediary so the we've learned the Gomorrah without anything in the in the oral torah that one has to pay not only the actual damage but SAR the pain the physical pain suffered by the damaged party refoy the medical cost seventh unemployment and dosha humiliation okay so we're not going to go into depth at this point but if you do want to understand a little better the difference between if you're looking do in leviticus twenty four nineteen it does say are there if a man puts up lemma SH in his stove the words a man are superfluous and that's what we learn out before different types of damages that a person must pay in addition than if it was just an ox to do damage okay so the next thing that the the next thing that the art scroll goes into is like this in other words the Talmud defines man as a creature that preys furthermore the Tama teaches that in Efes the life sustaining soul is synonymous with prayer and now we're going to go into Braavos 5b a little bit deeper to get into that will you just finish the paragraph strange such definitions of peer fitting for intensely spiritual observant people but but it's someone whose observance is just casual even a non-believer the Tom Lutz teaching applies even to such people because if that's who we are if we are prayer it's irrelevant if you're observant or not it's a it's relevant to whether you believe in God or not and it's irrelevant whether you go to synagogue to pray enough the tablets teaching applies even to such people how then is prayer so central to their lives so let's go to Gomorrah Bravo 5b and then you can find an associate on number 8 so there's a story about a bourbon yeoman and he mentions that his two people walk into a big Knesset to pray and one of them let's say finishes first and the second one does not wait for his friend to finish and he goes and he leads the Beit Knesset and the friend remains there alone the Gomorrah says tor Fein low to fill out table Thun of that his prayer is either ripped up or passed over we'll have to discuss what that means it's torn up for him before God we don't know who was it the person who left or was it the person he left but it's not accepted to Hashem and then the Gomorrah goes and brings a proof because of the morass as it always does from where do you know such a truth so in job 18 for it says to--if knife shall be a PO one who destroys his soul in his anger will unhurt Asaf Eretz shall the earth be abandoned for your sake so there's ad Russia there's expect expounded this verses expounded regarding teaching us about a man who would leave his friend alone in a shul and a bacon essence and this verse is speaking about him that he is causing himself to ruin or to uproot or to tear apart his soul but his soul were talking about his prayer his prayer and the Sorcerer's are synonymous now would you think that on account of just leaving ashore and leaving a friend that the Shema that the divine presence should leave there just because he left his friend alone praying and not only that the gomorrah says yeah sure other than going in the swedish colleague mr. alan not just that it's causing the screen up to remove from the situation of the two friends but even from all of israel as the verse in deuteronomy 32 I'm sorry it's the continuation of the same verse in job 18 for the outtakes or in the Como and shall the rock be removed from his place what is the rock sore we all know what a rock is d rock with the capital r and that is our rock and that is part of who the Holy One blessed be he ain't sort elephants borrow who and how do we know that look at Deuteronomy 32 18 where it says sore you'd love to cut Esci you forgot the mighty rock the rock sore who bore you and the pus it goes on you're forgotten God to deliver you meaning from this story right we understand the action fear causes a cottage bar of who to be removed from his place of the world and he will not dwell any longer with Israel now we will go into the depth of what this means shortly so let me just finish the Gemara so if that man would have finished his prayer first and still waited for his friend so then and he would have not left the beit knesset digger morass what reward mas sorrow what would he word is there for him and comes Rubio see the son of Rebbe Haneen any answers whoa zocalo brokest hallelu he will merit the blessings that it says in isaiah 40:8 that's chapter 48 verses 18 and 19 which it which says had you hearken to my Commandments your peace would be as a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea and your seed would be like the sand and those emanating from your innards would be like the in its innards his name shall never need to be cut off or destroyed from before me so we understand that if the person would have waited the word Hashem it means to wait that's it some that is in the verse you never fool a hawk Shevek limit salute I too would have waited not just hearkened but waited for my commandments won't understand what does it mean my commandments the commandments means connected not just connected to god these are 613 opportunities to connect with God but all of Israel is one I don't know if you see already what's happening if the person is separating himself from his friend as he departs from his friend in not such a nice way that there is some type of a Peru a separation as opposed to mitzvot which means connected because I commanded God commanded us to do Hassen he commanded us to imitate him and follow in his ways and he is full of tested like the Torah is full of custard from its beginning to its end God created man naked and God clothed so to clothe the poor to clothe the naked that's how the tour begins and at the very end God who buried Moses nobody even knows where he's buried the God buried Moses to bury a human being obviously if he's dead so that what greater hazard what greater kindness can one do than to follow what the Torah dolly describes in the beginning but at the end and the truth is everything in between the Torah is a manual on how we are supposed to live our lives and imitate God meaning that a man is a going mail people how their own asset he should grant and bestow kindness to his friend by waiting for him and by waiting friend he will merit to the blessings we just mentioned now that's the Gomorrah but I have quite a few interesting comments and there should be a lot of questions that we bring up ourselves first of all which prayers are we referring to so the first comment mentions that there's an opinion this is really only talking about Mary's evening prayer and one should not leave his friend alone now why is that because at night there's no reason to be worried about danger also the way the shools used to be set up was they were not in the cities they were in the fields and there's more danger walking out alone in the fields at night but there's varied opinions that still a nice thing to do even in the city where there are