Avodah Shebaleiv

The identification or the definition of tefillah as avodah she-b'lev occurs in different places in Chazal, one of them is here the first source that you have in front of you, the Gemara in the beginning of Masechet Taanis quotes a Baraita d'tanya:

ולאהבה את ה' אלהיכם ולעבדו בכל לבבכם, איזו היא עבודה שהיא בלב הוי אומר זו תפילה.

So we're going to try to understand and define just what בעזרת השם בלי נדר just what the term avodah she-b'lev means. So Rabbeinu Yonah in the beginning of Pirkei Avos in commenting on the Mishnah of

על שלושה דברים העולם עומד על התורה על העבודה גמילות חסדים,

Rabbeinu Yonah writes as follows:

על העבודה כי הקדוש ברוך הוא בחר בישראל מכל האומות.

HaKadosh Baruch Hu of all the nations of the world that he created, so he selected Klal Yisrael. And bechirah for Rabbeinu Yonah reflects purposiveness, reflects teleology, reflects goal. וארץ ישראל מכל הארצות. Of the entire globe HaKadosh Baruch Hu chose Eretz Yisrael. u-vachar mi-Yerushalayim Tzion

כמו שנאמר כי בחר ה' בציון אווה למושב לו ובחר מכל בבית הבחירה.

So the choice place of the entire cosmos is the Beis HaMikdash and that's on account of avodah:

בשביל העבודה שכתוב בו רצון שנאמר לרצונו לפני ה', הנה לך כי מפני העבודה נברא כל העולם כולו.

So the purpose of the world, the goal that we're supposed to accomplish, what we're supposed to bring to fruition is that there should be avodah.

אז בחטאינו חרב מקדש ובטלה עבודה והתפילה אצלנו עכשיו במקומה

kmo she-amru Chazal u-le'ovdo be-chol levavchem איזו היא עבודה שבלב הוי אומר זו תפילה. So our substitute, our equivalent for avodat ha-korbanot for avodah she-ba-mikdash is tefillah. So Rabbeinu Yonah among other Rishonim is the source I think for the widespread understanding that when we describe and we define tefillah as avodah she-b'lev, so avodah has the connotation of avodat korbanot and tefillah is the equivalent of avodat korbanot which doesn't happen in the Beis HaMikdash, it doesn't happen with a mizbe'ach, but rather it happens be-libo shel adam. And that I think is if we would have been asked what our immediate association is with avodah she-b'lev, it's that which Rabbeinu Yonah is here presenting. And that's one understanding in the Rishonim. The next source you have in front of you is from the Ramban's hassagot to Sefer HaMitzvos. Mitzvas Aseh Hey in the Rambam's counting of Taryag is Mitzvas Tefillah. The Rambam of course following Rav Saadia Gaon thinks that tefillah is a mitzvah d'oraita. The Ramban critiques it. So if you take a look the top line there in the right-hand column it's indicated: אלא ודאי כל עניין התפילה אינו חובה כלל. There is no obligation mi-d'oraita to daven,

אבל הוא ממידת חסד הבורא יתברך עלינו ששומע ועונה בכל קוראינו אליו.

It's an instance of HaKadosh Baruch Hu's infinite chesed that he's shome'a tefillah, but it's not an obligation that we have to daven. Ay, what do you do with a pasuk?

ועיקר הכתוב ולעבדו בכל לבבכם מצוות עשה שתהיה כל עבודתנו לקל יתעלה בכל לבבנו.

That our entire service of HaKadosh Baruch Hu should be be-chol levavenu. What does be-chol levavenu mean? Klomar says the Ramban

בכוונה ורצון שלמה לשמו ובאין הרהור רע. לא שנעשה המצוות בלי כוונה או על הספק אולי יש בהם תועלת.

