Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan - Laws of Prayer part 2

[Music] we continue with laws of prayer last week we spoke about why do we need to pray a little bit why did the ha ha Meem make a specific order in the way they want us to pray why can't we just pray any which way we want ourselves in our own words and we mentioned that one of the reasons is that we might not even know what to pray for and number two we might not know which words to use and today we're going to go through the words that the ha ha Meem said we should use and we will see why it's important to be instructed which words to use and then beyond that if you do want to add on your own you are welcome and encouraged to do so so we know that prayer has many parts we mentioned that there are three main parts of Prayer one is praising Hashem one is asking for what you need and one is thanking him for what you've got and until now and what you're getting now and what you will get in the future but in the terms of the official proper prayer there are many parts first of all we know there are morning blessings then we know there's a famous concept called create smart smart reading the three Peregrine's of smart then we have what's called pursue kata cimarron we're going to speak about each one pursuit kata Zimbra are the verses from mostly from Tehillim as introduction to prayer and then we have the blessings before and after Sh'ma and we have the actual Shmona the Amidah prayer the silent prayer and then we have the conclusion of Prayer and similar structure we have in afternoon prayer min ha that we start with tehilim than we do the Amidah and then we clewd and the similar structure is in our ovide that we have blessings before and after Sh'ma and then we say the the the main prayer Amida and then we conclude the prayer so part of the prayer that's Tehillim we are familiar with this up Psalms that were written mostly by David a Millikan and other great individuals and they guide us how to speak to God how to understand the greatness of God and also how to ask God for what we may need it's important to learn the the translation understand the meaning of these Psalms if you're saying it every day might as well instead of just sort of wasting time on something you don't understand but to understand that to connect and to be inspired every morning to be inspired by the words that you're reading so that's very important and there are many books on Tehillim that give you the translation and explanation as well if you don't have it at least if you can get the article or another similar book that translates and give you gives you brief explanation of what you're saying and you read the translation and on the bottom of the notes that is very very important then in prayer whether it is for morning blessings or in the blessings of the cicadas Umbra or the blessings before and after Sh'ma and the Amidah itself we use certain words that are always there for example we always start a blessing with Baruch and what is the meaning of bottle the simple meaning translation of Baruch is blessed and then we say atta you blessed are you and honest on a simple level that is a good translation we're used to it blessed are you if you go on it per level a question is asked when we say blessed you should be blessed to a human being we wish that he should have a blessing from the heaven that he should have hot slaw ha he should have success in whatever he does but when we say blessing to God what do we exactly wish upon him do we mean that someone else should give good give him a blessing or do we mean that he should have success that he should succeed in what he is doing not really because he doesn't need anything he has everything and he is all-powerful so telling him you should be successful he's meaningless because he always does what he wants he's not limited by circumstances and no one else can interfere so what do we mean when we say blessed are you our God one of the meanings of it is thank you that when when an individual does something for us we as a thank you would say you should be blessed so when we say blessed are you our God what we mean is thank you for the food that I'm about to eat thank you for allowing me to see thank you for giving me legs with which I can walk and so on so when when you make blessings of what are called the cotinine blessings for pleasure that you are about to engage in you say thank you to Asha you say barakatuh you gave me this and I'm thanking you another meaning of Beru is that you recognize that God is the source of all blessing which means instead of saying and meaning that you are blessed what you really mean you are the blessing you are the source of this blessing I have a blessing in my life I have food I have health and I recognize that you are the source of it so when you would say bajate what we really mean is that you are the blessing God our God and thank you for giving me this food and that is based on the meaning of the word Baruch itself the word Peru and the word baraja blessing if you look at the letters the the root of it is bed rich and a half that the letter bed has numerical value of to let 1/2 has numerical value of 20 and let her rage has numerical value of 200 if you notice it's 220 and 200 you take 1 and you double it you get 2 you take the next step you take 10 in you double it you get 20 you get a hundred you double it you get 200 the idea of a blessing is that when you have a little bit and you connect to God it doubles it multiplies God is the source of blessing he is the one that has everything that we need and from whatever little bit that we possess he can give us much more and we recognize it we say Hashem thank you for my health may it continue Hashem thank you for the food and may it continue may become double similarly we have a word better in Hebrew Bharath means a knee or any joint is called better why for the same reason because you take a straight stick and you bend it in half you get two sticks you take a straight arm you bend it you get two parts of your arm and which means you took one and you you've made two out of it you took one you made two you cooked when you meet you mean you took ten you made 20 you took a hundred you made 200 so when we and the the idea of Barry Harby raha means a pool a body of water also it's a collection of a lot of stuff so the word better means multiplication it means doubling it means the source of blessing so we say Hashem you are baru you are the source of the entire world you're the source of blessing and my personal blessing and may you continue showering me with blessing now when another another the last meaning for now of baruk is praise praise I you so now when we say the word bara you have to think what kind of blessing it is we have some blessings that are of praise for example when you hear thunder or you see lightning