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The Thinking Talmudist Podcast shares select teachings of Talmud in a fresh, insightful and meaningful way. Many claim that they cannot learn Talmud because it is in ancient Aramaic or the concepts are too difficult. Well, no more excuses. In this podcast you will experience the refreshing and eye-opening teachings while gaining an amazing appreciation for the divine wisdom of the Torah and the depths of the Talmud.
Every week a new, deep, and inspiring piece of brilliance will be selected from the Talmud for discussion by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH (Houston, Texas).
This Podcast Series is Generously Underwritten by David & Susan Marbin
00:00 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Thinking Talmudist Podcast.
00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back everybody. It's so wonderful to see everyone here at the Thinking Talmudist. Happy Black Friday to everyone. I hope everyone is getting a great deal today Buy one, get one free in Talmud class, and it really is special that when there are so many great deals out there, everyone's here learning Torah. So I want to share with you, before we begin today's Talmud, that it's interesting that in this week's Parsha Parsha's Toldos we have the actual struggle that all of you are succeeding in, and that is the struggle where Rebecca says I have two nations in my womb and our sages tell us something very interesting that from the beginning of creation.
00:58
We are in the very, very, very first verse in the Torah. It says what it says and God created the heaven and the earth, the heavens and the earth. What is the heaven? The heaven is spirituality. What is earth? Earth is physicality, and this is the constant struggle that we all face. Every single day of our lives we face this exact struggle, the struggle of whether or not we're going to be devoted to the spiritual world or devoted to the physical world. That is the challenge of life. That's the first verse in the Torah. But then we go in. We see Abraham was dealing with that struggle. We see Isaac and his brother Yishmael were the total opposites in those worlds. And then you have Jacob and Asaph, and these are the two worlds that Rebecca says I have in my womb. I have the struggle, this battle that one wants spirituality and one wants physicality. One wants materialism, one wants holiness, one wants physicality, one wants materialism, one wants holiness. And that's the struggle today, the day known as black friday, which is really the day of let's stock up on materialism, let's stock up on our physicality. And look how many people are here at the torch center studying torah. So and online, so'kavot to each and every one of you. It really is a testament to where our values are. It's very, very, very special.
02:32
So the Talmud that we're going to study today is talking about short prayers. Now we have to understand when we talk about prayer. Prayer is so fundamental in Judaism because it's, by the way, a biblical commandment to pray every day. Now, what does prayer mean? Some people think prayer means I go to synagogue and I pray with my sitter, with my prayer book in my hand. That's not true. That's not what prayer is. Prayer means talking to God and that we are obligated in the Torah, to communicate with the Almighty, to talk to Hashem. So the Talmud here is going to be talking about short prayers. Now, what does it mean, short prayers? Well, there are certain times when a person is not able to have a long prayer, a long conversation. When is that? When someone is in a situation of danger, when someone is in a situation of challenge.
03:37
The Talmud we will see later talks about different scenarios. When one should not be praying. Why not? For example, the Talmud says that if one is in the middle of a court case, they shouldn't pray.
03:55
Why you don't have any calmness in your mind. You don't have any when you don't have that resolution. You're like your mind is busy racing what's going to be if what you know, you're thinking of all the different scenarios, you don't, you don't have the frame of mind, the proper frame of mind, to pray. What happens when someone is in middle of a business deal? They want the deal to go through. They're thinking what do I need to say, what do I need to do to convince them, to persuade them? Talmud says the only way to pray is when you have a calm presence of mind.
04:38
So what happens when a person is traveling? A person's traveling. As we may know, there are some people who travel. They can arrive five minutes before the gate closes, no problem, they're calm. But there are some people who need to be there five hours before the plane starts boarding. They're so anxious they can't sleep the night before. They're packing a week in advance. Different types of people, and the Talmud recognizes this. So how does someone who is going to struggle when they're traveling? How do they pray? How do they pray? They need to talk to Hashem. There's a biblical commandment to talk to God every day, thrice daily. How do we talk to God? Every day, thrice daily? How do we talk to God?
