Gateway To Tefilla : Mining the Treasures of Hodu - The Gems of Harav Avigdor Miller zt"l

this torah class is brought to you by torahanytime.com okay we continue in our weekly share on b earth fila this year sponsored by rabbit salah rose of los angeles brothers for his whole family i want to share with everyone we're now holding about 30 days before purim we started yesterday a group who are going to be reviewing ablada day of massachusetts to finish massachusetts on purim so if you want to join this whatsapp group you could sign up and have the review showroom sent to you or learn it on your own you could sign up on the on the uh website rabbidigi.com or on the email um it's a very nice limoud before purim how about lena luteva we're now continuing in the te fila of hoidu lashem give thanks to the lord kirubashimai call out his name make known among the nations ali his actions we learned last time that haidu was established by david when the carbon tamid when the orion was brought to the mishkan and davanamela commissioned asaf that they should compose a special song in honor of the orion that returned and they sang this song by the carbon thomas shall shakhar they sang hoidu until altiguo bin meshech and then by the ben harbayim they sang shiru hashem kalarat until vayom wrote we explained that since these sukim were said on the carbon tamid that would be a swara for those who say haidu before baraksha amer so this is again talking about individual when mishkan shiloh was destroyed the aron was captured by the philistines and after seven months they returned the orion and then after about 20 years david brought it to seyon until the soma built the beshira now let's focus on the word haidu we all know the word haidu means give thanks to hakadeshwar however haidu also has another root to it and when we understand the the other dimension of the word haidu it will give us a deeper understanding of what it means to give thanks to hashem because aside from the word haida gratitude maidem to thank hashem there's also a word haid haid refers to splendor or eminence or majesty we're going to read today from a number of the writings of harav avigdor miller sadiq who wrote a book on fila in english called praise comma my soul praise my soul halali i had this when i came back from eretz israel the reborn knocked some sense into me that i should go to uh the shurim of harvard viktor miller i went to him for three years to speak to him many times and to hear many many many of his shirim in person and rav miller writes the word hoidu o means comes from the word haid to give eminence or majesty and the second meaning is giving thanks where do we see that the word haid refers to eminence majesty like it says in tehil in parakirchus he flew high on the wings of the wind or over the whole of the asp a child shall raise his hand hada his hand or do even they threw a stone at me so in all these cases the word refers to lifting up carrying like nasa thus the word to thank also means to raise up to elevate to give eminence so this word how you do has a dual meaning to give thanks to hashem and to grant eminence to hashem says harava viktor miller from here we learn a very fundamental principle that when we have reason to thank a benefactor it becomes our duty and our obligation to study his eminence and recognize his virtues in other words part of gratitude is to study and focus on the eminence and greatness of the benefactor it's not enough to say okay thank you thank you god thank you my heart is beating okay thank you i have food on the table part of gratitude is hoid eminence studying the eminence of the benefactor because of our gratitude hashem we must apply ourselves to recognize his greatness when we say how you do haidu is saying thank you hashem i now apply myself to study your majesty the real meaning if we look at number 83 of haidu therefore is to number one recognize and to publicize the creator's wisdom power and kindliness and number two as the expression of our thanks for his multitudinous benefits now this rabbi is a very important lee mood that is not enough just to be grateful to god but part of feeling gratitude is to study his eminence okay thus the opening words hashem sound the keynote of our prayers number one because of our gratitude questions kindness we apply ourselves to the function of elevating his name by contemplating his greatness and by proclaiming in other words what miller is saying davening begins with the word how you do and what we're saying is god because we're grateful to you we are now committed for the next hour or however long we're in shul to study focus and declare and publicize your greatness because if you just say god i thank you for everything and i'm gonna go to work now then you're not grateful gratitude means focus spending time on hashem's greatness and if you came here just to learn that today it was worth it if the only thing you've learned in all of our philosophy is that the word haidu has a dual meaning to be grateful and therefore to be obligated to proclaim god's eminence it was worth it let's move on to the second offering of today so the first is the word haidu the two meanings let's move on now to the word lachem