Tefillah 2

Let's continue a little bit today about the tefillah. The mishnah in the beginning of avos of

על שלשה דברים העולם עומד על התורה על העבודה ועל גמילות חסדים.

So Rabbeinu Yonah comments that in this context also the equation of tefillah ikrei avodah holds true and that one of the things on which the world stands, without which the world can't exist, is avodah, avodah either in the form of avodas korbanos or avodah in the form of avodah shebelev of tefillah. What's the pshat that על שלשה דברים העולם עומד? What's the pshat in that? In what sense על שלשה דברים העולם עומד? So the pshat, the pshat lekhora is like this. The most basic, the most basic truth of all of existence is what the Torah tells us that ein od milvado. That nothing can exist without a connection to Hashem. That nothing exists unless it exists through Hashem, through Hakadosh Baruch Hu's existence. We're something distinct from Hashem, but our existence is not distinct. Our existence is because Hakadosh Baruch Hu lets us share, lets us partake of His existence. We're something different, that's why Hashem is אינו גוף ולא ישיגוהו משיגי הגוף. But we exist through Hashem. And that's what it means that ein od milvado. It means even when Hakadosh Baruch Hu has created the world, ein od milvado, nothing has its own existence. Everything exists through Hashem. Now, against that background, so what the mishnah means of על שלשה דברים העולם עומד is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, as it were, that for Me to allow the world to exist, for Me to say that My presence, that My existence is infused into the world, that's only going to be when there's godliness in the world. If the world is totally bereft of elokus of godliness, so then Hakadosh Baruch Hu says the existence of the world becomes incompatible with ein od milvado. And it's only as long as there is godliness in the world, then and only then can the existence of the world be compatible with ein od milvado because of the presence of elokus of godliness within the world. Which means that basically what the mishnah is telling us is that to inject, to infuse this type of godliness into the world, so there are three primary avenues: there's Torah, there's avodah, there's gemilus chasadim. In terms of avodah, in terms of avodah in the form of tefillah of avodah shebelev, so the pshat is as the Rambam says.

כיצד היא הכוונה שיפנה את לבו מכל המחשבות ויראה עצמו כאילו הוא עומד לפני השכינה.

I don't know if the Sfas Emes says it about this Rambam, but the Sfas Emes does have a comment on a different Chazal-dik inyan that you find in Chazal:

בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים, אשר אנכי מצוך היום על לבבך, בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים.

So says the Sfas Emes, what, the Torah is asking us to delude ourselves? The Torah is asking us to live our lives on on the basis of pretense, that really it's thousands of years old, but you should go through life, delude yourself: בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים. So Sfas Emes says, no, no, what Chazal mean, בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים, because they are chadashim. They are chadashim. How are they chadashim? I don't know if the Sfas Emes spells this out, but what it means is like this: HaKadosh Baruch Hu is eternal. To be eternal means to be lemala min hazman. For what's lemala min hazman, there's no aging. We, we in Olam Hazeh, so we exist in time. We exist in time. So it's not, so it's not ke-chadashim. When a baby is born, so he's chadash. And then gradually from day one, so life takes its toll and its wear and tear on his, on his organism. So he's not, 30 years later, it's not, it's not ke-chadashim, because he exists in time. If a person exists in time, so it's not ke-chadashim, it's not ke-chadashim. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is lemala min hazman. lemala min hazman, so there, there is no aging. Right? We talk about this in, in an'im zmiros, the shir hakavod, and, and Yom Kippur night also in the, there's no seiva before HaKadosh Baruch Hu. No seiva before HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So the same way it's true for HaKadosh Baruch Hu's Torah also. And that's peshat בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים because they are chadashim. Not that the Torah is telling us that that we should, that we should delude ourselves. No. בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים because they are chadashim. They are chadashim. Torah doesn't, Torah doesn't age. Torah doesn't age. It's always, it's always new. Always new. The other dimensions to the, the other dimensions to what that means as well. So similarly, al pi darko of the Sfas Emes, so what does the Rambam mean when it says כאילו הוא עומד לפני השכינה? Pretend? Pretend? Really, really you're standing on the third floor, first hall. However, that's not going to be me'orer kavana, so, so pretend. Pretend that you're omed lifne ha-Shechina. No. כאילו הוא עומד לפני השכינה because he is omed lifne ha-Shechina. Because if a person takes the time out to talk to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to do it be-kavana, so then so HaKadosh Baruch Hu intensifies his presence. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu responds. The reason kavana is כאילו הוא עומד לפני השכינה is because if a person davens properly, the way he should, he is omed lifne ha-Shechina. That's why it's כאילו הוא עומד לפני השכינה. And that's the peshat that the world rests, the world rests on avoda. We're commenting on the half of it of avoda she-balev, tefilla be-toras avoda, is because again, that brings HaKadosh Baruch Hu into the world. And therefore it makes the existence of the world compatible with ein od milvado. But a world which is devoid of godliness, which is devoid of hashras ha-Shechina, so then that world can't exist. But tefilla, כאילו הוא עומד לפני השכינה because he is omed lifne ha-Shechina. What about with regard to chesed? So with regard to chesed, so on on one level, the fact that a person is מקיים והלכת בדרכיו, ma hu nikra... ma'aseh Elokim. And in that sense, he's, he's infusing elokus, godliness into the world. But it means something deeper also. The kernel for this idea you find in Rabbenu Bachya in Chovos HaLevavos. He doesn't, the the kernel is in Chovos HaLevavos. What does it mean when the Gemara in Kiddushin in the first perek says that השוה הכתוב כבוד אב ואם לכבוד שמים? How can that be? How can that be? The Gemara in Eruvin thought that you couldn't say such a thing לגבי מורא תלמידי חכמים. How can you be mashveh anything to mora Shamayim? And yet here the Gemara says no, the Gemara says that השוה הכתוב כיבוד אב ואם לכבוד שמים. How can that be? How can there be any kind of equation ilmalei מאמר נשנה ונאמר אי אפשר לאומרו? Absolutely, couldn't be said. But hashta de'ismar, so what do Chazal mean? What's the derasha that Chazal are telling us? The derasha means like this. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us two types of capacities. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us a capacity ich veis to eat, to drink, to sleep, to walk, to move. He gives us, venasan lecha rachamim. Hakadosh Baruch Hu also gives us a capacity for chesed. The pshat is that the former, the first list of examples, those are human capacities. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us human capacities. Okay, Hakadosh Baruch Hu created us guf veneshama, we have to eat, we have to drink, we have to sleep. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us those human capacities. Chesed Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us is a divine capacity. Chesed, the ability to do chesed, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says I'm giving you what's basically a חסד אל כל היום, I'm giving you basically, it's a divine capacity. Hishva hakosuv, hishva hakosuv because because they're shutfim. But not only shutfim in yetziras ha'adam. Then the Gemara says in also in the first perek of Kiddushin that says that Rav Yosef

