Rabbi Reuven Lauffer - Basic Judaism: Prayer - Part 15

foreign the first blessing inside of the requests that we make over here which is a blessing that has somewhat significance right that we we ask a college Boku to give us wisdom that he should give us inside and deserve wisdom insight and discernment so before we go any further let's just try to work out something rather interesting over here about wisdom there's different wisdom come with age not that I've noticed the there are certain here everybody here has heard of Chabad acronym very good right so let's try to work out are is the simplest dimension of of information so if somebody tells you something you don't know so now they've just given you Hoffman so for example somebody teaches it at two plus two is four so now that's that's you've just been given knowledge let's call Hoffman knowledge right now you know something that you didn't know before from knowing that two plus two equals four you can then work out that three plus two equals five maybe not by you but but you can check it out on your phone but I'm not sure it will give you the right answer um but so what Bina Bina comes from the word of of uh Boyner to build which means that Rashi explains that Bina means you learn something from within something else which means you've got knowledge now and with that knowledge you're able to build further and to become even more knowledgeable than you were right that is I I think maybe we should describe that as being intuition rashi rashi describes Dart as being which is divine inspiration which we're in pretty short supply of nowadays but in general the idea of Dart is something where people have an Insight are able to understand things and see things in a way that other people cannot now that comes in in Jewish Concepts that comes from a very deep dimension of something having a purity of nashama his soul is very pure he's able to see things that other people cannot see that's why for example many people go to get that at Torah which means that you want to do something something very important in your life you're not sure you should do it or you shouldn't do it so you go to get uh you've got to get advice from somebody who may not know you very well may not know you at all but they have an Insight through their Torah knowledge which may be able to give you an information that you wouldn't have known otherwise right so it's interesting over here if we don't use although they do over here we use the words kill but it's talking about the same kind of a concept we're asking God to give us three different dimensions of generic knowledge which means knowledge of information we're given the ability to build on that information and to become more knowledgeable and to then to reach a level a much higher level of of that which is something which very few people are able to get to I didn't order that you have to have Hoffman Bina but if you have Hoffman Bina you don't necessarily have that it's a it's a uh you know it's something which requires a tremendous amount of of effort and Purity in order to be able to get there it's interesting that the first thing that we're asking for over here in the armida is Bina right knowledge right that we should have insight to be able to serve God properly you've got to understand why you're serving God so that's the first thing that we're going to ask for it's also interesting that in the amida on Monsey Shabbos and I'm outside like on on yesterday night when you dab in the armida you notice I said when not not is when you dive in the Army last night so you said which is the extra prayer that's added in when it comes to the end of something holy right so we get to the end of Shabbat we get to the end of yantev we add in an extra prayer which is allowing us the ability to differentiate between good and evil and and you know a night and day and and Clarity and non-clarity where does that prayer come in in the prayer of dance that you give wisdom to human beings and tell you something fascinating about the concept of wisdom in general there was a story I don't know if it's an apocryphal story I read it where I I read it as a true story but nevertheless there was a a a substitute teacher a young lady who just graduated not very long ago in in a in a city New York school who was given the most impossible class that there was right they'd be through a lot of teachers and nobody wanted this class at all so they they gave it to her she was obviously you know she she couldn't say no so she was given it and all of a sudden she started teaching this class and things started changing inside of the class the students started listening and by the end of the year the students had done pretty well in their exams so the uh the principal at the end of the year cools over this rookie teacher you know she's she does know it nowhere no experience whatsoever cools over this rookie teacher and says how on Earth did you manage to do what you did right nobody else was successful with this class so she said the most astonishing thing she looked at the teacher and said why she said they're very very very very bright bunch so he says that how did you know that they were bright they never they never experienced they know that they never exposed any you know any signs of being bright before how do you know that so she said I don't know she says when you gave me the class list at the beginning of the year you gave me their IQs next to them and each one had an IQ that was in the upper 90s or in the hundreds she says I just taught my classes according to their IQ level so the principal has got no idea what she's talking about right it wasn't IQ it was their Locker number yeah all right that's all it was nothing else what was fascinating about the thing was that it's interesting right that because everybody up till then had been teaching them as if they were idiots so of course they're going to react as if they're idiots she came in and quite quite