to hashem why do why don't we say hoidou layla kim thank you to god why not layla kim because la shem refers to god as the god of israel our god hashem is the particular name used by the people of israel so we thank him and we elevate his name not only as creator to whom we are grateful for his universal kindness in other words we're saying hashem yes you are ali kim and therefore we are grateful for to you that you brought the sun up today and that the wind is blowing and that there's food and heat in my house those are universal kindness but we specifically thank you because you're the god of israel that to whom we're especially grateful because your kindliness to the jewish people is even more than to the gentiles so ho do la shem the gratitude of tifila is specifically hashem is our god hashem kirubashma kiru bismay call out his name we're saying okay god we thank you we will study your eminence and we will proclaim your name so if miller has an observation that's out of this world what in the world does it mean to call out the name of god well who did that who was vaakura bashem hashem who was kara bashem hashem the voice we know this was the practice of that abraham instituted he built there an altar to god and he proclaimed in the name of hashem another occasion he did the same and abraham proclaimed there in the name of hashem and again later the passage says hashem yitzhak followed suit what does it mean to vayikra bashem hashem to proclaim in his name to call out his name were the others doing they built an altar and they called out his name uh they yodeled what were they doing they called out the name of god were they talking to anybody says rav miller the expression proclaiming his name means a lotion of mikra kaidesh to summon a convocation to speak of hashem so you say what in the world is that is that english what is a convocation it sounds like some kind of uh illegal activity wha what's a convocation so says amino in this sense the word mikra is used in many places to denote a yamtif a festival an appointed time but when we say in other words vayikra bashem hashem to make set moments and set occasions and set junctures to publicize hashem's greatness and wisdom bismi call out you see the obvious word hashem what does it mean in his name call out in his name that refers to our function as hashem's agents and messengers in this world just like a king sends heralds to proclaim a proclamation we are appointed by god for this purpose so we're commanded to proclaim his name to everyone to mention his name at all times in connection with every matter in other words wherever you are whoever you're talking to at every occasion we are obligated to proclaim his name in connection with everything and we'll explain what this means avraham endeavored to proclaim in his name among the nations and we're going to explain a little bit more what does it mean to call out in the name of miller is explaining to mean in his name to recognize that you are a messenger and a you are a agent of god to make his identity known in the world now avraham when he taught he proclaimed in his name uh among the nations why was afrom giving sheer to heathens avraham taught gentiles chinese japanese saudi arabian because there's no one else no you know if a maggot sheer has no has no jews that want to listen to him so he's going to have to give shir in saudi arabia but nowadays that there is a nation of jews this duty implies dissemination of hashem all that the others did among the people of their day today we do among jews because that is more important that is more important in other words the always didn't have the akka the uh opportunity the others did not have the chance and the occasion to go into bmg and give a share however if they could have they would have but they had no one to listen to them so they taught the gentiles a proof to this is avraham was kara bashem hashem yitzhak was kara yaakov because yaakov had a yiddish so he was able to be mekaimin but for us it is our task to do it among the jews yet even today there are noble souls among the nations who hearken to our proclamation just this morning i noticed that one of the members of the megillah whatsapp group is in saudi arabia he is he's a righteous gentile who wants to learn muslim magilla very nice so i'm a gentile is uh not yet encouraged to study torah but he has to study the noah laws and the seven mitzvots that god gave all of mankind the torah is reserved for the jewish people but when we say kiru bishmai the the rav miller understands that means we act as hashem's heralds but let's explain this more based on the siachitrak in the siddhara what does it mean to call out in the name of hashem so you had a good idea it was shabbos parsha's boy and you had a really good idea of where to go or you have uh had a dilemma and you thought of a really good way out of it oh you think uh i'm it's a good thing i'm so clever i'm ingenious i i thought of a really good idea no it wasn't your idea god put the idea in your head kira of ishmael means to attribute everything to hashem all the money you earn you attribute it hashem's kindness all the good ideas you have you attribute it to god's kindness you attribute all