Prayer Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:03 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Ari Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Prayer Podcast.

00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody. Welcome back. It is so wonderful to be here. It is such a delight.

00:19
Today we're going to study the magnificent prayer of Anabekoch, to study the magnificent prayer of Ana Bekoach. Ana Bekoach, as we know, is traced back to the great Tanaic sage, reb Nechoni Ben Akonah. Reb Nechoni Ben Akonah composed two different prayers. The first prayer, that is also very famous, is the prayer that we recite at the beginning of every time we study Torah. There's a special Yirat Sun that we say Yirat Sun V'Fanecha Hashem Elokei. May it be your will, hashem, my God, that a mishap not come about through me and that everything that I learn should be proper. I shouldn't give bad counsel, I shouldn't misguide any of my students. And then there's another prayer that is attributed also to Reb Nechoni Ben Akanah, from after prayer, from after study.

01:13
But this Ana Bekoach prayer is a very, very, very powerful, deep, mystical prayer, and there are a lot of secrets, a lot of great secrets. First we are going to read the Ana Bekoach in Hebrew and then in English Shalom, we beseech you with the great power of your loving right hand. Release the bound one. Hear and accept the prayer of your people, o awesome one, elevate us and purify us. We implore you, o mighty one, protect those who seek your oneness like the pupil of your eye. Bless them, purify them, confer your charitable mercies upon them. Always, all-powerful, holy One, lead your congregation with your abundant goodness, exalted unity. Turn to your people who remember and constantly make mention of your holiness. Accept our plea and hear our cry, intimate knower of hidden mysteries. In an undertone, we say may the name of the glory of his kingdom be blessed for all eternity. My dear friends, let's begin the journey. Our sages tell us that this prayer was specifically placed right here, at the end of the offerings, as a prayer of redemption for the Jewish people.

03:24
The prayer of anabikach is a prayer of redemption. That's on a very simple level we have to understand. It's a prayer of redemption asking God unbound us, untie our limitations. We're limited. We're in a world where we can't fully express our commitment and devotion. We have haters out there. We have anti-Semites out there. We have people who are demonstrating outside our restaurants. We have people who are demonstrating outside our consulates, our embassies. We have people who are demonstrating on social media. We have people who are demonstrating in the news. We have people everywhere denouncing the Jewish people. What have we done? Our sin is news. We have people everywhere denouncing the Jewish people. What have we done? Our sin is survival. We're asking Hashem, please protect us Now.

04:13
Rabbi Nechoni ben Akono was a Tanaic sage. This is in the time of the second temple and the first century. And the Arizal says the great mystic. The Arizal says the great mystic. The Arizal says there are deep mystical meanings behind this prayer and let's try to break it down. Number one is, if you notice, there are seven lines. Each of them have six words, a total of 42 words reflecting the 42 name, the 42 letter name of Hashem. There is a secret. There are many different names of Hashem. There's, we know, the four, the Yod, the he and the Vav and the he, the four we know. There's the 42 letter name. There's the 72 letter name. There's the 72 letter name, there's a 216 letter name, etc. There are many, many different names of Hashem. Hashem created the world with the 42 letter name. If you look at the end of each of these lines, you have the abbreviations. We're not supposed to read them. We're not supposed to read them, we're not supposed to say them, because that's pronouncing Hashem's name.

05:30
The author, ibn Hanif bin Akonah, wrote this special prayer using the acronyms of Hashem's name. So the Ana Bakar Gedula says the Aleph, beis, gemel, yemin, hatati, yitzur, the Yud, the Taf and the Tzadik. And our sages tell us this is not something that we should be delving in Hashem's name, but let's understand this prayer. So we know that there is the seven attributes of how Hashem rules the world. Each of these seven lines reflect one of those attributes. We know there's the seven branches of the menorah. We know there are seven days of creation. Each of these lines reflects the aura, the power of a different day of the week, the day of the week, in that order.

06:15
And then we know the six words. Sages tell us that Isaiah had a prophecy of the seraphim angel who was saying kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, that he had six wings. Those are the six letters of the Ana Bekoach, of each word, the six words. And we know that the Shema as well has the six words. And we're going to see how this relates to the Shema in a moment, after the Karbanos, when we purify the world of Asiyah and we talked about the four worlds. Previously in the prayer podcast, we had talked about the four worlds.

