Prayer Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:00 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe from TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Prayer Podcast.

00:08 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
My dear friends, welcome back to the Prayer Podcast. It is so wonderful to be here. Thank you for joining us. And today we are going to learn the prayer of Tzitzis. Tzitzis, we know the Torah commands us that any four-cornered garments in Numbers 15, any four-cornered garment you put on tzitzis, you put on strings. How many strings? It's four strings that go through a hole. It comes out it's eight, because you have both sides of the string. You tie five knots. It's a specific way in which it's done. And if you take the word tzitzis, which is tzaddik yud, tzaddik yud and taf, it is a total of 600 in the numerical value. In numerology, tzaddik yud is 100. Another tzaddik yud is 100. And taf is 400. And you have 600 all combined. And then you have the five knots and the eight strings. How much is that? That's 613.

01:11
Our sages tell us that by observing the mitzvah of tzitzit, by wearing tzitzit, we are fulfilling all of the mitzvahs of the Torah, very, very special mitzvah. But there are two different garments. Most of you may have heard, or I'm sure heard, of a talit or a talis. A talis is a bigger, like a prayer shawl. Now I want to just point something out A prayer shawl that looks like a scarf is halachically not the proper size. It needs to be more like a beach towel. A beach towel is the proper size. If you see a larger talus, that is proper and it's four corners. You'll see the strings at the edge of it. That is the proper size. But if it's just like a prayer shawl, that is not halachically okay. So just to bring it to everyone's attention about that, the torah says that when you look at the tzitzis, you'll remember all the mitzvahs by all the mitzvahs. The torah is hinting to us that what this mitzvah represents is all the mitzvahs of the Torah. So by properly fulfilling the mitzvah of tzitzit, what we do in essence is fulfill the entire Torah. It is able to connect us in a way like all the mitzvahs of the Torah do.

02:38
So now we're going to read the verses, we're going to read the prayer, we're going to read the blessings. There are two different blessings One blessing for Tzitzit, which is the personal talis katan, the small talis that we wear all day, and then we're going to say the second blessing, which is the blessing on the talit that we wear during the morning prayers. So the prayer goes as follows Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha'olam Asher kidishonu b'mitzvay sov v'tzivanu al mitzvah tzitzis. Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us concerning the mitzvah of tzitzis. And then we have a special, beautiful prayer that we add after May it be in accordance with your will, hashem, our God and God of our ancestors, that my fulfillment of the mitzvah of tzitzit be regarded before you as if I had fulfilled all its details, specifications and intentions, as well as all of the 613 commandments that are interdependent with it. That are interdependent with it. Amen, sela. The mitzvahs of Hashem were created to open and brighten our eyes. That's the blessing for tzitzis, the prayer for the talit, which is the prayer shawl, which is the bigger not a shawl, but not a scarf, but rather the beach towel size talis, which is primarily worn only during morning services.

04:44
Baruch hi nafshi es Hashem. I apologize, I'll start over again. Baruch hi nafshi es Adonai. Adonai. Eloi hai gadalta mi oid Hoid v'hodor lovoshta Oite or kasalmo noite shamayim ki yiria. These two special verses are recited when we're holding our talit. Before we put it on and before we don it, we recite the following blessing Baruch atah Adonai. Eloheinu melech ha'olam asher. Kidishonu b'mitzvay sov v'tzivanu. Lehisateif be'tzitzis.

05:20
Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the universe, who sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us to envelop ourselves with tzitzis. What we do is now we gather the tzitzis, we gather the four corners of the tallit and we wrap ourselves like the halacha says, like the Arab women who wrap themselves in their garment. So we wrap ourselves and we're able to see out of it just for about 10 seconds, and we recite the following verses while we have the prayer shawl over our head, we have all four corners gathered and over our left shoulder we say the following verses, and the verses are as follows how precious is your loving kindness, o God, the descendants of Adam who take refuge in the shade of your wings. Satiate them from the abundance that pours forth from your abode. Let them drink from the streams of your delights. The source of life is with you. Through your light we see light. Draw down your loving kindness upon those who seek to know you and bestow your righteous charity to the upright of heart. This is how we begin our day.

06:58
The first mitzvah that we perform every day is the mitzvah of tzitzit. Mitzvah that we perform every day is the mitzvah of tzitzit. The clothes our sages tell us. Our clothes that we wear define us. It makes us who we are. We wear proper clothes, we look proper. It defines us when we're disheveled and wearing tattered clothes. It defines us.