So u'le'avdo bechol levavchem, the Ramban says that the real meaning is to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu wholeheartedly with sincerity, with conviction, with emuna. Not to question the importance, the validity of Torah u'mitzvos. Again, but u'le'avdo bechol levavchem to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu wholeheartedly with sincerity, with conviction, with an underlying and motivating sense of emuna. U'mah she'darshu, it skips a couple of lines, we're now at the line which has the daled in the bold daled in parentheses at the beginning of the line:

ומה שדרשו בספרי ולעבדו זה תלמוד דבר אחר זו תפילה אסמכתא היא.

The Chazal don't intend that as the peshuto shel mikra, they don't intend it as a derasha gemura yielding a din de'oraisa, it's intended as an asmachta. O, alternatively,

או לומר שמכלל העבודה שנלמוד תורתו ושנתפלל אליו בעת הצרות

that part of the bechol levavchem, part of that sense of, again, of serving HaKadosh Baruch Hu with emuna, it also includes tefilla be'eis tzarah. If a person is generally עובד השם בכל לבבו with conviction, with emuna, so then the natural reaction in an eis tzarah has to be to davven. Rav Moshe Feinstein has a very beautiful teshuva in his Igros Moshe where he says that he thinks that bnei Noach are obligated in tefilla be'eis tzarah. Where do you find that? It doesn't say that anywhere in the Gemara, it doesn't say it anywhere in Chazal. So Rav Moshe says no, it's obvious, bnei Noach are obligated to believe in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. שבע מצוות בני נח, all mitzvos are empty, they're hollow, they're empty shells if they're not anchored in emuna. And Rav Moshe says anyone who's genuinely ma'amin in an eis tzarah, right, there are no atheists in foxholes, anyone who's genuinely a ma'amin in an eis tzarah turns to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So that's what the Ramban says, it could be either when Chazal said ולעבדו בכל לבבכם זו תפילה, either they just intended that as an asmachta and again and the peshuto shel mikra again is to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu again with sincerity, with conviction, wholeheartedly with emuna, or alternatively, part of that serving HaKadosh Baruch Hu with emuna is that in an eis tzarah that emuna should express itself, it should surface in the form of tefilla. So if we would ask according to the Ramban what the phrase avoda shebalev means in terms of the peshuto shel mikra, so for the Ramban avoda isn't supposed to have the association with avodas Beis HaMikdash, with avodas korbanos, the association we should have with avoda is avodas Hashem, right, a much broader term, a much broader association, and the avoda shebalev again means with that conviction, with that sense of emuna. So those are so far two understandings, two approaches in the Rishonim. If you turn on to the next page, so maybe we'll read the Rambam's presentation in the first two halachos of Hilchos Tefilla.

מצות עשה להתפלל בכל יום שנאמר ועבדתם את השם אלוקיכם.

Mipi hashemu'a, meaning the oral tradition, Torah shebe'al peh,

מפי השמועה למדו שעבודה זו היא תפילה שנאמר ולעבדו בכל לבבכם אמרו חכמים איזוהי עבודה שבלב זו תפילה. ואין מנין התפילה מן התורה ואין משנה התפילה הזאת מן התורה,

neither the number of tefillos daily nor the text of the tefilla is prescribed min HaTorah. ואין לתפילה זמן קבוע מן התורה, nor is there any set time for tefilla mid'oraisa. Ulifichach nashim va'avadim, women who as a general rule are exempt from מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא. zeman grama from time-bound mitzvos, chayavin bitefillah, they're certainly obligated at least in the deoraisa of tefillah, לפי שהיא מצוות עשה שלא הזמן גרמא. Because it's not linked to any specific time frame.

אלא חיוב מצוה זו כך הוא שיהיה אדם מתחנן ומתפלל בכל יום מגיד שבחו של הקדוש ברוך הוא ואחר כך שואל צרכיו שהוא צריך להם בבקשה ובתחינה ואחר כך נותן שבח והודיה לה' על הטובה שהשפיע לו כל אחד לפי כוחו.

