Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Why We Pray Three Times a Day

You see your tomorrow Okay. Hi everybody. Thank you. Thank you for coming. uh in spite of the uh inclement weather and uh our dedications are as always we pray for the lasting unity of ami Israel which will lead to ultimate victory and for all those whose health has been affected by terror and in particular a rafua for mala basifa miriam by her grandparents Brandy and Jeffrey gets Jeffrey is a very very good friend of both Ion and of myself and bizraas hashem Brother, granddaughter should have leat nama Ephraim Yahosua Aikdor Benyamin Moshe by Pesha Afel with the following message. Thinking of both of you at this time, may Afraim's nama have an aliyah. >> Regarding the request from Bal in Heliv for 20 sets of fillin for a group of soldiers who are finishing their conversion, which is to take place on Kaneka. Wow. At present, we have raised only enough for five sets. Please help us be mashim. The other uh 15 for a total of 20. uh not only as gayim have they given up so much but they're also so there's kind of a double misses they are giving their lives for the Jewish people and more information about how to contribute can be found on the Ibon uh website and in the YouTube description box uh below um it's a little early I guess post will make announcements later about the Kaneka party that God willing we will have uh December 16 on Tuesday uh but there'll still be a shar as well. I'm I'm not sure if that's a plus or a minus, but there'll be a party and a sharing >> uh on that uh on that uh day. Okay. Uh again, thank you for coming. And uh this para really is really filled. I mean, everything in braces is so filled with so many things, but this para also encompasses a great number of years and the birth of 11 out of the 12vat. It's only been yam that his birth is deferred a little. And this para basically is the sojourn of Yakov Aino as he runs away from Asov to go to Karan and he finds his wife but he winds up being in Karan for 20 years. Seven years he works for Leia. Well, he works for Ra but he winds up with Leia. Seven years he works for Rael. Another six years he works to build up his economic standing. And uh the para is very symmetrical in the sense that it begins with his leaving Arit Israel and it ends with his coming back to Arit Israel. It's a very neat bookmark uh para in the sense that the whole topic is about Jacob's sojourn uh init and the para begins Jacob leaves beva which where yitzk lived and he goes to karan karan is uh in either northern Syria or southern Iraq near the Euphrates river and the like and the puss says now now okay one other thing now we know already from last week's para that there are two different reasons why he is going to karan there are two separate reasons and both of them are valid one is a positive and one is a negative the negative is Rifka is saying you got to get out of here because your brother as wants to kill you because you took the brahos go to my brother Lavan and I will call you back I will summon you back when you're able to go. Rifka had no idea this would be 20 years and that she would die before that point. The second reason is a positive reason. Just as Yitzkak's wife was taken from Karan Abram's family, so Yakov's wife will also be taken uh from that family. Uh the difference is that Yitzk himself was not allowed to leave Eric Israel. So his wife was chosen via the Shalyia Khalzar. Yakov goes there that way. So the basi says this is marumaz in the first four words. Yakov leaves bereva and yakov goes to karan. Whenever you take a trip the question is is the main purpose of your trip to leave where you are or to go where you're going? What is the ekar thea or the place of destination? With Jacob it's both. He leaves Beerva because of the fear of Asov's wrath. He goes to Karan to find a wife. So this is what the Basy says. Now in truth though although it seems to be a a relatively non-stop express trip to Karans with a stopover where he has his dream of course but in reality there was a 14-year detour that is not recorded in the kish at all and that is he leaves as a 63y old man right he leaves that's the when he took the braos but he detours for 14 years to spend And in the yeshiva of Shem founded by Shem Noah's son and Aar is the grand uh the great grandson of Shem actually the ancestors of Arau himself. So they are in fact Yakov's own family and he learns for 14 years in the yeshiva of Shem and A. Uh what did they learn in the yeshiva of Shem? Obviously it wasn't a Jewish yeshiva. I mean there weren't that many Jews around. Shame Abra were arguably not Jewish either in any sense. Uh so sometimes you know we we like to project the the present yeshiva into the past as if to say oh David was learning not even Gomorrah David was learning Rafaim all day or whatever it is. You know that that wasn't the situation and they weren't even learning Mishna and Gomorrah as we know it. uh those works did not really exist as works. Uh if anything, the closest to what we might call limud and the shiv was actually probably Cabala, meaning it was essentially an institution to focus on connecting to God in various ways, modalities of meditation, prophecy, elaboration of the Noahide code, which is God's message for all of humanity. Now we think it's only seven rules which you can cover in 5 minutes but in fact there are going to be many elaborations. So for example the seventh commandment of Noah is called denim to create a just society. God commands in other words God commands the nations of the world to create