Tefillah – Punctuality & Importance

Let's talk a little bit about Tefilla today. The Mishna in Brachos as you recall has a Din that העושה תפילתו קבע אין תפילתו תחנונים. The Gemara has a few different interpretations of what it means that haoseh tefilaso keva. One of them is that תפילתו דומה עליו כמשאוי. That's like a burden, right? So if you're ever wearing a heavy knapsack on your back, so at the first possible chance, so you'll let it slip off your back and you'll throw it to the floor because it's because it's a masoi. Okay, fine. The way the Rambam quotes that Din is very remarkable. So we'll begin by jumping into the you have the Rambam in front of you, so take a look. It's in Perek 4 Hilchos Tefilla Halacha 16 in the middle of the Halacha. So we'll begin by parachuting in and then try to see the bli neder the context subsequently. So if you see midway through the Halacha, ולא יעשה תפילתו כמי שהיה נושא משאוי. See it? 4 16 in Hilchos Tefilla.

ולא יעשה תפילתו כמי שהיה נושא משאוי משליכו והולך לו לפיכך צריך לישב מעט אחר התפילה ואחר כך יפטר. חסידים הראשונים היו שוהים קודם התפילה ושעה אחר התפילה ומאריכים בתפילה שעה.

Okay, fine. So he quotes the interpretation of the Gemara. What's so remarkable here is if you don't parachute in, if you look at the context of where and how the Rambam is quoting this, so let's go back to the beginning of the Halacha. Keitzad hi hakavana שיפנה ליבו מכל המחשבות, a person should empty his mind, leiv in the Rambam often Chazal as well often means mind, not heart. Sometimes it means heart. Keitzad hi hakavana

שיפנה ליבו מכל המחשבות ויראה עצמו כאילו הוא עומד לפני השכינה. לפיכך צריך לישב מעט קודם התפילה כדי לכוון את ליבו ואחר כך יתפלל בנחת ובתחנונים.

And then the Rambam proceeds and he continues with the Halacha we just read. So the Rambam here again, not only juxtaposes, but connects this Din of tefillaso kemasoi that it shouldn't be that attitudinally we shouldn't relate to Tefilla as a masoi. He not only juxtaposes it to the Din of kavana, which you could have said, not in a very convincing or persuasive way, you could have said, well, it's symmetrical. Because of the Din of kavana, so you have to come a few minutes before davening, and because of this Din, you have to stay a few minutes after davening, so mameila it's nice and symmetrical. But the very fact that it's in the same Halacha and it's with a vav hachibbur of velo ya'aseh tefillaso. The Rambam here is not only juxtaposing, but he connects this Din of tefillaso kemasoi with the Din of kavana. So what's pshat? So something extraordinary here, something extraordinary. Again, what is the definition of kavana? Again, reread:

שיפנה ליבו מכל המחשבות ויראה עצמו כאילו הוא עומד לפני השכינה.

So kavana means that the reality of Tefilla for a person is omed lifnei haShchina. When Chazal when they're talking about that

שתוי אל יתפלל ואם התפלל תפילתו תפילה. שיכור אל יתפלל ואם התפלל תפילתו תועבה.

