KMTT - the Torah Podcast
KMTT - Berachot [new series] #01
KMTT - Berachot 01, Shiur by Rav Ezra Bick
This is KMTT, and this is Ezra Bacon. Today is Wednesday. You're only V.E. You'd bet V.E.R. Today we begin a new series, which I will be giving myself. We will be discussing a mammar or two. I wanted two statements found in the mammar brachat, which are on the border of Halacha and Agada. They usually will be actual halacha or they have halacha ramifications. And they're found in Beofered and Sshokhara Vach. And we will be discussing them both in the point of Halacha but also because they are windows into understanding the various things in your name. Various philosophical points having to do with Thiwa or some other aspect of Jewish religious life, which are discussed in the mammar brachat. The mammar brachat is a very, very rich source of statements of this sort. And that will be the nature of our discussion today. Each week we will discuss a different mammar or two for the next three months. And therefore I now begin at the end of the share we'll have the usual halacha yomit. For today's discussion, the first in our series, I choose a mammar that appears in the mammar brachat and dafdalid omot bet. The concept itself is familiar. I'd like to discuss the various thoughts, various approaches one has towards this. The topic itself is semikut goula litfila. The mammar brachat dafdalid omot bet quotes the statement abra bjokanan aizu ben haolam raba. The semik goula litfila shall arvid. Who is he who merits the world to come? One who connects, he brings close goula and fila shall arvid. Goula means the brachat of galisrael. The brachat that said immediately after kriachmat. And tefila means schmoneswe. This is what we call semikut goula litfila. Here it says, tefila shall arvid. Bashi immediately comments that even more so, shahalid. He said arvid because it's even more obvious. It's a hirish. He's coming to tell you even arvid. But shahalid because shahalid is shahalid, ikal goula means shahalid. The brachat of galisrael, the brachat which mentions goula, which mentions redemption is focused on redemption of Egypt. Redemption of Egypt actually took place in the morning when they left Egypt. And therefore it's more obvious that you have to combine goula shall shahalid. The morning goula with tefila have you have to tell you that it even, even arvid. It's interesting because there is no explicit statement in nikma. That says to combine, to put together goula shahalid. The morning goula with schmoneswe. But it is, as Vashi says, a derivative from the explicit statement about arvid. What is the point here? Why is there a necessity to put together, to combine, to join together the brachat of goula, of redemption, and schmoneswe? First of all we should realize that there's no obvious connection between the two in terms of the structure of tefila. We're so used to the siddhu that we think that davening begins with bukota shahalid as wasalain. But tefila, halaqid defined, is schmoneswe. The brachat of goula, as well as the two brachat which come before kriachma. And as well as hashkivainu, which is the second brachat after kriachma in a night, it's a separate unit. It's a unit called kriachma. There is no inherent obvious connection between tefila and kriachma. The proof is from tefila atmincha. In other words, you daven three times a day, to say kriachma only twice a day. These are two separate obligations. The obligation of kriachma offhand is dioraita. Shokpukha uvakumeka. Davening tefila, according to most we show name other than the rabbanan, is the rabbanan. According to the rabbanan, it's only once a day in medioraitan. Three times a day in mediorabbanan. These are two separate mitzvot. Two separate frameworks. Kriachma has two or three or four brachat around it. Shwinashwa is eighteen brachat. There is no inherent reason that it must be said together. And what Khazar will do in this statement is making that connection. They're saying even though you can do them separately. But you should put them together, or specifically you should put gula. The brachat comes after kriachma. Together with Shwinashwa. It's also worth noting that Khazar doesn't say you have to do it. Khazar praises one who does it. He merits the world to come. It's a very strong statement in terms of the reward. But a very weak statement in terms of the obligation. It doesn't say you have to. It doesn't say you should try. It simply says it's a good thing to do. It's a very good thing to do. You will wind up meriting the world the world to come. Alachalamisa is called as alacha. One should not engage in any interruption between gula and shmonashwa. Let's say in the morning, Gao Yisrael was immediate before shmonashwa. What's the reason for this connection? First let me ask a halachic analysis question. There are two ways to look at the need to put two things together. You can look at that the first requires a second. Or you can look at the second requires the first. In our case, is there something about saying brachat gula, which is enhanced by dubbing immediately afterwards. In other words, shmonashwa adds to