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The Prayer Podcast is an attempt to make prayer meaningful, elevating and real in our day-to-day lives for every individual regardless of background.
This Podcast Series is Generously Underwritten by Dr. Leonard & June Goldberg
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.
00:08 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Good morning, welcome back everybody. Welcome to the next episode of the Prayer Podcast, and today we're going to talk a little bit more about the introduction to prayer, some fascinating things that I want to share with you.
00:27
You know, before Hashem created the world, before God created the world, he had everything. God had everything. He had no need for anything. He had everything. Hashem is everything. Still, hashem decided to create the universe. What was His purpose? What was the purpose of Hashem creating the universe? Considering the way the world exists today, with all its wars, catastrophes, illness, poverty, why did Hashem bother?
00:57
The Kabbalists explained that God created this world with an intentional fault. He formed it without any assistance from anyone or anything. Our sages call this manner of creation Itaruta Dileila, the awakening from above. Since man had no part in creating the world, god made it man's mission to complete and perfect the world. Man's part in creation would be known as Itaruta Dileilata, the awakening from below. So God is the awakening from above, we are the awakening from below. The Midrash explains that the intended purpose for mankind was to irrigate until the land, tend animals for food, skins and clothes and perform other acts that would enable them to survive and lead productive lives. Most important, human beings would realize that they could not accomplish anything without God and they would be beholden to God for His aid. This completes the plan of creation, because it would be a joint effort from above and below, where we are perfecting this world that God created with a fault that we need to bring about to its completion, making man the supreme entity on the planet.
02:23
God granted him two things that distinguished him from all other aspects of creation A creative and thinking brain and the power of speech. When God formed the world, he created everything in its final form. Trees don't need anything else, they're created perfectly as is. But he also left everything in a state of suspended animation. For example, all vegetation was ready to sprout, but remained at the tip of the ground and did not grow. What was lacking man? The verse states All the wild grasses had not yet sprouted because God had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth and there was no man to work the land. This is in Genesis 2, verse 5. As Rashi explains there, when man was created, god hoped man would recognize the need for rain and would pray for it. Only then would the system of irrigation and rainfall be implemented. The partnership between man and God in the running of the world would turn the world into the most ideal and perfect state. So there's something that we need to do here in our world to perfect this world, and that's the power of prayer. We find that the first man, adam, was given the necessary tools to put the earth's needs in motion. He understood the necessity for rain and he prayed for his needs.
03:59
The concept of prayer originated at the beginning of time. However, it wasn't until Abraham, 2,000 years later after Adam, that the regular daily prayers were established, as the sages teach us in the Talmud that Abraham established shachar as the morning prayer. Abraham didn't have a set sitter, he didn't have a prayer book. He used his mind, his heart and his mouth and he composed his prayers daily according to the needs at that moment. As we know from our own lives, each moment is different. From the time that Abraham discovered there is a God, he turned to him in prayer, beseeching God to help him draw close to him. Following Abraham was Isaac Yitzchak, who established the minchah, the afternoon prayer, and Yaakov, who established the evening prayer.
04:50
The mariv Rebnachman calls this practice of prayer hitbodidut. Hitbodidut means isolation or self-seclusion. Hitbodidut refers to private, secluded prayer before God, where one expresses his needs and yearnings in his own words. This was the form of prayer handed down to us from the patriarchs all the way down to the generation of the Babylonian exile, from generation to generation until they returned from the Babylonian exile when they dedicated the Second Temple. Some of the history of how prayer was put together, as explained by the Rambam.