just and equitable societies. Now that that is a statement that takes you know less than 10 words but you can obvious obviously spend a lifetime discussing what is justice, what is equity, what type of world does God make? If you think about it the curriculum of shame va might be more difficult than a halaka curriculum because when you have halaka you're given the rules. When you're given a directive to create a just and equitable society, that puts a tremendous amount of burden of responsibility on trying to create those standards. Right? So that was kind of the yeshiva vash and Yakov Rashi proves it through the Gomorrah. Yakov spent 14 years in the yeshiva of shame. According to Kazal, Yakov didn't even sleep during that time. Although I don't think we have to take that 100% literally, but it's talking about how devoted he was to his learning. So the question is very obvious. Yakov is already 63 years old. Yakov spent a lifetime immersed with his father Yitzk who taught him Torah and for the first 15 years of his life he was connected to Avram. So Yakov had exposure to Aramavino. Yakov had many many years of exposure to Yitzkah. What does Yakov need? The yeshiva of shame behavior. What would he get from the yeshiva of shame behavior that he didn't already get from being with Abraham and Yit? What was the of the yeshiva of shame behavior? So, Rav Hutner uh gives a very very interesting explanation. He says that Ara and Yitk taught him the Torah of Erit Israel then well I'll elaborate on that in a moment but Yakov is now going to he's going to the Golah he's going into exile and it's not just an exile from Merit Israel it's also an exile from a from it's an exile from the holiness of the of us and therefore shame behavior can teach him the survival skills of living in a world that is devoid of kaduca because they lived in a world or at least shame who is the founder lived in a world before the flood where the whole world was evil and corrupt and degenerate much worse than Ara's world because Avam's world also lived in a world of abodizor but Avam was able to influence and change the people around him. So as a result, he could neutralize the evil of that world. Shame lived in a world where you could not neutralize that evil. That evil remained as a reality. How do you connect to Hashem when you're surrounded by evil? That is the kak of shame which he got from Noah. And that is what Yakov needed to learn as he's going into the 20 years of exile that he will be away from Eric Israel and from his father Yitzk. Now Yeetszuk will still be alive. It happens to be that Yeetszuk will still be alive when Yakov returns but his own mother Rifka will no longer be alive. Uh Rifka tells Yakov I will summons I will summon you to come back. the mice that never happened. She died before he came back. So there's something very very poignant about all this whole thing. The 20 years of absence with his father, the fact that he never sees his mother again, you know, all of those things are part of this picture. But the environment of Lavan will be an environment devoid of kaduca, full of deception, full of tuma, full of avodor. It is precisely the yeshiva of shame va that will give him the survival tools for that particular that particular environment. You know I I I don't want to get too oat so to speak. Uh but in in many many ways the notion that you need different survival skills in than you need in Eric is actually happens to even be true uh to this uh to this very day. You know Perkyo says Do not judge your friend till you are in his place, >> till you're walking in his shoes is the English expression. Now sometimes, you know, people learn for many years in environments and then they go into college campus outreach work and they continue to ask their Shilas to Gdoleim who the whole idea of college as anathema and the whole idea of men and women being in the same block is trafe and forbidden. And to be frank uh most of the time as those they are not necessarily the right address to address the conflicts that exist on college campuses uh because that is a world that they're not familiar with and that's a world that they reject. It's a different set of survival skills. How do you navigate the challenge? Yeah, I I don't I don't want to get too political about this because uh I have enough hate mail from other other classes that I give. Uh but it just strikes me it just strikes me that if Yakov needs to go to the yeshiva of Shame because what he needs in love's environment is different than what he needed in the environment of Abra and maybe even more so that would be a similar issue uh that we face uh face today. Okay. Uh but be it as it may, this is the mila of the yeshiva of shame viever. Now where was the yeshiva of shame viever located? It's interesting. Uh some actually say it was located in berevat was actually located in the very place where yakavinu lived. And that does tie in with Rashi last week because last week Rashi said when Rifka was carrying Yakov and Asov and it says she went to ask Hashem why are these what are what's going on in her body. So Rashi says she went to the yeshiva of Shamev. Now she was living in Beva. So that's a little bit of a raya that the yeshiva of Shamera was in Beesva. That that Rashi seems to be going with that approach. Others say it was up north and still others which fitz hutner's thought say it wasn't it was taken in eritel although shame obviously at one point in his life was the cohen he's malited who is the the coen in yushlay in shalem which is but maybe at a later point um shame re relocated so uh rashi