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Fundamental shiur today But what I want to start doing is I want to start now. We've done a lot of fundamental shiur. There's still plenty more to go, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to start introducing the sitter now. At the same time, so even though again we're not yet done with the fundamentals, not even close. My idea is not to do all the fundamentals and then the sitter. First of all, doing the sitter straight time and time becomes dry. I think we have to start mixing up what's cool. What you'll see, I hope you'll see Is there's two parts to the shiur. There's the fundamental ideas of tefillah, and then there's the technicals of the sitter. But really, what I hope to show you is how the two fuse together And you'll start to see some of the fundamental ideas playing out in the siddur, which is ultimately the goal. Because this isn't just an Ashkafa class; it's a Tefillah Sheir, so that you should actually see that the ideas that we're bringing out in the fundamentals are actually coming out in the Tefillah itself. Today, I want to start at the end, but I want to start with Shmoneh Esrei because that's really the main part of Tefillah.
Which the Anshe Knesset Gedola put together, and which is really the main part of davening. That's what Tefillah is. Tefillah Shmonesrei, and really to go through that first, and then when we go through that, to work our way backwards and to start from the beginning, go through Pesukah deZimra like that. So the way it generally works is every week. There's going to be a fundamental shear and there's going to be a technical shear. I don't know which day of the week depends on what's going on. Let's say Wednesday will be a shiur on ideas of tefillah and Thursday will be a shiur on in the sitter. There will be weeks where we'll do two fundamentals. There will be weeks we'll do two sedurim. But generally that's how it works. Did anyone not get a paper? Jesse's Jesse, you know Jesse's back. And leave a few here.
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Okay. Maybe you know. Maybe you don't know. Shmonesrei really has three parts. There's 18 brachos. How many brachos are there? Nineteen brachos. We'll get to why. It's 19 when we call it Shemonas Horeh. Only the Jews if you do something like that, they can ask the Gemara Kasha. They call it 18, but it's really 19. But there's really three parts to Shemonas Horeh. There is the first three brachos. There's the mid 13 brachos, and then there's the final three brachos. Does anyone know what the split up is between the first three, what the first three are considered, the next 13, and the last three? Praise is the first three. Request. And thanks. Correct. Praise is the first three. Request and thanks. So we start off with the three brachos of praise. Avos, gvuros, ata gibor, and finally hakelah kadosh. Those are going to be the first three we're going to focus on and try to understand. But as a general introduction.
To why we have three brachos of praise, so this idea is mentioned in the Gemara in Brachos on Dafla Medveis. The Gemara says on Dafla Medveis Amid Aleph. I have it. You can look at it in front of you. It's on the bottom. It's only a few lines. Darash Rabbi Simloi Darshins La Olam Yisader Adam Shivchos Shalakadosh Baruch Hu VeAcher Kach Yispada. That a person should first arrange the praise of God. And then he should daven, meaning then he should ask what is that he wants. Where do we know this? From Moshe. We know this from Moshe. It says in the Pesach that he prostrated himself, he davened with compassion before Hashem at that time. What did he say? Hashem Elokim Hashem, my God. He first praised Hashem. He says, "You've shown your greatness and your strong hand. Who is the God in heaven and earth?" Who can do like you, and can be as strong as you? Nobody. You are ultimately the greatest of the great. The Ksav Basre, and it says immediately afterwards "Ebranav the Eretz Yisrael Tova. Please, Hashem, let me see Eretz Yisrael. And Hashem listened to him."
Hashem allowed him to see Eretz Yisrael. Didn't let him go in, but he allowed him to see Eretz Yisrael. So we see that there's a pretty effective tefillah. And so we learn from this: if Moshe Rabbeinu needed to praise Hashem before he asks what he needs to ask. So we take from this that this is what a person should do. In fact, the Rambam says that even when one is approaching Hashem in his own tefillah, he should follow this method where he praises Hashem first before he goes ahead and asks what it is that he needs. It's okay for you to talk to Hashem and ask what you want, but in other words, informal tefillah—that's how it's formulated. Oh no, I was going to ask you. For example, if we do like a mishmad, like it's moturos. Sorry, yeah, it's moturos. If we do that, we have to praise Hashem.
