Tefillah Meanings: Gratitude for the Flow from Above
From Idea, to Identifying the Good, to Gratitude to its Provider
Category: Mussar
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.
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...
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: 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.
Practicing Tzimtzum
Rav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik zt”l describes two mitzvos as emulating Tzimtzum: … The physical emulation of Tzimtzum is the mitzvah of Hachnasas Orechim… The Middah of Anavah is an internal emulation of Tzimtzum…. We need to emulate Tzimtzum. Not just to constrict ourselves, but to make room within ourselves for the other. We need to constrict our attention to the “atzmi”, the “self” in the limited sense inhabiting this body, to grow an “I” (as Rav Shimon Shkop puts it), that is a network of relationship to other people, to Hashem, and to the world around us. To make a place where we can connect…
Tefillah Meanings: Everything
A wealthy person is one who realized they have enough, exactly what Hashem deems they need to accomplish what they’re supposed to in life.
But to have everything is to be in a position where one can give to others.
Ohr haTzafun: Chillul HaSheim and the Tzelem Elokim
The Alter of Slabodka has a very different take. (Ohr haTzafun, Bamidbar #3, “דקות תביעות התורה”)
A person is betzelem Elokim, in the “image” of the Divine. This image is Hashem’s name in this world.
When they do something inappropriate, that image is tarnished. The action removes G-dliness from the world by removing some of the fidelity of His Image and thus some of observability of His Presence in it
Chilul hasheim refers to this tarnishing as a desecration of the image and thus His name.
Or haTzafun on Eternity (and the Conservation of Matter)
One of the central themes Ohr haTzafun is that “Hashem founded the world with wisdom” (Mishlei 3:19) And also, “the world is built of lovingkindness.” (Tehillim 89:3)… In particular, the human soul, but also our bodies, and the universe as a whole.
Hashem is beyond time. And thus, so is His Wisdom.
The sin of eating from the Eitz haDaas only caused us to lose sight of our inherent eternal nature. Both of the soul and the body. And mitzvos restore our ability to experience it.
Tefillah Meanings: And We Corrupted
A central facet of Judaism is that we are all interconnected. That my existence gets value from my ability to be of benefit to others. But that interconnectedness isn’t an unmitigated positive. It can be abused. We can use it to hurt others. Or to corrupt them.
Perhaps this is why Chazal associated הִרְשַֽׁעְנוּ – making others evil – with the connecting -וְ. Rather than being arbitrary, it was the natural sin to confess when the word “and” comes to mind.
Tefillah Meanings: Aspects of Compassion
A shortened version of that list of Middos. It is based (sometimes loosely) on Rabbenu Tam’s explanation of the 13 Middos (RH 17b). The division into four is motivated by the trop and how Hashem used the connective vavs (meaning “and”). It is particularly interesting because as we’ve seen before, four is associated with the ways we experience Hashem’s gifts. But here, it also fits the trop and the use of connective vavs.
Set 1: Before the Sin, After the Sin
6 Days and 12 Days
There is a general sense that there is something much more muted in our response to the miraculous quick turn-around in this recent Twelve Day War than there was after the Six Day War....
As Yourself
I noticed that parshanim explaining the chumash on the one hand, and shas and posqim showing how the pasuq is associated with halakhah on the other, often end up giving different explanations of pesuqim...
Behar: Money and Human Dignity
Parashas Behar is a list of mitzvos. The first section is all about shemittah and yovel. A family’s ancestral land cannot be sold into perpetuity. Instead, if someone is forced to sell their holdings,...
Compassionate Moshe
והיה רגיל להוכיח אותי על שראה שאינני משתתף בצערא דאחרינא. וכה היה דברו אלי תמיד שזה כל האדם. לא לעצמו נברא רק להועיל לאחריני ככל אשר ימצא בכחו לעשות. [My father, Rav Chaim Volozhiner,]...