genuinely imagined that they were very bright and she started teaching them as if they were very bright and they responded in like which it's interesting that the dinner has got nothing to do with your IQ it really doesn't mean it's got nothing to do with whether whether you're brilliant you've got makes you brilliant right God gives you a high IQ God gives you the ability to understand things easily that's just it's just a broker that's all it is right it's a blessing that allows you to be able to absorb information easily and if not it doesn't mean that you can't do it it just means you've got to try a little bit harder but what we see in learning Torah is that the more that a person struggles and strides to learn Torah and sincerely wants to know Torah so in the end the greater is there success I think not not I think it depends what right if you're talking about for example in intellectual Endeavors the answer is probably yes if you talk about physically then no probably not because you know somebody who is let's say somebody who's you know five foot two right is probably never going to get onto the NBA right I mean you know there are physical there are physical things that are stopping somebody from reaching levels that they would like to reach right I think if I'm not mistaken to get into the Marines you have to be six foot tall yes maybe something inside of something I don't know what it is they don't want you because you're a Target uh okay I don't know I remember reading somewhere that someone some kind of some kind of a unit where maybe it's one of these ceremonial units you know where you got you got to be six foot tall to get into it actually seals are actually shorter oh yeah they're shorter and bulkier yeah okay so whatever I'm saying but so you know what to work it the other way around right somebody wants to be a Navy SEAL and he's six foot two tall that he's not going to be coming it's not going to happen right okay just can't be I think that if somebody if somebody has intellectual aspirations it's possible for a person to work on themselves to expand their intellectual capabilities that's something which I think every everybody can do although possibly not in our generation anyway after we after the broker of Bina we asked a block of children what is tuber repentance so it's an interesting thing what are we using our knowledge for over here uh we're using our knowledge to become better people right we're using our knowledge to become closer to God we're using our knowledge to reach the levels that we're supposed to reach so after we've become more knowledgeable we then ask God for the blessing of children they're gone we should draw back towards our father right because the whole idea over here if knowledge it's not knowledge for the sake of knowledge right we're not we're not interested in people becoming you know torah's not an intellectual Pursuit which means that you just keep you know accumulating more and more knowledge and becoming wiser and wiser that's not the way it goes because the knowledge that you accumulate inside of Judaism is supposed to turn you into a better person yeah you know there's a there's a uh there's a beautiful story of moisture Feinstein who was the the accepted Authority from the last generation he died about 30 years ago um he uh he was not a very tall man he was five foot tall maybe maybe not even and uh one day I think I told you this story but you know what it's such a beautiful story I like the story that one one day a father came to get a broker from moisture because his father his son was not physically growing I'm always struck by the the I don't know by the you know the the the complete insensitivity of the father I mean coming to my shows five foot tall because his son's not growing physically I don't know I'm missing something over here somewhere I think but moisture finishing gave this kid a little pinch on his cheek and he told the father don't you worry he says I know some small people that became big which means in in Judaism the idea of becoming big is that the greater you become so the the greater your middle the greater your characteristics become the better your personality is the better your traits are the Kinder you are the gentler you are all of that is going to be fit together with the bin or the more the more knowledge I accumulate the better I should be at being able to deal with other people and that brings us on to the brochova right sugar is there because now I understand the things that I've done wrong I need to ask how courage bohu to help me that the rain would be chubisha to bring me back in complete repentance to you and then over here in the next block of slacklano so there's a Allah Dimension over here that when you say the words of khatanu which means we've seen them pashano which means that we sinned what Katana is that we've sinned maybe unintentionally uh pashano is that we've sin intentionally you're supposed to give yourself a little a little bang on the chest right um so and what have we got we say after we've done sugar then we've got to reach a level of forgiveness which means tuba is not repentance is not a level in and of its own but rather it's a it's something that's going to bring us onto something which is greater yeah for sure which means that you've got to you know the chuba is going to bring you to the sleeker to the idea of forgiveness and encourage both was going to forgive us for what we've done and then following the chronology after you have asked for knowledge and after you have asked for forgiven a repentance and after you have been forgiven you then get to the Brock of gaullah which is redemption which makes perfect sense how are we going to bring about the the mashiach how are we going to bring about the messianakira no by doing sugar right it's really not that complicated you know there's a cute cutesy story that they tell about a fellow who is has to look after his kid one Sunday afternoon