So if we ask for the Rambam, what does the phrase avodah shebelev mean? So he certainly, unlike the Ramban, takes it as a derasha gemura and says that the peshuto shel mikra of avodah shebelev does refer to tefillah. So he certainly doesn't have the Ramban's understanding of what avodah shebelev is. On the other hand, it isn't Rabbeinu Yonah's here either, because there's no allusion whatsoever to avodas korbanos. Right? When the Rambam just presented and just defined what the deoraisa of tefillah is, there's no intimation whatsoever that it has anything to do with avodas korbanos. Only later in the perek, I'm not sure whether we'll get to it, but later in the perek, when the Rambam talks about the derabbanan of tefillah and he talks about having set times for tefillah, so then he introduces the connection between tefillah and korbanos. But at this stage, there's no hint of it whatsoever. So the question is, what does the phrase avodah shebelev mean for the Rambam? Now, this again, this impression that we're gleaning, that the Rambam doesn't understand the phrase avodah shebelev as we conventionally, again in the footsteps of Rabbeinu Yonah do, so that's really corroborated if you take a look in the Rambam's Sefer Hamitzvos, which is the next source you have in front of you. So mitzvah hei in the Sefer Hamitzvos, the Rambam writes as follows: hi shetzivanu le'ovdo.

וכבר נכפל זה הציווי פעמים ואמר ועבדתם את ה' אלוהיכם ואמר ואותו.

It continues on this page in the smaller print. ve'amar ve'oso sa'avodu.

ואף על פי שזה הציווי הוא גם כן מהציוויים הכוללים כמו שביארנו בשורש ד'.

It's really something which is the goal of all of Torah, בלי נדר אם ירצה השם we'll come back to try to understand what that means, הנה יש בו ייחוד. There is something that it specifies in particular,

שהוא ציווי לתפילה ובלשון ספרי ולעבדו זו תפילה ואמרו גם כן ולעבדו זו תלמוד.

That avodah shebelev denotes one of two things, or two things: it denotes tefillah, it also denotes talmud torah. Which lichora is also a hint to file away in terms of trying to understand what the phrase avodah shebelev means for the Rambam. Whatever it means has to somehow or other plug in to avodah shebelev in the form of tefillah, avodah shebelev in the form of talmud torah.

ובמשנתו של רבי אליעזר בנו של רבי יוסי הגלילי אמרו מנין שעיקר תפילה מצווה מן הכא את ה' אלוהיך תירא ואותו תעבוד ואמרו עבדהו בתורתו ועבדהו במקדשו.

So what does ivdehu bemikdasho mean? So if we were to cut off the Rambam here, ivdehu bemikdasho, so obviously what it means: ivdehu bemikdasho means avodas korbanos. It means that we do the avodah in the Beis Hamikdash. So look at how the Rambam translates ivdehu bemikdasho: רצונו לומר היכוון אליו להתפלל שם. Now the larger print again: היכוון אליו להתפלל שם כמו שביאר שלמה עליו השלום. The Rambam interprets the line in the Sifrei that ivdehu bemikdasho, that it doesn't refer to avodas hakorbanos. It refers to avodas tefillah. So what's tefillah got to do with the Beis Hamikdash? It refers to the din of nochach hamikdash. It refers to the fact that when we daven, we face the Beis Hamikdash. That's why if you look back here in the source right above it in פרק א' מהלכות תפילה הלכה ג'. So remember the Rambam here is outlining the deoraisa of tefillah, right? So he tells us that it's once a day, he told us about the triple... tripartite structure of tefilla, shevach, bakasha, hoda'ah. He's still talking on the level of d'Oraisa. He hasn't introduced any d'Rabbanan element. The Rambam continues in Halacha Gimmel. היה רגיל מרבה בתחינה ובקשה. If a person is fluent, so then he'll probably daven a longer tefilla. And if he's aral sefasayim, if a person is he stumbles in speech, he's not it's not so easy for him to express himself, medaber kefi yacholto. He speaks to the best of his ability uvechol eis sheyirtze וכן עניין התפילות כל אחד כפי יכולתו. And maybe vechen minyan hatefillos. יש מתפלל פעם אחת ביום ויש מתפללים פעמים הרבה. And here's the line that we want to note for right now.