So you shall not veer…
The Medrash about Qorach rhetorically asking of Moshe why a tallis that is made of tekheiles would need one more tekheiles thread for tzitzis ties the mitzvah of tzitzis to the next story in the Chumash – Qorach. The words of the parashah about tzitzis tie it to a slightly earlier story – the meraglim. ,,,
Neo-Chassidic Spirituality and Self-Focus – a Pothole to Avoid
A big problem, and perhaps The Big Problem, of the Orthodox community as it revived post-Shoah has been “Frumkeit”, as Rabbi Wolbe defines the term. Doing mitzvos out of an instinct that I need to be holier, rather than out of a desire that Hashem’s Will be done. It is a self-centered and self-serving orientation, as are all instincts. Rav Dessler would say it is coming from one’s Will to Take rather than one’s Will to Give. … Neo-Chassidus, with its focus on my relationship with G-d, doesn’t have many tools to fix that. Going to a kumzitz or a singing minyan to have an inspirational moment certainly don’t. All it offers is a hope that one internalizes one’s studies.
The True Hero
Don’t picture a single jar of oil found amidst the rubble. The Beis haMiqdash wasn’t trashed, it was perverted into a Temple of Zeus. … That single jar oil needed to be searched for because it had been hidden. Who hid it?
Widen Your Tent, ep. 1 / Relationship ep. 27
On Wednesday Chol haMo’eid Sukkos (October 12th) at 8pm, started our discussion of the introduction to Shaarei Yosher, by Rav Shimon Shkop. This is the last text in the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah,
Mishum Eivah and Darkhei Shalom
Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l proved that the common knowledge is simply wrong….
Mishum eivah is “merely” the importance of keeping hatred out of the world.
Whereas darkei Shalom is the ultimate – to walk in Hashem’s and His Torah’s ways.
Rav Shlomo Wolbe, “Frumkeit – Relationship ep. 26
Wednesday night (Sep 28th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah chaburah discussed Rav Wolbe’s essay titled “Frumkeit”, found in Alei Shur vol II, pp 152-155. (Warning: he actually comes out against!)
Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Qunterus haChessed (sec. 1 ch. 3- sec. 2, end) – Relationship ep. 24-25
Wednesday nights (September 14th and 21st, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah completed our study of Rav Dessler’s Qunterus haChessed.
Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Qunterus haChessed (ch. 9-12) – Relationship ep. 23
Wednesday night (August 24th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah continued our study of Rav Dessler’s Qunterus haChessed chapters 4 through 6 (pp. 35-39)…. This week we saw how …[g]iving leads to love, far more than the other way around.
Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Qunterus haChessed (ch. 7-8) – Relationship ep. 22
Wednesday night (August 24th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah continued our study of Rav Dessler’s Qunterus haChessed chapters 4 through 6 (pp. 35-39)…. This week we saw how …[g]iving leads to love, far more than the other way around.
Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Qunterus haChessed (ch. 4-6) – Relationship ep. 21
Wednesday night (August 24th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah continued our study of Rav Dessler’s Qunterus haChessed chapters 4 through 6 (pp. 35-39)…. This week we saw how …[g]iving leads to love, far more than the other way around.
What does Hashem ask of you?
Adding together the two pesuqim, then, we get a more complete description of the path Hashem expects us to walk:
1- To be aware of the enormity of the Divine,,,.
2- which should motivate us to emulate…
3- … we come to love Him
and aim everything at wholeheartedly following His Plan to be good to us.
4- Hashem gave us Jews the Torah and mitzvos …
5- To help us become good human beings, creatures who are fair, motivated by lovingkindness, humility, in our partnership with our Creator.
Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Qunterus haChessed (ch. 1-3) – Relationship ep. 20
Wednesday night (August 17th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah started our study of Rav Dessler’s Qunterus haChessed ,,, chapters 1 through 3 (pp. 32-35). In them, Rav Dessler talks about the potentials in a person for nesinah and netilah — giving and taking. These potentials have more to do with attitude and motive than the actual action…
Rav Shelomo Wolbe, Olam haYedidus (part 6, conclusion) – Relationship ep. 19
Wednesday night (August 10th, 2022) we completed our study of both versions of Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe’s essay Olam haYedidus. … [It] concludes with a discussion of zarus (estrangement) and akhzarius (cruelty,which Rav Dessler explains as a contraction of akh-zariyus – an extreme estangement). Our alienation from other people, from G-d and even our “need” to stay busy and never have to build a relationship with ourselves. Something to think about when singing “Mah yedidus menukhaseikh — How much affection inheres in your rest!” at the Shabbos table!
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