gula. Gula requires shmonashwa. What's the other way around? Is shmonashwa enhanced by being preceded by gula? The answer to that question would depend on really what the reason for putting the two together. And that's what I wish to analyze, wish to try to understand. There could be halachic differences depending on the answer. For instance, the agrata shui quotes in opinion that there is no need to be somer gula, gula, and shabbat. Now the technical reason is because as I will merely quote, the sukiim on parn, which it is, gula, gula, is based. Is the connection between the pastuk, yula, ratsan, rifi. And it's found immediately in the very next chapter, the very next paragraph of the eelim, by the pastuk y alra, adoshem, beyond sara. God should answer you on a day of trouble, a day when you're in trouble. So the agrata shui says that, davening every day now, what the derivation means, that the first pastuk says, in serimagoladi, you speak to God as being, he who redeems me. And the very next pastuk, in the next chapter of the very next pastuk says, God should answer you on a day of trouble. So the first pastuk y pastuk y pastuk y pastuk y pastuk y pastuk y pastuk y pastuk y pastuk y pastuk y pastuk y pastuk. But it caused phila, yandra shambir om sara, God's answering me in a day of my trouble. Shabbat is not defined as a yom sara, and shmonashwa and shabbat is not a phila of sara. It's not a phila, but we ask God to save us from our troubles. And shabbat, you don't ask for things like that. Shabbat, phila is there, gives us a different subject. Therefore the agrata shui says, there's no point in being, somerguladi, phila. And shabbat. Now, it's true, he's based it on, if this is where it's learned, from his little nisb suki, the suki, don't apply here. But in effect, he's saying is that, certain kinds of shmonashwa, it's appropriate that he should be preceded by gula. But a shmonashwa, which is not a shmonashwa, saves me from my troubles, doesn't require gula to precede it. In other words, he's assuming that the nature of the suki, gula, phila is an enhancement of the tphila. But this tphila, it doesn't apply to. That's just an example of how there could be enough gamina. There could be a difference, depending on how we understand the question. Let's examine the actual reasons. So, this is what he said. He says, somerguladi, phila, ramsad d'avid, was safe atila. The putting together of gula and phila is hinted at in sappatila. Somerguladi, the last person of tihilim, u tat, the 19th paragraph of tihilim. The somerguladi, the last person of tihilim, u tat, the 19th paragraph of tihilim, u tat sappatila. The last person of tihilim, u tat, the 19th paragraph of tihilim, u tat, the 19th paragraph of tihilim, u tat, the 19th paragraph of tihilim. To help us understand the idea, nishayno, somerguladi, phila, ramsad dumé. To what may he be compared, lo a voscialmeirach, shebabid, da fak al petroscialmeirach. To the king's favorite, king's admirer, friend of the king, who came and knocked on the door of the king. Yet sahameh, u mat sahiflig, the king came to the door and found that the man knocking, the friend of the king, had a very left. That's what someone who is not somerguladi, phila, resembles. Ahfhu, similarly our person, hiflig, he went away. What should you do? Ela yi, yi, adam bikan, reib, dakos spochu, ela, bumar tsei, u betus pakotu, qusinsu, et sahameh, sahameh. A person should try to bring God close to him and to appease God, to find favor in God's eyes, through praise of the exodus of Israel. The exodus of Egypt, what we call gula. For whom it can rebel have, and then God comes close to him, and u bodokha, robil have, and when God is still close, he actually loves it. Then he should ask for his needs, meaning he should have it. Okay, let's take the two sources that Vashi mentions. The first one we really talk about, the connection between the two sokim, Hashem-sulivigal-alei, and yet-ancha-shhem-be-yom-sala. It would appear to me, by referring to tifila as yancha-shhem-be-yom-sala, Hashem-sulivigal-alei, yancha-shhem-be-yom-sala. And the parable, quoted in the ushami, that the nature is, as ushami it makes quite explicit. Gula is a kind of way of bringing God close. Let's take the parable itself. You knock on the door, the person comes to the door and then you speak to him. If you knock on the door, and when the attorney comes to the door, you're not there, then the knocking on the door was pointless. And even worse, perhaps. You've troubled him to come to the door for no reason. In other words, if Gula is knocking on the door, and the tifila that follows it is the conversation you have with God, what the parable is saying is, that knocking on the door, saying Gula, is its purpose, is to allow you to die. If you say Gula, and you don't dab in afterwards, then you've knocked on the door in vain. You've troubled God to come for no reason. What this has done is, it's made Gula a preamble to tifila. Now, you can dab in without it. But if you dab in without it, then you haven't made God close to you in the language of the ushami. So, snikud, gula, tifila is a kind of