all events in this world from major to minor attack by the way on shabbos you're going to say tomorrow now by the way why do we say that on shabbos la david before god on shabbos you need to change the way you talk the way you walk the way you conduct yourself before our father the king and if you do that vayigar sheil god will chase out the forces of impurity however historically you have to know what happened was taken captive by avi malach the king of the philistines so he thought he was a dead man so he feigned being an imbecile and he started acting as if he had he was mentally deranged and you know said what's this meshuggana doing in my palace throw him out and damaramal says ah what a good trick that was a great idea i had no david says let me i made a mistake this wasn't my idea avocado i will bless god at all times even when it seems that i had this ingenious plan even then kirubashma i will attribute that to whatever they did they attributed to god this is what it means this is what it means kirubishma like we say um everything is from you and if you do that you're making in the midst of zakhartha is what does it mean make known among the nations his actions like it says until hillary israel ali what are the alilois that hashem is gracious that hashem is merciful that hashem is slow to anger what does this mean if someone has to meesa hashem will sometime bring an ani to him and the person will give to dhaka and stucco saves from death or sometimes in life for many years a person could have a certain benefit and then later in life they could lose the benefit and the person is despondent and depressed oh why do you know i don't have that anymore and the siddharth says no sometimes god will give you the benefit really you weren't supposed to have it to begin with he only gave it to you so that he could do you a toiva and take it away so that will be your punishment so you don't have to get it in the next world so in fact god sort of so speak orchestrated you should have the benefit to begin with so that he could take it away so that you could have a kapara in that way okay let's move on we must endeavor says ramil to disseminate among the nations the knowledge of his profound deeds ali which denotes his profound machinations god's planning is very complicated and has great cunning we're going to see the deeds that we refer to are those that were performed for claude israel and that is why we say who has to praise hashem we're thanking hashem for acting as our god now think carefully think what we're saying how you do la shem kiru bishmai first we're going to call out his name and then kira first you have to adorn yourself and then you could adorn others before we go forth to proclaim hashem's deeds to the nations we have to first proclaim them to our own people and even before we proclaim them to other jews we have to integrate them and contemplate upon them and understand them ourselves that we ourselves are sufficiently grateful now last week we learned the expression we said is an attachment to god zam rule is to cut away those things that detract us from god that is how rabshimmin schwab interpreted the phrase shiroloi zamruli however if miller interprets shir does not denote music it means enthusiastic enthusiastic meditation and that is expressed by unusual words and forms of speech not prose which lend importance to the subject once you have the proper meditative thoughts once you have the right ideas only then you could make music but we say shirou loi only to god we sing only to god we make music only to god are we enthusiastic we praise and give thanks and devote our interest to no one and nothing other than hashem alone we are not enthusiastic your team is in the super bowl you think you're going to win that's great it shouldn't give you any enthusiasm better said than done but that's what we're saying we sing to god we make music to god we are enthusiastic to god we are excited about god we are not excited about anything else our speech is dedicated to all of our speech is solely concerning his wonders and his ways and his torah whatever kindness the nations of the world perform for us it's caused by hashem's kindness even your parents show you compassion your benefactors show you kindness they are all agents of academic hashem denotes look at number 93 the superficial or an external enthusiasm which is produced by melody of mouth or instrument this is necessary why it's not enough for shiruli which is meditative understanding and thought it doesn't matter how powerful you focus on idea you have to use physical and external means to activate and to strengthen and to magnify your thoughts and feelings as messily charm says so among the useful externalities we have bowing what do you need to bow for why do you bow oh i'm showing i'm humble so think that you're humble why do you have to bow because the thought of humility is magnified and strengthened through an action so you'll say so just bow if a person just bows and he's not thinking i am humbling myself before god he is doing absolutely nothing if a person oh that was a beautiful davening why was it beautiful he sang such a nice cabbage i was so inspired pal if you were not thinking