you say except a special blessing when you see beautiful scenery like mountains or ocean you say special blessing those blessings are blessings of praise so over there the proper meaning could be all three that you're praising God for creating such a thing you are thanking him for creating such a such a useful thing in the world and you are recognising that he is the source of it if you're making a blessing for food again it could be praised for creating such delicious and the good-looking food and you are thanking him for giving it to you and allowing you to have it and you're recognizing that he is the source it seems that in almost every blessing you can have these three thoughts when you say the word Parul the next word is Atta Italians you and unlike English where the word Hume is in plural right when you speak to many people you say you but originally there was another word for speaking to just one person and in other languages that is still preserved when you speak to one individual you say for example attack when you speak to a few individuals you say attend in Russian you say three or three and many languages you have this differentiation in Hebrew if you are speaking to God you would expect that you should use the more polite version of attempt but we use the word attack meaning we speak to God as singular and we speak to him directly you singular you not polite way of saying you plural attend and not in a third-person we know that when you're speaking to a an honorable person you're not even supposed to speak to them in a second person you spoke is supposed to speak to them in a third person for example if you speaking to a great rabbi and some people even do it to their parents they don't say you but they say he or they for example you don't say let's say the rabbi said something and you didn't understand you don't say I didn't understand you you say I didn't understand the rabbi or I didn't understand my father which means as a polite way you don't do not speak directly to them so we would expect that a similar thing should be with God but surprisingly we speak to God in a second person singular you and the reason is because to to impress upon us that our connection to God as is as a child to a parent as a wife to a husband it's a close connection where we we do not need any distance artificial distance to create this this we don't need we're so close that we can speak as you of course when we learn further laws of prayer you must approach God with reverence with fear with awe and you have to do it with proper dress and clean body and proper posture but but in our feelings we have to feel close to God that he is our Father and he is even our spouse that's how close we have to relate to him and he is close to us and he is listening to our prayers so we don't have to scream and we don't have to do it through a messenger to an angel please send message to to him know we speak directly to God to say God you please listen to my prayers the next word that we use in prayer and in blessings is the four-letter name of Hashem which we do not do not pronounce instead we use a different name of God also a four-letter word that is spelled Aleph and dalit and noon and hewed and the meaning of both of these is the word Aleph dolla the new nude comes on the word adorned Adam means master my master and the word you'd cave FK is the meaning is he was he is and he will be and also he is the creator he is the one that causes not only he created it once but he is the one that causes everything to exist at this moment may have they the one that is causing to exist so when since we cannot pronounce that name openly and we use a different word to substitute we really have to keep in mind both because really we mean you'd give up it but we're pronouncing a LOF dollar menu so we have to say when we say this this name we have to keep in mind that he is the creator he was is and will be and that he is my master my master means that I have someone who I'm subservient obedient to sometimes in prayer you will see that the the name of God is not spelled out of you'd cave of K but it's actually a live Dalit non-nude for example in Amita at the beginning in the first in the second blessing at a keyboard lo lo Allah and we say olive da da da nude and there since it's written the way that we pronounce then you only have in mind the second meaning that he is the master where it's written you'd cave of K then you have to have two names in mind now it is very difficult for everybody and especially to keep in mind this name throughout prayers but there is a minimum the minimum that you have to keep in mind to concentrate on the meaning of this name is when you say Sh'ma the first sentence of Sh'ma and the first blessing of Amida so if it's hard for you to keep in mind that name throughout Tehillim and throughout all the blessings at least concentrate on the first sentence of shamash my solution lukina JAMA heart when you say Hashem do two times you keep in mind that he is my master and he is the creator he was is and will be and the first blessing of of Shmona era of Amida you also at the beginning and at the end you keep that in mind for the rest you try and if you didn't the prayer is still good but if you didn't have in mind that you are speaking to Hashem who is the creator in your mast and was is will be in the first blessing then the prayer is not valid and therefore originally they would repeat the whole prayer now we don't repeat the whole prayer because there is no guarantee that the person will have a proper intent the second time either so we try our best to have concentration by first purpose to Kozma and by first blessing of Shmona Ezra and ideally whenever we mentioned the name yes when when you're putting children to sleep the custom is to say SH ma with them before they go to sleep and you are allowed to repeat mum more than once you should not repeat it one time right after another there should be some pause but but the time it takes to walk from one child to another is enough and therefore you can do it and when saying SH MA with children you can keep in mind that you're fulfilling a mitzvah for yourself especially for a man it's a tour obligation to say SH my in the morning and at night and sometimes you put in children to sleep even before you pray the evening prayer so if you want you can keep in mind that you're fulfilling your mitzvot or if you're going to sleep right away you can keep in mind that this is gonna be your evening bed time smart but if you already fulfilled or you're saying it more than once yes you can say this PASOK many times as long as you you leave some pause between the repetitions the two names of Hashem you'd and then hey and then vibe and then hey the root the yes that's one name the root of that name can be used to spell out three other words hiya which means he was however means