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The Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection is the one-stop shop for the Torah inspiration shared by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe in one simple feed. The Jewish Inspiration Podcast, Parsha Review Podcast, Thinking Talmudist Podcast, Living Jewishly Podcast and Unboxing Judaism Podcast all in one convenient place. Enjoy!
00:00 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe from TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Prayer Podcast.
00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back everybody to the Prayer Podcast. It's so wonderful to be here this morning. We're going to talk about the beautiful five verses of Ma Tovu. Ma Tovu, oh Tovu Aholecha Yaakov, and the following verses, four of which are from Scripture, are recited upon entering the synagogue, as though asking permission from Hashem, from God, to enter and pray in His holy place. Let's read it first in Hebrew English, and then we'll go on with explaining it Ma Tovu Aholecha Yaakov, mishkenoshecha Yisrael, in Hebrew English, and then we'll go on with explaining it.
00:51
What good is it for you, jacob, to be a servant of Israel? And I, in your presence, will come to you and I will be with you until your time is up. I loved you, o Lord, and I will be with you, and I will be with you until your time is up, and I will be with you, and I will be with you before the time of my death. How wonderful are your house. I therefore prostrate myself before your holy sanctuary in awe of you alone, hashem. I love the dwelling, your house and the place where your glory resides. I acknowledge and kneel before Hashem, my Maker. I offer my prayer to you, hashem, at this favorable time, god, in the abundance of your loving kindness. Answer me with the assurance of your deliverance. Answer me with the assurance of your deliverance.
02:13
These five beautiful verses are the introduction to prayer. Our sages tell us that Adon Olam, which we'll talk about next week, god willing, adon Olam is the beginning of actual prayer. But Ma Tovu is the introduction to prayer. And the Halacha says that we're supposed to recite the blessing of the Torah before saying Ma Tovu, because Ma Tovu is verses from the Torah. Ma Tovu itself, we know, is from Numbers 24, verse 5. We know is from Numbers 24, verse 5. And our entrance to shul, upon entering, we declare matovu oh, how great is your dwelling, how great is your tent, your dwelling places. We ask permission to stand and pray before Hashem. Sages tell us. Let's understand first before we go to what our sages tell us about this. You know, where did this first verse, ma Tovo O'Lecha, come from? What is the background, what is the history? Let's talk about that for a second.
03:25
So we know that King Balak didn't like the Jewish people. I wonder why this is so uncommon that someone were to unlike the Jewish people. So he hires the greatest prophet. Our sages tell us that Balaam the prophet had greater powers than Moses. He was so powerful and he hires him. He says please, can you curse the Jewish people for me? And every time Balaam tried, it came out as a blessing. He tried, it came out as a blessing.
04:05
What did we just talk about in our Parsha podcast, about how Hashem protects us? I will protect you wherever you go. Imagine the Jewish people are in the desert and somewhere far out there, overlooking a mountain, is Bilaam and Balak looking at the Jewish people, and Balaam sees the Jewish tents, he sees the Jewish homes and he sees something very unique and very special, and that is that the homes of the Jewish people, the doors, are not facing each other, but rather they're staggered. One home has the entrance like this, the other one has the home entrance like that. That way, they're not looking one into the other. Everyone has their privacy, everyone respects the other. And these are the words that get blurted out from Bila Matovu Ohalecho Yaakov, mishkanos Sechi Yisrael. How wonderful are your tents, yaakov, your dwelling places, israel, because you have such a love and a respect for one another. Our sages tell us that this is why we recite this before we pray, because before we approach the Almighty, before we approach God in our prayer, we must first love one another. We cannot approach God in our prayer if we haven't worked out our own dealings with our fellow man. Our sages tell us that some of Balaam's curse still exists and therefore we have to recite this. But listen to this. I want you to understand.
05:56
Last week we talked about the number four, we talked about the four dimensions, we talked about the four elements, we talked about the four realms. The talked about the four realms, the four levels of Torah study, the four sections of Jewish law, the four levels of the soul, the four worlds. Sages tell us that when we leave our home to go to synagogue in the morning, four angels escort us. Angels escort us, four angels Mikhail, gavriel, uriel and Rafal. They escort us to shul. Our sages tell us that we're supposed to put on our tefillin before entering the synagogue. So that way, when we come to the synagogue and we kiss the mezuzah, we have four mitzvahs that take the place of those four angels. We have the tefillin that we place on our hands, the tefillin shel yad. We have the tefillin we place on our heads, between our eyes, we have the talis or the tzitzis that we are wearing and we have the mezuzah that we kiss at the entrance of the synagogue. These four mitzvahs that encircle us replace the four angels that are there to protect us from the curse of Bilaam, and we enter into shul with all four of those, and you know what Hashem does.
