The Centrality of Tefillah in General in Avodas Hashem, and Specifically Creating a Personal Connection with Hashem.

Yitzchak Avinu lived 180 years. And yet, there are very few snapshots the Torah gives us of Yitzchak Avinu, which therefore makes each snapshot doubly significant. After the Akeidah, the first two times the Torah describes Yitzchak Avinu is ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה לפנות ערב, which the Gemara in Berachot, of course, says refers to Tefillat Mincha. And then again at the beginning of Parshat Toldot, ויעתר יצחק לה' לנוכח אשתו. Yitzchak Avinu is portrayed both times as engaged in Tefillah, Omed Bi'Tefillah. And not only, not only does the Torah's portrayal of Yitzchak Avinu suggest an identification with Avodah, but it seems to frame the relationship between Yitzchak and Rivka. Rivka first sees Yitzchak when he was Yotzei Lasuach Basadeh, and then the next glimpse we're given of Yitzchak and Rivka is

ויעתר יצחק לה' לנוכח אשתו. והוא עומד בזוית זו והוא עומד בזוית זו.

And in fact, we have a tradition of the Avot, the Gimmel Avot correspond to the Gimmel Amudei Ha'olam. And it's generally understood that that correlation is that Avraham Avinu represents the Middat Chesed, Yitzchak Avinu the Amud Ha'Avodah, which again according to the Rabbeinu Yonah, as Rabbeinu Yonah in Pirkei Avot explains, doesn't only mean Avodat Hakorbanot, Yitzchak Avinu was also an Olah Temimah, but also Tefillah, which is Ikar Avodah. And Yaakov, Titein Emet Le'Yaakov, Emet is Torah, and Yaakov Avinu represents the Amud Ha'Torah. So the Torah portrays Yitzchak Avinu again as the representative of Avodah, that Amud Ha'olam, and specifically Avodah in the form of Tefillah. Now, we have another portrait which the Torah provides us of Yitzchak Avinu is

וישב יצחק ויחפר את בארת המים אשר חפרו בימי אברהם אביו

and then ויסתמום פלשתים וימלאום עפר. And then ויקרא להן שמות כשמות אשר קרא להן אביו. That Yitzchak Avinu digs the same wells which Avraham Avinu had dug, and then he renames the wells, and he's particularly makpid to give them the same names which Avraham Avinu gave them. So what's the significance of this Vayashov Yitzchak Vayachpor and ויקרא להן שמות כשמות אשר קרא להן אביו? So we know again the Ramban's basic principle for interpreting Sefer Bereishit following Chazal is מעשה אבות סימן לבנים. Now what מעשה אבות סימן לבנים means is not simply that what the Avot did foreshadowed Jewish history. It means that as well, but it means something much deeper than that. What it means is that the Avot, through their behavior, through their Ma'asim, created certain spiritual capacities which then became the Morasha, which then became the legacy and was embedded in K'lal Yisrael Ledor Dor. And that's what it means, מעשה אבות סימן לבנים, that the Avot. through their behavior again created again not only paradigms of behavior but capacities and potential which is then embedded within us, within Klal Yisrael ledor doros. Now one element, one facet of Yitzchak Avinu's מעשה אבות סימן לבנים. Avraham Avinu's avoda, he discovered the Ribbono Shel Olam. The Rambam describes he had no teacher, on his own Avraham Avinu discovered the Ribbono Shel Olam. Yitzchak was the first second-generation ma'amin. Yitzchak Avinu was the first one who was brought up frum. So what's the avoda in that? That's easy. No, what's, what's the avoda if a person, it's a tremendous avoda if a person doesn't have, doesn't have the bracha and benefit of, of being taught and being raised and inculcated with emuna. What's the avoda when a person has that? So the avoda is also a great avoda. Because there's a tremendous danger that when a person is brought up to be a ma'amin, that that emuna will remain a second-hand emuna. It will remain something indirect. It will remain that this was my father's relationship, right? re'acha vere'a avicha. This was my father's friend. Okay, so I feel a certain kirva because, because he's my father's friend. But it's indirect. The intensity gradually wanes. The capacity which Yitzchak Avinu created for Klal Yisrael was that we should have the capacity to be ma'aminim bnei ma'aminim, meaning that our emuna shouldn't only be a morasha, it should be that also, but it should have the same intensity as it does for the first generation. And again, just to concretize what we're talking about, so puk chazi, right? We all know, we all know that sometimes we see someone who has tremendous fervor for his yiddishkeit. Someone with a tremendous passion, someone with a tremendous drive, very often it's someone who was not brought up frum. It's someone who has that first-hand experience and discovery of the Ribbono Shel Olam. There's nothing mitzvath anashim melummadah about his commitment because it wasn't melummadah, because he's self-taught, because there was self-discovery. And too often, too often, those of us who had the bracha and benefit of being inculcated with emuna, it remains second-hand. It remains indirect. And it's not personalized and we don't experience it first-hand with the same intensity and therefore we sometimes don't demonstrate that same devotion and dedication. That was Yitzchak Avinu's avoda. וישב יצחק ויחפר בארת המים. That Yitzchak rediscovered, again, the path had been blazed by Avraham Avinu, but the point is that Yitzchak Avinu wasn't content, just as one shouldn't be content that it should be a second-hand emuna. No, it should be a first-hand emuna, that a person should experience, again, through Torah, the same path that Avraham Avinu already trailblazed. Not that we have to find a new path, but through that path it should be a first-hand avoda. It should be a first-hand experience of feeling close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu through Torah, through mitzvos. That's the significance of

וישב יצחק ויחפר בארת המים ויקרא להן שמות כשמות אשר קרא להן אביו.

And again, that's clearly what we're meramez to in t'filla, Elokeinu v'Elokei avoseinu. Again, not that we should be content with Elokei avoseinu, but it has to be Elokeinu as well. Apparently, in this avoda, in this avoda of rediscovery, in this avoda of experiencing first-hand and directly what has been the emuna which... Why is that? So you are all familiar with Rav Chaim's definition that the very essence of tefillah, the very maiseh hamitzvah of tefillah is the awareness of omed lifnei Hashem. And Rav Chaim says if a person loses that awareness he becomes a misasek. It's not simply that he's lacking kavonah, but in tefillah again the very definition, the very essence of tefillah is the awareness of lifnei Hashem. How does this differ from the perennial lifnei Hashem which a person has? So perhaps ultimately the madrega of tzaddikim is that the difference narrows more and more until it's really not that significant. But how does it differ for us? How does the lifnei Hashem which a person always has, how is that sense intensified? How does it differ when we say that tefillah al pi din is defined as lifnei Hashem? So the moshal would be as follows: a person can be aware that the room is bugged. A person can be aware that what he says is audible for others. A person can be aware that maybe there's a camera so that what he does is visible for others. But those others might be standing in a remote room, again monitoring what the bug picks up, monitoring whatever pictures the camera sends back. So there's an awareness of עין רואה ואוזן שומעת. There's an awareness of again nothing goes undetected, nothing is unseen, nothing is inaudible, and in that sense one is lifnei Hashem. But then, coming back to the moshal, a person can feel not just that the camera is picking up his movements and is flashing them back, but that he's actually in the presence of a melech, that he's in the chatzer hapnimis and he's speaking to the melech. Lifnei Hashem in that sense, that's already a much more powerful sense of lifnei Hashem. And it's that latter sense of lifnei Hashem which is what tefillah consists of. Again, that sense of not only an עין רואה ואוזן שומעת, which again even for us, for us on the most elementary level, should be a permanently embedded within our consciousness, but that tefillah again is a sense of omed lifnei hamelech. And when you think about it, now is not the time to be maarich on this, but Rav Chaim's definition of lifnei Hashem as again the essence of tefillah, the maiseh hamitzvah of tefillah l'chora is totally muchrach. Because again, we all know the Rambam in perek aleph defines tefillah as avodah shebalev, right? Following the Gemara in Taanis, the Sifrei:

ולעבדו בכל לבבכם איזו היא עבודה שהיא בלב הוי אומר זה תפילה.