Because we've already done it in the morning. We've done it in shacharis. We've done it. You can go right in. This is the gemara. I remember when I first learned that the first three brachos of Shemona Esrei were praise. But sort of when I read this Gemara There was something that just felt uneasy. It made me feel uneasy, like there was something uncomfortable about this. And I started to recognize what it was And that is When I'm going into my boss And I want to raise. So I walked in and said it's a nice shirt. Did you lose some weight? You're looking good today. You're looking sharp. I just want to tell you this company is awesome, and it's such a privilege to be here. You're amazing, and all these different things. I tell him how amazing he is. And what effect does that have? What effect does that have when I do that?
Butters him up. Butters him up for the kill. What's the kill? I've been working in the office now for ten years, and I think I've been doing a half decent job, don't you think? I think you've been doing a great job. And it's a pleasure working for you. Then eventually, I go ahead and I get my ask. That makes sense. You don't just go into somebody and say, "I need this." Ease them in. First, praise them a little bit, tell them how awesome they are, butter them up, and then you go ahead and you go for the kill and you ask them what you want. And that makes sense to me. Except we're talking about God. And that doesn't make sense. God does not need to be buttered up. He doesn't need to be told how amazing and awesome and fabulous he is. So why is it that we should start with a shevach and with a praise to Hashem?
We're talking about God? Why does he need praise? Want to give it a shot? Go ahead. Can I ask that question about everything in Judaism? I'm just asking about. Answer the question. Don't answer a question with asking another one. So what's the reason? Because, because it's, it. To my understanding, which is limited, but like it seems like it's like that's the way Hashem wants us to. And obviously that's the way Hashem wants us to. I'm asking you what's the purpose. What is the purpose of it? In other words, when you find out the answer, you will find it helpful in your davening, is to know why you're doing this. One more try. You said it's like God doesn't need us to butter him up. Of course not. Then it's obviously not for God. More for us. So if we If we need to recognize the fact, if we just go into it asking, but not recognizing who we're asking and what. Look at Kamara on the other side of the page. I'm just gonna reiterate what you just said. Kamara says on the other side of the page.
And this is, by the way, the source. Someone just asked me. This is the source that a person shouldn't use his own words necessarily to praise Hashem. You'll see it here. Hahudinach is came the Rav Chanina. There was a person who was standing around Rav Chanina. Omar, and he said Hakehl Hagadol, Hagibor, Vhanora. Sound familiar so far? Gahagibor, Hagadol, Vhanora. And he kept on going on and on talking about all the praise of God. In other words, he used the words of Shimon Eshrei, and he's like, that's not enough. Let me add on to it, and he added on a whole bunch of new phrases to praise Hashem. That's this guy who was standing in front of Rav Chanina. Him did lo adshisayim. So Rav Chanina waited there until this guy finished. He saw him when the guy finished. Amalei, he said to him. Have you finished praising God?
In other words, is that now you've said a little more? Is that now sufficient? Is that now sufficient of his praise? What do you need to say so much for? Anon, this Rachista talking. We are Rachanina. Hanitlas darminon. Even the three that we say, Hakel Agadol Agibrov Anora Ilav darminu Moshe Rabenu Baraisif. Not for the fact that Moshe Rabenu said it in the Torah, vaasuram sheknesa gadola v'takninu v'tvila, and the sheknesa gadola then established it in Tvilah. Loavinim yichol in the meimar lohu. We wouldn't be allowed to say this. Va'at amr t'kuli hay. And you're going ahead and saying all these praises that are not written anywhere. It's like a mela. The mashal can give you a parable to a king A regular human being king, who had thousands and thousands of golden coins, and they were praising him because he had silver. Malo ganai hulo, isn't that an embarrassment? Isn't that denigrating him?
