Introduction to Prayer
00:00 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome everybody to the brand new prayer podcast and my hope and my prayer is that, on this journey of learning prayer together, we will be able to make our prayer alive, that we can feel the closeness and connection with Hashem every single day and hopefully have our expression be received by the Almighty with love and with kindness, and Hashem should bless us that our prayers be always desired and received lovingly by the Almighty. Now the Talmud says that there is no prayer. Now, by form of introduction, I'm just going to say a few words and then, hopefully in the coming weeks, we're going to start opening up the sitter together, the prayer book together and learning prayer verse by verse. I say just tell us that there is no prayer that is returned empty. When you open your mouth and or heart and talk to God, just know that your prayer is going to be answered. But, rabbi, I asked for this and that and I didn't get it. I asked you know, I wanted to marry that person, I wanted to get that job, I wanted to go that to that place.
01:28
The answer can also be no, and that's something that we have to always take into account. Hashem doesn't have to grant us everything, but he definitely is going to answer everything. Now we have to be careful. What we ask for, what we really want, is to do what is best and what brings us closest to Hashem. And if Hashem determines that what we want to do is not good for that relationship, it's likely that he'll say no. Or possibly we still have free will. But just because we don't see the results, our sages tell us that sometimes those responses for those prayers could be generations later. It doesn't have to be that you will be the beneficiary of that prayer instantaneously. It's not instant soup Pour in the hot water and you mix it and there you go. It's not the way it works. It's prayer, is our communication with God. So the first thing we need to know is that mankind is identified in the Talmud as being someone who prays to God.
02:40
What's the distinction between man and every other creature? Although, by the way, the interesting sages teach us that all of the prayers, all of the animals pray to God. All of the animals pray to God, and it says that each one sees the greatness of God, recognizes and praises God in their own way. So by one it could be a chirp, by the other it could be a moo by the other it could be. Each one is recognizing God. In fact, there's an incredible book that was published by Artscroll, called the Great Artscroll, called Perikshira, which is the song of the animals that they sing to God. We have it here at the Magnificent Torch Library. You're welcome to take a look at it. It's beautiful. These are the songs. They also pray. The animals pray.
03:32
They recognize the relationship with God clearer than we do, but when we talk to God, we have a certain type of expression that we can talk to God in a way that no other creation can. We are identified as a human because a human talks to God. A human can talk in prayer with the Almighty. Our sages tell us that when we pray, we should pray like we're counting coins, like we're counting money. You count money. You don't say okay, one, two, three, four, five, six, no, no. No. One, two, three. You count every bill. Make sure that you're not missing one. Our sages tell us that our prayer should be no different. We should. Every word that we pronounce should be like we're counting money, and it's told about our great sages that that's the way they prayed. They prayed like they were counting coins, where everyone was precious, where everyone was meaningful. Because what are we doing? We're talking to Hashem, we're talking to God, we're standing before a king.
04:53
My grandfather would say this many times in Yeshiva we have to pray with our mind, with our heart, with our mouth, not with our stomach. Which is why my grandfather wouldn't shuffle back and forth, he wouldn't shake back and forth, he would stand like you'd stand in front of a king, like you'd stand before a president. You wouldn't stand in front of the president and say, oh, I want you to know, right that you know, mr President, thank you so much. You wouldn't talk like that. You would talk within a dignified fashion. You'd stand upright, you'd be dressed in your finest. So too, when we go to pray, the Allah says in the Talmud, brings this. One of the great sages had clothes that were special for prayer. All day you're running around doing this and that for prayer, talking to God. Get dressed in a suit and tie, get ready. I'm talking to God.
05:51
My grandfather, of blessed memory, would never daven in Yeshiva. You see, in Yeshiva, what we would do is we would have, especially in the long summer days, we would have, at the end of the afternoon study period, we would have mincha, which would be like at seven o'clock in the evening, because it wasn't yet evening, it was sunset is like 730, 745 in the summer days. So my grandfather would never pray with this, with the Yeshiva. He would always pray earlier in the afternoon, mincha, kadola, which is the earliest time you can pray, mincha. So we would ask why, why don't you daven with us? Why don't you daven with us? Why don't you daven with us? And he always pushed it off. This is not an eye. I davened already earlier until we found out. One time he said I can't wait to talk to Hashem for 12 hours, like what do you want me to do? Because you daven early in the morning, at seven o'clock, I'm going to wait till seven in the evening to pray again. I can't wait that long. He was so excited to talk to God again. I can't wait 12 hours to pray. That's the way our prayer should be.