plenty of people or plenty of walkers by and we're actually going to discuss what does it mean to have damage now these are called in Hebrew mazikeen it means damages we are going to end up talking about not just thieves and bullies but we're going to talk about angels and demons which might spook a few people here so we hope that you understand that we're talking on Megan levels so he goes on to say the comment is written in the name of the riff it seems through his words that as we just said it's only in the evening that there's any worry about or concern about danger that we're worried the close of the think Mizuki again we're not gonna loosely translated that as damages who are more commonly found at night if you look in the book the Tommy day ribbon Ayana who close in the neighborhood Romania and I know that this was only a custom in their days because they're big kinesio they're their synagogues were found outside of the city but because of that you would be more concerned about leaving your friend alone because of the possibility of putting him in danger because of these damages that are more likely found there than in the city however toss those he writes that are made the name of robbing of time he says and he says that she thinks ahead knowing the Vaticanus to tell hem gamba she'll tell that the truth is this also applies during the day and only the big kinesio of hours that are now found in the city does you not to worry so much however at night one should still wait around even in the cities for his for his friend and now the read that's one of the pollito suppose he was accustomed to delay or say hang around after his - fela even during the day and wait for people he wanted to make sure he was the last one out and not leave anybody behind let's go to the next okay now there is an opinion who says it because also the ring Chautala Montana ain't no rock Masuka Shosh musica think about in a second there are some people that don't believe in the demons and the dangerous spiritual forces but he claims that these Mazda team are not around anymore even in the fields and they're also certainly not found in this cities even at night but the reason why it's proper for a man to be concerned to wait around and not only this friend alone is because you the other person might not be able to concentrate properly on his own fuel of now we understand a little bit on a more practical level if two people go in and there is a certain fear we're caught all of being in a bit knesset or being in a room all by yourself that it could affect the way you're praying so if you know someone's waiting for you and that someone else is in the room so you'll have a much more loving to say it concentrated prayer but I think that is what I'm saying your prayer won't be all over the place and cut short or foot so you're allowing your friend to have a deeper prayer session by hanging out hanging around I'll read his words there no yokan look have able to feel it to corrode if you leave them alone he won't be able to pray properly the thick application I hopped in low therefore you should wait for him the coma coma theme you know in any place no matter what time offenders mana are your other closures maja she'll have other a few little beyond but in those days it was more people should have worried even during the day because of the the bacon essence was not the city whereas nowadays we're not so even at night okay so that's someone further the Tamaki revenue Jana right at this den this law is a custom even where there are a lot of people ensure that each one enters let's say you know if everyone enters one at a time so it's not like you entered with somebody but you're in the show nowadays become become ultimen I am SHINee's sha acronym so what ends up happening whoever's left last should wait for the other one however if a man does come and I say man I mean a person if the person comes all by himself at a very late hour and you might think well he's obviously knows that he himself is going to be later he's gonna finish his prayer much later than everyone else perhaps you don't have to wait for him I'll just read what he says in Niklaus other nahi Biba shush a new Yahoo the Zionist Philip Tony Maxie were the person walked in late and he knows he's not gonna be able to finish with everyone else in how their hive landing load that other people don't have to wait for him she may after she LaRoche you know your mother science in coulomb after the fact that he walked in and he knows himself he's not able to finish with everyone else so then guess what he reveals it's a revelation to everyone else that he is not interested in you waiting around he knows that he'll be there by himself and he is the type of person who won't have any trouble preying on his own I just read his words ah 50k Nick nas.latif Allah did pala Gila busy doctor shan okashi / a feeling he's not concerned that he'll be left by himself all this makes sense so far anything not making sense furthermore he writes that you have an obligation to wait elet calls much have their I miss Paulo but you should the only time you had to wait anyways while he's praying but if he is going at length with many more requests so there's no obligation to wait some people you notice they pray very long there's certain people you can leave them by themselves they they are that you can see they're in total concentration now the Gomorrah mentioned the word touristy local hotel it would tear up his prayer so in Judaism we said everything is Meeta can- neither a measure for measure God does not send us punishments because he's vengeful he sends us prophetic visions and signs of what we need to do to improve our character and if we are smart enough and the spirits are enough and contemplate and he perhaps you can ask other people what could what could this mean when something negative seems to happen why is this happening to me what was I doing wrong what can I do better its measure for measure God sends the message the mean to improve so he sends what we call punishment but it's not a punishment at all it certainly feels like it so it seems like it but it's not so when we discuss the fact that God is tearing up this person's prayer why and what is going on because he caused his friend to become the word to Ruth it means to tear up and it's like crazy things crazy he made a he caused his friend to tear up his own prayer Schumacher shook Russia's lash after the fact that he was concerned that he was gonna be left alone in the big Knesset and he's not going to be able to concentrate properly therefore the result is that his prayer the person who left early his prayer will be passed over by God torn up good so far he discusses the burden nefesh and we noticed that the Gomorrah explains what the word nephesh which usually means soul his soul would be torn up as we saw in Joe at the best again good said one who destroys his soul you [Music]