05:27
So the Talmud here talks about short prayers. We have an Amidah 18 blessings but there's an abridged version of that. There's an abridged version where it's a shorter prayer so that it is also attainable for someone who is not at the full state of mind of praying a whole long prayer. Now we have to see the beauty in this. It's not a shortcut. It's not a shortcut. That's not the objective. What it really is is our sages recognize that we're all different and everyone deserves to have their connection with God in a meaningful way. So for one person they're able to pray and pray, a whole long prayer. But the Talmud recognizes that not everyone is able to do that. The men of the Great Assembly when they constructed the prayer embedded in it. Because it's very important, we're going to talk about this in our prayer podcast, hopefully next week.
06:38
I've been spending a tremendous amount of time putting together a worksheet so that we can all understand hopefully with Hashem's help the structure of prayer, so that we know how it needs to be properly formulated and how our sages, in their brilliance with divine inspiration, constructed a prayer for us that touches all of the proper notes in the heavens. So when we pray, it's like if you touch a letter on your keyboard, on your phone. What are you pressing? You're pressing a piece of glass. How does it know that when you're pressing the glass, it means A, b, c, d, know that when you're pressing the glass, it means A, b, c, d? So they put these little fields on your screen and when it feels a touch on that field, it knows that you're referring to the letter A. That's a bunch of zeros and a bunch of ones that formulates the letter A on your screen and that it computes it for you. Well, how do I communicate to the Almighty the things that I want. How do I compute it to the Almighty? That is the prayer.
07:52
The prayer is a construct of secret codes that aren't apparent on the surface, that are able to touch the exact notes. Now, why do we need those codes? I'll tell you why we need those codes Because there are forces of good and there are forces of evil in this world. As we know, every single human being has a yetzer tov, a positive inclination to do good, and then we also have a yetzerahv, a positive inclination to do good, and then we also have a yetzerah, a negative force that wants to push us away from doing good. And these two are always battling for our attention. Like we started off saying, you have the heavens and the earth, you have the physical and materialistic urges are constantly dueling it out. Who's going to get our attention? Well, the positive forces want us to connect to the Almighty. What do the negative forces do? They try to create barriers. A sin that a person does creates a barrier. When someone does something against the will of Hashem, what they're doing is they're not offending Hashem. What they're doing is they're building a barrier between them and Hashem. When someone eats something that the Torah says not to eat. You think Hashem's feelings are hurt. No, he's just saying, if you want to have the proper ingredients, to communicate with me. This keeps the channels open. This closes the channels God forbid. So what we're trying to do is have those open channels.
09:34
The way the men of the Great Assembly constructed our prayers is to break through the barriers that block our prayers potentially from reaching God's Holy Throne. That is why we have a structure of prayer. The structure of prayer is the code to break through any barriers that potentially are there between our prayers reaching, being verbalized and reaching its proper place up in the heavens. And that's our goal in prayer. And it's amazing to see the sensitivity that our sages had that you can find a leniency, someone is in a rush, okay, so what's the minimum? I don't have. I don't have an hour to pray in synagogue every morning. I don't have 45 minutes to pray when they're not doing the Torah readings. So what am I going to do? I only have five minutes, god. What do I do in five minutes? Our sages constructed the exact prayers to assist every person in every situation At the very minimum. At the very minimum if a man can put on tefillin and recite the Shema.
10:57
What is the Shema? The Shema is the mission statement of the Jewish people. We're declaring God's oneness of the Jewish people. We're declaring God's oneness. We're declaring that God is, was and will be. We're declaring that God is the power of everything. This is a declaration that we recite in the Shema, that we confirm.
11:31
In fact, if you look in many of the prayer books they'll have, different parts of the Shema are linking to the Ten Commandments. For example, when it says that a person should remember my commandments in the last paragraph of the Shema, why does it use the term remember? How does that link to something that's in the Ten Commandments? Remember my Shabbos? When it says L'man yirbu yimeichem v'imei v'neichem that was my nifty sitter. That shelf, the prayer shelf, the bottom one over there, not bottom bottom, the middle, david, right behind you, right behind me, right behind you. Turn a little bit more back back up, left, left, yeah, right there, excellent, perfect, yeah, but you have what? The art school one, the English one, the English one, perfect, perfect, thank, thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh, thank you, david.