Rabbi said There's no words that we can use that praise Hashem properly. There is nothing we can say that can truly express how awesome and incredible Hashem is, because the chasodim that Hashem does and the power that Hashem has is so beyond our perceptions—it's so beyond our capabilities to see and understand. We don't even appreciate what we do see. But all the things that we do not see and cannot even comprehend. Really, Alpidin, the Gemara is saying we shouldn't even be allowed to praise Hashem at all. We shouldn't be allowed to open our mouth. Anything that comes out of our mouth is going to be insufficient. Imagine you go over to a bodybuilder and you say this bodybuilder is like a world champion. He lifts who knows how much the world champion lifts today—a thousand pounds, whatever. A thousand pounds, and you go home. You say, I saw this guy bench fifty pounds.
So, to bushots and bazmik, fifty pounds. You're praising me with fifty pounds. I can bench a thousand. You're praising me with silver. I have gold. How could you? How could you praise me like that? Therefore, what we're saying is that what Rav Chanan was telling this guy is: don't just make up your own praises. There are specific praises we're allowed to give Hashem, and even those praises that are written in the Torah that Moshe Rabbeinu said. Are not necessarily sufficient, of course, for Hashem But Hakadosh Baruch Hu allows us to refer to Him in praise, even though it does not speak truly of His greatness for ourselves. Because it is important for us on our level to recognize the greatness of Hashem. And the reason that it's important for us to recognize the greatness of Hashem is because you have to be dalufnei yata omed.
You have to know who you're standing in front of. And there's many different reasons you have to know who you're standing in front of. For selfish reasons, just to know that the entity that you're about to ask from, and we spoke about this in one of the earlier shirim, that the rabboni shalom who you're about to ask from is kulayachol. He's able to do anything. And there's nothing that's out of his power. So before we go ahead and ask, it is beneficial for us. To recognize that we're not just asking a guy, that we're not just asking our boss, we're asking someone that has the power to deliver. And therefore, by doing the praises, it makes us recognize his greatness. It makes us recognize the opportunity that we have. Sometimes you go and you see kiviyachol, you go and you see a big rav.
And you can go in and you could see him, and it's nice. But when someone goes outside first and tells you, 'Listen, let me explain to you who you're about to see. Let me explain to you his history. Let me explain to you who he is. Let me explain to you why he's so great.' And then you go in and you see him. It's a different experience than just seeing another rabbi with a white beard. When you suddenly have an understanding. On your level, of course, you can't comprehend and appreciate how amazing this person really is. But it's helpful to know on the level that you're able to understand something amazing about this person, so that you can go in and feel connected and feel like you can relate. It's the same thing when it comes to the brachos of Hashem. When we're going ahead and giving shemach to Hashem, the kavanah has to be not that I'm praising him; I'm like doing him a favor. In fact, quite the opposite. You're not doing him a favor at all. If you're going to consider him, you probably shouldn't say anything. But the rebbeinu shalom wants you to. Because for your own sake, he wants you to recognize the tremendous opportunity that you have in front of you.
And so, we're going to use this attitude in this hashgacha to look at the first three brachos of Shemone Esrei. Because now, what's the difference between before and now? Before, when you looked at the first three brachos of Shemone Esrei, the way you were looking, you would be looking at how this is praise of Hashem? The way we're going to look at the first three brachos of Shemone Esrei is: What lessons are we supposed to take away? What lessons are we supposed to internalize through praising Hashem that is going to better prepare us for tefillah? For when we go ahead and ask Hashem what we need That we need to know certain ideas, we need to appreciate certain things about the Rabboni Sholom that will help us in our tefillah. So it's really a focus. We are praising Him, but as I said before, it's for us. There are lessons that we have to take away.
So with that Let us begin the next page over here. Keep this because the next page over here is for when we get to Ad DeGibor, which I don't think we're going to get to today. We're probably going to just start with the first bracha. So let's start with the first bracha of Shuvnez. Start off with Hashem's Pesay Tiftachu Fi Agitila Secha the recitation. Recognition that a person needs, and this is a very big lesson in Avodas Hashem. Even though a person has free will Hashem gives you free will to live the life you want to live. Don't think you don't need Ziyata D'Shemaya, the help of Hashem, to be successful in serving Him, to be successful in speaking to Him, to be successful in learning. They once asked. I remember when the yeshiva went to visit Rav Moshe Rvai. Rashiva's Rebbe. So we went to visit Rav Asher Weiss, and somebody asked him. He said, 'How did you become the person that you became?'