By the shikor so איזהו שיכור ואיזהו שתוי so shikor... And shatuy, shatuy is יכול לדבר לפני המלך. Again, for whatever reason, not our inyan now, the Rambam uses lashon Shechina instead of melech. But leaving that important difference aside, the same lashon. So comes the Rambam and he tells us something extraordinary. That there's something, I don't know if absolutely unique, but very, very singular about tefillah. Most mitzvos, you do a mitzvah, I'm not referring rachmana litzlan to toharah v'rishonus. You do a mitzvah, so the mitzvah is clinched, is done. I don't know, people used to say money in the bank, but after all the bank failures, I'm not sure if one can use that mashal anymore. It's done. It's clinched. You got it. Rambam uses something extraordinary. Rambam says if a person after tefillah acts as though he was nosei massa umashlicho, so retroactively, I'm not sure what the verb is supposed to be here, but minimally he impugns or detracts from the tefillah. Because if the tefillah is really omed lifnei haShechina, so who ever heard that a person who's omed lifnei hamelech runs out in the middle of the appointment? It doesn't happen. What I do after the fact, it's extraordinary. And that's why the Rambam, that's the peshat here. It's not stam the symmetry to have kavannah, you have to have kavannah early, to not be oseh massa, you have to stay a little later. No, says the Rambam, genuine kavannah is measured not only by what they call it when they look at the brain waves, whatever it's called, is not only measured bish'as tefillah, but genuine kavannah is also indicated by how a person conducts himself after tefillah. I don't know, would you mamash say that I mean in halacha tes vav the Rambam says כל תפילה שאינה בכוונה אינה תפילה. So again, how far does this chiddush go? I don't know. Pashitus is that the same should be true at the other end. Same should be true at the other end. The same way it impugns the tefillah retroactively when a person is rachmana litzlan כמי שהיה נושא משאו ומשליכו והולך לו, that retroactively impugns the tefillah, so the pashitus is that when a person comes late, not because of an ones gadol that happened to have happened as a one-time thing, stam comes late the way we come late, not the ones. So also, that impugns the tefillah before it begins. The same hu hadin, hu hadin. What is it mean if what a person is about to do is omed lifnei haShechina, it can't be that he shows up late. It can't be that he shows up late. It's ingantzen a stira to tefillah. M'emes is, m'emes is it really goes further than that. Even without invoking the chiddush al pi din that the Rambam is telling us that what a person does after tefillah can rachmana litzlan retroactively impugn the tefillah. No, I don't think so, thank you. Even without, even without the Rambam's, again, chiddush the formally al pi din it impugns the tefillah. Again, the Rambam is meforash about afterward, pashtus says זה הדין הוא הטעם before. The emes is even without, even without invoking that al pi din, it's just plain metzius. It can't be, it can't be, it just can't be that we have a correct understanding of what tefillah is if we're without a real honest about coming late and leaving early. Lo yitachen. Again, even without looking at, even without saying that that is megarei'a, it's הוכיח סופו על תחילתו or it's באו הוכיח על מה שיהיה that we don't, we're not misyacheis to what tefillah is if we can casually come late and casually leave early. אין אדם יודע מה שבלב חברו but it's poshut. It's poshut that it's mamash a makas hamedina, it's mamash a makas hamedina. It's all over the place. It's poshut, it's poshut, to take the most dramatic example, which is not to say that the point is only relevant to the most dramatic example. But to take the most dramatic example, so most, in most places, as the Rema says in Shulchan Aruch, so we daven later Shabbos morning than we do daven a weekday morning. As the Rema says in Shulchan Aruch, the minhag is like that. But to have davening begin at 9:00 and people come in at 9:45, it's poshut that what's going to happen after 9:45 is not davening. You can't show up at 9:45 and then think that what happens subsequently is davening. I don't know what it is, but it's not davening. The kids aren't ready, I hear, I hear, I hear the kids go to school Monday through Friday, they go to school at 8:30 and whether they want to or not because I have to go to work, so the kids are going to be in school whether they're healthy, whether they're sick, the kids are going to school and they're going to be there by 8:30. And all of a sudden Shabbos morning I waltz in at 9:45 because, well, I can only so quickly get the kids out of the house. The emes is weekday mornings at different stages of life, it's a nisayon, it really is a nisayon. It's a nisayon, whether the nisayon is that a person has to get to work, whether the nisayon is he has to go home and help get the kids ready to go to yeshiva, it is a real nisayon. But l'mayseh it's like this, what is tefillah about? What's tefillah all about? So I think the Rav has a line, I think it was said before him as well, the Rav has a line in his little essay Rayonot Al HaTefillah where he says that the essence of tefillah is a person recognizing and expressing his absolute and complete dependence upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Well, what's p'shat? The centerpiece of tefillah is bakasha. So why is that a דבר העומד ברומו של עולם? Hakadosh Baruch Hu, here's my shopping list, here's my wish list, don't forget it's my birthday next week and I'm not so matzliach on a shidduch, so here's my list. So why is that a דבר העומד ברומו של עולם? So the teretz is as follows, right, it's poshut. משל למה הדבר דומה? When parents go with the child, and the child says you know, Abba buy me this, Imma buy me this. So why doesn't, why