12:53
So at the end of the second paragraph of the Shema, we say the following In order to prolong your days and the days of your children upon the land that Hashem has sworn to your ancestors to give them, like the days of the heaven on the earth. What is this Talking about, children? Oh, honor your father and mother, one of the Ten Commandments. It says to Uri isem oso, and you shall see and you shall not go after your temptations. You should not follow the temptations of your heart. Don't be jealous. One of the Ten Commandments. So it's an amazing, amazing parallel that we have in the Shema.
13:50
And the Shema doesn't take more than three minutes. So if someone is so limited on time, I remember there was once an individual in one of these classes. He says to me Rabbi, I can't do the prayers I can't. I said why not? He says I don't have time. I said what do you mean? You don't have time? I've heard a lot of great excuses Time Right, see. He says listen, tell me about your day, Tell me about what you do. I said I can't imagine that by what you do, you can't find five minutes to pray. He says five minutes to pray, it takes an hour and a half. What are you talking about? I said no, no, no, my dear, just put on your tefillin, recite the Shema, and when you have more time, let me know, I'll tell you what to add. You have more time? I'll tell you what to add. It means we have to work our way up and build it up. So when a person is in a situation oh, thank you, I didn't even realize that. So when a person is limited on time or when a person has limited focus, there's a solution for that.
15:00
Okay, so now the Tadamishna cited a version of a short prayer, and this is in the Talmud, in Tractate Brachot, on page 28. 28a, 27. So the Talmud says as follows HaMehalach b'mokim g'dudei chi chayi av'listim ispalot tfilok tzara. One who travels in a place infested with bands of wild animals or thieves or robbers should pray a short prayer Ve'eziu tfilok tzara. And what is the text of this short prayer? Rebbe Lezer says asei ritzon cho b'shamayim mimal.
16:05
What is the text of this short prayer? Rebbe Lezer says Do your will in the heavens above and grant peace of mind to those that fear you below, and what is good in your eyes do to them. Bless to you Hashem. Who hears prayer? Rabbi Yeshua says the text of the prayer is a little different. Hear the groan of your nation, israel, rabbi Yeshua says the text of the prayer is a little different Shema Shavas, amchai Yisrael, hear the groan of your nation, israel, v'asei mehir bakashosom, and fulfill speedily their request. Baruch atah Hashem, shomei atfilah, blessed. Are you, hashem, who hears prayer? Rabbi Yitzchak, be'rabbi Tzadok omer and Rabbi Lazar says in the name.
17:04
The son of Rabbi Tzadok says that the text of that short prayer should be as follows Hear the cry of your nation, israel, and fulfill speedily their request. Bless to you, hashem, who hears their prayers? Others say the needs of your nation, israel, are many and their mind is limited. They're not focused. May it be your will before you, hashem, our God, that you give each and every one enough livelihood and sustenance and to each and every body what it lacks. Blessed are you, hashem, who hears prayer.
18:04
And what's the conclusion? The ruling? That indeed, we go like the last opinion of the version of short prayer. So what's amazing about this? What's amazing about this? Because you would think that there was a singular opinion about short prayers. A singular opinion. Well, there was a singular opinion about short prayers. A singular opinion.
18:29
Well, there's a rabbi no, no, no, there's a whole list of rabbis here who disagree on the version of that short prayer, meaning that there is a validation to a circumstance where one is limited in their ability to pray. There's a validation to it. It's so incredible. It's so incredible because we live in a world where people think, particularly about Judaism, that it's all or nothing. It's all or nothing. You got to do it all or do nothing. And that's not true.
19:09
By the way, we'll see soon in the Talmud, where the Talmud's going to say it doesn't even make a difference if you say those words, particularly or not. Talk with your heart. That's what prayer is. With your heart, that's what prayer is. Prayer is not what people think, that it's a rigid, prescribed set of words. This is what I need to say, whether I feel it or I don't.