06:52
We're now transitioning from the Olam HaAsiyah, the world of Asiyah, the world of doing to the world of creation, to the world of Yetzirah. The transition point is where we place the Ana Bekoach. Each transition has huge secrets and the Ana Bekoach elevates us from one level to the next. When do we also have a major transition point From the low to the high the low realm of the world of doing to the world of creation, from the world to the high the low realm of the world of doing to the world of creation, from the world of the six days to the world of Shabbos? Therefore, our sages instituted as well.

07:34
We recite the Ana Bekoach at the onset of Shabbos, right before we say L'Chadodi. We say the Anabekuach because it's a transition to a higher level. We get a Neshama Yitera, we get an elevated Neshama that's infused into us at the onset of Shabbos. We begin that with Ana Bekoach In the very basic meaning. It instills a belief that we can renew ourselves each day, every morning. We need the strength to renew ourselves. To renew ourselves. You had a difficult day yesterday. Yesterday was difficult. Today's a new day. We start fresh. We plea Hashem with your strength, tatir Tzuruah, untie our ropes that are sealing us, that are limiting us. Just like creation was with 42, and the world was created, so too, we use these 42 words of Ana Bekoach to recreate ourselves. So each one of these, the acronyms of each of these stanzas, is a different name of Hashem Ana Bekoach.

09:00
Prayer of transition is why, like we mentioned, why we recite it on Shabbos and we say it daily before prayer as rectification. It opens the channels of shefa, it opens the channels of blessing. When else do we say this? We say this at night before we go to sleep. We're again transitioning to a higher realm. Here we were a whole day busy in a physical world of doing, and now our neshama is taken to a higher level where God cleanses our soul, which is why, in the morning, we say we say God, thank you for restoring that soul within me.

09:47
There's a special elevation via this prayer of Ana Bekoach, and our sages tell us that when we recite the 42-letter name of Hashem, we need absolute purification, which is why we don't say the name. We just say this prayer Meaning we? Why we don't say the name? We just say this prayer Meaning we're not supposed to say the name. What Rabbi Nachani Ben Akanah did is he revealed to us a prayer that has hidden in it the name of Hashem. So what we're doing is we're attaching ourselves to that, to that shefa. We're attaching ourselves to that shefa.

10:30
It says that the elevation of the neshama is through the 42-letter name of Hashem. The descent of the neshama is from the 72-letter name of Hashem. Now we're not going to get into this too much, but it could also be that that's why I'm just thinking out loud. You know, there are many people who are stringent after Shabbos to not do any type of labor till Rabbeinu Tam. What's Rabbeinu Tam? It's till 72 minutes after the sunset. Some people it's 40, 43 minutes, some people 50 minutes, some people 60 minutes, some people 72 minutes. It's not a coincidence that it's the 72 names, 72 letter name of Hashem, with the descent of a blessing that some wait 72 minutes before they go into their weekday activities.

11:32
So he said the 42 letters, the 42 letter name was used for creation. It's also, it says Hashem's seal on the world. Why, by saying it, we attest to Hashem as the creator of the world. Why, by saying it, we attest to Hashem as the creator of the world. Just like by Shema, we're accepting the yoke of Hashem's kingship upon ourselves. So too, by reciting the Ana Bekoach, we're in a sense taking upon ourselves the yoke of Hashem's kingship in this world.

12:03
Also, our sages tell us I don't understand this completely and I should have done this as a preface. I don't completely understand all the depths of the Ana Bekoach. I'm saying that in advance, and one of the things that helped me understand how much I don't understand is that I was looking in one of the sources and it says that if you take the word yad, which is the numerical value of 14, times three is 42. The three hands that elevate from the world of Asiyah to the world of Yetzirah. I don't know why there are three hands. I thought there were only two hands, but apparently there's a third hand. There are three hands that elevate us. I don't know what it means, I don't know what its significance is, but I saw it so I feel like I need to share it.

12:53
But our sages warn us in the Talmud. Our sages warn us about the name of Hashem that has 42 letters and in fact, the Talmud in Kiddushin 71a brings about one of the Tanayic sages who was casual with the name, the 42-letter name of Hashem. It says. It says it says only only only share the 42-letter name of Hashem to someone who's extremely, extremely modest and someone who's very, very humble and someone who's at least that half his life, which is why many people don't start Kabbalah until the age of 40, which is half the life for most people. So, therefore, people don't start kabbalah till the age of 40, which is half the life for most people. So therefore, people don't start.