way of preparing the relationship with God, preparing my relationship with God such that might tifila will be in the proper context. If you don't knock on the door first and you speak to God, you're speaking from far away, you don't know if he's really there, you don't know. We know he's listening, but he's not close. Low karov, elecha. By knocking on the door, by speaking about gula, it's time you make God, you make God close. So, what is this said? This is said that gula is an enhancement of tifila. The tifila is a better tifila if it's been preceded by gula. Now, you might ask why is gula a thing which brings us close to God? And the answer would be that it's really giving us something to understand about it siyat mitzraying. Normally, you think that in order to make God close, you should praise him. That's the words you show me, shivakot, tush, bahot, pikilu sin. But which praise do we have? And not the eelipsucators even around the morning, not all kinds of praise and about everything God does all over the world. But specifically, you say to God, you took us out of Egypt, you saved the Jewish people. Why is that the praise of God which makes it appropriate afterwards to dab in? I think the answer is obvious. There are many praises of God. But here you're saying is that I have a problem. To whom do I go with my problem? I come to you because why you are the savior of Israel. This place is the entire eetrat mitzrayim in a particular context. Why is it so important? Why do we constantly refer back to the redemption from Egypt as the most crucial Jewish experience? There are a dozen mitzvot in the Torah, which are zechal eetrat mitzraying. There are so many mitzvot which is zechal eetrat mitzraying. And obviously, zechal eetrat mitzraying. There are so many mitzvot which is zechal eetrat mitzraying. And obviously, the Torah has a very prominent episode in the Torah. Half of Zephyr's Shmoat is about the eetrat mitzraying. And then God says, "I took you out of mitzraying, therefore I am your God. I am your God because I took you out of mitzraying." What the Torah is saying is that our relationship to God is based on the fact that he saved us and took us out of mitzraying. He took us out of Egypt. It's not because God created the world. It's not because no tanglach on the whole pastah because he provides food for all living creatures. A very, very important point. But that's not what our personal relationship with God is based on. As Jews, our relationship with God is based on the fact that he redeemed us from Egypt. He's a redeemer. He saved us. That's especially important when you're coming to ask him to save you again. You have a problem, you need God to save you. But why should he? On what basis do we appeal to him? How do we get him to come to the door? How do we get an audience with God? Who's king of the world? On what basis can I ask him of this? The answer is, I remind him. You saved my forefathers. You saved me. You saved us. In the past, that creates a permanent relationship between us. That we're dependent on you. And if I have another problem, I appeal to you, I appeal to you to save me once again, to solve that problem once again. And that's what feel that is all about. This, it would appear to me, this is the idea which you shall me is saying quite explicitly, I think, in the parable. And you shall me finds this as being the inherent meaning in the juxtaposition of the tupsukim. In the past, you will feel the truth. You will be the winner. You will feel the truth. And that's why I expect, I hope, I pray, that you should save me beyond silver. So again, if this is the source, and this source contains the basic idea, it implies that Gula is the introduction, the preamble, the knocking on the door, before one, before one dies. A somewhat different explanation of the relation between Gula vidfila is found in rebelliona. rebelliona is, it's called tell me, de rebelliona, rebelliona did not write it, his students wrote down his ideas on the saced borat. One of the most important commentaries, to me saced borat, Benjamin is one of the great Yishonim, commentary on the Talmud. We have him on either in collections or one place in Babat, we have the original, usually only citations. And great commentary on the Talmud, but Benjamin is also a great commentator on life. He's called the Benjamin Chasid. He's the author of one of the first Musselstron, Shari Chuva. So Benjamin here asked the question. He didn't ask why you should be Sir Merkulalitfila, that didn't attract his attention. But track his attention was the nature of Vyokhanan's formulation. Again, Vyokhan didn't say, you have to be Sir Merkulalitfila. He said, if you're Sir Merkulalitfila, you merit the world to come. He said, really, let's say it's a nice idea. But just for that, that's what gets you into the world to come. It seems a bit of an extreme phase. An extreme result for what is after a rather simple thing, saying two, three, not one after the other. The Hrimib nations, Somerkulalitfila, Yishla, Sakhal, Karshi, have been a long ever. Just for the rule of that, you get into the world to come. But he only