19:41
The Talmud says it's more important, in fact the most important part of your prayer is the part where you just talk out from your heart, Not the part that you're just reading and reading and reading page after page after page, possibly connecting with it, possibly not possibly understanding what you're saying, possibly not understanding what you're saying To connect deeply that the words that we speak from our heart to the Almighty. It says that a person should speak to the Almighty like a person speaks to their fellow man. You sit and you plea with someone. You sit and you talk. Talk, open up your heart. That's the way our prayer is supposed to be in front of the Almighty. Talk, share your emotions, share your fears, share your worries. That's the way it should be. We should not feel like we are unable to communicate with God because, oh, god is up there in the heavens and we can't grasp or we can't connect to God. God is such a lofty idea, that's true, but God created us. You know, to our children, we're also a lofty idea, but they do what they need to do to communicate with us, which is another side note about parenting that children learn to communicate in the language that they're understood.
21:35
What parents don't understand sometimes is that if you don't listen to your child when they talk to you, they start yelling, and if that doesn't work, they start screaming louder and louder and or crying or throwing a tantrum. I'm very proud to say that in our house we don't have tantrums. There's no such thing. It doesn't work Well. It's not because there's no response to a tantrum, it's just it never needs to get to a tantrum. There's no response to a tantrum, it's just it never needs to get to a tantrum.
22:12
You listen to your child when they talk. They don't have to yell, they don't have to scream, they don't have to kick the walls in to get your attention, but we're their God, so to speak. To a little baby who doesn't understand anything. They know they're hungry, they need to eat. So what do we do? We feed them, and if you don't, you'll hear them cry and they'll wake you in the middle of the night.
22:55
We're born as beings that understand the minimum of communication, unless we shut off all the. You know, some people do this. I don't understand it. They don't answer their kids at night. They'll let them cry so that they learn to sleep through the night. My wife and I are very not in that realm of education. That's not our, but there are many people who do that. Oh, and you'll go listen on YouTube. You can watch videos and videos of these quote.
23:32
Parenting experts Say oh, let the kid cry. Let the kid cry and the child will learn not to disturb you during the night. All right, I guess it works for some, but either way, that's not the way. I want to be able to be there for my child when they need something, not that they should have to hold it in, because now is not the right time for my parents. I shouldn't wake them up now. So Hashem is always there to listen to our prayers. He's always there. He wants listen to our prayers. He's always there. He wants to hear our prayers, he wants our communication with him. And this is the goal. This is the essence of it all. So the Talmud now continues. The Shema now continues.
24:32
An anecdote introduces a different topic Omer le'ol, rev Yehuda achua, derav salah chassida. Elijah the prophet said to rev Yehuda, the brother of rev Salah, the pious, lo tir tach v'lo techati, do not become angry, you won't sin. And do not become intoxicated and you will not sin. And when you set out on your way, beg leave of your Creator and then set out, the Gemara inquires what does that mean? To beg leave of your creator and then set out this is the prayer of the wayfarer, the traveler's prayer. What is that? So there's a special prayer for those who travel. You know that there's a special prayer. It's called Tefilas HaDerech, the traveler's prayer. So what is this?
26:01
The Gemara now talks about this. Rabbi Yaakov said, in the name of Rabbi Chizdah Anyone who sets out on a journey should pray the wayfarer's prayer, the traveler's prayer. And the Gemara asks what is that prayer? The Gemara says this is the version of the prayer. May it be your will, hashem, my God, that you lead me toward peace and then place my footsteps towards peace and uphold me in peace and rescue me from the hand of every foe and ambush along the way, and may you be blessed in your deeds and send blessing in my handiwork and grant me grace, kindness and mercy in your eyes and in the eyes of all who see me. Baruch atah, hashem shomai atfilah. Bless to you Hashem, who hears prayers, and Abayi amends the text of this prayer and he says Amar Abayi amends the text of this prayer and he says Amar Abayi says La'olam always. And now we're turning to 30A L'shatef inif shnafshei behadei tziburei.
27:28
Person reciting this prayer should associate himself with the congregation. In what way? Hechinami, hechinami, y'achinami Yirat samufaneh Hashem alokenu, may it be, or will Hashem, our God, not my God, our God Include the congregation? Shetol lechenu l'shalom, meaning everything that we just said in a plural. Don't just say ask for yourself, ask for the community, for the congregation, even those who are not with you.