13:51
Oh, and someone who's not an angry person, the enum ish takar. Someone who doesn't get drunk, the a no mommy, that mommy, dalmy dosa, not. Someone who is stubborn, very careful. He says that anybody who treasures these 42 letter names and protects it and watches over it to always be with holiness and purity, such a person is loved above and loved below meaning in this world. And such a person above and loved below meaning in this world, ve'imosim utalos albriyos. And such a person is God-fearing and that fear of God extends to those around him. Ve'no chashteh olamos. And such a person inherits two worlds Ha'olam hazev, ha'olam ha'bo, this world and the world to come. And a person should not.

14:45
I know this is being broadcast online, but the name of hashem should not be. This name should not be publicized. It says it should not be revealed out in the open. There's a story of one of the sages who wasn't careful with this name and he was taken early because you have to be extremely careful. So, instead of having the name, the 42 letter name of Hashem, give us that blessing because it's so dangerous.

15:24
Rabbi Nachani Ben Akan did us a tremendous favor and created this prayer of us, that blessing, because it's so dangerous. I've been a honeybun did us a tremendous favor and created this prayer of anna bikoh so that we can bring this shefa into our world, even if we're not so pure and so holy. There are some who even the prayer of anna bikoh is like it's so, it's so, it's so holy and so it's so revered that they're afraid to say it. Even though it's just a prayer, it's not the actual names of Hashem, because it carries within it the acronym of Hashem's name. It says, when we say Anna, what is the word Anna referring to? It's a plea, please, please, hashem.

16:04
We see that Moshe prayed in front of God. He pleaded after the Jewish people sinned with the golden calf. What did he say? Honor, your nation sinned a great sin. Please, hashem. He pleaded. That's the honor. He asked Hashem to forgive the Jewish people for the golden calf. That's why we start with the plea of honor, b'koach. What is b'koach? G'dulas y'mincho, with your right hand, the tremendous, tremendous power? Y'mincho Hashem n'yadori b'koach, the right has tremendous power to bring blessing to our lives. So we ask with the right, gedulas yimincha, the right hand.

16:56
You know, a Kohen who serves in the temple had to be a righty, could not be a lefty. It's considered a flaw, it's considered a blemish. Kohen had to be a perfect specimen. If he was a lefty he was not valid for the service in the temple. It's considered a blemish. I know now if there wasn't a Kohen who would do the service in the temple, the Bechor, the firstborn. I know somebody who's a firstborn and they're a lefty and the father trained them to become a righty. He said you could be needed to be called for service in the temple and your lefty won't be able to serve in the temple. He had to train himself to use his right.

17:34
It's an important thing to understand the power of the right. We place our tefillin on our left hand because tefillin are tied. Tying is a limitation. The right can't be limited. The left can be limited. Everything having to do with limitation is on the left. That's why we tie our left shoe first, because it's a limitation. The right is power. The right is strength. It can't be limited.

18:06
We ask Hashem, bless us, give us the success, give power, the right is strength. It can't be limited. We ask Hashem, bless us, give us the success, give us the shefa from your right, the mighty power of the right. Unbound us your tied up nation. See the suffering, the pain that we're experiencing today.

18:29
We ask Hashem, please remove all of that, remove all of those ropes. It's like, think of Samson At the end of his life was all bound up. The Philistines tied him up and they made a big, big party and they brought him there to see how he was bound up, how the mighty Samson was now so weak. He said, hashem, I want you to give me, please, strength one more time, because this is a desecration of your name and it says that God gave him back his strength. And he took the pillars of the building that they were celebrating in, crushed them and the building collapsed and Samson and all of the I think it was 4,000 Philistines died with that crush of the building. Suddenly, the ropes that were tying Shemshon were just like tearing apart. That's what we ask.

19:38
We're limited because we can't do the things we want to do. We'll appease them. We beg, hashem, release the ropes, the terrible afflictions that we've experienced as a people. Just yesterday, we had the tragic terrorist attack in Jerusalem. Six people were murdered. You have four soldiers who fell in Gaza. I mean, we're talking about.

20:15
It's a pain. Did the British have this? Did the French have this? Did the Russians have this? The Russians actually did in a different way, right, but who had this yesterday?