gives two answers. I'd like to quote them both and explain them both. The first one. The Omeil Moriharaf, the student who's quoting Abimeyana, my teacher said the following. The reason why he merit such a great reward is because when God redeemed us and took us out of Egypt, the purpose was that we should be to him Avadim. We should be to him servants. I use the softer word. Avadim means slaves. We should be his slaves. We should belong to him as slaves. How do I know that? It's a verse. God says that the Jews are his servants, for I have taken them out of Egypt. In other words, taking them out of Egypt created a situation, created the result that we are the servants, the slaves of God. Abimeyana derives from this, a somewhat stronger statement. Logically, he is deriving more than is strictly speaking implied. The state, the Pasuk, says that as a result of being redeemed by God from Egypt, we are the slaves. The reason why God took us out of Egypt was for that purpose. That's why he took us out. That's A, B. Ubebukat Gailusael, Mascil Baharasic, a seimanno bonet. And the Baharab Gailusael mentions that great thing which God did, he took us out of Egypt. Bahar tefida, tefida schmolese, he avo dah. Tefida is service. Davening, we think of Davening perhaps, as can God help us. He says that primarily, Davening is divine service. Now, we used to that term, if you remember, if you've ever seen an English Cidur, so it's called the service. Tefida is called the service. It's a correct translation. I think we forgot what the word means. But Banyana is reminding us. Abudah means what an ever does. Service is what a servant does. Davening to God is the service of God. Kide amuina. The commercial says, "V'avat de metashamalok echam, zuit fila." And you should serve the Lord your God. The commercial says, "How do you serve God?" By Davening. By praying. Therefore, Kishahumaskil y tziyat mitzrayam umit palalmiyad, when a person mentions the excess from Egypt and Davens immediately, he shows that just as a servant who is owned by his master, has to do everything his master tells him. He has to listen to the commands of his master. So, you too recognize the grace, the goodness and the redemption that God did for you and that therefore you are his servant and you serve him. And since you mentioned that you are a servant, for he has redeemed you, therefore you do his will and all his mitzvoth and the result is that you will merit the world to come. In other words, what is the very end of saying? The end of saying that the reason why we connect gula dit fila is to make sure we understand what the real purpose of gula was. The purpose of gula of redemption wasn't that we should have a good time. The purpose of redemption wasn't that we should be free, but on the contrary. The purpose of redemption was that we should be slaves, not to parole, but to God. If you realize, excuse me, how do you point that out? How do you remind yourself of that fact? By immediately connecting gula to fila, because tila is avodah, fila is service. So, if you connect gula to service, you are saying, reminding yourself, you are inculcating in yourself, the idea that I am redeemed in order to serve, not redeemed in order to be free of service. And if you remind yourself that you are redeemed in order to serve, then you are also accepted upon yourself, God's command and the yoke of heaven. And that, of course, is the key to the world to come, serving God in all ways. Through means of oath and to fila, and everything that is implied in that being a true servant of God is the key to entering the world to come, to being having the merit of receiving God's favor. So, what has been a yona done here? When the yona has really turned the tables on what I said before. To fila doesn't need gula. Someone who daven serves God. He doesn't serve God more for mentioning gula beforehand. It's the other way around. If you wouldn't daven right after gula, you would be apt perhaps to think that God redeemed you. How nice I'm free now. By davening immediately after gula, you present the correct focus on gula. Thank you, God, for having saved me and allowing me to serve you and bringing me into your service, owning me. You've acquired me for your service by saving me. If you don't daven right away, then you're saying thank you for saving me. What a great thing. I'm a happy person. I'm free. I can do anything I want. If you immediately begin to daven, remembering that fila is not serving yourself, it's not asking things for yourself primarily. But it's saying to God, you are everything and I serve you. Then you correctly place your gula in the right context. And that, what Björgen said, maybe he only explains, is the key to everything. Because by realizing that everything which God has given me is so that I should serve him, you correct and sanctify and dedicate your entire life to God's service. Okay. That's the key to everything. That's the key to ola maba. That's the key to the world to come. Okay. So the focus of smhudgulalat fila is gula. You, you, you follow gula with fila to make the gula trapper, to put the gula in the papa framework