And he said, 'Everything's siyata d'shemayah. Everything's help from Hashem.' And some of the guys left, and they said, 'Yeah, but that's not true. He worked really, really hard.' And I told the guys when they said that, 'It's true. He worked really, really hard. It's definitely true.' But there are many, many people who work really, really hard. He obviously recognizes that even the ability to work very, very hard, even the ability to make the right decisions, everything comes from Sia to the Shemaya. So even the idea of being successful in Tefillah, even the idea of praising Hashem, which you think is totally for him, we need Hashem's help to praise Him. One of the first things that I do when I do his Votar personally is the very first thing I do is I ask Hashem for help to be able to say the right things.
I ask Hashem for help that the word should come out of my mouth, that He should be with me, that I should be inspired by Him to be able to talk to Him, and that's essentially what you're doing. Where did I get that idea from? Once again, you get that idea from here. Hashem Sufasai Tiftach Open my lips, Ofi Agitilasecha, my mouth should be able to tell Your praise. Okay. There are two main takeaways of the first bracha in Shemonas Horeh. Two main lessons. When you go through the first bracha in Shemone Esrei, it is by far, al pi halacha, the most important bracha in Shemone Esrei. In fact, it used to be that if you didn't have kavanah in the first bracha in Shemone Esrei, you had to repeat the first bracha of Shemone Esrei. And Reb Chaim on the Rambam explains that that's not just talking about general kavanah that you're standing before Hashem. If you don't have kavanah, if you don't understand the actual words and what they're saying and what they mean You have to repeat Shmoneh Esrei.
Chafetz Chaim writes in the Mishnah Berurah that nowadays, since no one has kavanah for anything, you don't have to. Basically, he says that maybe not as bluntly as I just said it, but pretty much, that you don't have to. You don't have to repeat Shmoneh Esrei if you didn't have kavanah in the first bracha. But it's important for you to recognize this. I once had a guy who was like just getting into things. A few years ago, he came over to me, Rebbe. I had to do Shmoneh Esrei eight times because I didn't get that first bracha right. I'm like And trust me, even if the eighth time you didn't get it right, you don't even know the first bracha. If you want to know what the first bracha means, I'll pick kavanah. So all you have to do is look at a sitar rishas and the 25 kabbalistic kavanas that a person has to have in the first bracha of Shmoneh Esrei.
We're not holding on that level, and I'm not interested in going there. I'm not even capable of going there, so that's obviously not what we're trying to do. But what I am trying to do is make you recognize that the first bracha of Shema Yisrael is extremely significant, extremely important, and it's atke dekach. It's so much so that if you don't have the proper kavana in the Shema in the first bracha, essentially what we're saying is your Shema Yisrael is really not effective. So the question is, what is it that you're supposed to be gleaning from that first bracha that's so critical and that's so important to the rest of Shemunah Esrei? So there are two basic ideas that the Sfarim speak of about the first bracha. The first one is if you remember the meditation that we did You're walking, taking three steps back, and then walking into the holiest of holies. You're walking into the Kodesh Hakodashim.
What right? Do you have to be in the Kodesh Kodashim? What right did you have? What did you do so significantly in your life that you deserve to be in the Olam HaAtzilus, in the highest worlds, connected to Hashem without any separation? And that's what we're holding in Shemoneh Esrei. Remember, taking three steps forward into that white light, you're totally nullified to the will of Hashem. What right do you have to be there? A person can go in and say, I'm privileged. I'm the man. And so the very first thing that a person has to do is recognize it's not in your schuz It's schuz avos. Everything that we have Every right that we have as Jews is not something that we earned. It's something that we were given in merit of the avos. And why is this important? Because the only way to connect to Hashem One of the most important and significant attributes that a person has to have in order to connect to Hashem in tefillah is anava, humility.