07:29
Hashem takes pride in us. Ah, look at my children. They're not rushing to work, they're not rushing to close their next business deal, they're rushing to talk to me. And this is our sages. Tell us, before you walk into the building of the synagogue, don't just rush in. Oh, I'm rushing. I have to pray, take a moment and recognize how privileged you are to talk to God, creator of heaven and earth.
08:00
So we talk about ma tovu o alecha, how great it's, referring to the prayer halls, to the study halls. How great are your dwellings, hashem? Let me ask you a question what makes a building, what makes a home so special? A building glorifying a building, a dwelling, a home, it's special when Hashem resides in it. You know how Hashem resides in it. When we allow Him in, we welcome Hashem into our lives, and that's the blessing that we have. Ma tovu, how great are your dwellings? The shekhinah resides there. The presence of Hashem resides there. That's why it's called mishken Osecha Yisrael. Mishken Osecha means your dwelling, it means your temple, but it also means your Shekhinah. The presence of Hashem resides there. We're opening ourselves to be a vessel for Hashem's Shekhinah. We're opening ourselves to be a dwelling place for the Almighty inside our lives. We begin our day by praising the Jewish people as well Ohalecha Yaakov, the entire Jewish people. Mishkan Osecha Yisrael, we're together, we're united. We're in unison, achtos. We're together with, we're united. We're in unison, achtos. We're together with one another. This is the beauty of how we begin our day.
09:38
In order to bring Hashem in, we need that our interpersonal relationships be in order. They need to be worked out, and we always talk about before connecting to Hashem. We talk about forgiveness. If you remember, in one of our previous classes we talked about that.
10:00
Many have the custom of saying that I accept upon myself the mitzvah of the Ahavta L'Reach, hakamocha, to love every Jew as myself, like the verse tells us in Leviticus. Now I can approach prayer. We say this in the evening as well. We go to sleep at night. What do we say? Hashem, I forgive anyone who may have sinned against me. Now I can say the Shema, you want to connect with Hashem. Make sure your interpersonal relationships are worked out as well. We go to the second verse. So the first verse we know is from Numbers 24, verse 5.
10:41
V'ani b'rovchazdacha ovo b'isecha, eshtacha b'alhecha al kotshecha b'yasecha. As for me, through your abundant loving kindness, that I will enter your home, your house. I therefore prostrate myself before your holy sanctuary in awe of you alone. Our sages tell us that this refers to Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Va'ani brov chazdacha, your loving kindness. Who is the man of loving kindness? Abraham Ovo beisecha, I enter your house. What's your house, Jacob? Jacob, it says he was Yosef Oholim. He was sitting in the house of study. It says that Jacob built a house. Whenever you see the term house, it's referring to Yaakov. And then we know about Yitzchak referring to Yaakov. And then we know about Yitzchak that he represented the trait of awe of Yira. Referring to Isaac. That's Abraham Isaac and Jacob.
12:00
Our sages tell us that we are asking their permission, as they are the founders of our prayer. We're saying in Psalms, chapter 5, verse 8, we add this verse in here, asking permission from our patriarchs, abraham Isaac and Jacob, who founded the morning, afternoon and evening prayers. We're saying we're about to use your weaponry. You know it's called davening. Many people think davening is Yiddish. It's not true. Davening is the weaponry deavuhon in Aramaic. Deavuhon meaning of our ancestors.
12:37
You know what each and every one of our grandmothers did they prayed. You know what got them through. Every single day they prayed and they cried and they shed tears that their grandchildren be sitting and learning Torah right here today. That's the fruition of their prayers. You know what we need to do. We need to make those prayers for our grandchildren. We need to shed those tears for our descendants. We are asking permission from our ancestors to use their weaponry, their weaponry of prayer. We thank Hashem that what your loving kindness that you allow us to pray to you.
13:27
It is a privilege to pray. You know something we can pray to God in any state that we're in, any state of mind, any challenge that we're experiencing, any state of mind, any challenge that we're experiencing. And guess what? It's not only for the saintly, it's not only for the righteous, it's not only oh. This person is holy and pure. They can pray the lowest.