so he decides that he's gonna have a few hours peace and quiet right he wants to read he wants to read the newspaper so he takes out the magazine there's a double spread of the world so he tears it up into pieces and he says to his kid here put the world back together I'd imagine that his kids going to be nice and quiet a little puzzle right it'll be quiet for hours anyway after half an hour the kid comes back he says daddy a says I'm finished so the father of course like every proud father says you know what I can't be what are you talking about yeah and then he says okay let's go and look and he sees it comes and takes a look he sees that the world the world is all in place so he says to the kid how did you do that so the kid said it really wasn't very difficult he said on the other side of the paper there was a picture of a man he said I just put the man together and the world fell into place by itself the Hasidic rebbies say that if you if you attack and if you if you if you sort yourself out yourself you sort the world out right we just we have to learn how to stop looking at everything in its enormity and imagining there's no way that I'm going to be able to do anything but rather let me worry about turning myself into who I need to turn into and by doing that it's going to turn the world into a better place the world the world will fall into place which means that the is going to come through the fact that we went through the process of chuva and we went through the process of and in its Hashem so here yeah rabbos I understand the only thing that's stopping the mashiach from coming is the fact that you haven't done tumor yet you understand that right it can't be me and I can't be a full double here which means it must be you people which means that if you want the Michelle to come there's no trying there's no point trying to deny it over here if you want the machine what about the people there YouTuber and you know why should they be penalized because the rest of the world into the sugar because that you know what I it's a good question because at the end of the day bringing the mashiach is something which is it's got to be Collective it's not enough for one person to be able to do it yeah yeah you know it's interesting The Joy the Jewish people are like one body right but Rashi says when it says that the Jewish people came and they encamped next to the mountain it's a very famous Rashi rash she says they were like one person with one heart right which means that the Jewish people we we all belong to the same body which it's not enough just for me to do chuva because my doing children is going to take part it's going to take care of my part of the body but in order for everything to fall into place it requires anybody getting involved in the Tula process you hear that the I think I think if I'm not mistaken I think it's a new xiaomi juice and talmud which says that when somebody sins right sorry when somebody trips up they don't they don't turn they don't start you know giving their leg a hard time right you know how did you treat me as a person his right leg gets entangled on his left leg and he falls over you don't see getting up and giving his left leg a hard time like you know what do you think you're doing you idiot you know can't you walk straight what are you what are you tripping me up for because what you blame it on yourself or someone else I'm normally blame it on somebody else that somehow for sure whatever it was the lawyer yeah but your hip shot right you don't blame your body for the mistakes that have been made so instead of us pointing we're all one body right so instead of us pointing towards everybody else and saying it's their fault and it's their fault and it's their fault we need to recognize that if something hasn't changed right if the if the situation is not any better than it was then I am as much responsible for this as everybody else's I guess we got we gotta what we got to work hard on that we've got to work hard on on accepting that responsibility if we do that we'll bring the gaullah we'll bring about the Redemption and then comes the next brother the next Brock lesra foreign the number eight is a very significant number because the number eight always represents a concept of being La malaminatever something which is above nature right number seven is a natural cycle number seven is a natural number so you've got the seven days of the week seven days of the creation number eight represents something which is beyond nature right above nature 50 if they have the Omer right 49 days is seven times seven and then the 50th day even though it doesn't divide into eight is the epitome of that number eight that concept of being something which is above nature in Supernatural Dimensions uh hold on that's to be honest obviously the very simple question it really does how can you pray for somebody who's terminally ill you're taking God's name in vain right somebody hasn't somebody has a sickness for which there is no known cure oh so here he says like this he says that the mice of your dominating for somebody you're praying for somebody who's got a terminal illness oh you know what let's let's not be some morbid somebody who's got a chronic illness right which means that Hashem they're going to live their live along they'll be able to live a long life but they're going to suffer inside of their life they'll suffer from whatever they've got right so maybe maybe it'll be maybe they've got asthma maybe they have diabetes all these things today are easily taken care of right but it's a chronic it's a chronic state of being how can you how can you Daven for somebody who's got a chronic illness how can you deliver somebody's got a terminal illness so he says because the Jewish people we exist when we exist above and beyond nature we're not we're not tied down to nature which means it's true that the doctors say that this particular thing over here is not curable but our College