07:32
Tzitzis are clothes of mitzvah. Most mitzvahs that we perform are on objects, for example tefillin. It's an object. We take the tefillin, we put it on, we don the tefillin and we take them off. Mizuzah we put the mizuzah on our door. Most mitzvahs, all mitzvahs we perform an external activity with them. For example, we take soon we're going to have the holiday of Sukkot we take our body and we sit in the sukkah. We take our four species and we shake them, but we're not wearing them. It's not our clothes, except for tzitzis. Tzitzis is a mitzvah of clothes. We show respect to Hashem. Via our tzitzis, we reveal His kingship to the world.

08:21
I will share with you the story I've said this before when I was in Costco for those of you who don't know, it's one of the big box stores in the United States, in Canada, in Europe. You have many of them in China, either way. I was in one of those Costco's and an elderly man walks over to me and he says to me wow, you're Jewish. I said yes. What gave it away? Was it the yarmulke, my payas, my tzitzis? What gave it away? He says those are tzitzis. Those are the tzitzis that God commands the Jewish people to wear on all four corner garments. I said yes. He says can I touch them? I said please be my guest. See, he holds onto my tzitzit and he says to me, while he's looking at me, he says do you realize that you're a Jewish person? You're the chosen nation, you're God's chosen people and, as such, you need to be an example to all of us, because we look up to you, the Jewish people, to be an example. It's a big responsibility to you, the Jewish people, to be an example. It's a big responsibility we look up to you to know and understand the ways of God. I was taken aback by the story and I shared the story in one of these classes and one of the participants online shared the exact verse in the Torah that talks about this. If you look in the Prophet Zechariah, chapter 8, verse 23, it says that the day will come when the, when ten people from the nations of the world will grab on to the strings, to the corners of a Jewish man and they will pronounce that Hashem is the creator, that Hashem is the true God, and I hope that I merit, hopefully, to be one of those people that someone grabbed my tzitzis.

10:17
Now, tzitzis is also called a talus katan, which is a small talus and it's worn under under the shirt. So I have my tzitzit I'm wearing here, it's under my shirt, it looks almost like an undershirt, but it has four corners and it is. It has the strings at the edges of them, the talus you wear over your clothes and you put it on before your tefillin. Tzitzis is personal, it's private and it's a garment that's worn all day. The talis is only worn by shacharis, it's a daytime mitzvah. We only wear tzitzis during the day. We're only obligated to wear tzitzis during the day because the verse tells us that you shall see your tzitzis when is the time of seeing? During the day, when there's daylight. At night, when it's not the time of seeing that's the torah tells us is not an obligation to wear tzitzit. There are many, including our kabbalistic sages, who tell us the merit and the privilege of wearing a pair of tzitzis in the evening as well. But it's special to don it at the earliest possible time because it shows honor, it shows excitement that we want to embody all of Hashem's mitzvahs upon us.

11:39
The halacha says that one should check the tzitzis, that all the eight strings are not torn and that they're not tangled. Because if you look at the acronym of the word tzitzis, that all the eight strings are not torn and that they're not tangled. Because if you look at the acronym of the word tzitzis, it's tzadik yafrid tzitzios of tamid, that a righteous person will separate his tzitzis always to make sure that they're not entangled. And if you just sit tight in a few minutes, I will share with you the secret of that. And if you just sit tight in a few minutes, I will share with you the secret of that disentanglement that we don't want the strings of the tzitzit to be tangled one another. Now I want to share with you one of the most beautiful ideas about tzitzit.

12:20
Reb Schwab brings down from Av Hirsch that when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, it says that they hid because they recognized their nakedness. God says Adam Eve, where are you guys? And they were hiding. They covered themselves with fig leaves to cover their nakedness. God says how do you even know that? That's a thing. It must be that you have eaten from the tree. It's like, if you look at the wall behind me, what color is the wall behind me? We all know that it's blue, but you only know that it's blue because someone told you it's blue. You don't know that it's blue because someone told you it's blue. You don't know that it's blue because it's blue. You know it's blue because that's the color that we defined it, as in our language we call blue this color. How do you know you're naked? If you never knew that there's such a concept, it must be that you ate from the tree of knowledge.

13:25
So God formed clothes for humanity. It says Garments. God said we should cover our flesh with clothes. That's humanity. Humanity is we wear clothes. Animals don't wear clothes. Animals have nothing to cover. They are who they are. We have a dignity and we cover ourselves.