05:29
When the Jews returned from the Babylonian exile, they were an admixture of nations. They spoke several languages and they no longer were able to converse and express themselves in the Hebrew language. At the consecration of the Second Temple, an assembly of 120 leaders of the nation was held. Among them were the prophets Ezra, nechem, yoh Hagai, zahary and Malachi, and the leading scholars of the generation. When these members of the Great Assembly saw the mishmash of people before them, they were astonished and dismayed. How would they ever be able to pray to God as one people, as a united people? That was when they established the Siddharth, the prayer book which has kept the Jewish nation on a common ground for thousands of years, no matter where they spent their exile. The Siddharth was written in Hebrew and although it is a set text, it wondrously contains all the needs and requests of every Jew for each day. So anything that you can possibly imagine that you're experiencing is in our prayer book. There's a prayer for it to express that emotion, to express that feeling, to express that situation that you're experiencing Now. The Hebrew word for Siddharth, which is derived from the word Seder, like the Pesach Seder, which means order. As Jewish communities became established throughout the diaspora, each community developed its own personal style of prayer. This caused the Seder to be available in several different Nusraot formulations or versions.
07:15
The Zohar teaches that each of the twelve tribes of Israel had its own unique path via which its prayers entered the heaven. Very important stuff here. We know that the tribes went into Egypt through different doors. It's symbolic of the twelve different doors of heaven that each tribe had their own gateway through which they prayed to the Almighty. It is understood from the four letters of the tetragrammaton, which is Hashem's holy name, which has twelve permutations. So we have the yud, the hey and the vav and the hey, and you can put them together any four letters into twenty-four different ways. But there's a problem with Hashem's name, in that there are two Hays, so you don't have twenty-four ways, you only have twelve ways. The Zor also tells us that this is the reason for the custom of having 12 windows in a synagogue there's a halacha. The halacha tells us that we're supposed to have 12 windows in our synagogue. Why? Because these are representing the 12 different channels of prayer that reach the heavens. Just as the synagogue above has 12 gates through which prayer enters, so to our synagogues here below should have 12 openings through which our prayers ascend.
08:50
Regarding these unique paths, all the Nuschahot, all of the different formulations or versions of prayer, they're all holy and are rooted in exalted places. However, although each is equally acceptable, one should pray with the Nuschah of his family. So if you come from Ashkenaz and we'll explain that in a second today there are several main Nuschahot, main formulations of the Sidr as we know it today. We have the Sephardic communities. They pray with what's known as the Edotem Ezraach, the Eastern communities. Then you have the European Jews, have Nuschah Ashkenaz with the Nuschah of the Dutch or the German Jews. You have the Hasidic communities pray with Nuschah Sfard, which is similar to the Nuschah of the Sephardic Jews but at the same time, very much like the Ashkenaz. There exist minor differences within each Nuschah, but for the most part, these varying formulations are quite similar. It is actually incredible that the prayers themselves are so very much alike, considering that all the Sidurim were hand copied from handwritten manuscripts, generation after generation, until the invention of the printing press in around 1450, almost 600 years ago. It is important to note that the Ari the Arizal considered Nuschah Sfard to be the most comprehensive Nuschah, which includes all of the other formulations.
10:21
Now, what was the reason for the members of the Great Assembly to introduce a common Sidur with an established prayer? Who needs it? Let everyone pray. We spoke earlier. Prayer of the heart. Everything's about the heart. So why is it important to have an established Sidur?
10:40
One of their goals was to bring about unity between Jews. With everyone speaking a different language, how were they ever supposed to explore the commonality between themselves? With a common tongue, unity can be achieved. We have to understand that this is something so magnificent. Wherever you are on planet Earth, you go to a synagogue, you can be in Italy, you can be in France, you can be in Argentina, you can be in California, you can be in Alaska, you can be in Canada, russia, china, japan, singapore you name the place, it doesn't make a difference. Everyone has the same prayer book and everyone, even if they speak different languages and they can't communicate with regular language, everyone prays in Hebrew. That's what brings us all together.
11:34
Unity is essential for prayer. This is the reason we seek to pray with a quorum of ten men, so that they can pour out their hearts together as one before God. One of our prayers is L'esheim, yechud, kutshabrihu, ushkinte, for the sake of the unity of the Blessed Holy One and His Shchina and His presence. This prayer is said prior to performing a mitzvah. We say this little prayer for the unity, for the sake of the unity of Hashem and His presence, such as before putting on a talit or tafillin, reciting the Brikhata Ma'zon, counting the omar, any mitzvah that one performs. What is this unity that we articulate with our intentions? After all, god is one, a single unity. What are we trying to unite?