20:27
Hashem, we're in pain. Hashem, we're in pain. Hashem, we're in pain. Please remove this pain from us. Why do we have this pain? Because of our sins. Oh, why do we sin? Because we're not close to you, hashem. We want to be close to you so that we don't sin. Release all of the limitations.

20:48
Kabel Rina Samcha. What's Rina? What's Rina? Rina Zutfila says the Talmud. What is Rina? Accept the prayer of your people. Rina Zutfila says the Talmud.

21:08
There's different types of prayer. One is praise, one is request. We're asking Hashem Kabel ha-shevach she-meshabchim ha-ozcha amcha. Accept from us, accept our prayer when we sing your praise. When we sing your praise, hashem, please accept it. Accept our prayers.

21:32
Tagvenu taharenu nora. In the next phrase, at the end of that sorry, at the end of the second phrase, what do we say Accept our prayer, the prayer of your people. Strengthen us, purify us, o awesome one. Strengthen us, purify us, o awesome one, make us strong. We need strength to go through what we're going through, tahareinu, we need purity that we shouldn't get dirty with the filth of the world.

22:12
As the Misi Yisrael says Hashem, purify us. You know what it means. To purify us, that we're able to overcome our Yetzhara. Our Yetzhara is always, always there. Try to stumble us. He sends us temptation, he sends us distraction. We're saying, taharenu, purify us, remove the yetzah.

22:44
Norah, what is norah? Your fear should be visible upon your fear should be visible upon us. She'imassum utel us. Alen evraim, god, you ask us to fear you. We want to fear you. That fear should be visible upon us.

23:01
Na, we go to another prayer, another request. Na, we're requesting from Hashem G'ibor dorshei chudacha. G'ibor is O Mighty One, o Powerful One. You know where Hashem has the name Mighty One, powerful One. That refers to the exodus from Egypt.

23:30
Hashem took us out of Egypt. How, with might, with an outstretched hand, hashem showed us the greatest power in the world. How the nature stopped its course, right in the middle of everything. The flow of the sea, hashem stops. It creates the walls, allows the Jewish people to walk through on dry land. The great, awesome power of Hashem was visible.

24:00
We're asking Hashem Na Gibor, you're such a Gibor, you're such a powerful, a powerful force, a force of the entire world. We need your Dorshei Yechudcha. Listen to this. So he said, like the pupil of the eye. What's the pupil of the eye? You know it's very sensitive. You can't touch my eye, right, when the nations of the world bother us, they're playing with God's pupil. God doesn't like that. You see the apple of the eye, right? That's what we're talking about.

24:43
We're talking about Hashem's. You're messing with Hashem's most beloved people. Hashem, please do something about this. The nations of the world, they're messing with you. Baruch Haim Teharem, they're messing with you. We say bless them, purify them. What's that's the Kohenic blessings? We say these are verses in the Torah. We say Baruch atah ba'ir. Baruch atah ba'sodah, baruch atah bevoechah, baruch atah betseisechah. These are verses in the Torah.

25:30
We're asking for that blessing to be with us at all times, wherever we go. Taharein, those who seek you, those who seek you, have mercy on them. It's very easy to get caught up. Signs, oh, this is just mother nature. This is Hashem's creation. Hashem puts it there for us. It's absolute perfection. Hashem puts it there for us to connect to Him those who want your oneness, your oneness of Hashem. There shouldn't be confusion that we should think that. Heaven forbid. There are other forces, there are other powers. Oh, I gotta get that deal. I have to bribe or I have to coerce, or I have to manipulate. No, no, no, the blessing only comes from Hashem. The guy on the other side of the table is a puppet of Hashem. If Hashem wants that blessing to come to you, it'll come to you. He doesn't want the blessing to come to you, it won't, whatever you do. So we're negotiating with Hashem Directly, yochid, referring to Hashem.

26:45
Hashem is the one, the one and only one, the one and only one. We say we see that when the Jewish people sang the song at the sea in the. We say that we see that Hashem Hashiru, la Hashem ki geoga. We see that Hashem is the power of everything. If Hashem has the force, the power over everything, then what arrogance can I have? Like I'm somebody? Oh, look at what I've, look what I built, look what I've done. What do you mean? Everything you have is from Hashem. That means anything you try to take credit for. You're taking credit away from Hashem, that's not fear. You can't take credit from Hashem.