14:02
So listen carefully to what Rav Hirsch says, so beautiful. He says humanity ends at the end of the garment. That's their responsibility. The garment. This is what God made for us. But what does a Jew understand? Our responsibility is more than the garment and therefore we have strings that reach beyond the garment. From the corners of the garment we have the strings of the tzitzit that hang past it, where we understand that our obligation is not just what humanity is obligated to. Our obligation is beyond the garment. We have greater responsibilities. Our responsibilities extend beyond the norm. Our fringes extend beyond our clothes. Our responsibilities extend beyond everyone else. And that's not for something to us to pound our chest, it's for something to be humbled and for something for us to recognize that we are held accountable and to a higher level of responsibility.

15:15
The tzitzits are supposed to be one-third nots and two-thirds free, because nots is limitation. We're limited by the Torah. We have five nots, the five books of the Torah, but then you know what happens. The other two-thirds of the strings Freely. They hang freely Because in Torah, while we do have limitations, we have the ability to have free expression, personal expression of the Torah, our personal relationship with Hashem can shine forth with our own personal expression.

15:55
Now, women are exempt from this mitzvah. Women are not obligated to all time-bound mitzvahs. We mentioned that tzitzis are obligated during the day and therefore it's a time-bound mitzvahs. We mentioned that tzitzits are obligated during the day and therefore it's a time-bound mitzvah. It's only obligated during the day. Women are not obligated to this mitzvah. Oh, but that's not equality. Well, men and women are not equal, they're different. Women are more spiritual, women are more lofty and holier and therefore they need less reminders than men. Do you know what's really beautiful?

16:27
In Leviticus 19.19, in Deuteronomy 22.11, the Torah tells us that we're not supposed to wear wool and linen together. Yet we know, even though we don't do this today, tzitzis is the only exception, because the strings of tzitzis are made of wool and the garment can be linen. And we know that you're not supposed to wear wool and linen in the same garment. So how is it that tzitzis is the exception is the exception because right next to the prohibition in the Torah to not wear woolen linen together is the mitzvah. It's juxtaposed to the mitzvah of tzitzis, and our sages tell us that this is an example of a mitzvah removes a performative mitzvah, removes a prohibition that we can do. The mitzvah removes a performative mitzvah removes a prohibition that we can do. The mitzvah, the performative mitzvah of wearing tzitzit and remove the prohibition of shatness. Even though this is not our practice today, we have to understand the spiritual concept behind this, and that is shatness is two things that don't get along. Wool and linen don't get along. But there's always a way to bring things and people that don't get along. Bring them together. There's a way to do it. A husband and wife are fighting. There's a way to bring them together. Two partners in a business they're fighting. They're shotness, they're wool and linen. They can't get along. There's a way to bring them together. Tzitzis is the vehicle that the Torah gives us an example of how two opposites can come together. There's a mitzvah that we can do to bring them both together.

18:20
So now let's begin with understanding the prayer we said. The beginning of the prayer we say means my soul bless Hashem, hashem, my God, your greatness is constantly magnified. You have clothed yourself in radiant light and splendor. You have clothed yourself in radiant light and splendor. You envelop yourself in light like a garment. You spread out the heavens like a curtain. Listen carefully. We begin.

19:05
The first mitzvah we do every morning is weir tzitzis, because and the reason we say these introductory verses from Psalms is to tell us to feel a deep connection to Hashem, not just to say words Our relationship with Hashem is not just words of prayer but to stop for a second and say my soul should feel that close connection. We should feel that deep connection to Hashem, to feel it, not to say it, to give praise to Hashem from deep within. Hashem Elokei, my personal God. You watch over me, you give me strength, you protect me, you guide me. Strength, you protect me, you guide me. It's a very close relationship that we have with God. Godalta mi'od, so much greater than we can possibly grasp.

20:01
Our sages tell us that King David wrote this verse on the last day of his life. King David, who spent his entire life basking in the glory of Hashem, being close to God, the last day of his life. What does he say? Hashem Elokei Gadaltimot, god, you're so much greater than I can possibly comprehend. Sages tell us that we recite this verse in the morning because it's important for every person to remember their day of death. Today might be my last day. I may not have another opportunity. It's a great reminder every morning. Just like King David said this verse, composed this verse on his last day of his life, we too should come to a realization that possibly, perhaps, this is our last day and take the day a little bit more seriously.