Then when the Rambam defines kavonah in perek daled, so the Rambam says:

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

So these two halachos have to be juxtaposed, right? It's only if יפנה את לבו ויראה עצמו כאילו עומד לפני השכינה, it's only then that it's an avodah shebalev. How else is it an avodah shebalev? The Rav used to say, margala d'pumei, used to say it all the time in droshes, I think it's in at least one of the English maamarim as well, that the only difference between tefillah and nevuah is that in nevuah Hakadosh Baruch Hu takes the initiative and speaks to basar v'dam. Basically it's the same. Basically it's the same that a person engages Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That's what tefillah is. So certainly, certainly there's nothing, at least at the outset, more powerful in terms of the bechina of

וישב ויחפור את באר המים ויקרא להם שמות כשמות אשר קרא להם אביו

than to be omeid b'tefillah, to be מפנה לבו מכל המחשבות and to be omeid that way lifnei Hashchina. Now even with this very rudimentary review of tefillah, and there's much more bli neder that in coming weeks I hope we'll be able to discuss, but even with this again very rudimentary review of tefillah, it helps one understand why the problem of talking during davening is such, is such an acute problem. Again, not to suggest that by any stretch of the imagination the problem is new to our generation, we obviously know that it isn't, but that awareness which sometimes is used to perhaps justify, really that perspective that we know that it's not new at all to our generation really makes it worse because we know that Chazal say that the Ribono Shel Olam is more makpid on an aveira, Rachmana litzlan, when it's אוחזו מעשי אבותיהם בידיהם. So the awareness, the awareness that this is not a new problem makes it not less serious, less severe, but Rachmana litzlan more serious and more severe, and it cries out with all the more urgency. Why is it, why is it so terrible? Because again, if it were simply a hefsek it would be bad enough. If it were simply a hefsek, it'd be bad enough. But if a person speaks even once during davening when he shouldn't, it destroys the entire lifnei Hashem. Whoever heard, whoever heard that a lawyer is standing in front of a judge and he keeps his cell phone on and in the middle of his presentation so he interrupts and he answers the cell phone and he conducts a conversation? The very possibility of conversation means that we don't begin to understand what tefillah is. It's not just a question of hefsek. It's not just a question of a hefsek. Maybe talking during other mitzvos is just an inyan of hefsek, that's bad enough, that's bad enough, לאו מילתא זוטא היא. But the possibility, the possibility of talking, again, it wouldn't occur to anyone when engaged in dialogue. Right, if you're talking with someone and you see someone else is waiting to talk to you, so the person waits. You're not going to, you're not going to interrupt the conversation you're having presently to speak to a third person. It's not derech eretz to the other person. The very possibility, to say nothing of the reality of talking, means that we just don't begin to understand what tefillah is and that we don't begin to experience the lifnei Hashem which has so much potential in terms of transforming our lives, in terms of allowing us to experience the Ribono Shel Olam. The Baal Shem Tov said that everything that he achieved, everything that he achieved was in the zechus of his avodah b'tefillah. Everything that he achieved, meaning in Torah also, this bechina of the relationship between the two is something we'll talk about yet, but everything he achieved, everything he attained was in the zechus of his avodah b'tefillah. So the potential is so great, but only if again, if it's an experience of lifnei Hashem. Even one comment, even one comment shows that we lack this awareness. We know that the physical world is a reflection of the spiritual world for many reasons. It's the spiritual world which gives chayos to the physical world. Therefore they have to be correlated, and it's also for that reason that very often spiritual concepts, concepts in ruchoniyus can be understood, can be apprehended by an analogy to the