does he have to ask them for it? The answer is they have this magic little plastic card that they can go and they can buy whatever they want, but he doesn't have one of those plastic cards, so he can't buy it for himself. If he had one of those plastic cards he wouldn't ask them, he'd buy it, he'd buy it himself. He'd go up to the register and he'd take it off of the shelf. You have to come to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, חננו מאיתך חכמה בינה ודעת, Hashivenu Avinu l'Torasecha. Absolute and total dependence and vulnerability. That's what the essence of tefillah is, is recognizing that, reinforcing that awareness, expressing that awareness. That's what the significance of bakashah is. That's why a person has to always be mevakesh. A person should never ever think that he doesn't have what to bakash. A person wants to be alive in a second from now, he has what to ask for. A person wants to be able to continue breathing, wants to be able to continue functioning, wants to be able to continue thinking, wants to be able to continue walking. He doesn't want to be abjectly poor, rachmana litzlan, a person has what to ask for. A person has what to daven for. There's nothing to be, nothing, we have nothing. A person has nothing on his own. He doesn't exist on his own. That's what the essence of tefillah is. So what do we do? The problem is we're so busy we don't necessarily stop and think and but what we do is the ultimate folly. So I'm running out of shul early because I have things to do, I have things to accomplish, I have to get to work and why do I have to get to work? Because I have to make a living, I have to provide for myself, I have to provide for my family. I'm running out of work, I'm running out of shul early to get home to take my kids to school, to drive carpool, to get them to the bus. I have to do, I have to do, I have to do, but a person can't do anything without tefillah. A person is nothing. It's when we stop and think about it so it's the ultimate folly, what is the ultimate folly? There's nothing more nonsensical than not having time in one's schedule for davening. Because what am I busy with? I'm busy with learning. A person has to be mevakesh that he should the same Ribbono Shel Olam binah le-havin u-le-haskil. A person has to daven that he should be able to be lomed. Halevai that's what, that's what I'm busy with all the time. But even if that's the case, a person has to have time for, a person has to have time for davening. So there's a story that he knew, knows a rav that he said to the baalabatim, he says, whatever time you want to begin davening Shabbos morning is fine with me, he says, but whatever time you choose you gotta be there at that time. You gotta be there at that time. You can be me-vater a little bit on the first half but let's say Shacharis, yesh ladon bazeh, but the second half you can't be me-vater on. The Gemara in Brachos says Hakadosh Baruch Hu comes to shul and there's no minyan, מיד הקדוש ברוך הוא כועס. So mistama, I understand but if there's 100 people gonna be here eventually so it's enough that there are 10 people here. So I don't know but mistama what it means is at least there's not gonna be rachmana litzlan any kaas on the tzibbur as a whole because le-maiseh the tzibbur was represented, the tzibbur was constituted. What the Gemara's implication is for yechidim I don't know, yesh ladon bazeh. Whether it comes from we, I don't know, we, we have and again I don't mean rachmana litzlan to understate or underestimate the nisyonos that we all have, they're very real nisyonos, at any rate they seem very real to us. What's really real and what seems real are not necessarily the same. But they either are or seem like very real nisyonos that we have, I don't mean to underestimate them, ki hu zeh. But le-maiseh, le-maiseh, when all's said and done it just can't be that we implicitly tell Hakadosh Baruch Hu, listen, I can only find 30 minutes for you in my schedule in the morning. I just what can I tell you? I gotta get to seder, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, I can give you 30 minutes. Whether it's because of this mindset or for other reasons, so what happens is, I don't know where it comes from, I suspect it's from this mindset but I don't know. The fact is that minyanim and again this is also a widespread makah don't say korbanos in the davening. But it's probably a little bit too much wishful thinking to assume that everyone who comes to each of the minyanim that don't say korbanos that everyone is saying korbanos before they come to shul. Let's not say korbanos in shul so let's not say korbanos at all what do we have to be me-vayeish. More embarrassing things in life than than being caught, caught saying kavanos. So we fast forward from Kaddish d'Rabbanan, we fast forward to Eilu Devarim. L'maise, even, even in the best case scenario, which I don't think any of us really think exists, that everyone says kavanos at home, it still doesn't make any sense. Why are we doing things out of seder? The siddurim and the peirushim on siddur that explain or that comment on things al pi kabbalah, the seder tfila is very, very mechuvon. So we don't begin to understand משל למה הדבר דומה. Most of us don't understand how a car's engine works, and you put the key in the ignition and and it goes. Don't understand all the connections underneath the hood, and whenever I go to the mechanic he explains to me what's wrong with the car and he thinks I know what he's talking about and I am a shtarker competent, but whatever, this connection, that connection, a here, a hair. Okay, so I don't know, you turn the ignition with the key and nos'u v'halachu. There's everything, everything is so mechuvon and medukdak in tfila, even if it were true, even if it were true that everyone's mas'in kavanos here or there before or later, it's