The Need for Articulateness in Tefillah

Just to review very briefly what we saw yesterday, the Rambam provides the historical background which prompted Ezra u'veis dino to introduce a set text for the tfila. And then the Rambam indicates pretty clearly that as a result, so then the Anshei Keneset Hagedola also legislated the minyan hatfilos. And we understood that again, referring back to what seemed to be a redundancy between Halacha Aleph and Gimmel, that we had understood that in Halacha Gimmel, the Rambam is telling us that the dinim min HaTorah that there's no set text, there's no set time, and there's no set number of tfilos, that all of those really combine to express and to form the essence of tfila, that it's personal expression. And the fact that it's bechol eis sheyirtzeh and the fact that the minyan hatfilos is כל אחד ואחד כפי יכולתו is because tfila is the personal expression. Once it isn't that in the same sense that it used to be—it's that by virtue of our kavana, but it's not that in terms of choice of words, of selection of words anymore, so then already, once it's not my personal expression, so there's no—what's the basis for my knocking on the door a second time? What's the basis for my knocking on the door the third time? It's not my personal need, my personal ratzon because I'm operating from a set text. So that's why once Chazal were forced to introduce a set text, they also legislated the minyan hatfilos. What all of this points to is just how serious a problem their inability to express themselves within any one language was. It's not stam that, well, it's not so lechatchila to mix languages together, so all things being equal, let's facilitate being able to daven in one language. No, because Ezra understood very well that, as it were, on a certain level, the set text is detracting, is far, far, far from ideal in terms of what the d'oraisa of tfila is, and אף על פי כן it was necessary, אף על פי כן it is necessary. That's why Ezra was mesakein. So clearly the status quo ante of

כשהיה אחד מהן מתפלל תקצר לשונו לשאול חפצו ולהגיד שבח הקדוש ברוך הוא בלשון הקודש עד שיערב עמו לשונות אחרות

was just unacceptable in terms of mitzvas tfila. So the question is why? Why is that something so serious? Why is that something which just undermines tfila again, ad k'dei kach, that Ezra u'veis dino were compelled to introduce the set text? So there are different ways of understanding, but yitachen that one perspective would be as follows: The Gemara in Eruvin that the Rambam quotes later in perek daled says that a shikkor al yispaleil, ve'im mispaleil that his tfila is nothing, even worse than that. And a shasuy, someone who's not in gantzen shikker but he feels a little bit the effect of drink, so lechatchila he shouldn't daven but אם התפלל תפלתו תפילה. So the Gemara says what's the line that separates a shikkor from a shasuy? So the Gemara says that whether יכול לדבר לפני המלך. So in that context, what the Gemara means by it is that when a person is drunk, so then he can't speak coherently. B'chlal he's incoherent, either totally incoherent or he begins one thought and then loses it and trails off into something else. So clearly in that context, what יכול לדבר לפני המלך means, that that standard is one of coherence. But yitachen that that same standard of יכול לדבר לפני המלך also demands a certain again facility with language, that it also demands that there has to be a certain threshold below which a person can't go in terms of how the person expresses himself. It's not just the coherence which is a standard that's imposed by יכול לדבר לפני המלך. Imagine—it's hard to imagine a lawyer coming before the Supreme Court to argue a case where he's going to make a third of his presentation where every fourth word will be Hebrew. and another word will be Spanish and another word will be this, will be that. It's hard to imagine such a thing happening. Coming before the Supreme Court, you have to you have to be able to talk. You have to be able to talk fluently. You have to be able to express yourself in in one language. So itachen that that יכול לדבר לפני המלך is not only a standard again of of coherence, but it's also in in terms of maintaining the the clarity of thought, but it's also a a standard in terms of clarity of of speech within a particular language.