כי שמע קל כרעי דאמיה אמר איקום מקמי שכינה דאתיה.

When Rav Yosef would hear the footsteps of his mother, he'd say let me get up before the Shechina. What does that mean? So it means like this. It means you have you have a mother who's moseir nefesh for her children. Goes through sleepless nights for years upon years. Does everything possible, everything possible belev vanefesh for her children. Rav Yosef says we're supposed to recognize in that not tremendous human kindness. We're supposed to recognize that the person bestowing that kindness is a shliach of Hakadosh Baruch Hu to bestow that kindness upon us. It doesn't, it doesn't undercut our hakaras hatov to the shliach. But what we're supposed to recognize, that's what Rav Yosef says, איקום מקמי שכינה דאתיה, that when I'm the benefactor, the beneficiary of such chesed, so I see that as the chesed coming from Hakadosh Baruch Hu because that capacity for chesed is be'emes it's a godly capacity. And these are, these are the channels Hakadosh Baruch Hu uses to do chesed with us. The channels Hakadosh Baruch Hu uses to do chesed with us is He gives us devoted parents and/or and/or devoted chaveirim and/or devoted siblings vechulu vechulu. These are channels. The same way Hakadosh Baruch Hu channels the parnassa to us also through seemingly through through darkei hateva, so too that's... The pshat איקום מקמי שכינה דאתיא איקום מקמי שכינה דאתיא is because Rav Yosef saw that his mother represented Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the chesed that she did for him, in her mesirus nefesh that she did for him, so he saw that that was that that was a reflection and that that she was an emissary to bestow Hakadosh Baruch Hu's chesed. And that's part of the the hishva hakosuf. That's part of the the hishva hakosuf because the shutfus is not only, the shutfus is not only in in conception and and in childbirth, but the shutfus is in terms of the chesed as well, in terms of the chesed which is which is bestowed. And memaila, memaila, the pshat על ג' דברים העולם עומד, al agmilas chassodim is not only because it's v'holachta bidrachav, but in addition it also means that that in doing chesed, so then we inject Hakadosh Baruch Hu's chesed into the world, not only that we're acting again in a v'holachta bidrachav in a godly way, but we inject again the godliness into the world, the elokiyus into the world, because that's Hakadosh Baruch Hu's chesed that we're bestowing. When we do a chesed for someone else, so that's the capacity Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us to do chesed because he's using us as an instrument to do chesed with this עני או אמללא או חבר whoever it is. And memaila, that introduces the elokiyus, the godliness into the world.