both who can do whatever he wants right yeah it's kind of like blessing and shame for resuscitating the dead you know how are you gonna pray for I mean we're not technically praying for yeah so over there you know you're not right what you're doing is you're just studying it's a statement of fact right that God does that yeah that's different over here especially inside of the prayer you look at the prayer that you recite down at the bottom in the gray box right where you can ask for very specific you know for a person like here at Samuel Hashem from the shamayim it should be for his soul and for his body and then you can say exactly who you're governing for like the wrong way yeah you know what I I think the shot is like this I I think the shot is that because so many people governor for sick people like normally you know it's it's so the sages came along and they came up with a Noosa that was going to be Universal some people take care of everything I give a very basic example you know over here it says well most people if they were you know somebody's not well so you're done for them it wouldn't have cut you to dab for their food center fish I go right so came along and they said no no you know what the the source is gonna be from the net fish I think I think that's what the chat is over here Anyway come on this is this is not a this is not the moment to try and uh to sort out the various the various no absolutely not yeah um so we so we had the brothel 404 over there in the broker for healing people you can ask God to heal whoever you want right however so keep in mind that if you're praying for somebody who's not Jewish then you should avoid using exactly the text that appears over here because it says that God right it says amongst the Sikh people of Israel so you should just write the talk show Highland that amongst the six people just leave it like that yeah hold on yeah I don't know I don't you know what it's I I think it's a question which is very difficult to quantify it really is because you know somebody somebody could be suffering from a let's say a very painful toothache right yeah so you you know that in three days time you know it's gonna pass you know it's just how root canal work right uh can you pray for that you can pray for them right now they're suffering all right right you know a person may be suffering from a migraine right so you know that in in eight hours time it's gonna it's gonna disappear right can you pray for them now yeah I think you can should you pray for somebody who's got a cold maybe not maybe that's not you know maybe that's not causing enough enough distress or enough you know I don't I don't know it's it's very hard certainly you don't you don't know you don't have to wait till somebody's terminal to pray for them right so you know somebody breaks their leg right you can pray for them for sure right but if they don't be like a person had a legband by a dog right they're for the dog therefore the person with the Dead with the be bitten it doesn't get cured and it's like taking a long time to cure itself to be cleaned over and over and over right well they're important it wasn't considered to be like it was something that it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't considered to me yeah I I think I think you could pray I think you could pray for something like that for sure right right I just I don't I don't know I don't know how to define it exactly I don't I don't know how to say to you look you know if somebody's got this then yes and then they've got that then no but I think if somebody's been bitten by a dog and it's taking a long time for whatever it is to cure to heat to heal then for sure for sure you should be able to double for them why not what about what about saying someone's name when they're saying mishabera saying a person's name was non-jew so again over there it's the same thing because inside of the inside of the text for the Misha Barak it's talking about the the sick people of Israel which means it's probably better not to do that what is fascinating just in general when it comes to praying for somebody who's sick you're supposed to use the person's name and the person's mother's name and we don't normally do that normally the name that's used is a father's name right right when you get called up to the Torah whenever whenever you use somebody's name you normally use the father's name and yet over here when it comes to asking God to cure somebody who's sick we ask God using the name of the sick person plus the name of his mother right why is that because there's an Indian that the the uh that the mother evokes Divine Mercy in a way that the father doesn't right so when we come in front of God and we're asking we're like we're pulling we're pulling all the protection that we can at the moment I'm pulling all the strings that we can in order to try to make sure that God will listen to the prayer to set to heal this person and then the next bracha coming along is the broker of prosperity so all right boys I hope you're all paying attention I am say prosperity I hope you're paying attention that the prayer the health comes before the prayer for wealth if you have welding no cat no more health which means that we we all of us understand intellectually that health is more important than wealth we all understand that right but somehow from the intellectual Dimension into the Practical Dimension we lose sight of that and we imagine that if a person's got money then they're going to be okay right so it's true that if you've got money you can afford to pay for medical health you know medical care that you don't uh that you wouldn't have but if somebody's not healthy then it doesn't matter right the second husband yeah you know they say that money money can't buy you happiness but it can certainly it can certainly make you it can certainly allow you to live miserably comfortably so you know good okay the choice I I'm always reminded there