Prayer Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Prayer Podcast.

Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to the prayer podcast. We are going to study now part two of Baruch Sha'amar. We mentioned last week that Baruch Sha'amar has two parts to it. The first part is the praises or the introduction introduction to the praises of Sukkot Yizimra. The second part is the blessing. So I want to just share with you some of the secrets that I
studied, I learned, and I found this week from the Rokach, one of the great earlier commentaries on Baruch Sha'amar. He says, what are we saying? Baruch Sha'amar. So if you remember the translation that we shared, which is available in the description of this podcast. Baruch Sha'amar v'ha-yo ha-olam baruch hu. Blessed is he who spoke and the world came into being. Blessed is he. The Rokach says, you know what that is? It's the entire world was actually created by the first utterance. Everything. Everything that exists today.
Every piece of technology, every wave, every tree, every fish, every man. The idea, obviously people are born later, but the idea, everything, all the concepts, all of creation was already created by the first utterance. Baruch Sha'amar. He said and it was a world. However, excuse me, the Rokach says that they came, they were revealed to the world each one in its own day. We know, we talk about the seven days of creation.
Well, really our sages teach us everything was already created from the first moment. It says, Barashis barul hakim, Hashem created the world in the beginning. Everything was created, but each one had a process in which it was revealed to the world. And that's with the amazing combinations of letters of Hashem's name and how each one was placed into its proper place. V'hayah olam, the whole world was created. Shamaim, as the first states, the Aretz, the heaven, the earth and everything that's in them, all of the galaxies,
everything in the earth, every nutrient, everything was already created. Every neuron, every atom, everything was already created. V'hayah olam. Baruch Hu. Baruch Hu. What do we say? Baruch Hu, blessed is He. Sages tell us Hashem created everything so that we glorify His name. You know why you have a car? So that you glorify God's name. You know why you have a healthy body? So that you glorify God's name. You know why you eat every day?
So that you have strength to glorify Hashem's name. By the way, in the process of eating, we also recite blessings to glorify Hashem's name. It's all a process of glorifying Hashem's name. So it's not just like, well, blessed is He. No, no, no. It's for that purpose that Hashem created the world. Baruch Hu. The whole world was created so that we can praise Hashem. Baruch oseber eishis. Hashem renews the world every day. Every world and every day the world is established anew.
Baruch omer ve'oseh. Kish omer miyad naaseh gzira ve'oseh. When Hashem decrees something, immediately it goes into effect. Hashem declares a gzira, a decree upon the world, upon an individual. Hashem exacts it immediately. Baruch gozer mekayim. Everything that Hashem says will happen, will happen. Every single prophecy, which is the word of Hashem revealed to mankind, will come to fruition. Even hu tziva ve'ya'amod. It'll take some time. Sometimes we're saying, oh, why doesn't it show up right now? Hashem is in no rush.
Baruch merachem ha'oretz. The rain doesn't dissolve the world. The waters of the sea, of the oceans, of the rivers, they don't overflow the earth. Hashem has mercy on the earth. The earth, notwithstanding all the rain, water, you know, you have some dirt on your rooftop. Wait till the next rain. It washes it right down. So why doesn't it do that for the earth? No, it doesn't happen. The earth absorbs the water. Baruch merachem ha'oretz. Baruch merachem al ha'abriyos.
Hashem feeds us. It says, right, baruch merachem al ha'abriyos, Hashem has compassion on his creatures. Hashem feeds us. Hashem gives us sustenance. Hashem gives us our livelihood with honor, with dignity. We feel, it's the balance that we need to have. We feel like, me, I'm a hard-working guy. I earned my living. You didn't earn anything. It was a gift. Hashem gave you the gift of feeling like you earned it so that you don't feel like a beggar. So it's with dignity.
Don't take it too far. You take it too far. Now you're becoming arrogant on something that's not yours. Baruch mishalim socha tov lireyav. Hashem will pay the proper reward to every single good deed that we do. Every single deed, which is why our sages tell us that sometimes a person can look at the world and say, how come the evil get good and the righteous have a miserable, terrible life? No, you're looking at it in a very short term.
Hashem wants the wicked to get all their reward for whatever good they may have done, get their reward right now. While those who are righteous, you're going to get the full reward in due course. Baruch ha'i la'ad v'kayim lo netzach. Blessed is he who lives forever and exists eternally. What's that? Hashem was, Hashem is, and Hashem will be. Hashem is in a rush. We have to remember that Hashem is lo'ad forever and ever. Hashem was, Hashem is, and Hashem will be.
Every time we say the name of Hashem, this is the kavan of the intention that one should have. And baruch podeh o'matzil. Blessed is he who redeems and saves. What's that? Podeh mikol tzara o'matz. Hashem gets us out of every challenge. Hashem loves us and shows us his mercy. Now, that's the bless, the the introductory part. Now we're going into the blessing. What's the blessing? We say baruch ha'to Hashem, Elokeinu Melech ha'olam. Blessed are you Hashem, our God, King of the universe.
