Tefillah Meanings: Yaaleh veYavo plus Six
Eight goes beyond this world, even the holiness of this world. It bridges to the world to come. … And, it explains the number of verbs in Yaaleh VeYavo…
Aspaqlaria Blog
Widen Your Tent in The Jewish Tribune
The Jewish Tribune, “The Voice of Ango-Jewish Orthodoxy since 1962” ran an excerpt of Widen Your Tent in this week’s (10th August, 2002) issue. The excerpt includes the majority of section i.2. Here’s a...
Tefillah Meanings: You Chose Us
We were not Chosen, Loved, Desired, and lifted from communities of speakers of other languages because we are the bearers of Torah and mitzvos. Rather, we were given the Torah, assigned the mitzvos, made servants of the King to the point of being His representatives, His “name” in this world, because we are Chosen, Beloved, and embrace a special language and culture.
The love is inherent.
Disappears Like Smoke
Hashem attenuated His presence at Har Sinai to a level a human can tolerate by making “וְהַ֤ר סִינַי֙ עָשַׁ֣ן כֻּלֹּ֔ו — Mount Sinai was all smoke.” Smoke is a means of blocking one’s view….
And when one rises above one’s own interests to pursue His, the destructive parts of one’s self fall away, the smoke obscuring our view parts, and one can get glimpses of that Perfection.
Fear, Dread, and Yir’ah
This tefillah says that Hashem places pachad on all that He made, and eimah on that which He created. But while those two were provided by Hashem, not so yir’ah.
The Nation that knows Teru’ah
We blow teqi’ah, shevarim teru’ah, teqi’ah. Then with just shevarim in between, then teru’ah. Different communities had opinions, and R’ Avahu thought it was appropriate to unite by everyone doing all three. … His point was that you don’t understand crying until you listen to everyone’s cry
Last in Deed, First in Intent
First have to have clear what good entails. We need to make Hashem King, to commit to bringing His Will and His Good into the world. Rather than chasing whatever seems good in the moment. Or feels good even as our heads tell us it’s a mistake.
So we much first spend Rosh haShanah internalizing what we could and should be, and creating an aspiration and desire to get there.
Only then can we realize how far we are in the here and now to that aspiration, and have a true and honest regret.
Tefillah Meanings: Reflecting about the Flow from On High
For six days, we emphasize the glory of Hashem as seen through Creation.
On Shabbos, the day of rest from Creation, take a step back and watch ourselves, and how all of creation in its own way acknowledges that fact. … Which is after all the whole function of Shabbos…
Tefillah Meanings: Who Creates Lights
The conclusion of the berakhah itself is Yotzeir, “the One Who forms the luminaries.” Forms. Right now.
…
Right now, in this very moment, Hashem is creating more light, more peace, and more opportunities for us to bring them into the world.
Never despair.
Tefillah Meanings: Light and Dark
The Avudraham explains that Hashem created far more space and potential than He filled. It is humanity’s job to paint the rest of the canvas.
In his opinion darkness isn’t a thing, it’s the absence of light. When Hashem is borei space without filling all of it with light, He created darkness. Similarly, there is no such thing as evil….
Tefillah Meanings: Parsing Borkhu
What is “le’olam va’ed” (forever)? The blessing we are giving Hashem, or His inherent Blesséd nature?
Tefillah Meanings: What is a Davar Shebiqdusha?
… It would seem, therefore, that a defining feature of a Davar shebiQdushah is that it expresses the idea of making Hashem’s Holiness manifest in this world, as a part of getting to a more complete experience of Him.
In this world, we have different berakhos for major events: For good ones, “Shechiyanu” or “haTov vehaMeitiv” if many are impacted. And for ones we experience as tragic — “Dayan haEmes”. But when we get to Olam haBa, we get a clearer picture …
Tefillah Meanings: Qaddish
If Chazal are the Creator’s secretaries setting the agenda for the meeting, the items in the agenda should be addressed based on what you need to actually say.
Tefillah Meanings: Mitzvos and Torah
Someone working on vetahei libeinu is the person who seeks to be satisfied with His Good.
Someone who is in the midst of truly serving Hashem, avodah be’emes, is looking at what yeshu’os are still needed.
Tefillah Meanings: Good and Redemption
We aren’t asking for more Good, there isn’t more Good to be had. Here the preposition has to be -מִ, allow us to experience simchah from Your Good, good we are already getting. Make it easier for us to be makir tov, to recognize and notice the Good that we get.
