The 13 Principles of Jewish Faith - Principle #5: Don't Pray to the Plumbing - Rabbi Akiva Fox

so we're up to the fifth of the udm la creme of the 13 principles of faith which is an imam and ben wash lame i believe with complete faith aha x rays wash me that the Creator blessed is he Lila Valley to him alone royally his powell is it worthy or befitting this to pray the anal azules a royal his fellow and it is not befitting to pray to anyone else so let's let's put this into perspective over here we have to analyze a few things in the wording of this fifth principle number one it seems a little bit redundant an imam in redundant I just learned means repetitive so I use the fancy word because I want to sound intellectual but it seems that there's something being repeated I believe hebei destruction my loyal avadi to him alone royally his foul as it be fitting to pray the anal is lost a Royalist I'll a niche and it's not befitting to pray to anyone else meaning it's all saying one thing it is only be fitting to pray to Hashem and not anyone else but once you say that only to Hashem you should pray then obviously that would imply or not even employ those are the perfect words to say that only to Hashem you should you pray and not to anyone else so we need to understand the repetition or what seems like repeating itself but before we do that let's focus more on the word ROI ROI means befitting or it's appropriate or it's worthy it is worthy it is befitting it is appropriate to pray to Hashem alone and not to anyone else so what is that word worthy mean meaning what are we referring to when we say that it is worthy of praying only to hussion so there are a few explanations of this word one explanation and the rambam when he explains the 13 principles of faith the rambam singles this out that Hashem God created this world that there are many sleeting there are many messengers to bring about certain things that occur in the world meaning i'm going to use another fancy word to sound intellectual just in case you didn't figure it out yet there's a word conduit there are many conduits in the world that bring things from the higher heavenly realm meaning from a Shem and through them they come down to our physical finite level in a certain sense and again this is a very deep concept that is very difficult for us to understand but a Shem is infinite a sham is a completely different dimension and to make finite things would be seemingly difficult it is hard to make finite things for someone who is so infinite lahav Dylan perhaps an analogy a muscle would be for somebody to fit a pool of water into a straw that's almost impossible again it would take a lot of time and a lot of effort and again but the same thing is for Hashem to bring so much down to so little that requires certain steps a certain process of reducing the infinite into finite and that brings down the goodness the sheva the bracha the blessing from Hashem to us so the conduits that exist in the world are many there is the Sun there is the moon there is the stars the constellations the galaxies these are not necessarily things that and of course the angels these are not necessarily things that we could pinpoint how they work but that is something that d VAR m do speak about but let's not focus on the details let's focus on the general concept the general concept is that a college bro Hashem brings down to the world through certain pipes what are called seen are at seen arc is the word pipe through those seen the road through those pipes he brings down the blessing to this world so in a certain sense when me and you are benefiting are having pleasure from the blessing that we're getting from on high in a sense we're getting it out of the faucet that Hashem arranged that he would bring down the blessing so in a certain sense when we turn on the faucet let's say we pray that would be one way of turning on the faucet in a sense the blessing comes through this faucet through these pipes to us so there would be reason possibly you might think or assume that these faucets are giving us the blessing that we'd so desire and that we pray for because in actuality it is coming through them they are a conduit to bring it down this is where we have to be very careful because a person needs to realize and part of the fundamentals of our faith is that we do not look at the conduit as an as an entity in itself we don't think the conduit we don't pray to the conduit we think and pray to Hashem who is bringing out to bringing it to us through the conduit the conduit is merely a machine a messenger a pipe it has no will on its own it has no desire on its own it doesn't even listen to our prayers it doesn't even hear what we ask for or know of our desires it doesn't have choice it doesn't choose to give it to us it is merely a conduit to bring the blessing to us so therefore it is only be fitting to pray and to turn to wash em who is the source to ask for what we need and not to the conduits or the messenger that hashem brings it about through perhaps a muscle for this would be sometimes you know you never when you want to google something or you ask rebbetzin surrey Rebbetzin surrey please tell me what is the den of definition of conduit and she says look it up on on heeda brute for rabbi fox so when you get that information you don't say thank you to surrey even though you got something from surrey but you don't say thank you because you know it's not coming from sri in a sense it's coming from google and you don't say thank you for to google either because that's just a machine the machine shells it out to you but it doesn't do so out of will out of desire out of choice it does so because that's what it's programmed to do what we do is we turn to the source imagine going to a sink and praying and saying oh holy sink a wondrous faucet may you be blessed please send water to me so I can wash my hands that would be foolish because it is not the sink that sends you the water the sink is merely a pipe the sink is merely at seen our it is a conduit to bring it to you but the source of the water now there's where you want to pray that's where you want to ask for what you need so we in our prayers and our needs and our desires we turn to the source to the mccar the mccar of everything the source of everything is a Shen and although he sometimes brings us he makes finite blessing through certain messengers and conduits for example like we spoke the the moon and the stars and the coca vanman the Mzoli's the constellations but in essence they are just messengers to bring it to us but we don't turn to them we turn to ash em this says the rambam was one of the big mistakes of those who began the aveda zara the idol worshipping they assumed or they began to assume that just like Hashem is the almighty all-powerful and yet he has appointed certain aristocratic senators or messengers to bring goodness to us so therefore we have to be thankful to them and we have to appreciate them because they are his messengers yes we have to appreciate them they are his messengers but they're his messengers without choice there is messenger is not doing anything on their own they're merely a pipeline to bring things to us from Hashem so one way we say in this in this one of the your game la creme I believe that a Shem is the source for everything and it is befitting it is worthy and appropriate to turn to Him alone that means that only ashim is the source you want to know where the blessing has come from the on poor of goodness and the kindness that there is in the world is coming from Hashem he is the only one befitting or worthy of turning to when you want to pray because that's where it's all coming from everything else is just a pipe everything else is just a conduit don't go to the conduit turn to the source go back to where everything is coming from the Shire ish the mccar the beginning of everything and that is a Shem so the ultimate equation that we need to make is everything should lead us back to one everything should lead us back to the original source and that is Hashem to him alone it is befitting is worthy to pray and it's not worthy to pray to anybody else because nothing will come of it they will not be a source of blessing perhaps they can be a conduit of blessing but they're not the source only a sham is the source you