28:00
The Gemara inquires Amos Matzli, and when should a person recite this prayer? At what point of a person's journey does this obligation to recite this prayer fall upon them? The Gemara answers. Rabbi Yaakov said in the name of Rabbi Yaakov, from the moment that he travels along the way the Gemara says, and until when may he recite it? The Gemara says until a parasa. How far is a parasa? About two miles so, and how does he pray it? In what position should a person be standing? Get out of your car and recite the prayer. How should a person say it that, even while someone's working, someone's walking, someone's traveling, sitting in a plane, in a car, on a motorcycle, on a horse and buggy, however a person is traveling, they should recite it.
29:06
So here's a related incident Rav Chizdo, rav Sheisha, havi Ka'azli, baruchah. Rav Chizdo and Rav Sheisha were traveling along the road Ka'am. Rav Chizdo Ve'. Rav Chisda and Rav Sheshus were traveling along the road Kom. Rav Chisda, v'komatzli.
29:18
Rav Chisda stood still and prayed the traveler's prayer Amalei, rav Sheshus, l'shamoy. Rav Sheshus said to his attendant, to his assistant, mai ko avid, rav Chisda. What is Rav Chisda doing? Amalei komatzli, he is standing still and praying Amalei. Rav Sh is standing still and praying Amar Leir. If Shesha said to his attendant stand me up as well. He was sitting down and I'll pray as well, if it can be good.
29:53
Do not call it bad, since I can pray while standing, for the group with which I am traveling has stopped in any Meaning like this. Imagine you're on a bus and they stop the bus so that everyone can pray. So if everyone's already stopped, I'll get off the bus and pray as well, standing properly. But I shouldn't cause everyone to have to stop because of me. If everyone has already stopped, then I should stop.
30:24
So just as a summary, so we can know the practical laws of this if you're traveling, you're traveling from here to Austin, san Antonio to Dallas, to Galveston, austin, san Antonio to Dallas, to Galveston. Once you get approximately two miles away from where homes are no longer alongside you so you get on the Katy Freeway and you pass already the Buc-ee's you're already on your way towards San Antonio or Austin. So about two miles after there, you really don't see any more homes, you don't see any more communities. You don't see any more communities. It's just industrial areas and things like that, or sometimes it's just fields.
31:04
So at that point, that's when you would start reciting the prayer, and a prayer is a very short prayer, but what's the idea of it? Let's think for a second. What is the purpose of having a prayer while we travel? Don't lose your communication with God. Don't allow a situation in your life to disconnect you from your connection with God. At every state, in every situation that a person is in, we have to learn to communicate with God. At every state, in every situation that a person is in, we have to learn to communicate with God and for it not to be obstructed by circumstances, for it not to be obstructed, not to be interfered with by anything, for a person to always have the ability to talk to Hashem, even while we're traveling. My children learn this in school and each one of them comes, you know.
32:07
It says that when Abraham traveled, he traveled and he rapidly arrived at his location, at a faster pace than normal. It says by Jacob, when he went to go meet his brother Esau. It says that he arrived there much quicker than was natural. Why the special blessing that came to him that he was able to? It's called kfitz ha-saderach. He was able to jump great lengths beyond what is natural. Imagine sometimes you know how long does it take to get to Austin. Imagine it takes two and a half, three hours. What's if it takes you an hour and a half? How'd that happen? Right, that's what happened to Isaac. That's what happened to Abraham Isaac. Three hours what's if it takes you an hour and a half? How'd that happen? That's what happened to Isaac. That's what happened to Abraham Isaac and Jacob.
33:04
So there's an opportunity for us to connect with the Almighty during such times of travel. See that people travel on a plane. By the way, just as a side note, my grandfather said this, and many of the other rabbis. There was issues years ago that people would be congregating around on the plane. The back of the plane they would have like a little shul almost where people would be praying. And my grandfather I've seen this, I've flown with my grandfather my grandfather would sit in his seat and put on his tefillin in his seat and pray in his seat. And many other great rabbis did the same. Why?
