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