about the meaning of the words your inspiration is utterly worthless singing in shul has no value unless you're thinking about the meaning of the words actually it has a lot of value this way it keeps you out of the house and you can argue with your family that's the only value it has but if you're not thinking about the meaning of the words singing has zero value that's why zamruli comes after shirulai first has to come the thought you're bowing bowing has value if you're it's accompanied by humility singing has value if it's enhancing the thoughts and the meaning of the words all of these actions raising your hands and eyes to heaven dancing circumbobulating that's some kind of archaic word for dancing in a circle circumbobulating you know that word so you learn something today right so all of these things are only a value if they're preceded by shirulai which is the thought next secret speak i mean we're now now we're not talking about davening anymore we're talking about conversation sicha's conversation not only do you have to praise and thank hashem at kiruba ishmael at certain times but secret on the fly stuff even your ordinary and constant speech in your house at your work among the members of your family gathering with your friends should be devoted to relating the wonders of hashem's deeds in nature and in history so when you're at the shabbos table and you're conversing speak about hashem's wonders wonders of history wonders of nature wonders of the i don't know what the hummingbird the cactus all of these things are part of sichu nifla now what wonders do you have to talk about all of hashem's wonders you can't leave out even one says speak in all his wonders and omit none as much as we're able whatever we have heard whether the wonders of the universe or the wonders of history they should be discussed always and at length and each of these matters should be fully exploited to gain perfection for ourselves next final offering for today his hallelujah shame kochai glorify yourself in his holy name now what does glorify yourself means be boastful be arrogant in god's holy name from here we learn that when it comes to knowledge of god and when it comes to recognizing how close hashem is to the jewish people one has to avoid all humility all humility is prohibited is usur is an avira when it comes to feeling the special relationship hashem has with the jewish people we're now going to explain this expression his hallelujah comes and he says hatfila the root of prayer simcha slay bach is being joyous of heart in akkad glorify in his holy name let the heart of those who seek hashem rejoice therefore david would use a harp for all of his felice and miros to fill himself with simcha in his love of hashem therefore when a person died the root of old tefila is to feel joy is to rejoice in your love for this now watch this we come to the sid the safer bina loitim of rabba zarya figo one of the great italian ballet darshanim the safer binolitim is the father safer of all the suffrage rush and he explains this pasta it's in divreihayam and it's also in tehillim parakophai aposta gimmel i would like to attach this to the preceding passage and the following passage first we say shiru lai then we say zamrulai then we say seekhur bahul nifl then we say his hallelu beshem kachai then we say dershu hashem uzai some people make the fatal mistake and they say you know we say this whole big sitter over here and it's so big i don't know god must like this you know all this praise that we give him it must really uh give god a boost when we say blessed are you uh thanks to you you're the greatest you're the mightiest says don't think for a minute a minute we're giving god any covet or any godula khas vashallah and we're not adding anything to him we can't add anything what could we possibly add to his perfection which has no end all of our song all of our cannot even barely scratch the surface of god's greatness everything we say in davening does nothing for god you know who it does something for it makes us greater it is a glory for us because if a uh i don't know let's say you get a knock on your front door who's there it's animal control the exterminator came and he's presenting you with a nigerian cockroach and you asked exterminator why are you bringing me a nigerian cockroach and the sermon says this nigerian cockroach would like to come into your home and praise you then you should probably say mycho toivois no thanks that does not do anything for me if a nigerian cockroach praises me however if you get a knock on the door and who's there it's the secret service who's there it's uh the president of the united states what does he want he would like to sing your praises for an hour oh let him in you know no problem you wouldn't mind that so the fact that we have the opportunity to praise hashem that god lets us praise him it ain't an honor to him because we are further from his greatness than a nigerian cockroach is to us the fact that the banishment allows us to praise him is a glory for us we are worthy we have the merit lazamere to sing to his name for who miss raza he allows us he sits there and acts as if he enjoys our praise as if we're important as if we're