he is and he here means he will be the same letters you'd and hey and valve are used in the these three words which means that God is eternal right that's the meaning of it and that means that he is beyond time which means he existed before the universe came about he is existing now and he will exist even after he the universe is no longer and that is a very important concept that we have to say because by other nations and by other religions it doesn't exist by them God is part of the world he is part of space and time and he's limited by space and time whether you take idolatrous religions whether you take monotheistic religions that grow out from Judaism Christianity or Islam their concept of God is not the same so it's important to to keep that in mind that we are speaking about eternal God someone who is not part of the world and therefore he it's not someone who can appear in human form for example Christians believe that God came into this world in human form in his essence the entire God came into this world in human form according to Judaism that cannot be and to begin with with their claim it's false God is beyond this world he is greater than this world and the entire universe is only a thought in his mind and therefore an eternal and infinite being cannot come in his essence into the into the limited physical universe so to show that we're speaking about eternal infinite God we say hi Yahoo Viva here because only someone who is not material can be eternal anything that is material anything that you can see feel touch anything that has mass or energy space is finite and limited and will it was created and eventually will be destroyed so eternal means infinite beyond space and time that's the name UK vodka he and not only that it we also keep in mind the word that he is the creator the the same root forms the word may have them Xavier means he cause us to exist so we say God is eternal infinite and he is the creator that's the name you gave after the name Aleph Dalit known you'd comes from the word adorned which means the master means he is in control he is in control of all the forces in the world physical forces spiritual forces he is the source and though the one in constant control what's gonna be - everything from a human being to an animal to an inanimate object down to atoms electrons and protons the way they spin around each other he is in constant control of whatever is happening to everything in the universe so that's what we mean when we say hashem elokenu now lo que no the word el okay no means that's the next word that we use means our God it comes from the word el el in Hebrew is another name for God but also it means power he is the source of all powers in the world Elohim means is it's a plural word and it means all the powers in the universe are from him the word the word Elohim in the Torah and that's how the Torah start Bereshit bara Elohim etosha man retards it's used in plural plural because before there were people to recognize God as their master the the name you'd cave of K and olive dal a new nude was not expressed yet the only name that was expressed that he is the the the source of all forces in the universe el which means power and Elohim which means the source of all powers it's only when Hashem created Adama is shown when he created the human being that the name olive Dodman youth and Yuki vodka is used in the Torah and our sages say that the name Elohim refers to strict justice that this is the the name that is used for just the physical laws of the universe if you walk off a high floor has a Shalom then according to strict justice according to the nature going to laws of the universe physical laws you're going to fall to the ground it's strict justice and it's following the the forces in the nature which Shem is the source of however when you're dealing with people you cannot only use strict justice because we have yetzer Hara and we have freedom to choose and as such we have opportunity to make mistakes and since we can make mistakes there must be some flexibility there must be some patience there must be some mercy and therefore as soon as Hashem created the human being he started relating to the world with the name huge cave of K and olive darlin you loot together with the name Elohim to show that there is justice but at the same time there is mercy so when we say L ok no means he is in confuse the source of all powers but at the same time he is our God even though he runs the entire universe all the galaxies all the stars and planets and atoms but at the same time he did not forget about me he is our God he is my personal God I have personal relationship with him that's what we mean by L ok no our God and then there is a difference between regular blessings and blessings in Schmo Nestor in Amida the regular blessings continue with the words melech ha-olam which means the king of the universe and in Amida we don't have that in Amida we just say baruch hashem and we say the ending may hiya hammy team but we we do not say melech ha-olam but in other blessings we say melech ha-olam and only then the conclusion so melech ha'olam means you are not only my king but you are the king of the entire universe means that's why we call hashem he is the king of kings you we have Kings in this world but they themselves are also subserved to other kings in and those greater Kings are subservient to Hashem so we call Hashem he is the king of the entire universe so this is one of the reasons why prayer and blessings were given specific form were given a formula because we need to know how to relate to God we need to know a little bit about his nature about his essence and our our position towards him and our sages provided us in this formula baru atta hashem elokenu melech ha'olam and once we think about each one of these words then already you can express your praise your desire your thank you now as I mentioned at the beginning the formal prayer is only the the foundation is the basic basic step in our relationship to our champ but but after you're done with it you're not supposed to forget about God until the next morning really you're supposed to have this connection and conversation with God throughout the day and therefore we're not denying anyone opportunity to express themselves if you want to sing to praise God the entire day it is the proper thing to do and whenever you are about to undertake anything you are supposed to turn to God and say Hashem please help me please make this successful please guide me on the right path that I should do what's right please protect me from mistakes we we are taught through the formal prayer about how to relate to God but but that is just as a sample to that we're supposed to continue with it throughout the day so we're gonna stop here possession next week we will actually start learning about the laws of prayer Shavua Tov [Music]