to understand the papa purpose of gula. We were saved in order to be his servants, his slaves, not saved in order to be masters unto ourselves. There are never very interesting prepositions in this comment of a baby nionna. First of all, there's an important statement here about fila. That we should remember that fila is avodah literally. The word avodah means to be an evid. An evid obeys his master. Davining implies you obey God. The connection isn't obvious. Be honest, when you dive into God, you're serving God. In fact, just explain that point. How is Davining serving God? Davining is asking things for yourself. I need health. I need food. Give me, give me, give me. How does that serve God? Serve yourself. I think the answer is that when you dive in and you say God, I need A, B, C, D, E, F and G, I need all these things, what you're basically saying is that everything I have comes from God. I have nothing independent. I can't provide for myself. All my needs are provided and can be provided only by you. That's in truth, the relationship between a slave and the king. The king also then will give commands, but that's the result of the servitude. The servitude is the dependence on God. Vila says, "I am totally dependent on God." So that's first of all, the very important statement here about Vila. Vila is not stuck in your face. It's expressing one's dependence as a slave is totally dependent on his master. Two, Vila, of course, is saying his major point, that is, the redemption, the crucial Jewish experience. The primary Jewish historical experience, the redemption from Egypt, the reason why that lies at the heart of Jewish existence is because the redemption from Egypt was the beginning of our service of God, not the beginning of our freedom. Of course, it's the beginning of our freedom. Everyone knows that. That Passach is Hrag He-rut, the redemption of Egypt gave us freedom, but what is freedom? What is Jewish freedom? Jewish comes to feed him as the service of God, and that would answer the question why we continually come back to the statement that it's the atmosphere, because it defines the Jew. Not as being free to do what he wants, but as being belonging to God. God acquired us by taking us out of the hands of power. The second idea in Abedneon, he has two answers to this question. The second answer was, "Oh, don't worry. Another answer my teacher gave." Because when one mentions the redemption from Egypt and diamonds immediately, he shows that he trusts in God in his tphila. Since he asks, requests all his needs from him, from God, because if you didn't trust in God, you wouldn't ask anything from him. Now we see that when the Jews were redeemed from Egypt, and they saw all the miracles which God had done from them, they trusted in God. So therefore, since now you mention the gula that they trusted, we mention that our forefathers were taken out of Egypt, and they trusted in God, and he saved them. And then you do it away, Daven, you show that you also trust in God, that he will answer you just as he answered the Jews when they were coming out of Egypt. And therefore, you mention the gula and you Daven right away, that is the basis that strengthens one's trust in God, and trust in God is the foundation of one's faith and the foundation of one's fear of heaven, and therefore you will enter the world to come. It is a totally different idea. What is the key? By which one enters the world to come? What is the key to the Jewish experience? Not service, but trust. What he calls Yerav Emunah, fear and faith. The trust in God, the feeling that everything depends on God, and I can rely on him, and I put my faith in him. That's the key to the Jewish experience, that's the key to Olamaba. The connection between the gula with filah revolves on that point. Gula, the Exodus from Egypt, the redemption from Egypt, was the first time that the Jews saw, experienced, and felt and reached the state of Vayaminubasham, of belief and trust in God, seeing how God had taken them out of the crucible of Egypt out of the house of bondage, with great miracles, and destroyed the forces of power, took them through the Red Sea. That was the foundation of, they saw that with their eyes. After they really experienced it, they achieved trust in God, because trust in God requires an experience. It's not an intellectual acquisition. You have to see it and feel it to acquire it. So we say, we repeat, we remind ourselves, we re-experience the Gula from its realm. We can feel that Bhitachan, the faith in God, we immediately apply it by Davening, because Davening expresses one's faith in God. If you're not a faith in God, why are you praying to Him? You're not just taking a chance. You're coming to He who you know and believe can answer your prayers and answer your needs. So you reach back into the primary source of the Jewish people in God, and then express your personal trust in God by Davening, one who does that nexus of experience and fulfillment. He inculcates in Himself the trust in God, the trust in God is the key to the world to God. Okay, so here, it's a little more complicated. If I ask my