והכל היו מתפללים נוכח המקדש וכן היה הדבר תמיד ממשה רבנו ועד עזרא.

So here when the Rambam is again outlining the d'Oraisa of tefilla for us, so the Rav quoted from Reb Chaim that the Rambam mentions nochach hamikdash, the fact that we face the Beis Hamikdash in this context, that it sounds like that's part of the d'Oraisa configuration of tefilla. And that's how the Rambam in Sefer Hamitzvos actually understands ivduhu vemikdasho means when you daven. Avoda doesn't mean avodas korbonos. If avoda had in the phrase avoda she-ba-lev, if avoda had any connection to avodas korbonos, then ivduhu vemikdasho means bring the korbonos in the Beis Hamikdash. So the Rambam ivduhu vemikdasho means when you daven, daven facing the Beis Hamikdash. So it's quite clear that the Rambam takes עבודה שבלב זו תפילה as a derasha gemura unlike, unlike the Ramban. So it does mean tefilla on a d'Oraisadike level. On the other hand, it doesn't mean that tefilla is the equivalent and therefore the substitute for avodas korbonos. Again, all of which leaves us with the question: So what does the term, this critical, critical term which defines the essence of tefilla, avoda she-ba-lev, so what does it mean for the Rambam? So let's perhaps approach this as follows. Before trying to understand what avoda means in this context, maybe let's try to pin down what the term lev means in this context. And here I apologize, I forgot to list a couple of sources, so just a little bit of Torah shebe'al peh. The Rambam says that the word lev has multiple meanings, right? Its most basic meaning of course is heart, the organ in the body. Then the Rambam says, given the fact that we conceive of the heart as being more or less centrally located, so then very much as we use the term in English, we talk about the heart of the matter, we talk about what's central, the crux, what's central. So the Rambam says hence the usage in Tanach ad lev hashamayim. Again, so lev can also denote something which is central. Then the Rambam says sometimes you find lev that it translates as ratzon, that ka'asher im levavo means what a person wills. So lev can denote ratzon, will. But then the Rambam says that lev also sometimes means machshava. That sometimes the term lev is used to mean machshava. The truth is that the Rambam already in the Yad has clearly indicated this to us. Again, I apologize that you don't have this in front of you, but the pasuk that we say so often in Krias Shema ולא תסורו אחרי לבבכם. So don't stray after, again, we always translate it as heart, right? ולא תסורו אחרי לבבכם, don't stray after your heart. So what does that lav involved? So the Rambam says as follows: vechol halavin haeileh, this is in Perek Beis of Hilchos Avoda Zara. וכל הלאוין האלו בעניין אחד הן. They're all focusing on the same issue. the same point. And that is והוא שלא יפנה אחר עבודה זרה. A person shouldn't turn, and we'll see in a minute, turn not only in a physical sense, but we'll see mentally as well. A person shouldn't turn in the direction of avodah zarah. ולא עבודה זרה בלבד, listen to this next line rabosai, ולא עבודה זרה בלבד and not only avodah zarah is it that הוא שאסור להיפנות אחריה במחשבה. Not only is avodah zarah something that is off limits in terms of a person's thoughts, that a person's thoughts shouldn't turn in the direction of avodah zarah,

אלא כל מחשבה שגורמת לו לאדם לעקור עיקר מעיקרי התורה,

any thought which potentially rachmana litzlan conflicts with basic emunahs in the Torah. מוזהרין אנו שלא להעלותה על לבנו, right? So a machshavah, we're not allowed leha'alosah al libeinu. So it's quite clear that lev in this context means machshavah. Right? That ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם and the Rambam says again later he says

פעמים יחשוב ביחוד הבורא ופעמים יחשוב זה ועל ענין זה הזהירה תורה ונאמר בה ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם.