20:59
We're encircled when we wear our talus, we're encircled. We're wrapped from all sides with the talis, just like the neshama is wrapped in the upper realms in heaven, on all sides, by godliness Oteh. We wrap kesalma like a garment. Hashem fashioned the light. It says that Hashem fashioned, he created the light by wrapping Himself in a white talus During the six days of creation. God created the light how he wrapped Himself in a talus, so too we bring light into our neshama by wrapping ourselves in a talus. God brought light to the world by wrapping himself in a white talus. We bring light to our neshama by wrapping ourselves in a talus. Additionally, we know that the world was dark. The world was an abyss of nothingness. God created light. He had to push away darkness. When we wear a talus, it protects us and pushes away darkness. We are wrapping our neshama, we're wrapping our soul with this mitzvah, like we mentioned previously. Tzitzit is the numerical value of 600, plus the five knots and the eight strings, we have 613. When we wrap ourselves with this talis, what we're doing is we're saying Hashem, we want to be fully encompassed, fully consumed by your Torah, by your mitzvahs.

22:44
The Arizal tells us that the talis is like a bulletproof vest. There are people who spend a lot of money on body armor. You know the greatest body armor in the world says the Arizal, the great Kabbalist Tzitzis. There's a story. I remember this story like it was yesterday, 1993 or 94. There was one individual who was in the was rushed to the hospital. He had shrapnel from the explosion that went into his body and miraculously, after several the doctors were able to bring him back to life. Save his life, doctors said. The shrapnel reached one millimeter from your heart, the exact depth of his tzitzit. The exact depth of his tzitzit is what protected his life. And I was reminded then of what the Arizal says it's a bulletproof vest. Now we don't know the calculation of why God wants certain people's neshama back earlier than others and why other people died from that same explosion. But here we were able to see a glimpse into what the Arizal says. It's a bulletproof shield protecting us physically but more importantly, a bulletproof vest protecting us spiritually. When we wear our tzitzis it's a reminder constantly we're here to serve Hashem.

24:42
Additionally, there's a mitzvah to look at our tzitzis, to gaze upon our tzitzis. Why? Because the verse tells us when you look at the tzitzis, when you gaze upon the tzitzis, you will remember all the mitzvahs. Because we look at tzitzit to internalize the idea. Vision inspires us to become awakened, that inspires us to do actions. It's not enough for us to just say, oh, I'm so inspired, so enlightened, and then we just live our life. No, we have to do something about it. And that's what tzitzit is able to do. It's able to ignite our awakening and our actions. To go for it. We got it.

25:41
Lehis atev bat tzitzis is how we conclude the blessing to wrap ourselves in tzitzis. Our sages tell us there are two parts of wrapping ourselves, of covering ourselves with tzitzis. Number one is to cover the body, to wrap it in a mitzvah, to be completely consumed by the mitzvah, but the word lehisatev you could have said many different ways of wearing tzitzit, but instead it's lehisatev which is to be wrapped, but not only wrapped. Our sages tell us. It also is telling us another very important thing to have humility. Lehisate from the term of humility, that what Hashem is asking, what this mitzvah is really encompassing, is wrapping ourselves, yes, but recognizing that we're a servant in front of our master. To not walk around the whole day with arrogance, to not show off our success like it's our doing, to recognize constantly and always that everything is the hand of Hashem.

26:50
Reb Nachman teaches us, reb Nachman of Breslov that there are four corners of the tzitzit, reminding us that Hashem is on all four corners of the world, all the four elements the fire, the water, the wind, the earth, the dust. Hashem's in control of everything. The four corners are the symbolism of Hashem's full control over everything. The tzitzit have wool strings, just like here. Our sages tell us here, really the only time that you see here mentioned in the Torah very few times, but the main, the first time you see it is with Asaph. Asaph, what was Asaph? Asaph is evil. He's wicked. It's evil personified. The concept of here. The wool strings are evil personified. Tzitzis subdues those evil forces.