giving him covered what a great honor it is when we have the privilege to go into seoul and god doesn't say taiwas his glorify yourself in his holy name everything we're doing in tila we're praising ourself it's a praise to us people who go out into a hallway and have kidus during dhavaning think about what the evangelism is saying to them he's saying no thanks it's okay i'm toyboss you're not worthy to praise me but if hashem gives you the good sense to recognize what opportunity you have his hallelu you're the one being praised you're god is praising you by allowing you to praise him this is what it means not to praise you with your praises is reflective that we should become elevated by praising you i remember very clearly and i think i wrote this in my notes josephus says i remember of miller saying this that the cr the egyptian worshipped the crocodile and the asp and therefore they became vicious and violent like the crop crocodile on the asp on the other hand the jewish people we praise the almighty and li bayach we are elevated through the grand opportunity of praising hashem we say god gather us from the gentiles to thank your holy name no praise uh accrues to god when we are mahalalim ah we accept praise um it will be a greatness and a praise to those gentiles we will be praised by the gentiles that we are those who are uh who the almighty wants our praise and therefore we say shirley we're going to sing to him zamruli and by doing so his hallelujah we will become the ones who are praised we could glory ourselves that we are roy to sing to hakadosh okay and let's just uh conclude by reading what ramil says glory in his holy name we are admonished to avoid all humility in these matters but we should glory in the unique distinction that he's single at our nation to perform them wonders which were done for no other people and by which his holy name became exalted we should also take glory to the fact that he assigned his holy name to us glory in his holy name means number one glory yourself be proud that he singled us out to make miracles for us through which god elevated his name glorify yourself in his holy name that god selected us to be the vehicles through which he performs wonders and elevates his name number two be proud that god associates his name with us he calls us [Music] he calls us his avadhim his sheep his his beloved god doesn't call the gentiles his sheep he doesn't call the gentiles his beloved he doesn't call the gentiles his children this glory praise yourselves as part of the service of thanksgiving and praise the more we recognize the greatness of him whose praises are we contemplate then in the same measure do we rejoice because our relationship to him as his children and and his nakhala now we will conclude we say glory in his holy name not just his hallelu [Music] or his why don't we say glory in him his hallelujah why in his name that means glory in the attributes of god that are revealed in the torah through which we learn his deeds and ways but we can never say about him that this is him everything we know about hashem all of his attitudes that are described in the torah are merely his attributes but all that we could ever be able to say about him would just be a form of speech and borrowed words because him his true identity is beyond understanding we cannot be his hallelu boy because we have no understanding of his essence we only know god by his name his name means the way he's manifest his hallelujah shame but we know the holiness of his his name but his holiness we don't know that is the the essence of god's truth which is remote and beyond the scope even of the malachi ashari's so we've learned a number of very fundamental concepts number one haidu haidu doesn't just mean to thank it means to it's a lotion of hayd to give eminence and therefore we learned the very fundamental principle that if we have to thank hashem it is our duty to study and proclaim his eminence number two la shem we're thanking hashem for his especial relationship with the jewish people kiru vishmai we call out in his name like the avis making set times to proclaim his identity which was once done to all of mankind today we have the more important job of doing it to the jewish people and the siakitsarak says kiru vishmai refers to attributing everything in this world to hakadosh first we have to integrate and understand it ourselves then we proclaim it to the nations of the world and then um first we understand it ourselves we then proclaim it to claudius and only then to the nations of the world first shirlai first one has to have the proper thoughts and only then zamruli does music and singing have value because our regular conversations should speak about the wonders of god in nature and history this has says the principle of tefila is rejoicing in his hallelujah and recognizing that all of the praises that we give to god are not elevating and praising god we are praising ourself it is a glory for us that we have this incredible privilege as the posix says and the show rush is hold okay and if you read the biography of menachem and i used to be a tiger you've just experienced another torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com