07:08
My grandfather says that one who understands prayer, one who works on prayer, learns that every prayer is connected. When you pray in the morning, it's connected to your evening prayer, and when you pray in the afternoon, it's connected to your morning prayer. It's a continuation of a conversation. It's a continuation. It's just like a husband and wife. They don't start a brand new conversation over lunch. The lunch continues from what they spoke about earlier in the day or what they spoke about yesterday or last week. It's a continuation of a conversation. Our conversation with God is no different. It represents our conversation with God. When we pray, we have to learn to develop a flavor for prayer. Yisihana Hannah understood what prayer was and she was having a real conversation.
08:04
If you look in the Talmud in Trakhted Brakot, where we talk about, when we elaborate on the conversation that she had, that Khana had in her desire to have a child boy, it's amazing the back and forth that she has with the Almighty. She's just an ordinary person. Obviously she's not ordinary, but we need to realize that each one of us have the ability. Each one of us have the ability to talk to God and to negotiate with God. See, abraham does this when he tries to protect Saddam, saddam and Gomorrah, where the Almighty tells him that he's going to destroy the entire city. Abraham says, well, if there's 50 righteous, will you save them? God says yes, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10. What type of negotiations that we can do that negotiation with the Almighty as well. You want something from Hashem Talk Communicate, negotiate, negotiate.
09:18
Hannah did the same thing. She said well, if you don't give me a child, then I'm going to force you to give me a child. You know, the Torah says that if a woman is accused by her husband of having an adulterous affair, an extra marital affair, and she's wrongly accused, so she's blessed. What's she blessed with Incredible children. She says I'm going to hide out with another man, my husband's going to accuse me and they're going to take me in front of the court. I'm going to drink those waters and then I'm going to be innocent and you're going to have to give me a child because you promised in your Torah that you'll give me a child, and so on and so forth. She kept on saying I'm not going to accept no as an answer. That's the way negotiation needs to work.
10:11
In our conversation with God, it's got to be real. But before we get to that point, we have to understand we're standing in front of Creator of Heaven and Earth. We're standing in front of God who created everything, and when we stand in front of God, we can't be busy with anything else, nothing else. We're talking to the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the same God that was around, that created Adam and Eve and Noah and the Flood. God's seen a lot of things in his days, right? I think it's safe to say that God's taken care of every issue in the world Till now. He can take care of our issues. He can handle our little basket of issues. God can handle it. So now we have a choice Do we want to carry that burden or do we put the burden on Hashem? Hashelach al Hashem yehovcha, ruhi chalkelechov, put your burdens on Hashem and he will carry it. Hashem will carry the burden.
11:21
Someone once asked my grandfather what should I have, kavana? What should my intention, my focus be when I pray? So my grandfather said if you have a broken heart, that's the best, kavana. A broken heart, hashem. Give me success. Hashem, help my children, protect my children, protect them physically, protect them spiritually, protect them from bad influences, protect them from harm. Succeed their way. And, by the way, about ourselves as well.
11:58
Don't forget yourself, even though all of our prayers are in a plural. Every time we ask for it, we ask for it. Every time we ask Hashem for something, we ask Him, as we ask you, ruhi chalkelechov, heal all of the sick among your people. We ask for wisdom. We ask for wisdom for everyone. Vechanaynu mi'itchadaya bina vehaskel. Give us wisdom, give us clarity. Slachlanu, forgive us. We don't ask just for ourselves. It's much more powerful when you ask for a congregation, the congregation of Israel, and when we ask with a broken heart, when it's real, when it's heartfelt.
12:51
So how do we get the prayer we show up at synagogue running in? Oh 520, is mincha boom run into shul? You know all harried? Or do we prepare ourselves for prayer? Our sages in the Talmud talk about that. The righteous, the pious, would prepare for an hour before every prayer and they would have an hour after prayer to unwind. That's how elevated and holy they'd become in the process of prayer. Our preparation is key. We need to prepare before we pray Strategize.