makes another interesting point about the yeshiva of shame v uh yakov was separated from Yoseph for 22 years. We know this because Yoseph was 17 years old when he was sold and Yoseph was 39 years old when Yakov was informed that Yseph is alive and they should come to Mitim. These dates are are in the itself. So 17 to 39 is 22 years. So Kazal make the following dra since for the 22 years Yakov was away from his father because Yakov was away for 20 in Leven's house and then the traveling back Jared Israel till he saw Isra was another two years. So Yakov was separated from his father for 22 years and he did not do the mitzvah of kim. So Yakov was punished that Yoseph was separated from him for 22 years and Yakov did not receive. The only question is but now it's not just 22 years it's 36 years because of the 14 years of the yeshiva of Sh. So uh the Gmoran McGillah says we see from here that the merit of learning Torah is even greater than honoring parents because the 14 years that Yakov was absent from because he was learning in the yeshiva of Shame did not count against him in terms of extending the period of again it's a very very interesting to contemplate although though Lama the whole thing is very very difficult. I mean how could Yakov be punished for not honoring his parents for 22 years if the reason Yakov left is because Yitzk and Rifka told him to do so. So what do you mean he didn't do he left because they told him to leave but perhaps they didn't tell them to be away that long right? uh they they may have anticipated a short trip and the the trip turned out to be much much much longer than anticipated. But be it as it may, the Gmoran McGill infers from all of these notes that God okay be it as it may uh is after those 14 years. Okay, so those 14 years are not in the kish at all. So Jacob is now 77 years old, not 63, 77 years old. And he's finally traveling to uh and he encounters the place and he lodges there for the nightsh because the sun has set. And he takes the stones of the place and he arranges them into a pillow. And asal say the stones are arguing who gets the merit of Yakov's head and all of the stones merge together and they become a soft pillow. But is a very strange phrase. He encountered the place. What is the place? There's no identification there. So again, everything Rashi says is based on midrashim here. The Rashi is not making this up on his own. So the way the medish explains it is that Yakov had already gone all the way from Beva in the south to Karan. It's like a thousand miles. And when he's already in Karan, he then says to himself, "On my way, I passed Jerusaleam. I passed Mount Mariah. I passed the place where my OOS prayed and where my father was a corba. How could I not davin in such a place? So Yakov turned back. He made the trip all the way to Kora. He turns back to go to Jerusaleam Mount Mariah. And Boru brought the Harabas to him. So Yakov is not in Jerusalem, but the Harabas was moved to where Yakov is and that's where Yakov sleeps. So it's a little confusing because Kazal's understanding of the Pukim is not so pushed here. The Pukim say that Yakov called the place where he had his dream, which we'll discuss in a moment, he called it Basel, the house of God. And the original name of that place was LSE. LS is renamed Bale. And indeed in biblical Israel, there was a town called Bale that was north of Jerusalem, northeast of Jerusalem, which is the site of Yakov's dream. And yet Kazal say he was both in L and in Yusha at the same time. Because hashem he's in he's in l which he calls basel but he is actually on the ground on the soil of mount moriah the temple mount amazing thing so that's why kazal say there's a bit of an ambiguity here the name bale house of god is both the name that he renamed l as but it's also So his name for the B mikdash which indeed is the house of God. In other words, the name is going both on Jerusalem, the Harabas, and it's going on on Lo. By the way, it's also even even l is its old name, right? L seems to be the Canaanite name. L is not even the Jewish name. And yet, there are other midrashim that say there is a significance even in the L because L is that city that Yakov renamed Bale. But l is also the name of a bone in the spine at the head of the spine that it is said this is an indestructible bone that the body normally decomposes. The body decomposes but the lose bone is said to be indestructible. You hit it, you burn it, you smash it, it remains intact. And it is said we know two things about the lose bone. Number one, it is the bone from which there will be resurrection of the dead. God will reconstruct the human being from the lb bone. And number two, the lb bone only gets its nourishment from this malava mala meal, the meal that you eat after shabas. It doesn't get any nourishment from anything else that you eat. And therefore the importance of sudas malava mala which is in order to honor the shabas of course but there's a secondary benefit it gives you a good strong lb bone which makes resurrection of the dead an easier process now says that this is goofa the reason why the l is indestructible and will be the source of he says an ingenious thought he says originally and were supposed to live forever Why did death come into the world? Because they ate from the fruit of the eight sadas. And every part of the body got benefit from that sinful action. Therefore, every part of the body that got benefit from that sinful action gets death. But the lusbone didn't get benefit from that sinful action because the lb bone only benefits from Moz Shabas eating >> and