original question, what's the main, what's the main focus? Does Gula serve to feel out, does to feel out serve Gula? In the second answer, Veneryana, the answer is really neither. Both of them are expressing the same point. Gula is the historical well from which personal trust in God derives. To feel out is its expression in your own life. Apparently, you need to combine the two of them to make the Bhitachan the trust in God into a real experience, because only if it's a real experience. Everything which actually beats in your heart can't be said to be the key for you to having a relationship with God which will ultimately lead to the world to come. In other words, lead to your being fulfillment as a fulfillment as a Jew. So we have seen three different ideas, I wanted to contradict. We've seen three different ways of looking at the connection between Gula but to feel that, the way expressed in the parable of you shall be whereby Gula is a core to God, a reminder to God of his, so to speak, his obligation to us, of his relationship with us so that we can then ask him for something else. It's the core to God knocking on the door so you could have it. The first answer in the Veneryana that Gula is a historical act which led to our freedom. We remind ourselves, we focus the freedom as being the preamble to service rather than to unrestricted freedom and the second idea of Veneryana that both the Gula and the Tfilah are two different aspects of trust in God and Gula is the experience which leads to a response of trust and Tfilah is that response. The relationship between them is historical reason and concrete, concrete fulfillment. And now, I switch hats from giving a share to being your host, Fezaha Al-Aqai Yomit. Today's Al-Aqai Yomit. Yesterday, we reached Gutushah, we spoke about Gutushah, Gutushah is found in the third Veneryana of Gutushah, Gela Qadosh, afterwards we begin the Veneryana of the Tachonene. The Gamaan Veneryana of the Tshonene says that Shonene says basically that it is 3. The first 3 Bajod, which are Bajod of Pez, I give a word in Gutushah, the next 12 actually is 13 Bajod, which are all petitions, Baka Shod, beginning with the Tachonene ending in Shonene and the last three Bajod, which were called Hoda, even though the first one is Hoda, they are the Bajod of leaving, the Bajod of taking one's leave of God. It's not merely an idea to separate into three. These three units have a unity. For instance, if one makes a mistake, one realizes at some point in Shonene, that one has made a mistake, so it's divided by the units. If you have to go back to the first section, you go back to the entire first section. If you made a mistake in one of the middle Bajod, so you didn't save a 10th time in the winter, the middle 13 and the last 13 Bajod are petitions, what distinguishes the petitions is that you can also add your own private petition to the appropriate Baja. In other words, any Baja that's talking about let's say, Parnasa, sustenance, Baka Tachonene, you can add your own particular, if you have a need, so you can, you should personalize this feeling by adding your own personal need. If you need God to forgive you, you've done a sin, so you add that to the Baja that says we have sinned. You mention your own personal sin and I have done such and such and such, and I want God to forgive me for that particular sin. You can add to any Baja, the topic that's appropriate for that Baja. You can add to Shomaya Tphila, the last of the petitions, since it's a general request for listening to our Tphila, you can add any subject, so any subject that doesn't fit into one of the others, you can add there, or if it does fit into one of the others, you can add it there. So again, you can add topic A into the Baja which deals with topic A, and you can add any topic to the Baja of Shomaya Tphila. It's inappropriate to make a request in one of the first free Baja, the first free Baja that requests their praise of God, therefore you don't want to add anything to the first free Baja, anything we have to add, anything we have to request, should we place in the proper Baja, the proper framework of the 13 middle Baja. First of these requests is Hanayana Datt, asking God for wisdom, it's an interesting point, it's not a lahayumid, simply an idea, I'm not sure that most of us would have thought that we have to ask God for our needs, the first thing we're asking for is to help us think to be wise, to have Khachma bin Abadatt, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. It's a very Jewish thing, it's a very Hazal thing, that if you're going to ask God for things, the first thing you should ask him for is for wisdom, that's your first need, it's an essential, existential need for man, he needs food, he needs forgiveness, he needs health first and foremost, he needs the wisdom, he needs the wisdom of God. And that is it for today, we'll be back tomorrow with Yeshua and Pashata Shavua, Yuma listening to KMT, the Torah Podcast, broadcasting from Ishi Vata Rachion in a lunchbot, wishing you called to Bukat Atora Mitzian, Kimitzian Teze Torah with Vahrashhem Mirushalayim. [BLANK_AUDIO]