12:25
A person must recognize that God is one. There certainly does not exist a separation between God and His Shchina, his indwelling presence. They are always one. The commentaries explain that Hashem is the unseen God. We always refer to the one whom we speak of, but have no idea who and what he is. The Shchina, on the other hand, is the individual experience of God that each person can sense and feel. That's in a way, closer to us, it's more tangible for us. There are times we feel distant from God and then there are times we feel God's presence.
13:10
The performance of any mitzvah is meant to make a connection. God commanded us to pray and perform the mitzvahs. However, do we feel the significance of the mitzvah or do we perform it by rote? Residing?
13:24
The Lashaym Yichud places us into the mindset that our good deeds can affect this unity between God and His Shrinah and bring us from a lower level to a much higher level. Moreover, we learn that our very words of Torah and prayer create unity and peace in this world. So when we pray, when we learn, we are creating peace and unity in this world and we learn that the trait of Nitzachon victory, of always having to win to be victorious, to always win, there is also conflict and strife. We had Super Bowl this week and those who are cheering San Francisco and those who were cheering Kansas City, and everyone is cheering for their team or cheering for what's this need to win. That win is not only a unity among our fans, but it's also strife, because we're fighting against another team, we're challenging another team. Each person must eliminate his having to always win in argument. Instead pursue peace, for God found no suitable vessel to contain blessing other than peace.
14:41
The Talmud concludes at the end of the Talmud, god has no form of blessing other than peace. If a person doesn't have peace, they don't have blessing A person who doesn't have peace, they have strife. They're creating barriers between them and the Almighty God can't shower them with blessing. This peace is attained by reciting many words of Torah and prayer, and this is what our prayers are constructed of. They're prayers that are bringing together verses from the Torah, verses from the prophets, from the writings, and our own prayers and requests. For at the time of creation, the shattering of the vessels caused worlds to fall below and descend to very low levels. These worlds correspond to letters that were shattered into many sparks, which is an act of joining these sparks and letters together to create words and sentences. So what are words? They're sounds, but they're. You're bridging together different letters and those letters have the power to build.
15:50
We know that God created the world with letters, with the letters of the Yalafbet, by speaking the holy words of Torah and prayer, one rectifies and renews all the fallen worlds and it is considered as if he has created them anew. As the letters combine, they're joining together creates unity and peace. So in our prayers we're not just saying words, it's the piecing together of all of those letters and all of those codes. We've given this muscle, this parable before. When I have a computer sitting right here, when I click on the keyboard, you know what's really happening. I'm not clicking A, I'm clicking a bunch of zeros and ones that are interpreted by the computer as an A. There's a lot of code that's going on back there. It's not just a simple thing.
16:48
Now, what happens when we pray? Our prayers are a combination of letters that are bringing together worlds, bringing unity in the heavens. Hashem is one, an only one, but all of the worlds that have been part of that shattered vessel, so to speak, that we're being able to bring them all together. The idea of a united community was the intention and goal of the great men, of the Great Assembly. That was their goal, and it is for this reason that we have a sitter, which is order, bringing it together. Indeed, the Zahra teaches that if any community would truly unite and join together. The power of unity itself could bring the Messiah.
17:40
And our sages expand more on this idea, the reason that a synagogue, a place for Torah and study and prayer, is called a betakneset. What is a betakneset? Kneset is a house of gathering. Kneset is also unity, because it gathers and joins the letters and words together in prayer, which unite to create and build worlds. Our sages teach us that when we engage in idle chatter in synagogue, we are shattering the vessels instead of reconstructing them. We're using those same letters, those same words that we're pronouncing in idle chatter instead of words of prayer. Instead of bringing the worlds together, we're shattering them. Speaking Torah and prayer builds worlds. That's why the term betakneses, meaning kones, means gathering together all the scattering, scattered sparks and infusing them with fresh life and unity.