the eight hadas was Friday afternoon eating. Therefore, the lb bone was never mako by the sin of the eightas and that's why it's indestructible. It's not subject to death and that is why it'll be the source of hameum. Now that's the l bone the lb bone and yet this city was also called l and again the swarim explained that there is a connection here because if we understand that l b are not just a separate city but it's also a name of the temple mount yayam and the temple mount the concept is that the basikdash itself is going to be a source of spiritual life and vibrancy and the basikdash itself is fundamentally indestructible. Meaning even though we did lose the building so to speak twice but the spiritual entity of the B mikdash and Shmayam is an indestructible entity that's waiting to come down and that's marumas in the name which is the indestructible bone of the human body. Okay. Be it as it may though Yakov doesn't know this yet meaning Yakov is not you know there was no sense of the land moving towards him for hundreds of miles. I mean what effect did that have on everybody else as well? Yakov thinks he is where he is. So he lies down to sleep according to some midrashim. He actually laid down on the very sight of the not knowing that yet. And he has a glorious glorious dream, a tremendous tremendous vision of a ladder in which angels are going up and going down. And on the top of the ladder, there is the presence of Hashem that reassures Yakov and gives him comfort and promises him, I will be with you and I will bring you back to this land and I will not forsake you. And Yakov wakes up and he realizes he is in the house of God. Meaning now he realizes what this is. Now the symbolism of the angels going up and down. One could spend not just a single shear, one could literally write a book on it. There are so many many many interpretations. Um, some say the angels going up are the guardian angels of Erit Israel who have protected Jacob and they're now leaving and they're being replaced by the guardian angels of soim orim are the uh are olim because they finished I'm sorry the Israel ones are olim because they finished their job and the angels are your dim because just like today we use olim the angels are your dim because they're taking over uh others learns that these angels are actually a rem to the four malios the four kingdoms that will enslave the Jewish people. Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome. and and western civilization is still considered to be Roman. It'll be re very relevant to Kaneka and we'll talk about it and Olim the Odim instead of looking at some angels are going down and some are going up. The the idea was all four angels were going up and going down and that represents the idea that even though the angels the guardian angels of these malot are going to have ascendancy and power over us eventually they will experience yurida. So the way the Medish describes it, the one guardian angel went up 70 rungs of the ladder and then went down. That corresponds to the Babylonian exile of 70 years. Another angel went up 52 rungs of the ladder and then went down. That represents the Persian period that was shorter. And the third went up a little bit over a hundred years. That's the Greek period went down. But the fourth angel that represented Rome, the medra says very powerfully, Yakov was so frightened. And that's why it says Jacob was frightened because this angel kept on going up up up because the Roman exile is still here almost 2,000 years. And Yakov never saw it coming down. So Yakov said, "Is this a persecution from which there will be no salvation?" And Hashem says, "Well, listen, you haven't counted the rungs yet, but there will be a down downturn for that malus as well." So, as I say, there are different versions. Are we talking about Yakov's protective angels? Are we talking about the four malos? But be it as it may, Yakov woke up and he said, "This is the house of God and this is the gateway of heaven." The Ba Mikdash is called the gateway of heaven because all prayers from all over the world they first come to the Makkah mikdash and from the makame mikdash they go up. Right? So if you're dabbing in New York or even if you're dominating in your shayam itself, your prayers do not ascend in a straight vertical line, they horizontally move to the holy of holies and then there's a vertical rise from the holy of holies all the way to Shamayim. That's why we say, you know, I remember in the olden days before there were cell phones, so there were phone booths, right? There used to be a thing called phone booths. maybe you remember them if you're old enough uh and and the like. So if you had been in Penn Station, let's say in in Manhattan, uh let's say 1970s, 1980s, uh you would notice about late afternoon, all of the phone booths were occupied by Orthodox Jews who needed the Davin Mina and there was no minion and but they were embarrassed to Davin Mkha openly. It's not like Bengurian airport or whatever, you know, you're embarrassed a little bit in America. So you make believe you're on a phone. You're right. A phone call. And if it was too long, people would start banging on the phone booth. Get out. Get out. You know, what are you talking so long? Or whatever whatever it was. And of course, drug dealers needed the phones, too. You know, you couldn't uh you know, have to get off the phone. Uh so the the image of Mina as a telephone call to God is a certain, you know, a certain attractiveness to that image. But I always thought to myself, well, when you do it from Penn Station, it's going