physical world. Because of this mirroring which happens between the physical world and the spiritual world. So just as in the physical world, we know that there's a force in physics, we know there's a force of momentum. We know there's a force of momentum and that it's a powerful force. In ruchoniyus there's also momentum. A person can create momentum in ruchoniyus also. Just imagine, imagine the momentum that could be created and the impact that it could have if every talmid in our yeshiva, not only bein koslei hayeshiva, but also when he goes home, weekends, Shabbos, Yom Tov, vacation, would carry with him this understanding of tefillah as being lifnei Hashem and this strong resolution, determination to maintain that experience of lifnei Hashem and not let it be compromised, vitiated by talking. Just imagine the momentum that would create. Just imagine the impact that would have. And not only mikhutz lekoslei hayeshiva during these years, but it should be nikkar. One of the saddest experiences a person has, it's saddening and it's jarring, is when you see someone who used to be a ben yeshiva in his younger years. He was a ben yeshiva. And then you see him, and you see there was a yerida. You see there was a yerida. You see the person talking in shul, and one wonders, where is the effect of all the Gemara, Rashi, Tosafos, if a few years later, if a few years later there has been such a yerida? So why does this happen? There are many reasons that it happens, and again, it's too much of an arichus to go into now. But one, one consideration, when we imagine other occasions we'll talk about others, but one is that a person has to plan for the future. A person has to have a blueprint for the nisyonos he will encounter. In Parshas Vayeitzei, וישכב במקום ההוא ויחלום הנה סולם מוצב. So Chazal medayek Vayishkav bamakom hahu, but during the fourteen years that Yaakov Avinu was in Yeshivas Shem v'Ever he didn't sleep. He didn't sleep. He was up all night learning. What does Chazal mean? Not necessarily, but he was misnamnem, like the Gemara describes Dovid Avinu. He was misnamnem, but he never lay down to sleep. Never lay down to sleep. So the question is, if for fourteen years Yaakov Avinu had that gevurah, so what all of a sudden now he was overcome by fatigue? All of a sudden now Vayishkav bamakom hahu? He decided he was going to catch up on fourteen years worth of lost sleep? He's going to take a nice comfortable stone and go to bed early? The answer is that it's not that Yaakov Avinu went to sleep and then he dreamt. He went to sleep in order to dream. That's why Yaakov Avinu went to sleep. He went to sleep in order to dream. Because what does a dream represent when we dream? So especially when you're young, so you dream about the future, right? You dream, plans for the future. So Yaakov Avinu recognized that in leaving the cloistered environment of Yeshivas Shem v'Ever, so he realized I'm going to Lavan HaArami, so he knew that there was a whole, whole range of nisyonos that awaited him. And he knew that only by dreaming, by having a blueprint of how he would cope with those nisyonos, by preparing himself for what to expect, what to anticipate, for only then would he be able to maintain himself and his madrega, and only then would he be able to say a parsha later עם לבן גרתי ותרי"ג מצוות שמרתי. One of the main things which one tries to accomplish within one’s years in yeshiva is the vayachalom for the future. And the vayachalom again, it is in terms of Kerias Yam Suf, Matan Torah, but to apply it to what we’re discussing tonight, in terms of avodas hatefilla, so a person has to realize that the nisyonos are very great, because we all know that’s the case, it doesn’t need to be discerned. So a person has to have that vayachalom to maintain himself in the face of those nisyonos. And just imagine again, just imagine the momentum created and the potential impact if every, every ben yeshiva who goes through the koslei hayeshiva here would emerge with such a chalom and would implement it. Just imagine, imagine how davening could be revolutionized. Just imagine that we would be able then to tap into that koach of מעשה אבות סימן לבנים created by Yitzchak Avinu of

וישב יצחק ויקרא להם שמות כשמות אשר קרא להם אביו.