So lev for the Rambam sometimes means thought, machshavah. And clearly he says it here as well:

והוא גם שם המחשבה ומן הענין הזה ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם.

So the pasuk basically in Krias Shema, ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם is a pasuk which mandates intellectual discipline. That a person can't just allow his thoughts to wander unproductively in all kinds of directions. ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם, the same way ולא תתורו אחרי עיניכם imposes a certain discipline on physical sight, so ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם imposes an intellectual discipline that a person can't just let his thoughts wander. But in terms of, in terms of our sugya at hand, so what we want to extrapolate is that lev for the Rambam sometimes is a word that denotes machshavah, denotes thought. Okay, but what about in the pasuk of u'le'avdo be'chol levavchem? Is that its meaning here? So if you take a look now I think we're on page three of the booklet. If you take a look beginning line five. ונשוב אל ענין הפרק. The Rambam says I digressed, so let's get back to what the major topic of this chapter is. Ve'hu, and what is the theme of this? להזהיר שישים האדם מחשבתו בשם לבדו. That a person should attempt to train his mind as much as possible that his mind should always be focused on Hakadosh Baruch Hu. להזהיר שישים האדם מחשבתו a person should train his thoughts ba'Shem levado on Hakadosh Baruch Hu exclusively, אחר שהגיע אל ידיעתו. After a person has a correct conception of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Then the Rambam says in the next couple of lines he says to have one's thoughts focused upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but rachmana litzlan to have an incorrect conception of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, there's no religious virtue in doing that. To say Baruch Hashem, Im Yirtzeh Hashem, Be'ezras Hashem, to be thinking of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and then to have some rachmana litzlan distorted conception of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so the Rambam says again there's nothing religiously significant, worse than that obviously, to that. And then the Rambam says if you see now we're around nine lines from the bottom of this excerpt, the line begins Hashem hu ha'Elokim and then there's a period. Ve'hinei be'arah ha'Torah. Do you see that rabosai? It's around nine, maybe a little bit more lines from the bottom. lines up, the line begins Hashem Hu Elokeim and then there's a period. Vehinei bevaer haTorah. The Torah explains כי זאת העבודה האחרונה, this ultimate avoda, right? Achrona in this sense, ultimate, right? As in the end goal. כי זאת העבודה האחרונה, this ultimate form of avoda, אשר האירנו עליה בזה הפרק, which we've been elucidating in this perek. לא תהיה אלא אחר ההשגה. Again, this avoda of training one's thoughts constantly on Hakadosh Baruch Hu, this is only meaningful, again, after the correct apprehension of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Where does the Torah say that so clearly? Says the Rambam, אמר לאהבת ה' אלקיכם ולעבדו בכל לבבכם ובכל נפשכם. Right? That's the pasuk which Chazal darshen for עבודה שבלב זו תפילה. So what does the Rambam say about it? הנה בארנו פעמים רבות. Several times we've already explained כי האהבה היא כפי ההשגה, that ahava is לפי הדעה תהיה האהבה, that ahavas Hashem is linked directly to yediya, to knowledge, to understanding of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And it's only achar ha'ahava, only after a person has ahava, and if he has ahava, it means he has that requisite understanding, that requisite yediya of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, אמרו זו עבודה שבלב. So avoda shebalev, again, builds on, avoda shebalev is made possible by having, again, correct yedias Hashem. Vehie etzli, and here comes the Rambam's definition, here the Rambam himself answers the question. What does avoda shebalev mean?

שישים האדם כל מחשבתו במושכל הראשון ולהתבודד בו כפי היכולת.