to be a long distance charge. You do it from here, it'll be a local call. So there's a certain advantage advantage in that. Okay. So that's why it's shay. Now there's another reference to prayer though when Yakov encountered the place and this is before he had the dream, right? He encountered the place, he lodged and then he has the dream. So the goro says the word vayifa he encountered is also a term for prayer. Yakov davended at that point and this is the prayer of my remember kazal say that each of the enacted a prayer for a different time of day. Abraino enacted the prayer of Shakris. Yitzk added the prayer of Mina and Jacobu is the one that added the prayer of harvest. Uh we know uh with it says went out to converse in the field that's when Rifka came. The word is is conversation with God and pigia encounter is also a lion of so this is the basis of the teaching that a well we know from other chakras now you understand I don't mean the abra did not write the shimona that that's a product of the men of the great assembly the anessa sagdullah at the beginning of the second temple period that is we're not talking about the nusak of the amida but the concept that you pray to hashem in your own words morning afternoon night comes from the that's what the Rambam says now this does raise a very intriguing problem and that is according to the strict davening shakas and daving ma at least for men for women there's But at least for men and is an obligation. It is ava on the other hand ding the amida of arvit it's in the garra but we actually pasan to felas arvet rishus that means the dvening of mv is optional I don't mean the shma the shma of the evening is mandatory but the amida of arvitz is arishious now don't get me wrong maybe it's good we have a group today uh don't go home and say or even here oh I'm not going to stay for Ira because it's optional obviously it became a min that the Jewish people accepted so it's mandatory because of min but it's a and in fact this explains why there is no for you ever wonder this uh we have the repeat the amida for shak for min for musf There's something called there is no sash for my why is there no sash for my and the answer is actually very pur says the purpose of khazar sash is for people who didn't know how to read or didn't have access to a sitter so the kazen would say the words that they would listen to and answer ramen to be mozzy people who were unable to d on their own so says the rush We're going to make that that trouble for the only if it's an obligatory prayer, a prayer they have to do. Since ar is optional. If you want to do it, do it. But it's not a we're not going to make for a non-obligatory prayer. That's what the rush says. So you see from the rush and from the fact that we don't have that the dvening of my is optional, although it's become a minug today. Now, here's the problem. How do you reconcile these two statements? Yakov enacted my is optional. That doesn't make sense. Why should Yakov's prayer be excuse me be inferior to the prayer of Ara and Yitzka? Aram enacts the min the den of chakras and chakras is obligatory. Yitzk enacts the prayer of min and that's obligatory. Yakov enacts the prayer of arvit and you're telling me it's it's it's optional. Why would Yakov's prayer have less significance than the prayer of Ara and Yeetsz? Especially since in in some ways we consider Yakov to be the greatest of the although he's kind of standing on the shoulders of giants. Aram had that was a poleless not a good thing and Yitzk had an asov. It's only from Yakov that every single child is within the holiness of Amis Isra and on the kakabot on God's celestial throne that has four faces. The mystical meaning is very very deep. The face of the ox and the face of the lion and the face of the eagle based onesco. And the fourth face is the face of a human being. doesn't tell us who it is but say this is the face of Jacob on the so is called the choicest of the and Jacob's face is on the kayak. So why should it be that the prayer of my should be optional if that's not the case for the prayer of a and right that's a that's a problem. So the truth of the matter is the pineua one of the great great commentators on the Gomorrah offers a very interesting argument. He connects two discussions in the Gomorrah that the Gomorrah itself doesn't connect. There are two different discussions. There is a discussion if my is optional or obligatory. We pass an optional but that's one number one. There's another if the are because of the avot which is what I said or theot correspond to the sacrificial cycle in the ba mikdash that there was a morning daily offering and that shak makes up for that. There was an afternoon daily offering ma makes up for that and any limbs or organs that were not burnt in the course of the day could be burnt overnight and arvit is that so so we have two different makim one is is arvit or that's makus number one makus number two are is tila because of avot or is tila because of the corbanid cycle Now the garra does not indicate that these two arguments are connected. But the poshua wants to ingeniously suggest that they are and he says the following. If you hold that felos are because of the OOS, you will follow the opinion that fat ar is and the one that says to arvit is optional does not take the position that theot enacted the take the position that the because of the sacrificial cycle and since what was done at night is only if there was there were limbs that were not consumed That's not an obligation. In other words, you didn't necessarily have anything to burn if everything was burnt during the day. Which means the pushua's answer is very simple. I started off with a question, why would my be a rash if yakov enacted my says the poshua? If you follow the opinion that Jacob enacted my then my is and the opinion that says rashus is going with a different basis for the threeos. This is a very very logical kesh and uh but you see the kdesh is he is connecting two discussions that the gammora itself never says are connected but even with the paneoshua this does not answer the ram because here's the problem the ramam puskins explicitly that the tilos are because of the obos a mitzy yakov and the ram Ra paskins arvit is rishut. So pua doesn't work anymore with the rambom. So we're back to square one. I hope I'm not getting too complicated. Uh square one is why would it be optional if yakov enacted it and the ram says yakov enacted it and marb is optional. That's a contradiction right is not going to help you according to the ra. So let me share with you a a thought uh from saddok that's a very very beautiful thought of lublin and I think it can actually help us in our own in our own dabbing you know one one of the problems we have in dabbing and all of us have problems with dabbling hard to concentrate hard to have kabana is we're doing the same thing over and over and over again chakra shakar okay shabas is a different ding but during the week it's the same davining three times at least the amida the RB sod suggests the fact that davening is connected to different times of the day indicates that the dominant emotion that shakras arouses is not the same emotion as mka and not the same emotion as arvit and therefore you might be saying the same words but there's a different emotional resonance in how you connect to God based on time of day. Now this itself is very interesting because you know we're not as attuned to the rhythms of time of day as we used to be. You know before there was electricity day was day and night was night and there was a clear demarcation. Night was a different mus. In fact, there are actually secular books about this. How electricity changed the idea of night. It changed the concept of night. Night for most of human history. You you know, you didn't leave your you didn't leave your house. I mean, night was night. The notion of night life is really a relatively recent invention. the notion of restaurants being open at night, uh, whatever it would be. Uh, and night changed. In fact, Moshi even has a whole that night used to be a time not only of physical rest, but kind of, you know, emotionally focusing and being centered on things because you didn't have distractions. Things weren't going on. Uh, the world was quieter, right? That changed a lot. So in many many ways we've lost our connection to the natural rhythms of the day which is unfortunate. In fact, um, even dabbing, okay, I don't want to knock anybody. You know, there is a mitzvah, if you can do it, if you can do it, that shakrit, the amid of shak should be dabbed when the sun comes up, which means you start davening, let's say a half an hour before Nate's. So, you hit the sha exactly when it comes up. And if you think about this, it clearly it was the idea that you want to connect yourself with the renewal of the world singing a praise to Hashem. Like when the sun rises, it is singing a song of praise to Hashem. And you want to join that song of praise by linking yourself to the universe. That that is what Vasikin is supposed to mean. Instead, Vasikin today is an obsessive fixation on an atomic clock in which you know you're not no one's looking at the sun. Uh I mean I once had once um I had to dive in for the it was my father's yard site and the only minion I could go to was a Vasikan minion somewhere. Uh and it was in a basement without windows. So there was no connection to the sun and they told me they have an atomic clock that's extremely uh exact in measuring time and they said at whatever the time was I don't remember you got to start x-ray when this time is there to the second so I think I think I was 2 seconds late something like that and they told me afterwards you know you you can never dive in here and for the uh you know you cannot be a kazin here because you caused us to miss now you know they're technically right but I don't know aren't they missing the point a little bit I mean the point I mean first of all kazal didn't have atomic clocks that's not how they measure time right they measure time by looking at the sun rising and second of all you know when it becomes a fixation with a clock you're not really linking to the spiritual ual his cyber. Okay. Okay. Little bit of a vent. I have no again this was meant many years ago. I have no particular uh I assure you it does not bother me anymore but whatever but but but it's something I remember because vasikin is a spiritual idea and sometimes by converting it I don't want to say it this way it's not a good way but by taking the spiritual and converting it into hyperhalic technicality there is something that's lost a little bit in the translation that we have to be sensitive to Okay. But going back to the emotional resonance of Rav Soduk says the dominant emotion of shakas is gratitude, joy and hope as a new day is beginning. And you know that's the nature of it. Uh when a new day begins you hear the birds sing, the sun coming up. Even if you know you're depressed for a lot of things at least for a few seconds you might lose it quickly there's this idea of hope hope that comes up so chakras is the prayer of joy it is the prayer of gratitude it is the prayer of hope it is the prayer of optimism and that's why vasiking is so important because it's precisely with the rising of the sun that you have that sense of optimism you know it's already day, you know, you feel less. And according to it's brought down, an interesting thing that when you visit a seriously ill person, do not visit him in the early part of the day because he'll look so good that you won't dive in for him because people, you know, feel better in the beginning of the day. And it says, don't visit him too late at night because he'll look so bad you'll figure, oh, it's not it's not even going to help for me to stop him. So visit him in the middle where he doesn't look too good but he doesn't look too bad. That's when you're going to dive in for the person in the right in the right way. Now Saddok says if we look at shakras as the prayer of hope joy and gratitude we understand why avoided God through the prism of kindness and benevolence. That's how he in fact the reason why he became a person devoted to was that was his perception of the almighty he saw that benevolence of Hashem and in his own life even though he had sufferings and he had trials but at least by the end of his life everything came together he had a son Yitzk at the age of a of of a hundred uh even the so-called bad son Yes Ishmael did Chuva uh Hagar that he had sent way came back as a righteous woman coutura he did lose his beloved Sora but but she was 127 I mean it wasn't uh so unusual uh at that point so Ara was za to be mar people he was za to wealth he was za to respect he was za to all of his children coming back and even as did not become a Russia as we learned last week till the day Ara died So even Asa was doing okay. So Abrainu sees in his own life at least in retrospect the goodness of God, the hope of God and that's why chakras is the prayer of hope and gratitude and joy. Now min is prayer. Now here's the thing about min is the prayer of panic and fear. And we see this in a number of times. Although you can dive in Mina as early as the equivalent of 12:30, 6 and 1/2 hours. But the ideal time for Mina is before the sun sets but as the sun is approaching setting uh meaning the shadows of the night, the lengthening of the shadows. Now this very much well well number one MKA is a prayer of panic in a number of ways. Number one, the window of Mina can sometimes be very narrow and uh maybe less init because if you're desperate, you you'll just dab it in the street. In fact, I heard somebody complained that uh why do these seminary girls always da and m they're in they block the street. They're ding ma whatever. Now it's a subashm in the street. But in America, as I say, that's why we have the uh they had the phone booths and everything else. people are looking how am I going to die if I don't have my own office it's in the middle of a workday etc ma is a prayer of panic but it also represents the notion there is you're still in day you're still in the day but the shadows are coming the darkness is coming and therefore the emotional resonance of mka is hashem I still have your blessings But I'm afraid I'm losing them. Please let me hold on to them a little bit more. Now Rabaduk says this very much fits au's life. On one hand, Yitzk lives in the daylight because Yitizuk never leaves Erit Israel. Yitzk is in Erit Israel. On the other hand, the 400 years of exile and slavery that Hashem prophesied to Afra begin with the birth of Ye. Now, what does that even mean? H why do the how could the 400 years begin with the birth of Yitzkar? Yets was not a slave. Yet was not in Mitzim. Yetsk never left Erit Israel. But the answer is even if he was an arid Israel, he was given the impression that he wasn't welcome. Unlike Abraham who was honored and respected Yitzuk's wells get filled up, Yeetszuk is a is a victim of harassment. It's maybe somewhat similar to the Jews in Germany in the early 1930s. Many Jews were very prosperous, but they were getting the message with the rise of of the Nazi party that maybe they're not so welcome. And without getting too political, some would describe the situation of the Jews in Europe and even in the United States as being somewhat similar. Yeah, there's no concentration camps. There are no murders of Jews should remain this way. But there's beginning to be this notion Jews are too pushy. Jews are, you know, trying to control the agenda. All sorts of things. Again, I don't mean to be alarmist, but the point is it's a ma time. You're still in the day, but the lengthening shadows of the evening create a certain phat. So, chakras is the prayer of joy, hope, optimism, and gratitude. Min is the prayer of panic and fear as things are slipping away. Now let's go to my what is the mood? What is the dominant mood of my now? Remember when did Yakovino enact my this is when he's running away because his life is in danger. He was 63 years old. If we factor in the yeshiva of shame, he's 77 years old. He has no wife. He has no children. He has no possessions because Alhifa is the son of Asov stripped him of all of his wealth. That's why he'll say in next week's para ki of I crossed the ardane with only a stick nothing. He's poor. He's old. He's getting old. No wife, no children. He's leaving the holiness of Erit Israel. He is scared of his actual life that as will take it might take and you should also know that he's scared of the spiritual challenge of going to love frying pan to the fire and remember he didn't yet have his dream the dream of the latter is Hashem's response to Yakov's prayer when Yakov there was no ladder there was no reassurance All there was was darkness. And to make it even worse, Kazal talk about a sudden darkness, meaning the sun actually sets hours before it should kind of looking at what type of sign is that. So unlike shakas which is optimistic, hopeful, joyous, grateful and even unlike Mina where you still have your blessings but you're a little worried about losing them is when you hit rock bottom. That's why that's why this man of my is not as the sun is setting my is total darkness. Now again I'm not I'm not going to answer that separate issue but at least once you dive in when it's already dark and this is Yakov's prayer my is when you hit rock bottom you're hopeless you're despondent you don't see a way out you don't see an escape you're not going to get out of this problem therefore if soduk says My is the prayer of amuna. Shakras is the prayer of gratitude. Mina is the prayer of panic. My is the prayer of faith. Amuna is what a person has when everything else is gone. The Briskarev used to say a person that has $100,000 in the bank and says I have amuna that Hashem will take care of me. Of course, $100,000 then was worth a lot more. Says that's not amuna. You got the money in the bank. Amuna is when you have nothing but you say, "Hashem will take care of me. It'll work out." So, amuna is my river. So now listen to what was our question to remind you of our question. Our question was if Yakov enacted my arvit, why would it be an optional prayer? Now here's the thing. The question is presupposing that if something is optional, it's less important. But you know, you can turn it around and you can say the following. Anything that is obligatory is considered to be something that every bar mitzvah boy or basitzvah girl is capable of doing. So shakas which is gratitude for what God has given you. Every person can be expected to have that gratitude. Even animals have that gratitude. What does the nayo say? Yu the ox knows its master and the donkey ausp of the feeding trough right it knows it knows the hand that feeds it so chakras is obligatory because the lesson is obvious ma is obligatory because there are no atheists and foxholes that you know when when a person feels they're losing something they turn to god But my is a very sublime level. It's the level of having amuna when there's no hope. It's the level of having amuna in darkness. It's the level of having amuna when it seems that everything is going wrong. It is having amuna in ashvitz concentration camps. So the optionality of my is not because it's less important but because it represents a lesson to which we should aspire and try to reach but we can't yet say it's an obligation on everybody. Not everybody is going to be holding there. So it's an as so optionality means it's an aspiration. It is a goal but it cannot yet be concretized as a fixed obligation. It is the prayer of amuna and we actually see this in the nusak of you know after of the morning. So we say right God is the true God. And then we say and it's standing up. It's firmly established in the morning which represents the mornings of life. When I see the greatness of God and the goodness of God, God's truth is firmly established in my eyes. At night, at night, I don't the nights of my life, I don't always see God's truth in a clear way, but I have faith that it's there. And uh the famous in Ms. says, "I declare in the morning your loving kindness and your faith in the night." So there's a famous famous that day and night are not just referring to day and night but there's the parts of my life that are daylight hours, joy, triumph, success and there are parts of my life that are filled with struggle, darkness, failure, sometimes tragedy. So David says in the mornings of my life I see your loving kindness in the dark moments of my life I can't always see that the vision is obscured but I declare your faith meaning the faith I have in you right amuna and that's the goal or that is the aod of arith that that is the prayer of Amuna. And indeed, it comes from the greatness of Yakavina who turned to Hashem in prayer at a time when his life was at its bottom, at its nater and he was answered with the glorious, glorious vision of the latter and Hashem's promises. But again, I want to repeat when he davened, he didn't have that ladder. That ladder didn't come yet. He davened in the dark. He daved without the lights. And then Hashem gave him that strength and gave him that allowed him to survive and to flourish for the 22 years till he was able to be reunited with his father Yitsuk. Now, of course, keep in mind that Jacob's life never gets easy because as soon as he finally gets back, Yoseph gets sold. I I mean you know he goes uh from the the sorrows of love on's house all those years to makose and then the last 17 years of his life in mit of all places were said to be the best years of his life when he is with all of his family. Yeah, it's a bit of a paradox, you know, if you're a Zionist or you don't have to be a Zionist. I mean, if you're a person who is as all of us should be, one of the paradoxes of of the isal's understanding, which is that the best years of Jacob's life were the last 17 years that he spent in Mitraim. You know, one wouldn't one wouldn't assume that the story would come out that way. And yeah and yet uh this is how uh how the story appears to be. But be it as it may uh I hope that this may give us a deeper sense of how to view maybe same words but there is a different emotional way that you are connecting to Hashem. So wish you all a wonderful Shabas good week and we'll see you next week. You see your body