13:34
You know, if you were about to make a proposal for a company to buy your product, what would you do? Sit down and you draw out what are their needs, what can you solve in your product that you're trying to sell them of their needs? I can solve your this and I can solve your that, and it'll cost you less, it'll be more efficient. We put together a whole proposal, put together a plan. You think you're gonna just run in 520s. Oh, we got to run, run in. Well, we sit and prepare ourselves for a few minutes before we pray to gather our thoughts.
14:14
The Talmud says and the Halachah confirms this as ruling You're not allowed to pray in the middle of a court case. Why You're in the middle of a court case and the other in the courtroom You're arguing your case. You're in the middle of all of the heat, of the of the conversation, of the arguments. You think you're gonna be able to focus and pray or no, not a chance. You'll be standing there saying, maybe I should have said that, maybe I should have said that, maybe I should have given that argument because you're so immersed in what's going on.
14:55
Say just tell us in the Talmud, you can only pray with a calmness. You can only pray when you don't have interruptions, when you don't have things. You know fogging up your clarity, that you're talking in front of God. I'm talking in front of the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. He's there to listen to my prayers. He's there to hear every single word I say. I have to be focused, I have to prepare, I have to know exactly who I'm standing in front of. So where do we pray. We know we pray in a synagogue, but we don't have to pray only in a synagogue. We can pray anywhere. A person can't make it to synagogue for health reasons or other reasons. Shem hears our prayers everywhere, and if you're in your car, that's a prayer too.
15:48
By the way important for us to know this there is a biblical commandment to pray every day. A biblical commandment to pray every day. There's no biblical commandment, though, to pray the prayer that we pray every day the Modeani and the Baruch Sh'amar and the Yishtabach and Ashrei and all of the Psukhid-i-Zimra, the verses of song and the verses of the Shema and the Shema and the Amida. That was constructed by the men of the Great Assembly. I will talk about that more in the introduction.
16:34
Our obligation is to pray. Use your own words. You don't know what to say. Our Sages helped you, they constructed the prayer for you. They put it together so that nothing is left out, so that in every situation of life, they've got you covered.
16:52
But the most important part is to pray. Did you say hello to Hashem today? Did you say thank you to Hashem today? Did you say I love you, hashem today? That is prayer. You want to add to it. You want to say all of the verses, all of the praise, recite the Shema. So, mitzvah, to recite the Shema every day as well, and we recite it with her to fill in.
17:20
The first thing we need to know is that we need to pray, we need to communicate with God. We can't go a day without communicating, just like with your spouse. You can't go a day without communicating, even if it's not at the peak of the relationship and everything is, you know, all bells and whistles and all the love and all the excitement may not be there every day, you still have to communicate every day, otherwise you're not in a relationship. If we don't communicate with the Almighty, we don't want to not be in a relationship. So, prayer is any place, prayer is any time, prayer is any words or any feeling, any connection.
18:06
Now, of course, we have the incredible words that were constructed by the men of the Great Assembly. We'll see in a minute how that came about. But the prayers reflect all stages of life. The prayers are as meaningful for a little child who learns now to pray and doesn't perhaps understand every word, but they understand. Thank you, hashem. Thank you, hashem, for giving me my soul, for giving me fingers for giving me legs, for giving me feet, for giving me an incredible digestive system, for me a heart and lungs, air to breathe, blood. I mean, the miracles are endless. Thank you, hashem.
18:54
But there's one more thing, and that is that intention, focus is much more important than all of the words in the prayer book. If you recite, wake up in the morning, you know what I'm all inspired. I'm going to say every single word in the prayer book, but don't understand a word or talk with your heart. Close the book and open your heart and pray with your heart and just talk to Hashem. The halacha says it's tov me at bechavana me har bebelohavana. It's better, more it's better. It's more important to pray with heart and intention than to pray with all the words in the world without intention. If you say the words and it's just words, it's worthless. It's worth something, but it's not worth a lot. It's worth a lot more when a person you know what. Close the sitter and just open your heart.
20:08
Now our journey, that we're about to begin the journey of prayer, is for the prayer book not to be closed before us. It's for the prayer book to be open in front of us, for us to understand what it is that we're saying, so that it becomes alive, so it's not just words, so that our intention and our focus and our kavana can be heartfelt in every word that we recite. Which is why we're about to embark on this journey. We want to feel a connection with our prayer. We want to feel a closeness with our prayer. So, while I'm not exactly sure of how the format's going to be, I am completely committed to beginning and hopefully getting through the entire prayer book together and to learn every single word.