was a friend of my in-laws who was became sick with cancer and he tried all different kinds of um treatments all new kinds of things that were coming on onto the market and there was something new which came onto the market which was being done in America and it was going to cost a million dollars it was brand new and to get there right he was really very sick so a lot a lot of the cost of that million dollars was just getting him to America and then keeping him in America and going through the treatment for however long it was going to take and uh and uh you know he decided that the end he decided he's not going to do it because it was something which no there were no there were no uh statistics it was all brand new and that was that was what he had and if he if he you know if he uh if he spent that on himself there would be nothing left for anybody else not for his children not for his wife afterwards and in the end he decided that he wasn't going to do it I think we see very often this idea of Health that people you know healthy health is accuration gives us our health and health is Paramount it really is you know I mean as I said we should all be healthy and we should all be able to serve god without having to deal with complicated medical issues and that's why the bracha for wealth always comes after the brother for health because it's just it's more fundamental health is more important than wealth is can't use the wealth without being helpful I mean you can but you'll use it to try and make yourself healthy that that's what that's what people will do right there's a famous story they tell about a uh accosted who came into the rebbe and he says Rebbie he said I don't have any money he says I need to marry off my children he says you got to help me you've got to pray for me so the Rabbi says sure no problem tell me how much you want so the guy says Robbie I'm not a greedy man 10 million dollars to take care of it it's not Heavenly it's not what it used to be you know 10 million was a lot of money today 10 million dollars will do it right so uh so the uh rabbit says okay leave it with me and that Huss is on his way out and the rabbit calls him back and he says right it says one minute he says just tell me again if you were drowning in a river right now how much money would you want me to pray to God for okay you know looked at the rugby follow when he says Robbie says that's not a that's not a fair question sorry very often God has given us what we want we just we just don't always recognize it right we're so busy looking at what we don't have we don't look to see what we do have that's uh that's true that's uh right I mean that's you know whatever it's human nature in a certain way but it's something that we have to get hurt or when you get sick you take being whole for granted oh for sure right even when like I don't know I've sprained my ankle before even when I'm from England but I've just noticed how annoying is it to have a sprained ankle and not be able to walk up and down the stairs exactly and if you if you if you need any help I do that I don't know what that means either yeah how old were you is when I was 20. what you were 20 riding a skateboard yeah Josh wow I broke every single bone in both wrists and I didn't get surgery thank God but I had it on for two months and you oh my gosh how on Earth did you manage I had it I had a girlfriend I guess that's what they're for okay I guess that's what best friends oh wait no best friends are there it's unbelievable huh I'll tell you more than that here everybody here in this room we all know perfectly well as you broke if you break I can't leave you break both your hands so we all understand that you're now completely you know incapacitated thank you right we all know that but you know what what about some of you get some ingrown toenail you don't function it's like compared to Breaking both arms and then on toenail is nothing right it's absolutely nothing on on the scale of what can go wrong right and in the ingrown toenail is nothing but we we all know that a tiny little thing that upsets the it upsets a balance in the body and all of a sudden the person's not you're not you're not you're just you're not focused you're not you're not you're not being productive you can't do anything right having a cold sore inside your mouth yeah right you know big big deal right you know big deal yeah yeah anybody has kidney stones the pain is just as worse is I know somebody she had an emergency appendicitis in the middle of the year and at the end of the year she spoke she spoke one of the schools that I teach she spoke in the to the whole school and she told them she said never ever you know there's a brothel you make when you come out of the bathroom right she said don't don't take that broccoli for granted don't don't wait for something to go wrong until you recognize exactly how great this blessing is that God gave you you know it's doing what it's supposed to do we should don't take it for granted don't imagine you get up in the morning that's the way that it's supposed to be but rather give thanks to God right so I imagine the truth is I mean you're probably a little a little bit more yeah but you're probably a little bit more you know I don't know if the word appreciative is the right word but at least I'm more aware of of you know manual dexterity than other people because of what you went through right we should try to reach that level of without having to go through it right we shouldn't have to go through such terrible pain and such terrible you know anguish in order to be able to recognize that our courage buffalo gave us bodies at work oh okay okay I guess we're going to stop over here I'll tell you the reason real reason why we're stopping over here is because you've got to be the only person in the world that I have ever met who broke both arms and seems to seems to be nostalgic foreign 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