That a person, again, focuses his thoughts, he trains his thoughts on Hakadosh Baruch Hu, on the understanding that we have of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So for the Rambam, the phrase avoda shebalev means, again, avoda in the sense of avodas Hashem, not in the sense of avodas korbanos, and shebalev means accomplished through machshava. And now, what the Rambam tells us, mitzvas tefilla according to the Rambam now, what emerges is something remarkable. The ultimate goal, the ultimate goal of avodas Hashem, the Rambam tells us, is that a person every waking moment, every waking moment, this is the ultimate goal to which every one of us should aspire, is that every waking moment a person is mindful, a person is reflecting upon, a person is, no matter whatever he may be doing actively at that time, meditating upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The only ones who fully, fully, fully attained this goal were the Avos and Moshe Rabbeinu. But that's the, that's the goal, and that's the avoda achrona, that's the ultimate avoda. Okay, so we're not holding by that. The beauty, the greatness of mitzvas tefilla is that mitzvas tefilla says that for every one of us, we're not, we're still looking, מתי יגיעו מעשי למעשי אבותי, we're aspiring that our actions should someday approximate and even reach that of the Avos. מתי יגיעו מעשי למעשי אבותי, but even before that's happened, so what mitzvas tefilla says is that bize'eran pin, that we have a form of what that ultimate goal is. The ultimate goal is, again, the avoda shebalev, to be thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu all the time, and what mitzvas tefilla says is, again, so that's a very tall order, it's something to work towards, to strive towards an entire life, and mitzvas tefilla says, you take a few minutes out and you think about Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The shevach bakasha hoda'ah isn't the essence of the tefilla. It's once we're thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so how does that translate? How does it express itself? But if we want to know what the core of tefilla is according to the Rambam, it's avoda, again, avoda in the sense of avodas Hashem, it's service of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, balev with the machshava, with the thoughts, that our thoughts are focused and concentrated exclusively upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's what it means. The shevach, bakashah, and hoda'ah is additional. That's what we do with our thoughts, that's how we focus our thoughts on Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we focus our thoughts on Hakadosh Baruch Hu by saying the shevach, by presenting our bakashos, by saying hoda'ah, but the core and the essence of mitzvas tefillah and what the term avodah shebalev denotes for the Rambam, again, is this focus, avodah which is accomplished, which is carried out not in the heart, but lev here as denoting machshavah, through thought by focusing on Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Let's continue a little bit here, we'll read a little bit more here in the Rambam beginning in halacha daled. Beginning in halacha daled, the Rambam sketches the background to how the derabonons of tefillah were introduced, how and why they were introduced. So the Rambam as follows:

כיוון שגלו ישראל בימי נבוכדנצר הרשע נתערבו בפרס ויוון ושאר אומות.

When we were exiled, so then we became intermingled, we lived side by side with various nations of the world, ונולדו להם בנים בארצות הגויים, and the children were born under those circumstances, ואותם הבנים נתבלבלה שפתם. Their language became all mixed up, והייתה שפת כל אחד ואחד מעורבת מלשונות הרבה. And people began, they all, no one spoke purely anymore, everyone's language was some kind of hybrid from several other languages. Vekeivan shehayah medaber, and therefore when a person would speak, since he didn't really have control over any particular language, אינו יכול לדבר כל צורכו בלשון אחת, he couldn't express himself fully, not even adequately in any one language, ela bishibush, but only again in a distorted or corrupted fashion, שנאמר ובניהם חצי מדבר אשדודית. And as the pasuk says in Ezra Nechemya that they again they spoke a mishmash of languages. Umepnei zeh, skipping one line,

כשהיה אחד מהם מתפלל תקצר לשונו לשאול חפציו או להגיד שבח הקדוש ברוך הוא בלשון הקודש עד שיערב עמו לשונות אחרות.

Again, they spoke a smattering of different languages and couldn't properly express themselves in lashon hakodesh or seemingly in any other language either. כיוון שראה עזרא ובית דינו כך, when Ezra and his beis din observed this development, עמדו ותיקנו להם שמונה עשרה ברכות על הסדר. So since people could no longer be relied upon to express themselves adequately, so that's when Chazal introduced the set text for tefillah. Fine, and then the Rambam says what each of the three parts of the tefillah are devoted to. Let's continue halacha hey. Vechein tiknu, and similarly, Ezra and his beis din also instituted שיהיה מניין התפילות כמניין הקורבנות. They instituted that the number of daily prescribed tefillos should correspond to the temidim.