That if a person comes in and he feels privileged So then his tefillah can't be effective. The very ainanivu who yachol ador ba'olam it says about a ba'algayva, Hashem says he and I can't live in the same world because there's only one melech. If you think you're a melech, then you don't belong. So the first thing we have to do is lower ourselves. That's why we said before, Baruch Ata Hashem. Right away, in the very first bracha, when we walk in, we have to lower ourselves and recognize that it is Hakadosh Baruch Hu that is great, and our right to be here is only in the merit of the avos. As part of that, it's also very interesting that the very first praise we give Hashem is we praise Him Elokei Avram, Elokei Yitzchak, Elokei Yaakov. What would you think if you were going to praise Hashem in the very first praise?
What would you say? I mean that's shortening it. But if you wanted to give Hashem a really big praise, what would you say? Like God of Creator of the world. Creator of the world. Kind of what we see from this again, this is not about saying the most awesome thing about God. This is about our takeaway. The first lesson that we have to take away is that we're allowed to address Hashem and to be close to Hashem b'sklus bi'avos. But there's another aspect, and this is where all the words come in, because when you read Shmona Esrei, it's kind of like again you're used to it. But if you were to look at the Shmona Esrei with fresh eyes, which is what I want you to look at it with, and you were to look at the first bracha for the first time, you wouldn't be able to get through it.
Whatever. Hakel, the God. Hagadol The big. Hagibor, the strong. Vahanora, the awesome. Kel Elion, very high God. Gomel Hasadim Tovim, who bestows great kindness. Vekone Hakol, etc. Melech, Ozer, Moshiach, Muggin. What are these words? What are these words? What are we doing when we're saying these words? What kavanah? What kavanah are we supposed to have? We don't even know what they mean. And most people even know the. Even if you know the translation of what they mean, what do they really mean? What kavanah are we supposed to have? So there is a general kavanah that you need to have in Shmona Esrei that's going to help you tremendously in your davening And that is when you're taking three steps forward and you're walking in Shmona Esrei. The gizbar, the treasury, is open to you. In merit of the avos, All of the shef All of the abundance that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants to bring to us is our opportunity to go and get it.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu is revealing to us that all of the spiritual treasuries are open. The concept of the spiritual treasury is a concept called the Sviros in Kabbalah. Hashem created the world with ten Sviros. The bottom seven are known as Chesed, Gvura, Teferes, Netzach, Hod, Yisod, and Malchus. In general The main three are Chesed. Hashem created the world with kindness. All of Chesed Yibane Gvura. With strength and din, and Tiferes is known as Emes, truth. And so this Shemona Esrei, the specific words, I'm not getting into the Kabbalistic aspects of this because you'd really need that in order to understand what each word is really doing. But the general scheme of it is that each one of these words represents another one of these concepts. To recognize that Hashem is literally opening up everything for us, so that when we can go in. In our makushos and our requests, and we can be effective in bringing down the abundance into the world. In case you start to feel that tefillah seems to be very focused on us, it is.
It is very focused on us. Hashem doesn't need it; we need it, right? In other words, we really need it, and so therefore, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is making it available to us. The Chazon Ish writes that tefillah is the main histadlus shaladam? Is the main effort of man? You think it's parnasa? You think it's going out there and working? That's a big one too. But first, to daven and to ask Hashem for what you need is the main one that a person needs to do. So Elokeinu v'lokeavoseinu. We mentioned he's the God of our forefathers. We talked about him before because we have to recognize that it's b'shusdi'amos that we're here. Hashem takes greater pride. In being Hashem of the Jewish people, He even takes pride in the creation of the world, because the creation of the world is the stage. The actualization of His creation is the Jewish people and everything that Avram, Yitzchok, and Yaakov did, and everything that we're supposed to do.
Elokei Avram, God of Avram, what does Avram represent? Anyone know? That's true. Chesed. Avram is about Chesed. He represents Chesed. Elokei Yitzchak. What does Yitzchak represent? Gvura, strength. Elokei Yaakov, Beres or Emes, truth. The idea is that these three avos. Why are they called avos? Because they are the primary people that brought down and then opened up different recognitions of Hashem of our Kadosh Baruch Hu. These three sferos are represented by these three personalities: Avram is Chesed, Yitzchak is Gvura, and Yaakov is Emes. Hachel is the name of Hashem. Then we say Haggodol. What does Haggodol mean? Great. The Mefarshim say great in kindness, Chesed. Hagiibur. What is a Gvura? Gvura. Hanora. Awesome in truth. That's how the Mefarshim explain it. Once again, we're going through Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We're opening up, and sometimes I visualize actually opening up the treasuries, opening up and making it all available. Hakadosh Baruch Hu literally wants to pour out His abundance, and He is the source of all that abundance. B'sfos Avram Yitzchak and Yaakov, we have access to this treasury.