33:55
Because they tell you it's dangerous to be walking around, it's dangerous to be standing above other people. You know, with the whole commotion of davening, it's very important to put on your tefillin every single day, not to miss a day. It's very important to pray three times a day morning, afternoon and evening. But it's also very important to not endanger your life or other people's lives. And if they tell you that this is dangerous for a person to be standing during a flight, unless obviously you go to the restroom, you need to take a stretch a little bit so that you, you know, god forbid, don't have any blood clots or anything like that. It's very important, but not to endanger other people or yourself. That comes before praying. It's the basics of being responsible. So, while I do encourage everyone to pray when you travel, not at the expense or at the danger of other people, I think it's very important for us to remember that, yes, you want to be a holy, righteous person. Pray, yes, but don't do it at the expense of others. Okay, that's dangerous and it can be irresponsible as well. Okay, so there we go. That was your public service announcement for today. Okay, so now?
35:36
The Mishnah 28b stated that when a person travels in a dangerous place, instead of praying the regular prayer text, he should recite a short prayer. In addition, the Gemara 29a made reference to an abridged form of the regular prayer known as Havinenu. Give us discernment. That's the name of the prayer. The Gemara now inquires what is that prayer? Okay, my ikah ben Havinaynu, l'tfilak tzar. What is the difference between Havinaynu and the short prayer Now? Now, okay, because the Talmud mentioned previously about the prayer of Havinenu, and now we see that there's something called a Tfilik Tzara, a short abridged prayer. So what is the difference between them? So the Gemara says a short abridged prayer. So what is the difference between you? So the Gemara says what are the differences? What is the difference between the prayer of Havinu and the short prayer?
36:50
When reciting the Havinu prayer, one must pray the first, three and last three blessings of the Amidah, because we have to understand the way the structure of the Amidah is the Amidah prayers. We have the three first blessings, the last three blessings and in between we have 13 blessings. That's the Amidah. Now, on Shabbos, that's not the case. On Shabbos, we have the first three and the last three. We have one prayer, one blessing, in the middle.
37:25
On the holidays Rosh Hashanah, yom Kippur we have the first three and the last three. That never changes. Never changes In all of the prayers that we have. We have the regular morning, afternoon, evening. We have the Musaf prayer. In the afternoons of holidays Shabbos, rosh Chodesh we have Musaf prayer. Even the Musaf prayer will have something special about the day, which is usually one blessing On Rosh Hashanah. On Musaf, it'll actually be four blessings, one about the day, and then we have the Malchios, the Chronos and Shofros, kingship remembrance and the Shofar. Those are four extra blessings that are in the middle, but on a regular, ordinary day there's 13 different blessings that are between the first three and the last three. First three and last three are always there, so the Talmud here is telling us that the first three and last three don't change, and when he reaches his house, he does not need to go back and pray the whole Amidah again, but Tfilik Tzara.
38:52
With regard to a short prayer, however, what's a short prayer? A short prayer doesn't need to have the first three and the last three, but rather, and when a person in such a case does arrive at their home safely, then they recite the prayer again correctly. The full length of the prayer Okay, and the prayer again correctly. The full length of the prayer Okay. And the Gemara concludes. And the law is that Havinaynu. The Havinaynu is a replacement prayer for the 13. So it's an abridged 13, where in one blessing, you go through all of those 13 different requests and prayers in one blessing. You go through all of those 13 different requests and prayers in one blessing. Okay, that's the Havineno.
39:45
The short prayer is generally something which is a much shorter, doesn't have the first three and the last three. It's a person saying Hashem, I love you. I'm unable to pray because of whatever chaos is going on, but as soon as you are able to, you're back home. Then you have to pray, you have to make up that prayer. That wasn't really recited in its proper fashion. So the Mishnah said. What did the Mishnah say? Hayerochev alhamar.
40:24
If one was riding on a donkey and the time for prayer has arrived, the person should dismount from the donkey and pray. So what's our donkey today? A car. So if you're driving, you're driving back from your vacation at Lake Travis in Austin and you're coming back, you leave in the afternoon and suddenly you start seeing the sun is setting. Oh, oh, I forgot to pray the mincha, the afternoon prayer. Pull over to the side of the road and you recite your prayer, get out of your car and pray.
40:57
Toner Rabbonon, the rabbi, is taught if one was riding on his donkey or traveling and the time for prayer has arrived, this could also be in the morning. Suddenly, you see sunrise. It's time to pray, pray the morning prayer. If he has someone who can hold his donkey while he prays meaning the donkey shouldn't walk off on its own, the car shouldn't. You can put your car in a park, right, he should dismount and pray. If he doesn't have a way to safely dismount, then rather he should just stay on the donkey and pray. Rabbi Yom HaRebbi says he should sit down in his place and pray. Listen to this. He should stay where he's at either way. Why? Because if he dismounts, he will worry about uh-oh, I'm losing time from travel, I'm going to get there later.
42:05
I don't know what's going to be. Am I going to hit traffic? We have all of these thoughts that race our mind and it's not going to let us concentrate appropriately on our prayer. It's going to disturb the concentration. Therefore, our sages tell us either way.
42:20
So imagine you realize you're rushing to class, you're rushing to right, you rush and you realize oh, my goodness, it's time for minchah. What am I going to do? Sitting in your car? I'm going to pull over, I'm going to be late, I'm going to miss my meeting, I'm going to miss my appointment. The doctor's not going to be able to see me, whatever it is that a person is running.
42:42
But you want to make sure you don't miss out on a prayer. What do you do? Recite the short prayer as you are Now. Should this be the norm? No, but see how much emphasis the sages put to find a way for us to always keep a connection. Someone might say, oh well, that's a cop-out. It's a cop-out then. Why are they spending so much ink in the Talmud to discuss an option for someone who's traveling? Because that's how important it is that a person never lose their connection, that a person never be in a situation where they feel like, oh, I can't talk to God now. Oh, yes, you can See how important it is Such an emphasis that our sages put on making sure that every person has the ability to pray. It's an unbelievable thing, it's a special gift.
43:54
The Gemara issues its ruling. What's the conclusion? Amar Rava v Temer. Ravishua ben Levi Rava said and some say it was actually Ravishua ben Levi Halacha karebi. That indeed the Halacha is like Rabbi stay in your car so that you can stay focused. You can go out.
44:14
Imagine praying on the side of the highway. Hear these 18 wheels driving by. You can't focus. I know because I've tried it Very difficult. Now, if you're able to get off the highway, go to a rest, stop, pray patiently, calmly. You don't have the noise, you don't have the worry, you don't have the worry. I hope nobody veers off the highway God forbid and hits my car, knocks off my mirror, whatever. Be safe.
44:47
If a person is able to find a situation, that's the optimum. But if someone is not able to, the Talmud goes out of its way to find a way for every person to be able to connect, that no person should ever feel like they're disconnected because, oh well, serves you right? You shouldn't be traveling at this time. You should have prepared, you should have planned. No, that's not the way the Talmud, that's not the rabbi's attitudes, just the opposite. Let's find a way so that every person, in every scenario, should feel like they're able to connect. I think it's the most amazing thing.
45:36
And, by the way, do you know how much effort goes in in halacha, how much ink on what to do if someone comes late to synagogue? Don't come late. That's an easy solution. Just don't come late. But what happens if someone does? You see, our sages are realistic, our sages are practical and they recognize that each and every person is dealing with something in their life and therefore figure out exactly how each and every person can connect, notwithstanding the challenges that they're facing. This is the beauty of our Torah. This is the beauty of how we are. No, it's like. No, you show up. That's not the way you talk to God. I just want to urge everyone you get a chance this coming Sunday. No, sorry, just yesterday was released. Should all be on the Insider Podcast. You get a chance this coming Sunday? No, sorry, just yesterday it was released. It should all be on the Insider Podcast.
46:43
We released an episode where we interviewed Jesse Aragon, beautiful, beautiful man from Denver, colorado. He talks about his journey coming from Christianity to marrying a Jewish girl, converting and raising a Jewish family, and it is absolutely magnificent to hear his journey of understanding prayer. They were very religious. They prayed every single night. As Christians they prayed every single night. But it's interesting. You listen to the episode. It's really great. I was blown away, blown away by the story, really an amazing, amazing story. So if you're not on the Insider Podcast yet, let me know. I'll send you an invitation. It's internal only, but you're all internal, you're all part of the family. So, my dear friends, we're going to stop here for now. We're on page 30A. God willing, next week we'll resume understanding how important it is for us to pray, that the sage is carved out for every scenario, a way for us to stay connected. My dear friends, have a beautiful Shabbos.
47:35 - Intro (Announcement)
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