21:11
Why is it there? Why did the men of the Great Assembly put those words into our prayer? Why is it important and where did this really come from? So if you look back, we'll see that the men of the Great Assembly saw that the desire and temptation for idolatry was so strong that they knowified the desire for idolatry. You don't see people bowing down to idols anymore. You don't see that there's a different form of idolatry in the world today. All the distractions that we have, the technology that we have, is a different form of idolatry, but we don't have the same type of thing. Like they used to have, people couldn't resist serving an idol. They just did away with that desire. What left with it? Prophecy, prophecy left with it. What happens when you get rid of prophecy? You get rid of a high level of clarity with the Almighty, Because the only reason they had prophecy was because they were able to overcome that desire and temptation of idolatry so greatly. They got to such a high level. It got them to a level of prophecy. But once you removed the desire for idolatry, you also removed the high level of prophecy that people attained.
22:41
And now the men of the Great Assembly had no choice but to construct a new way for people to communicate with the Almighty. And that's where our prayer came to be. You had the men of the Great Assembly, the 120 sages together, compiled the prayers. We know that Moses authored the first prayer of the blessing, the grace. After meals, after you eat bread, you say the blessing thanking God. Now, moshe didn't actually author those words. Moshe instructed us to recite that blessing Joshua, the next blessing that we should recite, another blessing, but the exact words that's the men of the Great Assembly put together. We have to know that the men of the Great Assembly didn't just put together words. They had to connect all of the secrets of creation, the Kabbalistic levels, the realms that are way beyond our comprehension, way beyond our simple understanding of how the world operates, and connect everything.
23:53
In fact, we'll see many times in our prayer that there are different customs of what you need to say. The Nusrah Sfarad, the Sephardic custom, says this. The Ashkenazic custom says that. The Mizrahi custom says that Everyone agrees. For example, in Yishtabah we say 13 different praises of Hashem. So, even though different customs may say different things, but they all say 13, and they have to have a certain number of words before, a certain number of words after.
24:32
It's very, very meticulous why? Because prayer is like code. We know right now I have a keyboard right here in front of me there are a thousand things, maybe 10,000 things that need to happen for this broadcast right here that you're seeing and listening to, for the voice to be translated to digital technology, so that when someone's sitting with their headphones walking and listening to this class, or someone's in their car listening to it. There's a lot of code that needs to happen, where all the zeros and the ones that need to be in the right order for sound to be reflected and for sound to be interpreted and for words to be understood and heard. There's a lot of things that need to happen. When you press a keyboard and you press the space bar, do you know what's happening? It's a bunch of zeros and ones that are coming together that equal a space. Now we don't see that. It's all the code behind it, which is why we pay Microsoft and Apple and all of these other software companies who create these languages, so that when we click a space bar, it actually does what we want it to do.
26:00
When we talk to the Almighty in the words of our prayers, we are writing code, the code not understanding how creation works, not understanding all the secrets of how the heavens operate. The words in this prayer book, these words, are the code to the heavens. So even if we don't understand every word, you have to know that what you're doing by reciting the prayers, reciting the blessings, by singing the songs of praise to the Almighty, what you're doing is you're touching the channels of heaven and you're writing that code that perhaps you may not understand how it happens. We don't understand how it happens. If you're not a computer scientist or computer programmer, you may not understand why clicking the space bar will move you one character. You may not understand why or how that happens. We just know that it happens, but there's a code behind it To unlock the mystery of life, to connect and communicate with the Almighty. We need that code, my dear friends. The sitter prayer book is that code. That is the code, and when we pray using the words that were constructed by the men of the Great Assembly, we're unlocking that code.
27:46
So there's so much more we need to talk about in prayer and so much more that hopefully we'll continue throughout this journey to unwrap the prayers and to hopefully have it shine in our lives so that we can feel an everlasting connection with the Almighty. And Hashem should always accept our prayers which we know he does, respond to our prayers which we know he does and hopefully love our prayers. Hashem loves when we communicate with him. Hashem loves when we talk to him. Talk to him directly, talk to him like you talk to someone standing in front of you. You're talking directly to God. Hashem should bless us all that every single word of our prayers should be accepted with love every time we open our mouths. Hashem should accept those prayers and respond to them in the most gracious way possible. Amen.