שתי תפילות בכל יום כנגד שני תמידים. וכל יום שיש בו קרבן מוסף, שבת יום טוב וראש חודש,

when there was an additional offering in the Beis Hamikdash, תיקנו בו תפילה שלישית כנגד קרבן מוסף. Fine. Vechein halacha vav,

התקינו שיהיה אדם מתפלל תפילה אחת בלילה, שהרי איברי תמיד של בין הערביים מתעכלין והולכין כל הלילה.

They introduced tefillas arvis corresponding to the limbs of the afternoon tamid which used to burn on the mizbeiach at night. Fine. So what's interesting here is the following: what was the impetus for takanas Chazal, the Rambam says? The impetus was the linguistic inadequacy, right, that they couldn't express themselves. Fine, so if that's the problem, fix the problem. Introduce a set text for tefillah. And now tell people whenever you want to daven, so open your siddur to page fifty-four and you'll be able to daven. So why is it if the impetus for the תקנת עזרא ובית דינו again is just the the lack of facility in Lashon HaKodesh or other languages, so why did they also have to introduce minyan hatefillos and zmanei tefillah? You hear the question rabosai? It's so glaring here in the Rambam. Again the background that the Rambam sketching, the impetus that the Rambam provides is only an impetus that would seem to require a set text for tefillah because the impetus is again their inability to express themselves. Fine, if that's the problem, so fix the problem, fix the problem and and have a have a set text for Shemoneh Esrei. But the Rambam says no, once they did that, so then they also introduced the minyan hatefillos, they also introduced zmanei hatefillos and then the Rambam for the first time in הלכות ט' וי' tells us about the connection between tefillah and the and korbanos. So what what what's going on here? So let's take a look here on the bottom of this page one more one more source here. Here we don't have we don't have time to to do this justice in its own right, it's a famous or or infamous, depending upon how well it's understood or not understood, view of the Rambam where the Rambam says that the only reason the seemingly the Rambam says that the only reason the Torah has mitzvos to bring korbanos is because it was at the time of Matan Torah a practice of the ovdei avodah zarah and it would have been too radical a shift to expect Klal Yisrael to abandon these forms of avodah that they were accustomed to. So because of that, the Torah just redirected it כלפי הקדוש ברוך הוא. That's what it seems to say, obviously it's not as simple as that, but but that's sort of the context of of what's going on here in this perek. And the Rambam writes here, if you take a look in the top line of of the bottom passage here,

לפי שאי אפשר לצאת מן הקצה אל הקצה הנגדי בבת אחת.

A person can't jump from one extreme to the to the opposite extreme in one in one shot. It it doesn't happen.

ולפיכך לא יתכן כפי טבע האדם שיעזוב כל מה שהורגל לו בבת אחת.

A person can't abandon everything to which he's grown accustomed right away. And therefore

כאשר שלח השם את משה רבינו לעשותנו ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש,

when Moshe Rabbeinu was sent as Hakadosh Baruch Hu's emissary to to make us the the am hanivchar, so

היה הנוהג המפורסם בעולם כולו הרגל אז והעבודה הכללית אשר גדלנו עליה גדלנו עליה היתה הקרבת מיני בעלי חיים.

They used to they used to have avodas korbanos. Line three,

לפיכך לא חייב חכמתו יתעלה שיצווה אותנו בעזיבת כל מיני העבודות הללו.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu in His chochmah didn't command us to again just go cold turkey and and abandon these forms of worship,

לפי שזה היה אז מה שלא יתכן לקבל לפי טבע האדם.