They brought Avram represented the idea of making Chesed accessible. Yitzchak gevura, Yaakov tiferes, and now we're speaking of Hashem and bringing it out. Hagodol, Hagibah. Let me just finish it off, and then I'll take questions. Hanora, Kel El Yom is another name of Hashem. Now we're going to go through the three again. Gomel Chesed and Tovim. Chesed The Kone Hakol Hashem owns everything. That's gevura. He has strength. Vizoker chasdei avos, and he remembers what the avos did. That is the concept of truth. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is truthful, and He will bring reward to those who deserve it. And then umeivigal levnei vaneim laman shemo biava, He will bring a redeemer. The Mefarshim point out that this is representative of the fourth leg of the merkava. There are three main legs of the merkava that represent Avram, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and the fourth one. Anyone know who the fourth one is?
Which personality represents the fourth leg of the chariot in Yeheskel? Anyone know? Any of you guys ever do tashlich? We say all this stuff in tashlich. It says it there. What did she say? Something. I guess David. Correct. David is the fourth because David represents David the Mashiach. So therefore, who may vigal levene vaneim loman shemob yahava? Who will bring a redeemer? This is referring to the aspect that David brought out a sphere called malchus. Melech Hashem is the king. Ozer, who is an ozer, who is someone who helps. Chesed Moshiach Who is one who saves? Someone who is strong. Someone who's umagin. What is umagin? Umagin sounds like vua. But we're going to see why Umagen is referring to Emes. Why Baruch Ata Hashem Magen Avraham? Question for you: Why just Avraham? Why not Magen Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov? Question number one. Question number two: Why specifically Mugging?
Mugging Avraham. What is the savior of Avraham? Why specifically Avram? And why is Mugi the important one to mention by him? You want to give this a try? Go for it. So maybe it's referring to the story with Avram and his father, where Avram's complete amuna and Hashem saved him. Hashem directly saved him from the fire. I'm gonna expand on it a little bit. It's the idea of Mugi and Avram. Is the idea that, and this the Orachaim points out, and there's also other discussion that pointed out as well, that Abraham, in a certain sense, was unique over Yitzchak and Yaakov. What was Abraham's greatness over Yitzchak and Yaakov? He was the first. There was no precedent. He didn't have a father that taught him Shat in the world. He went ahead and he was the trailblazer. He was the one who brought it out there. He didn't have anyone to lean on. Who was his savior?
Who was his shield? Only the Rebbeinu Shalom. So Mugin Avram is referring to the fact that Avram had no one to protect him other than Hashem. The Chavana that the Mefarshim say about Mugin is the one who protects those who stand by truth. Those who seek truth. So it's referring to the Midah of Emes, and that's how they explain Mugin. So therefore, it's the idea of, and again, that's the shot in the words. But in terms of what your kavanah is, again, it's twofold: the achron, the recognition. I'm standing in, like the Mishnah Berurah writes that a person should even perhaps lean forward a little bit during his shmonesrei, certainly in the beginning, to we bow right to recognize the tremendous merit that we have. B'shus diavos to be able to address Hashem in such a way and to be able to be on such a lofty level and then to be able to see now we have the opportunity. Hashem is b'shus diavos, he is opening up all of his ozros, atov, all of his unbelievable storehouses, and when we say each one of these words, it's opening up another one of those storehouses. And even visualization wise, sometimes I think of that when I go ahead and say magen, you know, Moshe Melech Ozer uMashiach uMagen, I see.
