You've Prayed Shmoneh Esrei - But Did You Ever Understand It? Intro Part #1

Okay, welcome to our uh new series of shirimra step by step. Basically, we're going to go through theraid and the idea is to gain better clarity and understanding of the words that we say when we say amida we're standing in front of a king in front of a king and we have to take it very seriously. So first I want to thank uh our dear friend uh the one who runs the show over here Rabakov Abkhatera for uh strongly encouraging me to give this year. Uh thank you very much Rabakov. This is a beautiful community m very very very important significant place here in Bamesh. Thank you for all the shurim and for all the minyanim everything else. Um even though kkenazi I still feel very much at home in this place. That says a lot. Okay. So let's uh before we actually start explaining the words of Schwaness of Damida, I have a few small but important introductions to make. The first introduction is about what we call uh multitasking. You know multitasking. Multitasking. They ask me if the shear is for ladies. You know ladies, they can listen to shear and cook and clean and I don't know change a diaper all at the same time somehow. So you know they say women can do so many things together. That's very nice. So many things can do. It's a whole list. But when it comes to us, so by the way this should be for the of and the of my father. So when it comes to multitasking is not really recommended. We all know about the concept of which is in you do one mitzvah you're exempt from doing the other mitzvah but it's not just that it's more than that even mentally when you're mentally involved with one mitzvah you should not do another mitzvah that's something more interesting it has a few ramifications a few for example yeah the the there talk about who's about to uh to marry a girl who was never married before. He's from Katchma. He doesn't have to say Kratchma. Why? Because mentally he's very busy with a mitzvah that he's about to perform. First time in his life is a good from kid. He doesn't know about women things like that and how to to perform the mitzvah. is always scary and it bothers him and that's why although today doesn't apply for various reasons but this young nice is from to that extent why because if you're involved with creat you have to be all there and if you're involved with preparing yourself for uh uh for the mitzvah of the night with your wife then you have to be all there you're not supposed to mentally be dancing around all over the place and in today's world That's uh very very hard. We have the phone and we have different commitments and we all wear so many hats together plus all the nonsense that's all over us with the media as much as we try to stay away from it. So it's very very hard today to focus and be in that situation of mitzvah one of the most prominent messages I think we can get from that's in the first tells go up to me to the mountain and be there and I'll give you the tablets of stone two words seems to stick out. Hashem is telling, "Go up to the mountain and I'll give you the Okay, go up to the mountain." Okay, take the box up the mountain. I'll give you I'll give you the Okay. Why does it say be there? What do you mean be there? Of course, he'll be there. Yeah. I'm telling you, come to my house and be there and then I'll give you a document. Come to my office. Yeah. Be there and then what? and then I'll I'll I'll serve you a cup of coffee. Of course, he'll be there. If he'll be in the mountain, he's not going to be in the space station of NASA in in right in in Houston. What do you mean be there? So, I know this the sources from earlier sources, but um I know the one who I've heard it from is Ramosha Weinberger in a recording, the the leader of very important community kodes in America. He said, "Be there." When you receive the Torah, you have to be fully mentally there. Yeah. You're doing yourem. You're doing you have to be fully concentrated, fully present, fully focused in what you do. And this is where we got the message in. And this is a message that we're supposed to have throughout the year. We dive into Hashem. We pray to Hashem. Be there with your entire entity. be there. You're learning Torah. Stop all the bad thoughts and all the foreign thoughts. Even thoughts of mitzvah. You're learning the so don't think about the mitzvah doing. A person who learns Torah is not supposed to be doing at the same time, right? Turn off your phone when you learn. Definitely turn off your phone when you d when you pray. Yeah, I'm saying this to myself, too. So, it's an aod. The avoda is to really be there when we say the question is how do we get there? I don't have all the answers. One thing is for sure, if we understand what we say, if we understand the words of that we say, then it's going then it's much going to be much easier for us to concentrate. Yeah. If I'll give you a text in uh I don't know Chinese. Any Chinese speakers around? No. No. Really? You don't speak Chinese? No. Really? That's Oh, I thought you're educated people. So, if I give you a text in Chinese, even if you manage to read it, it's transliterated. You won't concentrate. You don't know what you're saying. that is not Chinese to us. But the more we do understand with the less Chinese, the more connected, more we just understand the words, the better we'll be able to have, the better we'll be able to be focused because we'll just be all there because the words seem so much more familiar and sweeter and hopefully we'll give some nice explanations to the words and hopefully they will help us concentrate on the besides the actual importance of just knowing what we're saying obviously. So another small introduction is uh we are jumping straight to manestra. What do you mean? Yeah I saw this notice. Yeah that was posted by by the sh. Yeah manra. Excuse me. You start your day withestra. We one of these Mr. T people you know fill in on the way to work and a quick what happened to everything else before? Why is it monestra that we're concentrating about? So first of all it was uh uh uh that was the idea of of uh the organizers of the shir but I support the idea I support the idea of learning about the before anything else and I'll tell you why when you learn anywhere in in the world of Torah all the way from the Mishna for example the all the way to whenever the word is mentioned it refers to although we or daving or prayer. And we mean the whole more or less 40 45 minutes of speaking and actually means the Yeah. And we have a very interesting um idea about why we say the zimra at all. Who said you have to sayuk zimra? It's not written in the Torah. It's not where is it coming from to say all these beautiful psalms with theim with well guess what the whole idea of according to the ro I'm happy I found that piece of ro because I always kind of knew about it but I I now found it the says in he says about the says you're supposed to say yeah in other words you're supposed to be in a state and mental state an emotional state of of not of you know reading watching a comedy a real mitzvah of connection to Hashem and then you jump from that mindset straight into so says I'm quoting the now that's the one and only reason the is a major he's one of the we all know one of the main columns Why? What is because your father told you when you'll be clearly is the the climax the the summit of the the the the mountaintop of the of the event of Shakar and and and Min is also ash and we'll go speak about the other as well the we have to reach Monra in the state of and that's why you Rashi there talks about the other as well. He says about says about why do we say why do we say why don't you jump straight into the right just go to why do you say before says same idea he says he says in the morning we say the arrive after the last thing we say before is gula then makes us happy. Hashem saved us from its rhyme. We are happy before before because we just said the and at night it brings down that's better for its people. Right. I never said it in my life. Even when said don't say it. Yeah. But when we are in the state of the after you say this that keeps you happy and it's Israel it's also and then there is andu okay so that's the idea and that by the way teaches us something else which I'd like to share with people since we already have here the I have the soap box I'm going to stand in soap box and this is something I'm saying this to myself as well as to other people obviously when you come to shul and I just heard it one of When you come to sh you come to don't run to last second as much as you can. If davening is let's say 3:15 in the afternoon your minan in the morning starts 7:00 don't come you know 7:00 you know penting and just starting be there a little bit before to get ready to be ready on time shak is harder but whatever the different times are hard for other people the idea is when you have a meeting with Donald Trump you're not going to come to the white house to the oval room the last second hey Donald I'm sorry you know my wife couldn't manage with the kids you won't do that so when you meet with Hashem, you got to go, you know, be there. Hey, be there a few minutes before and then start. Okay, one more introduction and that's one second. Um, yeah. Okay. I don't know if I'll have much time to elaborate more. I want to now stress the difference between and clarify a few points. I want to ask you a question. Let's say a person is in such a situation. He's very sick. He's in a captive in the kamas tunnels. He only has enough time or energy or permission to say one thing. Either kachma or what would you do? It's morning and they only allow him, you know, they stick a gun to his head. They allow him some kind of religious freedom. He can only say either kachma or what would you choose? >> You say and you say I also say I think so. Schma is the right if you don't say time it's okay had relations with a married woman we don't want that yeah right is very very important I agree you're right by the way all men women would be the other way around women everywhere yeah so since we're all male in this room uh so for men it's I'm not a but that's as far as I know so so who's more important we say that the is really preparing us forestra andra is the height of the so is kachma more or less yeah because we do see the halot that tell us thatra is more important for example question number two oh that's a nice quiz over here yeah I gave two quizzes recently to children I'm going to the adults h let's say you are home and you're sick not terribly sick and bed bound like slloy schlloy sloggy you don't have to get dressed yeah you you're in your pajama looking like uh like a sad clown and you don't really have coyak to to to you know dress up for the event and all you have to say again for whichever reasons is either kachma or which one do you have to make an effort and dress like a mench better be with a tie if you can and a jacket and your hat or whatever is it more important to be dressed up for creat I'm confused is more important oh so I assume Some of you or all of you know the answer. When we say let me say it in one strong sentence when we say which is definely very important. It's a that everyone is born with and dies with and all the all very nice we talk about Hashem in we talk to Hashem. That's a difference. Yeah. I'm talking to myself. I talk to other Jews. We talk to human beings at this level. We're not facing hem face to face. We actually are facing. We are I'm not making it up. Yeah. Is telling us you're now standing in front of the king. To go a little bit deeper and that by the way before we go to bit deeper point that's why we're heard learning about the of is very important. It's to have in the first but you're mash mash talking to Hashem. You don't your thoughts to fly to other places although it's hard because you're talking to the king and he knows everything you think and this is just in front of Hashem always knows what you think I know but when you talk to him face to face the situation is a much more of a heightened level of closeness of intimacy and of ya and therefore this face to face has to be much more intense speaking in more a little bit cababalistic terms but it's not a deep kabalo it's a basic concept that are mentioned in many and his forum including which is init. We have four worlds. Yeah, we believe there are four worlds. You have I'm not going to details now. Is the highest world comes from the word is noble and heightened. the people were with Hashem in Harai the highest people Mosha's friends is the highest world in that's a world where himself resides and nobody else by the way this is called because means this is a place of connection where the when the hand when the arm begins to kind of separate from the torso is called just like is up here and then the world become starts descending and being created And that's why then there is it's a thicker creation but it's still spiritual is even more precise creation. And is this worlds world of is the world the physical world the table the paper we see now in it's the other way around meaning we start with we start from the bottom up. We start from which is a physical thing. You describe the way the sheh the animal and the blood is spritzed on that's very spiritual but very physical I'm walking I'm talking yeah that's then is higher it's the world of that's why we say the main part of is talking about the unity of hem and a lot about the malim the kadusha right the first but then we get to We face the face to face. Nobody else is there. When we say we are in a place higher than when the world of the world which is the highest world possible and this is where we are and we better be ready cuz it's kind of scary. We are in this very you know heightened situation and we got to know what we're saying. End of introduction. Um before I start the real now we start the real deal in a way we're going to theem go through the braot of the before we continue I have uh I don't have it printed here a bit of a disclaimer yeah a bit of or or kind of uh uh understand what style of shar it's going to be cuz I've been through a few shim about filah I'm going to tell you what the shir is not that first of all the shir is not a halashir Yeah. Not only because also it's not the top point here. Yeah. I'm not going to teachot. I'm also not going to explain reasons and logic. Why do we bend down or why do we do that winter summer? That's not the issue. I'm only going to yeah basically explain the words. Secondly, I'm going to keep it short. Meaning, so I believe in you know things being short and sweet. So almost always I'm not going to offer two or three or four explanations. I think it's confusing. I believe you are you know big enough and educated enough to also open up the safer on your own. Yeah. But my idea is to give one workable shot for each uh sentence and and then we continue. Yeah. And thirdly because I know some people really like gimatriot and pilim personally gimat are very holy and they're very true. I'm not a mathematical person those who know me uh there won't be much gimatri or you know this connects with the giml here in the yud there it's just not kind of because it's given by katal that's not going to be so are you still sitting ah you didn't run away oh wow okay fine we're in a good place what I'm trying to do is very meat and potato kind of thing to just have good workable and I'm sure there'll be a lot of kadushim on the way h I will mention the sources almost always if I remember if I see from the The source for this, the first of is most of it is Abu Dham. That's an early important source. Yeah. The not all of it. We're going to have some of and even later we're going to have a bit of a of a mix of different things, but mainly I want to I always like to go to the rather than to some modern day. This is a puk that we begin with right before we even start who says open my lips and my mouth will say your praise. So says I opened up the tim and I wanted to know you know what's the source don't tell me all kinds of you know modernday nice ideas. What does it really mean? What do the mafim the original of the of the nave of the excuse me theim what do they explain? So I'm sure you guys know cuz I think Fardim said it more often than right. This peric is said more often. Yeah, it's a that's a per is doing very very intense about his withva. He can't spell it out more than that. Right? when he sinned with and that parrot is all about very strong right strong words of chuva does not give himself any reductions or any breaks he really goes hard into and that's when the appears bang in the middle of that per why says the rad says he says says, "Hashem, open my mouth." Why? Because I sinned. You took away my I want you to give me back. Yeah. And then my mouth automatically will sing your praise. Open my In other words, I want to have divine help to open my mouth because unfortunately I sinned. We come to Hashem and we have the audacity to talk to Hashem. Who do you think you are? You spoke. You spoke maybe not a minute ago. So a year ago, you spoke. You spokey the whole day. And now you're coming to talk to Hashem. Hello. Why? We need some kind of, you know, evening out over here. Yeah. We need to even things out and and clean clean, you know, kind of clean the matter, you know, uh, close some deals here before you go on. And that's exactly what this puk is about. Open my mouth and feel ashamed. And actually I saw in one of the letters for him he says you have to for a second for the badim that you had. Yeah. Then say open my mouth because otherwise my mouth is so inept for and then my mouth will automatically Yeah. Then I have what to tell you. I want to say your praise. You clean my mouth. You open my mouth because I don't deserve to have my mouth open. Then it's my part and I'll do my job. Then we say, "Oh, let's go." I'm not going to talk about is the source of Yeah, that's what many say. You're the source of all blessings. You, Hashem. We're going to talk later about the names of Hashem, but I want to get into things more into the sentences. A connection to hem is a locu our but we don't really have any right to talk to hem only of the in other words you talk to I used to go fundraising all around the world you know a lot of you know about that so uh you know excuse the word for many people that's a littleer coming from Israel and there's a big ve in a big community I'm not going to mention which communities yeah and you come to him and inexperienced uh uh fundraiser and uh you're kind of trembling and you know they're not always so and you know they see a lot of they don't always have the time and the and and and the uh mental capacity for everybody. So the best thing that can happen to to a fundraiser is what to have an inn. Right? In other words, if you know that this uh big ve that millionaire who lives in wherever happens to be your grandfather's first cousin's friend, oh you have some connection. Yeah, you can call him that. You know, I am the grandson of so and so. There's an inn, right? You have a way to go. That's what we do with Hashem. Of course, Hashem loves us and Hashem wants to fill out. Hem is not that tough gir over there. But Hashem also wants us to have difference. Hashem wants us to have and we have to come to Hashem and say you are our God. But you know, we're looking for protectia. You are the god of our fathers. And as the Abu Dhabi himself says later, we have this hoot from the fathers. We're coming here holding the card of I am not the greatest guy in the world. But you know what? I'm the grandson. I'm the descendant of Abraov. That already makes it better. That's already an in to Hashem to know. It's not ours. It's of the forefathers. If not forem, it's for us to know. But then we repeat ourselves. We said the last time I checked, I think no says only three people are called a vote. Yeah. around there. So why do we say again? Why we know the fathers of every child knows that Hashem doesn't know that. So the answer is that each and every one of them. Yeah. Is Elohim is a guide. Elohim is we'll talk about later. is the one that guides the world and he gave guidance and to each and every one of the in a completely different way. Abraham had one mid had a different one and Abraham was a mid of was and was no much time to elaborate but we know that Abraham was he he was the first boom of spirituality in the world of spreading and monotheism that's is starting the big thing the big bang the big boom that's then came and minimized it. Did not leave home. It was blind. Khak wasn't into starting new projects. Khak was not so much into Kiru. Its was one who reestablished and redug his father's wells. He's into maintaining and constricting and making it a more constructed way of the of it's constricting which is very very important. And what's beauty? What's beauty? something beautiful is something that has proportion. You can have a person with a very very nice nose. But if his nose is three times larger than his face, then his nose is conceptually very nice if you focused on the nose. But if it's three times bigger than the rest of the face, it's not proportional. Then it's not nice anymore. Yakov was the one who was the master artist of combining exactly and we're going to talk about it later. So remember that one. He knew how much to do and how much was the dollar a chef. A chef in the kitchen should knows exactly how much salt and how much pepper and how many eggs and how much Yakov was the one and that's why was a perfect one. He was what's perfect. He was the one who had 12 children all under there. Ah, we all wish for that, right? Yeah. He was the one who was the perfect one. He was a real father. It says he was a chosen one from all three. Now akadosh was elohim for each and everyone separately and we can feel the same. We can tell hem you can give us guidance as orret we can always fit into any of these boxes and all three of them together and we are guided by hem. Then we mention another name. I'd love to talk about the name but I'll have to change things around because of uh lack of time. We're going to talk about it next time. I want to talk about because is exactly equivalent to what to parallel to what's gd great hashem you are the greatest one you are style was gd what's gdal expansive expansive with an a not with an e yeah it's something that expands it's big you are you started everything you're great you're above everything just like had no limit he was mar everybody and everything and four four uh uh doors to his tent. A ra was endless. It was all over the place. Yeah. And that was Abraham and that's Hashem being gd great. Gibbo is strong. Strength is something more. It's something that is already creating something more constricted. You are giore. You are creating things through is like muscles. You need the muscles to actually take that power and build something more specific. I'm actually touching now on the Buddha also although he says something else. Now this is a real gem. I don't remember where I saw this idea but this is a real nice idea. Uh we still have some time. What's nor means what? Awesome in simple language. Yeah is a woah is awesome. Yeah it's a breathtaking awesome. Why is by our calculation if is right is everyone knows is one to stand to to lie on the on he he kept himself he held himself hem is holding the world that's but why is he is is everything why is a combination so let me tell you something. You're going to think I'm laughing. I'm joking. I like to joke a lot in Mashure. I'm just sure I don't manage to do. Yeah. So, let me ask you a question. Um, why is it that American people when uh, you know, I teach in yeshiva for boys who are like very nice boys that like to talk in a modern way. Why why do the boys say that the ice cream tastes awesome? Awesome. Like they have awe from the ice cream. Why do they say it's an awesome basketball game? There is a reason for it. You can say it's stupid, but there's a reason for it. Every human behavior has a reason. You know why? When something is very very good and amazing and stunning. It creates a feeling of awe. I would not allege it to the ice cream or the basketball personally, but although I like ice cream, yeah, but I'm not allowed. The point is, what's awe? When do you feel awe from Hashem? When you feel awe from anything, awe is like I'm standing back and I'm seeing that one power and another power are combined in a perfect way. I'll give you a mush. When I was a child, I studied music and my mother took me to a classical uh concert music. Yeah. I don't remember which uh which composer. I don't remember the composers anymore. I think it was Debc, a French composer. And I and I remember the the I remember the the concert went there was like a few instruments playing at the beginning then other ones at the other time and then at the end all the different instruments and all different uh uh themes were all combined together in amazing way like a climax. That's awesome because now you realize there's one very very smart composer who's in charge of everything. When you see a kadosh who's g he has a lot of and you see that he's also gi and but then you see the the greatness and the combined you say wow all the colors all the music everything is combined just the right way that creates a feeling of awe that's why no in modern slang in Hebrew you say nor right you speak Hebrew yeah means terribly nice what do you mean it's norah it creates a sense of wow That's the Buddha Raham says similarly but different. I was so happy to see this Abu Raham. I have to thank you for me learning much more about over here. The the says that is that we're also now we are relating to three worlds. Hashem is greater than all the angels. What a world absolutely high up there which we can't uh uh contemplate. His gdole is the greatest one of the greater highest spheres. Gibbon is below that. Aama Galgalim, the world of Galgalim is the world that kind of from high above. Hashem is turning the wheels spiritually in order to create our world. It's a connection between the upper world and the lower world. And that's Gibbo. What's Gibbo? The guy who moves things around. Yeah. You want you want to you want to set your house, you know, move around big tables, get a handyman. He has to be Gibbor, right? Gibbor is the being in action. He's greatest above all. He is meaning he's one who's turning into action. And then says he does all the us in this lowly world. We see wow we are the recipients of that gadlut and that va we are wowed by his actions that's from our side we are from hashem when we see the body we see the birds we see the the creation we see the fish we see the animals we see hashem's works we are we feel from that's and it says after we mention all three levels of the world rememberem is the one that in each and on each and every level, Hashem is the master of each and every stage. Um, okay, I would stop here way uh next week. I hope to do a few things, maybe continue the recording for just one more minute. So, we're going next week to we're done with introductions. We're going to finish this. Yeah. And go into Yeah. Hopefully. But then we're going to have and we're also going to explain the connection between the first three. It's another point. There's a connection between all three. There's also connection between them that next time. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you for recording. I appreciate it very very much. Go really added to the level of the sh. Thank you very much for coming. This column