27:38
We're asking Hashem turn towards us. What does Rashi say? And Hashem says I will turn towards you. I'm going to turn away from everything else that's going on in the world and I'm going to focus right on you. It's like when a husband and wife are having a conversation. It would be extremely unhealthy for the couple to be sitting talking to each other while they're on their phones. You put away your phone, you put away all your distractions and you focus. Hashem says we pray, turn to your people. You have nothing else in the world. Focus on us. That's what we're asking for. Why? Because we remember your holiness, we remember your greatness. We're committed to recognizing it and to exalting your name in the world.

28:29
Shavaseinu Kabel, our prayer, our request, our plea please accept Ushmat Zahak Haseinu and hear our, our yells. We yell to you Hashem Tzoyek Mi Ke'ev Leiv. We cry out, we scream because we're in pain. We yell to you Hashem Tzoyek mike'ev le'ev. We cry out, we scream because we're in pain. We're suffering. Yodah talomos. Sometimes we can't cry. The pain is so deep we can't even cry. Hashem knows talomos. Hashem knows what's hidden inside, even if we can't even cry. Hashem knows, talomos. Hashem knows what's hidden inside, even if we can't cry. Hashem, you know what's going on inside. You know how difficult it is, you know how painful it is, even if we don't express it outwardly. Yodat talomos, you know what's going on inside our hearts. Hashem, please hear our plea, Hear our requests, and then we say Baruch Hashem K'vod Ma'chus Eloi L'Voed. This was a secret that Moshe stole from the heavenly angels. When he ascended up to the heavens to receive the Torah, he overheard the angels saying this. He says uh-uh, let me write this down.

29:44
Write this down and he taught it to us, and that's why we say it, because it's not ours, it belongs to the heavenly angels. Whenever we recite this except for Yom Kippur it's the only time it's recited aloud we say it quietly because it's still. You don't. If you steal someone's watch, you don't walk around outside with the watch. You know what I mean. You hide it. You wear it in a private event when nobody then you'll wear it. You don't walk around showing off what you stole.

30:14
We stole this special prayer, this last six words here. Baruch Hashem, we stole that from the angels, so we say it in an undertone. We stole that from the angels, so we say it in an undertone. And what is this prayer? We say that your name, Kvod Malchuscha, the honor of your glory, should be revealed to the world with no limits. It should continue to expand. Baruch Hashem, Kvod Malchuscha, Le'olam Voed Le'olam, forever, forever, forever, for all eternity. Your name should continue to grow. Your name should continue to expand. We say the same thing after reciting the Shema. When we say the Shema, what are we doing? We're saying Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad, Yochid Ge'eh. We said over here in Anabekuach. It's referring to the same thing we say in the Shema.

31:06
We see there's so much parallel here of what's going on in our prayers and what we're asking for. We're asking Hashem, we want to, we want to have your countenance upon us. We're looking to you in our prayer. We can't recite your 42 letter name. Here's a prayer that is hopefully pulling the strings of the power that, even if we're not worthy and we're not holy enough to be able to access that name because I don't know anybody today who's at that level Apparently one of the sages from the Talmud right. His soul was taken from his body because he accessed that and he wasn't at that level. I guarantee you, nobody in this generation is at the level of a Tanayic sage, None of us. So the name we don't say.

31:57
But we have this prayer that we could access and it's a tremendous, tremendously powerful, tremendously powerful prayer for us. If we're able to connect to it, to learn it more on our own, to review it, and hopefully we'll be able to have that Shefa, we'll be able to have that blessing in our life every single day. Because if we are able to recite this every morning, what we're doing is we're opening up a world of Shafa Saying Ha Hashem, we need your help, Hashem. We need your protection, we need your healing in this world, and what we're going to do we're going to do our job is be representatives of Hashem. That people look at us world, and what we're going to do we're going to do our job is be representatives of Hashem. That people look at us, that the name of Hashem is visible on you, that's the tefillin that we wear.

32:58
But as we act, not only when we're in synagogue wearing phylacteries, the way we walk around, the nations of the world should see ah, this is someone who emanates from him. You can see godliness. You can see they're carrying. They're not walking around, looking around for the next distraction. They're living in an internal world connected with Hashem. They're grounded, and that's what we hope for and pray for every day. My dear friends, thank you so much and we should merit that all of our prayers be accepted, Amen.

33:34 - Intro (Announcement)
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