Ha'keil ha'ov ha'rachamon ha'mehulol. The Almighty, the Merciful Father, who is verbally extolled by his people, praised and glorified. Ha'rachamon ha'mehulol. Sages tell us that this is a daily reminder that all Hashem wants to do is good. All Hashem wants. Hashem wants to bestow goodness on the world, which is why he created the world. Hashem put you in this world because Hashem wants you to have good. The only purpose of creation was so that you have good.
So now I want to share with you, we're going to say a bunch of different praises of Hashem. Nehalel cho Hashem. So we say, b'feh amo. We specifically say b'feh amo by the mouth of his pious ones. Many have the custom to say b'fi amo, which is more accurate. More accurately you know, in in the context of what we're saying, it's it's proper grammar to say b'fi amo. But we say b'feh amo. Why? Because the numerical value of b'feh is 87. You remember we said last week
that there are 87 words in this prayer of Baruch Sha'amah. So when we say b'feh, we're bringing a reminder to the 87. The numerical value of b'feh is 87 as well. Mishubach u'mifor b'shon chasidah v'avodah, by the mouth of his pious ones and his servants. U b'shireh deravdecha, and through the songs of David, your servant. So now listen to the following. Nehalel cho, we will extol you. Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem our God. B'shvachos, with praises. U b'smiros, with psalms.
Negadel cho, we will exalt. U n'shabeh cho, we will praise. U n'foreh cho, we will glorify you. V'nasgir shim cho, and we will mention your name. V'namlich cho malkeinu olekeinu, and we will proclaim you our God, our King, our God. Yochi itchei haolamim, unique one, life of the worlds. Melech mishubach u'mifor ha'adeach me'agadol, praised and glorified forever is his great name. Baruch atah Hashem, Melech mehulol b'tishbakhos, bless to you Hashem, King who is extolled with praises.
So our sages tell us an amazing thing. Each one of these praises is hinting to one of the parts of the prayer. When we say Nehalel cho, we will extol you, referring to Hodu. B'shvachos, that's Mizmah L'sodah, with praises, Mizmah L'sodah, we're giving thanks to Hashem. B'smiros, that's the rest of P'suke de Zimrah, from Asherah all the way through to Vayivarach David. Negadel cho, we will exalt you, is referring to Vayivarach David. We say L'cho Hashem ha'gadula, to use all the greatness.
And what do we say there? We talk about the splitting of the sea, which is our Torah portion that we just talked about in our Parsha review podcast. Uneshabecha cho, what is that referring to? That's referring to, Neshabecha cho is, we will praise you. That's Yishtabach Shimcholad Malkenu, which is the end cap of the P'suke de Zimrah. Unifo'er cho is referring to the blessing of Yotzer HaMeoros, which we say Heimu Yifaru Haselo. V'nazkir Shimcho is referring to Ahava Rabba, to the blessing, the second blessing before the Shema,
which says V'kerav tonu l'shimcho ha'gadol, v'ahava, recognizing God's name, Nazkir Shimcho, we will mention your name. And then v'namlicha cho, what is namlicha cho? We will proclaim you, our King, our God. We will proclaim you. You know what that proclamation is? Shema. What do we proclaim in Shema? We say, our mission statement. v'namlicha cho. Hashem Elokeinu. We say Elokeinu is, we say, Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, recognizing Hashem is our God. And then we say, Yochid Chei HaOlamim. What is Yochid? Hashem Echad.
Hashem is one. Yochid Chei HaOlamim, our sages say, you know what Chei means? Chai. 18. That's the 18 blessings of the Amidah. That's referring to the Amidah. Melech Mishubachu Mifoar. When we say, King, praised and glorified, you know what that's referring to? That's referring to Asherah, where we continue to praise Hashem at the end of our prayers. And then we say, Adei Ad Shemo HaGadol. That's referring to Uval Etzion. So we have all, in Baruch Sha'amar, we have the entire prayer being outlined,
each one with a word hinting to some part of each of those future prayers that are part of our morning service. Amazing thing. Now we say, Shemo HaGadol. We know that part of the mitzvah of reciting Baruch Sha'amar is we hold the tzitzis. Some hold all four and some hold the front two. We mentioned last week that the front two is referring, is because you have eight strings and five knots, which is 13, times two is 26.
The name of Hashem, you have the name of Hashem while you're praising Hashem. But some say that you hold all four. Why? It says Shemo HaGadol, the great name, is corresponding to the Gedilim. The Gedilim is, Gedilim ta'aselecha, you should make the fringes. It's referring to the mitzvah of tzitzis that is equivalent to the entire Torah. Another reason for this, that we hold the tzitzis is to cherish what might drag on the floor. Our sages tell us our tzitzis, people used to, sometimes the talus is long,
it drags on the floor, or the tzitzis, some people have very, very long fringes and they can reach the floor and it can be a little bit of a disgrace to the mitzvah that represents all of Torah. So we give it honor, we hold it up when we recite this prayer. Also, just like we bunch our prayers, our blessings together, we bunch our mitzvahs, our tzitzis together and this represents our desire to perfect all of the mitzvahs that we perform.