Human nature couldn't wasn't capable of it. So because of that, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, in the next paragraph, Hakadosh Baruch Hu just redirected it and that's why you always have the emphasis by korbanos of v'asu li mikdash, מזבח אדמה תעשה לי, v'hikrivu li etcetera. But now in this context look at the mashal the Rambam gives. The mashal again of how you can't just uproot a person from from what he's used to, so in the second paragraph I'm going to give a mashal my chavrusa pointed this up to me, you'll take a look and say k'mo ilu, you see that in line four of the second paragraph rabosai, total And this was the end of the line. Look at this, כמו אילו בא נביא בזמנים הללו. Rambam says imagine if a navi would come today. This is the Rambam's moshal of what it would have meant to abandon avodas korbanos once upon a time. The moshal to that is imagine that כמו אילו בא נביא בזמנים הללו. Imagine a navi would come in these days and issue a again a clarion call for avodas Hashem and what would he say?

הנה ה' ציווה אתכם לא תתפללו לו ולא תצומו ולא תשוועו לפניו בעת צרה אלא תהיה עבודתכם מחשבה בלי מעשה כלל.

So what do you see from that moshal rabosai? What you see from that moshal is again the ultimate, the ultimate avoda is again the essence of a person is his a person's seichel. The essence of a person, what defines a person, what distinguishes a person, what is his tzelem Elokim for the Rambam is the person's seichel. So the highest form of avoda is really pure machshava, is to be thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that one's thoughts are always focused upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu, one's always reflecting upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu, one's always meditating upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Again it's not something which is an existential state of being that one's thoughts are always always focused upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's really the ultimate avoda. The more that becomes concretized, the further away we're going from the ultimate avoda. You hear that rabosai? The more that becomes concretized, or the more that becomes standardized, so the truth is the further away we're moving from the ultimate avoda. So the pshat in Hilchos Tefila, absolutely remarkable, the pshat in Hilchos Tefila in the Rambam is as follows. The problem again was a linguistic problem. People couldn't adequately express themselves, Ezra uBeis Dino, parenthetically one sees just how important and how much Chazal stress the importance of purity of expression. People couldn't express themselves properly, they couldn't express themselves purely in any one language, so because of that tefila had to be standardized. But that represents a yerida, right? Because the ultimate, the ultimate of tefila is again is one's machshavos. The more that becomes concretized, the more that becomes standardized, so it actually represents a we're a little bit further away from the highest and ultimate form of avoda. At that point so we're not invited to daven anytime we want. At that point Chazal have to tell us daven now and daven now. And if you want to daven extra tefilas nedava, so you have to have a chidush davar, you have to add something to the tefila. So for the Rambam again what avoda shebelev means is that one's thoughts are with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And the beauty and the greatness of mitzvas tefila is that even before a person attains that ultimate avoda of 24/7 every waking moment being focused upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so the Torah says everyone of us baasher hu sham can do it for at least a few moments every day. For a few moments every day block out everything else, block out everything else. איזו היא עבודה שבלב הוי אומר זו תפילה. It means block out everything else, all other thoughts, lev means machshava and be focused purely on Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Okay, so lemaisa what should I think about? Good, think about shevach, think about bakasha, think about hodaah. That's the how. But the essence again is to be focused upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's what avoda shebelev means, that a person's thoughts are focused, are trained upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And it's a taste of what hopefully ultimately we move towards and and we strive towards throughout our lifetime. And the beauty and the greatness and the uniqueness of mitzvas tefila is that even before a person attains the לאהבת ה' אלהיכם ולעבדו בכל לבבכם that's perennial, that's constant, that's 24/7, a person is given the mitzvah, given the opportunity, given the challenge and told that he has the ability for a few moments again block out everything else and just be with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Again, one's thoughts focused upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Again, since we need it, so we do concretize it with dibbur. We are supposed to articulate the the thoughts, but the essence and the crux is that machshava, focusing ourselves on Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and again, it's not, it's not some kind of abstract speculation. It's, it's, it's a state of being. It's a state of being that a person is again with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, focused upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu.