Tefillah 3

After somewhat long hiatus, and we resume a little bit the Inyonei Tefila. One might tayna that it's already been שעה כדי לגמור את כולו. The Yerushalmi meyashev the svoras in Gemara about שעה כדי לגמור את כולו that by tefila, it's dafka שעה כדי לגמור את כולו is posul. But the inyanim are so amukim that as long as the hiatus has been, I don't think we're in violation of that. On a more serious note, I just wanted one perhaps word of perspective. There are many, many aspects and dimensions to tefila. I don't know that any single shmooze necessarily conveys a balanced picture of tefila. And I think that's certainly the case for the idea that I'd like to just briefly, very briefly discuss tonight. It certainly doesn't encompass the totality of tefila. Kemedomani that it is one aspect or one dimension of tefila. The Gemara in the beginning of Tefilas Hashachar that Yitzchak Avinu tikein tefilas mincha.

ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה לפנות ערב ואין שיחה אלא תפילה תפילה לעני כי יעטוף ולפני השם ישפוך שיחו.

So it's interesting, the idiom in that pasuk of tefila le'ani is לפני השם ישפוך שיחו. In the various leshonos shel tefila, besides the difference in the leshonos, the preposition if there is one also changes. It's va'eschanan el Hashem, but tispallel al Hashem. In the pasuk in Tehillim kuf mbeiz, a kapittel that we often say, אשפוך לפניו שיחי צרתי לפניו אגיד. Also the idiom at least in these instances of sicha is lifanav. But what does sicha mean? So the Malbim here in Chayei Sarah on the pasuk of ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה explains as follows.

לשוח בשדה היינו להתבודד שם ולשפוך שיחה לפני השם שהתבאר אצלי כי שיח הם הדיבורים המחשביים הנפלטים מן הרעיון בעת המחשב והונח גם על ההתבודדות.

So sicha according to the Malbim, it means to be alone, to seclude oneself, presumably to allow for deep meditation, to deeply meditate. And then what a person actually expresses, it's a remarkable expression in the Malbim, niflatim min harayon, as though these machshavos that a person has, his most personal and private thoughts escape, they're niflatim min harayon. Ordinarily they're guarded, one's innermost thoughts and feelings, and at the time of tefila, at the time of tefila with the dimension of sicha, so it's niflatim, niflatim as though they escape. So when one davens, one is giving voice again to one's meditations, one's ruminations, and lechorah. is an expression of something which is deeply rooted דאגה בלב איש ישחנה something which is again innermost in the core of one's being, in the essence of one's being yesichenah. That's the subject matter of sicha. Lichora, that's at least part of the pshat in the idiom of לפני ה' ישפוך שיחו. Imagine משל למה הדבר דומה, imagine a child who had some kind of frightening or traumatic experience. So initially the child holds it in, but then when the child finds his mother or father, so then all of a sudden it all comes out. He's not really so much tailoring or trying consciously to communicate. It's not so much communicating to or towards as it is expressing in the presence of. And hence

תפילה לעני כי יעטוף ולפני ה' לפני ה' ישפוך שיחו.

It's interesting, right, we all know from the sefarim that Yitzchak Avinu is associated with midas hagvurah, which is in turn associated with tzimtzum. Tzimtzum, contraction, withdrawal. Before a person engages in the tefillah introduced by Yitzchak Avinu, so a person has to get in touch again with those feelings, those thoughts, those needs, fears, hopes, dreams, aspirations which are within himself in the very core of his being. But let's follow through just a drop more. So tefillah with the aspect of sicha being accentuated is a sense of sharing a confidence. The yishpoch has as the connotation of unburdening oneself. How is it possible? How is it that the machshavos, these dibburim machshaviyim, these dibburim which reflect again one's innermost and most guarded feelings, thoughts, fears, etcetera, how is it that so usually so carefully and zealously guarded it only comes out in the presence of one's closest friend, of one's confidant? Again what comes to mind in the famous Gemara in Shabbos when Hillel responds to the challenge of the ger to teach him כל התורה כולה על רגל אחת, paraphrasing ve'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha, so Rashi says because Hillel's interpreting that reiacha based on the posuk in Mishlei of reiacha v'rei'a avicha, first Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So sicha, one relates to Hakadosh Baruch Hu in that sense of reiacha v'rei'a avicha, in the presence of one's closest, most loyal, most devoted friend, dibburim. dibburim machshavim can be niflat. And mistama on a deeper level, when the Rambam tells us that a person is an adam is medini, that man is a social being, a social creature who needs and and at times craves companionship, so ultimately, so we initially experience that on the human level, but ultimately, the way that need is fulfilled, ultimately the direction in which that need is supposed to propel us is to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, is to rei'acha v'rei'a avicha. השם אלקיו עמו ותרועת מלך בו, so Rashi quotes usru'as melech bo is lashon rei'a, lashon rei'us v'chibba. One aspect of our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu and hence one aspect of tefillah is rooted in this usru'as melech bo and it's that which allows for one to engage in sicha in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Here I'd like to ask this next question; everything what we're talking about deserves and really demands elaboration, much more than what we've said, but especially for these final final point that I'd like to raise. Lecha'ora, the question then arises, how does this understanding or this aspect of tefillah, how do you reconcile that with the takkanah of anshei kenesset hagedolah that we have a set text for tefillah? Chazal are telling, Chazal are telling us what our dibburim machshavim are, what those those innermost thoughts are with which we connect through hisbodedus, so how can anyone, how can anyone write a script for that? Presumably, if if this is what what at the core of tefillah, tefillah should have to be, should have to be spontaneous, it should have to reflect one's own formulations as tefillah de'oraisa does, so how could Chazal have introduced a set text? So here again two two directions; not it would be a lashon havai to say two answers, but two two directions in which to think about an answer. The first one is that what this question points to and and this is kedai to think about is that tefillah, it's true, should be expressive, but simultaneously tefillah is also prescriptive in the sense that if we look at what Chazal were kovei'a in tefillah, if we look at what Chazal are telling us should correspond to these dibburim machshavim, so from tefillah one can reconstruct what tzuras ha'adam should be. Just to take the first step down down this path, in in the beginning of of Sefer Melachim, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu appears to to Shlomo Hamelech and says to him שאל מה אתן לך. I just hope that's the pasuk, I don't know what's going to happen. שאל מה אתן לך, Hakadosh Baruch Hu asks Shlomo Hamelech, it doesn't get any pre-conditions. gives him, gives him one. שאל מה אתן לך. And Shlomo Hamelech of course asks for chochmah. Asks for chochmah. And the Navi goes on to tell us that Hakadosh Baruch Hu as it were is pleased with Shlomo Hamelech's response. So what does that mean? Now, obviously it's true that Shlomo Hamelech says that he wants the chochmah lishpot amcha. That notwithstanding, so what you see is that Shlomo Hamelech, Yehav chochmesa lachakimin, Shlomo Hamelech understood that the most basic need a person has to live as a person where there's a shilton hasechel over the emotions, over instincts, the most basic need a person has to live as a mensch, על אחת כמה וכמה as an oved Hashem is chochmah. And hence, so Chazal takeh begin, Chazal the shmoneh esrei takeh begins with chonein me'itach. So one can reconstruct from tefillah what the tzuras ha'adam should be. Hachana letfillah, again this has incredible, incredible ramifications, repercussions for hachana letfillah. Hachana letfillah doesn't only mean halevai that we should have some hasaga of what this means also, but it doesn't only mean sort of getting our minds out of whatever mundane concern has been preoccupying us. It doesn't only mean getting our mind open to focus on tefillah. But lichora there has to be some hisbonenus, some meditation again on tzuras ha'adam. In terms of this direction, halevai idach neizil veigmar. But there is a second I think also direction in terms of this question of if tefillah one of the elements, one of the aspects of tefillah is sicha, irurei machshaviyyim which a person feels and escape at a time of hisbodedus, how can Chazal write a script for that? So the other direction and if you think about it, it's shenayim sheheim echad on one level is al pi the Rambam at the end of perek gimmel in Hilchos Geirushin. The Rambam explains how can it be that כופין אותו עד שיאמר רוצה אני? So what kind of ratzon is that? So the Rambam says ירדה תורה לסוף דעתו של אדם. The Torah knows the person's being obstinate, a person's being spiteful, but that's superficial. That's superficial. In the nekuda pnimis, in the nekuda pnimis a person wants to do, a Jew wants to do what Hakadosh Baruch Hu says. The nekuda pnimis, a person wants to be memalei retzon Hashem. That being the case, it should come as no surprise if Chazal know better than we do what our machshavos pnimiyos really are. It should come as no surprise if Chazal can formulate perhaps better or perhaps obviously better than we could what the machshavos pnimiyos are. The same way, the same way when Beis Din is confronted with a spiteful akshanus, a refusal to give a get, so Beis Din sees no, the emes is it's his yeitzer which is me'aneis him and really the ratzon is to do what's right. And it's that understanding which Chazal have of what the nekuda pnimis of a Jew is, not just before we were talking more what it should be, now we're talking about what it is. That understanding of what the nekuda pnimis of a Jew is, led Chazal formulate for us our machshavos pnimiyos of chanenu me'itcha and hashivenu avinu letorasecha סלח לנו אבינו כי חטאנו. I'm not sure if we'll do it together next week or again it'll be be'vchinas idach for each of us zil gemore but one has to think also about the implications again of tefilla as an expression machshavos pnimiyos that Chazal were able to formulate for us lgabei the od du chalakim of tefilla as well in terms of shevach and hodaa. Again in terms of how one can reconstruct what the tzuras ha'adam should be from tefilla, so the same way one can reconstruct from atah chonen she'elu me'item lach, a person, tzuras ha'adam is that a person wants chochma. So too in terms of tzuras ha'adam, in terms of his what his awareness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu should be, his awareness of הקל הגדול הגבור והנורא, so this too is to be again inferred and reconstructed from tefilla. So I hope bli neder we'll continue next week.