13:57
One of my favorite stories. There was once a man who was going around in the area, a very secular neighborhood, and he was going to learn with people a little Torah, a little Torah he was learning with one individual. He'd come there. The guy's like, listen, I'm not really interested. Not interested. He says just something your Torah, it's your inheritance, it belongs to you. So the individual says fine, I'll give you a few minutes. They start learning a Mishnah and he's intrigued. He says you know what? Next week can you come back again.
14:36
Comes back week after week and this rabbi that's learning with this individual. One week the guy brings out a watermelon. He brings out, cuts up watermelon. He says here, rabbi, something for you. We're learning together. You know he wants to honor the rabbi.
14:54
So the rabbi says okay, now I'm going to recite a blessing. So he says the blessing for the food is ha'adamah, it grows from the ground. We say the blessing of borei pri ha'adamah, something that grows from the ground. So this student of his says, rabbi, that's incorrect. We say a different blessing for that which blessing? Shehakol niyeh b'dvaro, that everything which is a general blessing, that everything that Hashem has created. Which blessing Shehakol Niyabit Varo, that everything which is a general blessing, that everything that Hashem has created through his word.
15:27
So the rabbi doesn't know how to tell it to him. He says explains to him. You know, bread has its blessing, wine has its blessing, things that are pastries, cakes, cookies, that's a different blessing. Things that grow from a tree is another blessing. Things that grow from the ground vegetables a different blessing. And things that are general, like candies and chicken and meat, and things that don't grow from the ground, things, like you know, sugar grows above the ground. All of these things, it's different.
16:05
He says you're wrong. That's the blessing you say on the watermelon. The rabbi doesn't know what to do. He says let's call the rabbi, let's call the community rabbis. They call the community rabbi and they say to the rabbi rabbi, what blessing do you recite on a watermelon? He says borei priyad hama. And it grows from the ground, just like the rabbi said.
16:27
So the student there says and he's again a secular man he says rabbi, you're wrong. So they're going back and forth and he's trying to explain to him there are six different blessings that we recite before we eat food. You know he goes through it and the guy's insistent. He says no, we say Sha'akon Yehudvaro. So the rabbi asks him. He says tell me, why are you so insistent? Why are you so insistent? He says I'll tell you why. He says because I served in the IDF and I was part of the tank unit. And he says this is back in 1982, when they were Shlomo Galil, when they were taking over the Golan Heights. And he says my tank.
17:18
We realized we were suddenly surrounded by Syrian tanks, all sides, all surrounded, and we called in to the commander. We said, commander, we're done, there's nothing left, there's no chance that we're going to be saved from this. The commander says does anybody in the tank know anything? Any verse from the Torah, anything of Judaism? And they're thinking again, they're in battlefield. It's all like anybody know anything. So one guy says oh, I know a blessing. He says say it out loud and everybody say ameen. So he says the blessing Baruch atah Hashem Elokeinu melech haolam sha'akol niyebed varo. And they started shooting with their tank and they were saved. They took out all the other tanks. He says if that blessing was enough to save our lives there, it's good enough for this watermelon.
18:22
We have to know that in every situation, in every situation, hashem hears our prayers. A person should never, ever think me, what do I know? Every single person can connect to the Almighty, even a guy who doesn't know anything but one blessing in a tank. Hashem hears that prayer, hashem loves that prayer and Hashem cherishes that prayer and Hashem answers that prayer. So we should never, ever think that me, who am I to pray to God? To pray directly to the Almighty. You know what's very amazing Is that we said that it's am I to pray to God, to pray directly to the Almighty. You know, what's very amazing Is that we said that it's a privilege to pray. You know what else is a privilege?
19:09
As Jewish people, we pray directly to Hashem. We have no intermediary, we have no conduit. We have no one who died for our sins. We have no one who's like me talk to God. You know what we say in our prayer every single day Baruch ata, hashem, blessed. Are you directly to you, hashem, we talk directly to God. What a privilege.
19:32
To get us into that mindset, we have this prayer Ba'ani b'rov chazdecha Me, me, the simple me, whoever I am, wherever I am in my life, whatever state I'm in spiritually, through your abundant loving kindness, I enter your house of prayer. Our prayers are always desired by Hashem. That's why this verse in Psalms is. That's why this verse in Psalms is my little, only me. Who am I? I'm a nobody. It's loved by Hashem in his loving kindness. We need to realize this every single day with emotion connection. Yes, hashem loves our prayer. This is why our sages put this verse from Psalms particularly into this introduction to prayer.
20:27
There's also a secret of a minion a quorum, this pasuk. This verse has ten words to hint that when we pray, we pray with a quorum of 10. Specifically 10. Why? Because we say in a minute we're going to say Va'ani sfilasi l'cha. Hashem Eis ratzon.
20:55
The fifth verse Eis ratzon, a favorable time Prayer when we do it with a quorumotson a favorable time Prayer. When we do it with a quorum, it's a favorable time. You see, when we pray, our sages tell us when we pray alone, our prayers are heard but we don't necessarily have a favorable response. But when we pray with a quorum, it's always a favorable time. Hashem says I can't say no to 10 people, and that's why our sages tell us that the first 10 to arrive at synagogue get the merit of the entire congregation's prayers. Show up as being one of the top 10, and you're good, because now there's a quorum, because of you. You made that eis ratzon, you made that moment of favorability for the acceptance of prayers. Be yirasecha.
21:52
We say at the end of this verse be yirasecha, with awe, with fear, with trepidation. It should be a proper decorum in synagogue. We shouldn't be talking. We shouldn't be talking, we shouldn't be joking, we shouldn't be running through it. It's Hashem's house, this is Hashem's place and every day, with freshness, with excitement, with trepidation, we talk directly to Hashem. We bow before Hashem, I prostrate myself before you in your holy sanctuary, bowing before the creator of heaven and earth. You know what's amazing Is that the next verse we say I love your dwelling place, the place where your glory resides. And in the fourth we say and I will acknowledge and kneel before you, my maker, talking about kneeling, prostrating, we bow. When do we bow? We look at the Chinese. They're very good at this. They bow in honor and respect and awe of someone who's prominent. They'll bow.
23:16
We do this four times in our Amidah, every single day, four times in each of the Amidah, that's morning, afternoon and evening. Twice at the beginning of the Amidah, twice at the end of it, we bow. You know what else is amazing Is that a king, a king, doesn't bow once, twice in the beginning and then once twice at the end. A king stays bowed the entire prayer, stays bowed the entire prayer. You know why? Because the more someone is honored by others, it might get to their head. It's more difficult for them to realize that there's a greater power. Everyone's bowing down to me. I'm the king. Everyone's begging me for advice and everyone is asking me for help. It can get to your head. You know what a king does. A king is obligated to bow the entire Amidah. Why? Because we need to have the proper trepidation, the proper reverence when we speak to Hashem.
24:30
The third verse is from Psalms 26, verse 8 Hashem, I love your dwelling, your house and the place where your glory resides. Our sages tell us love, love, hashem's house of prayer. You know why? Because Hashem awaits for our prayers. Our sages tell us that a person should always have a set place to pray. The halacha says a person should have a set place to pray. The halacha says a person should have a set place. You go to synagogue, you should have your set place. This is the seat of Ed. This is his seat. Every time he prays in synagogue, he prays right there.
25:18
Our sages also tell us that if someone prays at home, they should also have a set place to pray. Why? I can pray in my dining room, I can pray in my kitchen, I can pray in my study, I can pray in my bedroom, I can pray anywhere. Right, have a set place. They just tell us why. Because Hashem awaits your prayers. You realize how beautiful that is. Hashem awaits our prayers. You realize how beautiful that is.
25:47
Hashem awaits our prayers. Hashem loves our prayers. What do we need to do? Hashem, I love your house of prayer because you're awaiting my prayer. I can't wait to pray to you and I mentioned this previously my grandfather. It's very, very common that people pray the mincha and mariv the afternoon and evening service right by sunset time. So you have the afternoon prayer right before sunset and the evening prayer right after sunset, and that way you get a buy one, get one free, the original BOGO right. Buy one, get one. You come to synagogue once you get both prayers in. My grandfather didn't like doing that. He didn't like doing that because he says I can't wait so long to speak to God. I speak to God early in the morning, I go to synagogue in the morning and I'm not going to speak to God until the end of the day. Too long for me. I can't wait.
26:48
That's Hashem Ohavti me'on b'secho, I love talking to you, I love being in your house of prayer, your house of connection. What do we ask for? We ask me'on b'secho, me'kom, m'shkan k'vodecha. We pray for the restoration of our temple, the temple in Jerusalem, our third temple. That's what we pray for. The place of the greatest connection with Hashem is in his home. We don't have that home in Jerusalem, so we have something which is called a, a small temple. That's our synagogue, jerusalem. So we have something which is called a Mishkan Me'at, a Migdash Me'at, a small temple. That's our synagogue. You know where Hashem waits for us, in our synagogues, wherever they may be around the world.
27:40
Prayer needs to be a labor of love. It's direct, it's personal, it's ours that we convey to the Almighty our feelings, our emotions, our worries, our concerns, our quote anxieties, our hopes, our wishes, our requests. Now, the fourth of the five is not an actual verse. It's based on a verse, but it's not an actual verse. וַעַנִי, אַשְׁתָּה, חָּבֶה, וַאַחְרָאָה אֶבְרְחָּל, אַפְנֵה הַשֶ.
28:27
You see, bow and prostrate before Hashem, not out of habit. It should be an intentional bowing, an intentional honor. Now, today, we don't prostrate. That's only in the temple. We do that only on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but in lieu of a temple, we bow, we don't kneel and we don't prostrate, but what we're doing is we're demonstrating, we're bowing our desires towards Hashem, that our desires, our temptations, towards Hashem El Heichal Kotshecha, towards your sanctuary so we mentioned in our Talmud towards Hashem, towards your sanctuary. So we mentioned in our Talmud, our Thinking Talmudist class.
29:12
Just this past Friday we learned the Talmud that one is supposed to direct their face, their focus, towards Israel and, once you're in Israel, towards Jerusalem, and then towards the temple, and then towards the Holy of Holies and then towards the Ark. This is we're trying to get to Hashem's residence, so to speak, directing our prayers to a specific direction. So here in the United States we pray eastwardly, and people who are in the Far East they pray westwardly and people who are north of Israel pray southerly and people who are in the south, like in South Africa, they pray north towards Israel. They pray north towards Israel. Lefnei Hashem Osi, before Hashem, my maker. It's in a present tense. Our sages tell us right now Hashem is presently my creator, my God. Hashem is active right now in my life, every single active right now in my life, every single moment. Right now, I'm acknowledging that OC right now. Hashem is my creator.
30:39
And then we conclude with the final, the fifth verse here, which is which is I offer my prayer to you, hashem, at this favorable time. Why favorable time we mentioned? Because we have a quorum. We're in synagogue. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me with the assurance of your deliverance. We know that every single prayer our sages tell us is answered. Every prayer is answered. Perhaps not always the way you expect it, but there's no prayer that returns empty-handed Ein tefillah, chosera srekam. There's none that come back without a response. You send God a letter. He responds. The response might be no, but there will be a response, always, 100% of the time.
31:40
A prayer that my prayer, my prayer be favorable and favorable time was mentioned is when the congregation gathers to daven. There is a regular favorable time, prayer time when minyan happens and we say true deliverance, true Yeshua, is only from Hashem. Only Hashem can solve our problems, our challenges. We can ask our boss to solve our problems. The deliverance comes from Hashem. We can ask our neighbor and friends to solve our problems. It only comes from Hashem.
32:21
Very interesting that the Gaon of Vilna says that with these verses, the one that has ten, for example, there are ten gifts that are given to the Jewish people the Torah, the mitzvahs wisdom, discernment, love, fear, prophecy, divine inspiration, service and closeness with Hashem. These are ten gifts. The Gona Vilna says. There are ten words in that verse that tell us number one, that the minion is with ten, the quorum is with ten, and then, relating, hinting, to these ten gifts, we start our day by turning to Hashem. The acceptance of our prayers is easier when we go with others.
33:18
In conclusion, my dear friends, ma tovu, aholecha Yaakov, how incredibly gifted we are that we have the ability to talk to Hashem directly every single day. Open up our hearts. You can close the prayer book, close your eyes, open your heart, because that's what Hashem wants. We're asking permission. We're saying Hashem, we're about to speak to you. These are the five verses that introduce us to prayer, to get us to the proper frame of mind To understand that we have the most incredible power, because we talk directly to the boss. We don't talk to a sales rep, we don't talk to an assistant, we don't talk to the regional manager. We talk directly to the owner, the creator of heaven and earth. My dear friends, I pray and bless each and every one of us that our prayers always be lovingly accepted by the Almighty and they be favorably desired by Hashem every day of our lives. Amen.
34:41 - Intro (Announcement)
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