I try to visualize all the. Why is this important? Because now we recognize the tremendous opportunity that we have in Shmona Esrei. That pesukos diavos, we have a responsibility and a tremendous opportunity to bring out a tremendous amount of both spirituality and muknis and gashmis into the world through our Shmona Esrei. We have more time. We have a little more time. Let's go on to the next bracha. Why is Chazal so cryptic about it? Why is Chazal so cryptic in Tefillah? I don't want to talk about it now because I give a whole she'er on words, but on the words of Tefillah. So I don't really want to get into it so much. Let's just say it like this. I'll say, try to say it very, very simple, just to give you something to work with. And that is that Chazal understood that there are certain words that can impact things in the spiritual world. You know the muscle. The muscle I like to give is, I think I might have even given this muscle in the shir. I don't remember if I did. But when a doctor prescribes you medicine, so did I say this in the shir? I think I did. Doctor prescribes you. A doctor prescribes you medicine, and he gives you. Not this year. A doctor prescribes you medicine, and he gives you these white pills.
He gives you these white pills to take, and he tells you to take three of them a day, spread out over breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Three times a day for ten days, and you're a chacham, so you go over to the pharmacist and you say that costs two hundred bucks. I have my own pills at home that are just as white and look just as nice. It says vitamin C on it. And you have this crazy infection, and you go ahead and take these vitamin C pills, and you end up in the hospital because who are you to know? You don't know what's good for you. The doctor knows what's good for you, not you. And then even if you were to go ahead and say I'll take all the pills in one shot, you have to follow exactly what the doctor says. So the way the Rambam describes it is that over time we lost the talent of knowing the right words and saying the right things that were necessary to be able to change things in the spiritual world.
So Chazal provided those words for us so that they should make those changes. That's what's really going on in Tefillah, and our job is to try to understand them as best as we can. A person should still, of course, do his potus and talk to Hashem in his own words, but that doesn't come at the expense of his formal tefillahs. This is like a thing that's in secular. I learned in my rabbi, and he used like a martial like people like look for company but they like use a script to call. You might think their words are better, but no, because you don't know there's research for stuff. I don't know. Ata Gibor Yom Hashem You are strong. Always Mechayim Esem Ata You can even bring back from the dead, Rav Lohoshiya, abundance. An abundant savior. Mashiv Aruchimarda, Gushimarda, Tall. We're going to get to that tomorrow. Not enough time today.
To talk about this whole thing of atagibor and mashiv rochim aratol, I want to give the general gist of what this tefila is. Chaklachay mechesed, b'chay mesim brachim im rabbim. You supply, you support the life with kindness. And you bring back from the dead with abundant mercy. Rofei cholim. I assume you guys know what these words mean. So mechnoflim, one who. Supports those who fall, rofei cholim; heals those that are sick, umatir asurim; frees those that are bound, umekayim emunosu l'shinei afar; and is faithful to those who are lying in the dust. Who is great like you, umidomelach? Who is comparable to you, melech meimus umachaya? Hashem, the King who brings back dead into life, matzmiach yishua, and sprouts forth salvation. The Nemanat alachayos meseh, we believe you that you can bring back the dead. Baruchat Hashem mechayem meseh. What is the purpose of this brach?
And it seems like a very big jump to call this the ending of tchias meseh. At the end of the day, we're saying things like somech noflem, rofei cholem, matir asurim, mekayin nosl shene afar. What does that have to do with the Nemanat alachayos meseh? What's the critical component of this brach? This bracha is known as gevuros. The purpose of this bracha is to recognize that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is a bal hayachol es. He is capable of everything. There's nothing he can't do. Why is that important in tefillah? Why is it important to have that recognition, to praise Hashem, and to recognize that He is capable of anything? Because that also means that there is nothing you cannot ask. If Hakadosh Baruch Hu decides not to do it, that could be his decision not to do it. But he certainly is capable. And the more a person The Svarim R'ay, that the more a person builds his emuna to believe that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is capable of anything, the mask of this world, which seems to indicate that it runs via nature and not through the hand of Hashem, begins to disintegrate. And you actually get to start seeing the Yad Hashem in the world. A person first has to take that leap to believe that Hashem is capable of everything.