… [But t]here is a profound difference between “Tuvekha — Your Good”, and “Yehu’asekha — Your deliverance”. One refers to things we can recognize as good times. The other acknowledges the experience of bad times, times we need to be delivered from.
Tefillah Meanings: Shabbos of the World to Come
Shabbos is a day to stop striving, and to take stock in how far we have come, and think about what we really want to be striving for. Less time on doing, and more on being and becoming. The Shabbos we speak about at Minchah is not only the Me’ein Olam haBa, the glimpse of the World to Come, but also of the Shabbos of today as the means to get ourselves there.
Tefillah Meanings: You Are One
The first thing you may notice about the middle, Shabbos-related, berakhah of Shabbos Minchah is that the opening parallels the berakhah immediately before it….
Salt and Honey
Why does every qorban have salt, but you aren’t allowed to offer anything with honey?
Salt is used to enhance existing flavors. Honey is used to change them to something sweeter.
Does Hashem Wear Tefillin on Shabbos?
The gemara on Berakhos 6a states something very intriguing: אָמַר רַבִּי אָבִין בַּר רַב אַדָּא, אָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק: מִנַּיִן שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מַנִּיחַ תְּפִילִּין שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״נִשְׁבַּע ה׳ בִּימִינוֹ וּבִזְרוֹעַ עֻזּוֹ״. Rabbi Avin bar Rav...
For the Jews There was Light
“לַיְּהוּדִ֕ים הָֽיְתָ֥ה אוֹרָ֖ה וְשִׂמְחָ֑ה וְשָׂשֹׂ֖ן וִיקָֽר׃
The Jews enjoyed light and joy, happiness and glory.”
The gemara explains that … Orah means Torah, Simcha is Yom Tov, Sason is Beris Milah, and Yeqar – Tefillin.
So then I had to ask: Why doesn’t the pasuq just get to the point and say, “ליהודים היתה תורה, יום טוב, מילה ותפילין”? Why use code words?
Tefillah Meanings: From Tav to Alef
But as Rav Shelomo haLevi al-Qabetz put it in Lekha Dodi, “סוֹף מַעֲשֶׂה בְּמַחֲשָׁבָה תְּחִלָּה – [Shabbos,] which was made last, was ‘Thought’ about first.” When planning, we start with the end. In the above example, if I want a ball to fall, I will first let go of it.
When we look at the sequence in ת – ש- ר- ק … – ב -א order, we are not looking at causes, but at goals. “סוֹף מַעֲשֶׂה בְּמַחֲשָׁבָה תְּחִלָּה”.
Tefillah Meanings: Moshe’s Happiness
Notice it doesn’t talk about Moshe being happy with his portion, but “with the giving of his portion.” … If I were to just do whatever Hashem made me for, my role in the running of the vast engine of creation, just as Moshe Rabbeinu fulfilled his role, I too can have the same never-ending joy.
Tefillah Meanings: You Consecrated the Seventh Day
Shabbos is in particular a day of berakhah. If properly utilized, Shabbos can get us further in our ascent up Har Hashem than other days. But only because it is also a zeman, a time, of qedushah. A repeating appointment with our destiny.
Parashas Yisro: It is no good
The Torah only uses the phrase “לֹא־טוֹב / it is not good” twice:
Once when Hashem created Adam before Chavah ….
And the other is said by Yisro in this week’s parashah, telling Moshe he is trying to do too much himself….
Tefillah Meanings: Envy, Desire and the Pursuit of Honor
“Rabbi Elazar haKappar said: envy, desire and [the pursuit of] honor take a person out of the world.” (Avos 4:21)
According to the Vilna Gaon, this mishnah is the key to understanding the opening three lines of Elokai Netzor, each of which ask Hashem for help avoiding one of these faults.
That’s one dimension. The other is that for each kind of character flaw we ask for help in two areas: (1) not expressing the fault, and (2) not even harboring it internally.
Tefillah Meanings: My G-d!
Moving on from Shemoneh Esrei proper to Elokai Netzor, the first question is: If it’s not really part of Shemoneh Esrei, just what is Elokai Netzor? I think the prayer has more to do with what’s not in your siddur than what is.
(And why the picture of a Ramses II shooting a bow? Read the post to find out!)
Tefillah Meanings: Great Peace
Shalom rav is the unity and wholeness of self that eliminates all obstacles from the path of the lover of Torah. Sheleimus within each heart being expressed as sheleimus within humanity as a whole.
…
And since learning this idea, I have had a warm spot for the Shalom Rav, as I didn’t see this thought in the Sim Shalom version.
Until I noticed something. There are two lists of berakhos that we ask Hashem to bestow on us in Sim Shalom
Tefillah Meanings: Good, Compassionate, Kind
Modim ends, “בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ הַטּוֹב שִׁמְךָ וּלְךָ נָאֶה לְהוֹדוֹת – … Your name is ‘The Good’, and it is pleasant to praise You.”
Yes, I believe we are saying Hashem’s name is “HaTov”, and not that His name / reputation in the world is known to be good.
Tefillah Meanings: Evening, Morning and Afternoon
You might have thought that the fourth “ve’al” was “for Your wonders and good things which are at all times, [meaning:] evening, morning and afternoon.” But that would be very problematic, as we would be overlooking all the miracles that happen at night. … [Instead,] we are giving the times when we praise Hashem: Shacharis, Minchah and Maariv.
Tefillah Meanings: For All That You Do
We already saw the Gra explained that we receive from Hashem in four ways. And that this also feels to me like a key part of the requests that are the heart of Shemoneh Esrei…
And so, it should be unsurprising that in Modim we thank and face our need to be dependent on Hashem for four things.
Tefillah Meanings: Thank G-d!
Of all the paths to Torah that the shevatim developed, when it came time to rebuild the Jewish People and our nature ever since, is Juda-ism — a religion in which hoda’ah is fundamental. …
And so Modim is not “only” an expression of thanks to our Creator, it is also the Jew’s central means of connecting to Him.
Tefillah Meanings: And the Fire-Offerings of Yisrael
Retzeih is old, a version of it was said by the Kohanim in the Beis HaMiqdash (Mishnah Tamid 5:1), in the oldest standardized Jewish liturgy…. It not only talks about Avodah in the Beis haMiqdash, but we are also continuing that chain. With only an insertion in the middle to make it applicable to living during Galus, we are actually saying something originally said as part of that Avodah. You could hear the generations of ancestors talking through us.
Tefillah Meanings: The Prayers of Your Nation Israel
Shema Qoleinu usually ends either
“כִּי אַתָּה שׁוֹמֵֽעַ תְּפִלַּת עַמְּ֒ךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּרַחֲמִים”…
“תְּפִלַּת כָּל־פֶּה”, or “תְּפִלַּת כָּל פֶּה עַמְּ֒ךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּרַחֲמִים”…
So there are really two which become three different ways of seeing what the berakhah is about: …
Between classic Ashkenaz and the Chassidic Sfard, there is a second split….
Tefillah Meanings: Exists Through His Word, part II
The berakhah of Shehakol is a Chiasm, a symmetric layout of topics. The focus is Hashem as Master of that which He created. We may eat this meat, or enjoy this morning coffee, but we do so knowing that Hashem provided it to us for a single Ultimate Purpose.
Tefillah Meanings: Like a Date Palm
“צַ֭דִּיק כַּתָּמָ֣ר יִפְרָ֑, כְּאֶ֖רֶז בַּלְּבָנֹ֣ון יִשְׂגֶּֽה׃ – A righteous person blooms like a date-palm,he thrives lie a cedar in Lebanon.” … So to me, while davening, this verse means to me (and again, I am not claiming this is the author intended):A tzadiq blossoms like a tamar – a tall tree but like Tamar the tzadiq puts the other one first. His focus is not on his own greatness, but on others.He thrives like a cedar in Lebanon – once one defines oneself by their place in connection to others, can one thrive strong and proud like a cedar.
Tefillah Meanings: Your Kingdom
What is the difference between malkhus (kingship) and memshalah (rule)? [This question adds meaning to three different lines in the siddur.]
… And so, we return to our original line from Ashrei: “מַֽלְכוּתְךָ֗ מַלְכ֥וּת כׇּל־עֹלָמִ֑ים, וּ֝מֶֽמְשַׁלְתְּךָ֗ בְּכׇל־דּ֥וֹר וָדֹֽר׃”
Malkhus is truly eternal. Memshalah will only last from generation to generation, through the course of history until its culmination. When all people will serve Hashem, will work together bring His Plan to reality.
Exists Through His Word
“Shehakol nihyeh bidvaro”, this meat, egg, or candy I am about to eat, or juice I am getting ready to drink, they exist because Hashem is still “Saying” them.
Tefillah Meanings: The Great Shofar
Why do we describe Hashem’s ingathering of the exiles as a “Great Shofar”? … In this berakhah we ask Hashem to give us the wake-up call, the opportunity and the inspiration to return to our homes. Not to force us to come.
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