not, there's nothing incidental about our, about our seder hatfila. And again על אחת כמה וכמה that it would seem to me a little bit of a wishful thinking to assume that that is the case. Sometimes you, you listen to, you listen to chazaras hashatz and they have one of two experiences. Sometimes you hear chazaras hashatz and you hear that the person's capacity for pronouncing, pronouncing Hebrew is such that it just doesn't match with how fast the pace of the tfila was until this point. And it's quite obvious. Other times you have someone who's actually very fluent but it's mamish, it's a sprint. It's a sprint to see how fast, how quickly one can say chazaras hashatz. On your mark, get set, go! At points it's a sprint to see how fast that person can say chazaras hashatz. Listen to the words of tfila, whether it's the adaraba in Perek Tefilla or the brachos of Anshei Knesses HaGedolah, they're so beautiful and so sweet. That again when, when we're davenning is not the time to try to first figure out what the words mean. I don't know, I don't know how well that works. But on the other hand I just don't even know how, just don't know whether or not even if one has a little bit studied the peirush hatfila beforehand, just don't know how many people's minds work that quickly that all the associations that they're aware of, all the meanings or even the just the very basic meaning that they're aware of, I just don't know whether... Some people think very, very quickly. Sometimes the Rebbe, Reb Koppels used to talk like a machine gun, so he used to... Most of us think a little bit, a little bit, a little bit slower. I don't know what comes first, what comes second, they come simultaneously. So on the one hand we have a certain budget of time that the tefillah has to has to fit into. On the other hand, it doesn't, I'm not aware that we're missing very much because of if you go really fast that you can't even see the scenery, so then you don't even know what you're missing. So there's the two reinforcing each other. Lav davka that the problem is new, lav davka that I've no such implication. There's a story presumably of a Chofetz Chaim, who knows for sure anyway, but the Chofetz Chaim once went over to someone who had been the Baal Tefillah after the Shacharis and very mildly commented and said, you know, I think I read pretty much, but I just can't keep up. So the story goes, so the Baal Tefillah says to him, says Rebbe, says remember when we were when we went to cheder together. He says, you, he says, the first day, he says, we were going to the aleph-beys rebbe. He says, you, after half hour, so you were already by the Chumash rebbe. He says, before the morning was out, you were already by the Mishnais rebbe. The next day you were by the Gemara rebbe. And after the first week, they said they couldn't teach you. Says, I spent four years with the aleph-beys rebbe. He says, is it any wonder, he says, that I read that I can read better than you can? You know, we don't, a person rachmana litzlan, we don't, especially by mitzvas asei, the Rambam says where we don't really have any way to gauge mitzvas asei. By lav, so we have chomer ha'onesh, so we're able to gauge. But by mitzvas asei, you can't really gauge, and be-khlal, we're not allowed to rank mitzvos. But practically, you know, there are three anchors in a person's life. Three anchors in a person's life, and obviously during the years when you're full-time in the Yeshiva, it's relatively speaking easier to be anchored and the main anchor becomes much more of a challenge of a nisayon at other and later stages in life. Kevias itim la-Torah is an anchor in a person's life. Serious Kevias itim la-Torah. Shabbos, how a person approaches Shabbos, how a person goes into and observes Shabbos is an anchor. And tefillah, and specifically tefillah be-tzibbur. Those are the three anchors in a person's life. And once a person is never ever mevatter on those, it spills over. It spills over to everything, it spills over to all areas of shemiras ha-mitzvos, dikduk be-mitzvos, kiyyum ha-mitzvos. A person has to be very, very makpid on those things. He has to move heaven and earth for tefillah be-tzibbur three times a day. He has to move heaven and earth for serious kevias itim and for proper Shabbos. Again, proper Shabbos means, again, not sort of, you know, trying to jump into the shower while one's wife is bentching the. But the the habit, the foundation. Now is the best time for everyone to lay that foundation. And le-ma'aseh, given the fact that so many minyanim, if the minyan is scheduled to begin at hour X, so given the fact that so many of the minyanim don't say korbanos, so coming on time is coming late. Coming on time means you're coming 10 minutes late. That's what it means practically, that's without cheshbon. long it takes to put on the tefillin and then ten minutes plus however long it takes to put on tefillin and then and then if if one can't quite say Pesukei D'Zimra or or one one can't quite keep up with with the sprint so then all that is ten-fifteen minutes is as early as maybe on time maybe that's on time but but that's not exactly on time on time either and and and and although that again what we spoke about last week how again human nature is such that whatever whatever is regular so we tend to under-appreciate and because of that so we tend to under-appreciate Shabbos and and you know where the Yomim Tovim don't suffer such a fate so kal v'chomer בן בנו של קל וחומר when it comes to tefillah tefillah we have three times a day not even not even once a week and doesn't even have what Shabbos has going for it but if we can overcome that nisayon I think they quote from the בעל שם טוב הקדוש the Baal Shem said that whatever he achieved whatever maalos and madreigos and sodos he achieved he achieved he achieved with the zechus tefillah.