Even tchiyas amesin Which is something that's technically and scientifically impossible. A person has to believe that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is capable of anything. I don't understand. How can I believe that Hakadosh Baruch Hu can do tchiyas amesin? It's beyond logic. Scientifically impossible. What in the world can I Glean from my everyday life that I can believe that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the mechanimason that can bring back life from the dead. So I always like to say that if I were to go ahead and plant a seed in the ground And out would come a baby. And I were to plant a seed in a person, and out would come a tree. You would say that was quite a miracle. But somehow, when we plant a seed in the ground, out comes a tree. And a baby comes out of a woman, somehow that's not so impressive.
And the Indian in Judaism is to recognize there's no such thing as nature. There's miracles that we're used to And there's miracles that we're not used to. There's miracles we understand. And there's miracles we do not understand. But everything is a miracle. If you were to just be introduced to this world for the first time. And you were to see everything with a fresh set of eyes. You would be walking around, look at that, right? But because we're born into it and we see miracles every day, we see it always happening in front of us Then it has become—and this is the nature of the human condition. It's true in anything in life. A person says, "If I had that car, I would be so happy. It would be amazing." I remember there was this internet personality that bought some really, really fancy car, and everybody was foaming and saying, "Wow, I wish I had that car.
And I forgot exactly what he phrased it, how he said. He goes, "Guys, get over it. It's a car. It's cool. The first five times you drive it, and then it's just the car. It's amazing, it's amazing until you get used to it. That's kind of this world. We see miracles every day, but we're used to it." People get sick. And it's a nace. It's a nace that people can get sick And people can get better. So we only recognize when people don't get better. A person didn't get better. It's not fair. A person didn't get better. It's amazing that people do get better every time a baby is born. What kind of a miracle it is that a baby is born without defects. No idea what a miracle that is until one time, God forbid, now Shalom and Das never happened to you. A baby comes that is defective.
And then suddenly you recognize and you kvetch about that, but you don't realize what a miracle it is every time a baby is born without defects. It's a miracle if you understood what was going on biologically. Anatomically. If you understood what was going on, you'd be like You'd be nervous every step of the way. But it's a miracle. It's a miracle there even is a concept of babies. There is a concept of any of these things that we experience. So we can glean from seeing the everyday miracles. So mechno from the rofechol, the matir asurim, v'kayim nuslo shene afar. If you're really looking at it with the right eyes and you see them as miracles on a day by day, then beemes v'neeman atarachios mes.
It's not so hard to take the leap of faith and to believe that a kadosh baruch hu could do something even more impossible. It's like when you're watching a magician and the magician says, 'Do you want to see me pull a bird out of my hat?' He pulls the bird out of his hat. That's impressive. And then he shows you another thing, and another thing, and the next thing he shows you, he puts himself in a box, and he cuts the box in half, and you're like, 'Whoa, what's going on?' And then finally, he's done all these tricks, and then finally, at the end, he goes, 'I got one more crazy trick for you. You think I can do it?' The answer is, I haven't seen it yet. I haven't seen that trick. But I see the magician, and the magician says he could do that trick. I probably believe that too. It's true. Very hard to believe in chiyas amesim in that, in terms of if you think about it on its own. But the reason that a Jew is chayiv to believe in tchias amesim, why the Rambam says you're a kofer me'iker if you don't believe in tchias amesim, you want to know why? It's not because just because you don't believe in tchias amesim. That's not the reason why. It's because if you don't believe in tchias amesim
You don't believe in God's ability. If you don't believe in tchias amesim, you're not looking at the miracles on a day to day basis. You're not seeing the Yirah Hashem and everything. If you see the miracles of the day to day, you can take the leap of faith because you're not taking the leap of faith in the action; you're taking the leap of faith in the entity behind that action, the Rebbeinu Shalom. And when a person looks at it like that and sees that the Creator does so much and miracles are every day, and He's capable of even greater miracles Then I can walk away with a lesson and recognize that there isn't anything too big or too small for this Creator. That I can't ask for, and that I can't believe that if He wants to deliver, that He certainly is capable of delivering. He might not say yes, which is a separate share we're going to give as to why sometimes Hashem says no. But at the end of the day We can ask for anything, and in principle, Hakadosh Baruch Hu can do it. Rabbi. So we'll continue.
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