18:46
Rev Nassan, the student of Rev Nachman, adds that our sages established a certain order for the synagogue prayer service to maintain peace and unity in the world, in our communities, in our neighborhoods, for example. The order people are called to the Torah with first the Kho'in, then a Levi and then a Yisrael is. Why do we do that? To keep peace between the attendees. There shouldn't be chaos. There's an order, there's a structure. So we know.
19:17
Ah, now is the Kho'in's turn. The Kho'in has his special privileges. The Levi has the Levi special privileges. There's no jealousy, there's no infighting. When there is unity below, this generates a unity above which filters down to us on earth to enable us, in the form of blessing, to experience God. So if we don't have peace here, we cannot have peace in the heavens, we can't bring about peace in the heavens.
19:47
Therefore, we find that the sitter is meant to maintain order in one's prayer, to maintain order in the synagogue and, most importantly, to establish and maintain peace and unity among the congregants. This is the foundation of prayer. Prayer is not just words, it's not just tunes. What we're doing with these words, and these are deep, deep, coupleistic ideas in the words, we're going to get into them. Exactly how many praises of Hashem, even if they have different ones, in different formulations, in different nosach Ashkenah, sfarad, sfaradi, edot, amizrach they all have the same number of praises of Hashem because each one again, you're putting together worlds. It's something we're dealing with, such high things, such lofty things.
20:41
So if a person is able to go to synagogue, where it's a place of gathering of peace, it brings peace together in this world, it also brings peace together in the other worlds. And if a person God forbid has a struggle, has a quarrel with someone else, there's no peace in this world, there's no peace in the other world. And, by the way, a Kohane, the high priest, it says, the Hallukah says that if a Kohane was in a struggle or a battle with another person, they were in a feud. They can't serve in the temple, because the tabernacle, the temple, was called a house of peace. If there's no peace, god doesn't want your offerings, he doesn't want your words, he doesn't want. There has to be peace. Peace is the only thing that carries blessing.
21:42
It's important for us to realize this is a fundamental. Before we approach prayer, make sure we're able to reconcile our differences with people, we're able to come together for ourselves, for our community, for our family, to create a place of unity. That's why it's called a besakneses. We don't call it a house of prayer, we call it a house of unity, a house of gathering, because that is the purpose. When we're able to make unity here below, we're able to make unity up in the heavens.
22:20
By rabbi once said to us there was a couple guys in our grade who were fighting with each other. You know, just like you know, arguing a lot. He said you have to be very careful of that, because when you have strife, you create a barrier between us, and the Almighty God doesn't like fighting. He says you're fighting, stay away from me, create a barrier, a michitza, and that barrier doesn't allow our prayers to be heard. You make peace and suddenly the gates of heaven open up.
22:55
Hashem should bless us all that we should always have peace in our midst and we should not only love peace. Everyone is very easy for us to say, oh, I love peace, I'm a big fan of peace. No, that's not enough. We have to pursue peace. That's what Aaron taught us.
23:10
Aaron was the Kohen Gadol. What did he do? He was the high priest. He didn't just say, oh, love each other, be friends with each other, be nice to each other. No, no, no. He pursued it. When he saw two people fighting, he didn't say, like people do on Fifth Avenue, it's not my str, not my fight, I'm ignoring it like nothing ever happened. No, no, no, no. It's my fight, because if there isn't peace down here, there isn't peace up there. And he made it his business to pursue peace. Hashem should bless us to have peace in our lives all the time and that prayer should be a great vessel for us to connect and communicate with God. With that peace, and even though we have 12 different channels, how the prayers ascend to the heavens, but they're unified One synagogue, 12 different channels, that's perfect. With unity, hashem should accept all of our prayers with love and fulfill all of our wishes. Amen.