We hold the tzitzis together. We're saying the tzitzis that represent all of the mitzvahs, we want to perform all of them in their perfection. Now we know, the Talmud says a very interesting thing in the tractate Barachot, it says that you're not allowed to add praises to Hashem. We're not allowed to add praises to Hashem. If you remember in part one of Baruch Shema, we discussed last week, we said that there was a paper that descended from heaven that had the prayer of these 87 praises, these 87 words
that are recited in this blessing. So there's an opinion that says that they were very concerned because they add praises to Hashem in this prayer that are not ordinary. If we see in the Amidah, we say Baruch atah Hashem, Elokeinu v'kevesenu, hokel, hagodol, hagibor, v'hanora, each one, God who is great, who is mighty, but you're not allowed to add to it. Why? Each one of them represent
one of the praises that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob gave. Don't add to it. Who do you think you are to add to Hashem's praises? So the paper that fell from heaven wasn't a paper that gave them the prayer, but rather that said that the praises that they put into this blessing are appropriate. Now there's a story told about a king. This is brought down by the Kol El Yor, I saw it in the Sefer Ani L'dodi.
He says that the king had many of his advisers, many of his generals, his officers, they all came to praise the king. Oh, you're so mighty. You're so strong. You're so generous. You're so kind. Everyone sang their praise, the praise of the king. One very highly ranked officer comes, he says, you know king, you have a crooked nose. You have a crooked nose. The king is ready to kill him. He says, no, no, no, no. He says, I gave you the greatest praise of all.
It's because when he says that you're kind, the only the only goodness he sees in you is that you're kind. When he says that you're mighty, the only goodness he sees in you is your might. He doesn't see all of your qualities. He says, but when I find that one, that one flaw, and I point it out to you, that means that everything else is praise.
When you find that one flaw, that means that everything else is perfect because I only found one flaw. The king says, ah, I like that. Now when we give so much praise to Hashem, Hashem is warranting all of those praises. Hashem is perfect in every area. There is no flaw to Hashem. A king of flesh and blood has flaws. Our king up in heaven and in earth everywhere is flawless. The note from heaven was a sign that their praises were appropriate.
This entire prayer I found in a in a book I want to read to you has unbelievable power. We say, The common people, the simple people, praise Hashem for the kindness he does for them. He makes the sun rise and set, the crops grow, and so they thank Hashem for the natural world and its daily miracles, which he performs throughout life. The common people are not philosophers and cannot speak about the attributes of Hashem
or that he is above time and space. Just the common people, the simple people. These are the praises we give to Hashem. And those who are chassidim, who are devout, righteous people, completely devoted to Hashem beyond the call of duty and his servants. How do they praise Hashem? They praise Hashem with They can describe how he relates to the world and speak of his infinite qualities. Mishubach refers to the praise of his qualities and Mifoar
refers to the overwhelming impression his infinite qualities make on man. Psuk ediz zimra is a combination of both mehulol b'fe'amo, the simpletons, and mishubach u'mifor b'shon chassidu b'avodav. And therefore these words are part of a blessing which is an introduction to the section of prayer. And what do we conclude this blessing with? We will mention your name in the blessing of Kiriashmah like we mentioned in the Shema and crown you as king. You are unique. You who are unique and the life force of all the worlds.
This refers to what we will be saying in Psuk ediz zimra. And finally the conclusion of the blessing as in all blessings refers back to the beginning of Baruch Sha'amar where we say melech mishubach u'mifor ha'adeyat shema ha'gadol. The king whose great name will be praised by both being mishubach and mifor forever. The concluding blessing of melech mehulol b'tishpochos, this refers to those who now see only God's conduct in the world as mehulol, praiseworthy.
But who will in the future have a deeper understanding and be able to be mishabachim, who will be able to sing all of God's praises by recognizing God's attributes. Not only this single action, but how the entire world is one beautiful tapestry of Hashem's kindness and goodness in this world. My blessing to all of us is that now we are in Psuk ediz zimra. This was the opening blessing Baruch Sha'amar. We have yeshtabach which is the closing blessing of Psuk ediz zimra of the verses of song
and now we're going to delve right in in the coming weeks into Hodu. We're going to go to Mizmula Soda. We're going to go into into Yehi Chavod. We're going to go into Ashrei and the five other psalms that follow Ashrei. It's an amazing song of singing praises to Hashem, which is why our sages tell us that when we say Baruch Sha'amar say it with a calmness. Say it in song. Say it with a pleasantness because you're singing Hashem's praises. Hashem should bless us every day. My dear friends,
thank you so much for joining me on this journey so that I can learn this and hopefully share some of this with everyone here. Thank you so much. Have a terrific week.

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