27:52
Reb Nachman says a person who's facing temptation clench to your tzitzis. Our halacha says very interesting, obscure halacha A man is not supposed to walk between two women. Two women are having a conversation. You want to just walk by. You're just like I got to get to the other side. You're in an aisle. They're having an arrest in a supermarket. They're having a conversation, each one with their wagon. You're in an aisle. They're having in a supermarket. They're having a conversation, each one with their wagon. You're not supposed to walk in between two women. But if you have no choice, two options Either hold on to the hand of another male and walk through. I'm talking about a man should not walk between two because they might have evil thoughts. They might have thoughts that are inappropriate. The halacha says another option Hold on to your tzitzit while you walk by. The tzitzit can protect you. The tzitzit can from thoughts, and anybody who thinks that a man who walks between two women doesn't have thoughts is living in la-la land. This is the reality that the Torah tells us is in the nature of a man. They may come to thoughts, torah says. The halacha says grab onto your tzitzit and you can walk through. Your tzitzit will protect you from evil thoughts, from evil forces. Therefore, our sages tell us because tzitzit represents breaking away from evil forces, do you remember what we mentioned earlier in today's class? That we should separate our tzitzit. We're separating the evil forces from one another so that they can't gang up. They cannot gang up against us. Eight strings is strong, one string weak. The evil forces cannot gang up against us, which is why it says the righteous separate their tzitzits always, because what they're doing is these heirs of wool that can represent evil temptations, evil urges. We separate them, we make them weak. That's what tzitzit does. It's able to protect us. Tzitzit is a mitzvah that is performed all the time without conditions. It's an amazing thing. Tefillin is a very important mitzvah. It's one of the three mitzvahs. There are only three mitzvahs that are called an os. An os means a sign, a contract between us and God. What are those three mitzvahs? Number one is bris. The baby is born. We give the baby a bris. It's called an os, a sign it's is born. We give the baby a bris. It's called an os, a sign. It's a covenant between us and hashem. The other is to fill in. And the third is shabbos. These are the three signs. A person always has to have two signs. We always have a bris Someone who has a bris at eight days, that's it. They're in that covenant forever. And then we have during the weekdays, we have tefillin. These are our two signs, but Shabbos comes around. Shabbos is the sign. That's why we don't wear tefillin on Shabbos, because we have a second sign. Tefillin is a very, very powerful mitzvah, an extremely powerful mitzvah. Yet we cannot wear tefillin in a dirty place. We can't wear tefillin when we have dirty thoughts, when we're in an unclean state. There are many, many preconditions to tefillin. We can't don tefillin at night. You're not allowed to Many preconditions, to many mitzvahs. Tzitzit, there are no preconditions. You can wear tzitzis 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There's no precondition to tzitzis. It's such a magnificent mitzvah 24-7 we have the opportunity to embody ourselves with a mitzvah, to encircle, to enwrap ourselves in a mitzvah. It's such an incredible opportunity that we have to perform this mitzvah and, hopefully, to recite these prayers with proper intention, to get into the frame of mind of Baruch Hinafshi my soul shall praise Hashem. Hashem, your greatness is way beyond what I can possibly comprehend. And what does Hashem? Hashem, your greatness is way beyond what I can possibly comprehend. And what does Hashem clothe himself with? With radiant light and splendor. Hashem should bless us all that we should benefit from this great mitzvah every single day and indeed wrap ourselves in this mitzvah. I want to share with you one more piece, actually, before we say this blessing. Actually, on the Talas, there's a special prayer that our sages composed. In this prayer it says Composed. In this prayer it says I am wrapping my physical body with tzitzit. The same way that I'm wrapping my physical body, hashem, I'm begging, please wrap my neshama, my 248 organs and sinews, wrap them all With the light of the tzitzis that has 613 mitzvahs attached to it. Just as I'm wrapping my physical body in this physical world with this talus, so too I should merit, to the garment of those who are righteous, to those who are dedicating their lives to the Almighty in the world, to come and on, as a result of this mitzvah that I'm performing with my tzitzis, to not so nafshi, protect my soul, the ruchi and my spirit from all, and my prayers from all external forces. And just like the talus covers over me, just like an eagle protects its young that 24 hours a day, the eagle is protecting its young with its wings. It's covering it so that no harm can befall them At night. The eagle is awake, it's protecting with its wings, it's covering it so that no harm can befall them At night. The eagle is awake, it's protecting its young. So too, hashem, please protect us, because we are covering ourselves with our physical talus on a spiritual realm. Hashem, you cover us with your talus, just like the eagle, because we're your children, we're your young, just like the eagle protects its young. And the mitzvah that I'm performing now of Tzitzis should be performed with all of its perfection, with all of the incredible intentions that are meant to be observed in the mitzvah of tzitzis. It should be so accepted in front of the Almighty as if I had all of the right intentions and all of the mitzvahs that are dependent upon it. Amen, my dear friends, hashem should bless us to merit to perform this mitzvah in its perfection, even if it's only once in our lifetime to do one mitzvah in its perfection. Amen. Thank you so much.

36:40 - Intro (Announcement)
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