bring in all these type of topics. Maybe it's not the same when you direct focus on a certain topic. Anyway, to choose a topic for vu geystu? Gotta go. Punk man. So, so I was just thinking of a certain topic, all kinds of topics that are important, that are נוגע, which are interesting to know. This is going to be a topic בנוגע תפילה. We know there are different nuschaot. There's nusach Ashkenaz, nusach Sefard, nusach haAri, nusach of the Sefardim, which is not the same as what we call nusach Sefard. When we call nusach Sefard, do you mean the ones that the chasidishe people like the the אונגארישע חסידים and the פוילישע חסידים that they davenen, that's not Sefard. That's not from the Sefardim. Then you have nusach of הדסה, עדות הספרדים, that's a different nusach. And then you have regular, they have all kind, then you have נוסח האר\"י, which is our nusach. So the sheilah is where did this all come from? This is really what I'm going to get to, I'm going to give other הקדמות, but we're going to get this is the main sheilah that that is really interesting: where did this come from? We all know that davenen was the the say the נוסח התפילה or the inyan was established by the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah. The Anshei Knesset Hagedolah who lived in the time of the beginning after right after the חורבן בית ראשון, all through the 70 years of בבל and into Shimon Hatzadik was a Kohen Gadol in the בית שני, and he was from the שיירי אנשי כנסת הגדולה, he was in the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah. They made the nusach. If they made the nusach, so how come we have different nuschaot? One has this lashon, and one has this lashon. If they set it up, just like the Gemara, the Gemara was written by the chachamim of those generations. We have a few different גירסאות here, there, but but בכלל the Gemara we have ever all all Yidden have the same. The Ashkenazim, Sefardim, chasidim, mitnagdim, they all have the same Gemara. How come if this this is different nuschaot that we have, where where did it come from? And it's very hard to understand how did that happen בשעת all the Yidden were davenen, they when the chachamim established you got to davenen Shemoneh Esrei and they told them what to say, all the Yidden, hundreds and thousands, millions of people started davenen that. And that's how it continued. When all of a sudden happened that all of a sudden we have this nusach, we have that nusach. So we're going to get to that eventually. But first to get into the whole inyan of davenen. And this is pashut from the perspective of stam listening thinking about the topic, the subject of davenen. This is not farbrengen to be me'orer everybody, you should דאווענען בכוונה and you should think פירוש המילות and you shouldn't rush and you should say every word, and you should not only say the davenen, we should say the korbanot also because it's part of דאווענען מיט אלע ענינים that we have to say. This is not it's just to discuss the subject of davenen.

We know in davenen there are two inyanim. There is number one is the עצם מצוה of tefillah. Tefillah is a mitzvah. The Rambam says it's a mitzvat aseh of דאורייתא to davenen. When to davenen, how to davenen is not part of the mitzvah. The Torah doesn't say what words to use. It doesn't say when to davenen. So what is the mitzvah of דאווענען מדאורייתא? Mitzvah of דאווענען מדאורייתא is that you have to davenen once a day or anytime that something comes up. Anytime you need something, you have to davenen to the Oibershter. Besides that it seems from the Rambam that there's a mitzvah to davenen every day. Once a day, if you say three words, you're yotzei the mitzvah d'oraisa. If you say, \"Oibershter, help me,\" you're mekayem the מצות תפילה. This that we davenen three times a day, Shacharis, Mincha, Maariv, and there is a certain nusach that we're mechuyav to say, we have to say Shemoneh Esrei, these 18 berachos or later became 19 berachos, that is a מצות, מצוה דרבנן. The רבנן made that. They made the time when you have to davenen and what to say. In the mitzvah of davenen itself, there are two things: there is בקשת צרכיו, that it's a mitzvah to ask the Oibershter for your needs, and then there is what davenen is called עבודה שבלב. It's the avodah of the heart, that you have to have a certain feeling when you davenen. Let's start with the first part. Davenen is avodah is is a בקשת צרכיו. If you have a need, you have to ask the Oibershter. Why do you have to ask the Oibershter? Because you want the Oibershter to give it to you. Well, the Oibershter doesn't know? The Oibershter knows without you asking for him. It's not like a human being, you need his favor, so you come over to him because otherwise he doesn't know you need it. But the Oibershter knows you need it, so why do you have to ask him? The answer is it's not because the Oibershter doesn't know. When you davenen and you ask the Oibershter for your needs, what the pshat is that you acknowledge and you express the fact that you understand that the Oibershter is the only one that could help you. In other words, davenen is an expression of of a person's emunah. If you ask the Eibershter to help you, that means I believe that you could help me. I believe that you're the one that's going to help me. So the Eibershter wants us, in order to help us, he wants us to deserve it. So he said, if you express your true emunah that I am the one that's going to help you, if you express that, then you deserve to be helped. But then why do you have to say it? Lichorah, then if you have to think it in your mind, the Eibershter could know your machshavos as much as the Eibershter knows what you speak. Because when you express something בדיבור, it's more really you. What what's the maalah of a human being bichlal over an animal, over other things? Sechel. Nevertheless, what is the person called? There's דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר. We don't call him the maskil, the medaber. Why? Because dibbur is what shows the greatness of the person, and he could only speak because you have sechel. Why can't a animal speak? Because he has no sechel. So when you say dibbur, it means both, it means the sechel and the dibbur. But the bottom line is, what I'm trying to say is dibbur is what the person is. So the Eibershter wants that you should not only believe that I'm the one that could help you, not only that you express it, but you express it with the most important part of you, which is the dibbur. Okay, this is just hakdamah. So therefore, when the Eibershter wants you to speak and if you speak, that's what dibbur is. But the second part of tefillah is not just asking the Eibershter for your needs, but the second part of tefillah is עבודה שבלב, it's the feeling of the heart. We know that tefillah, it says in the Zohar, is like a ladder that goes up, like our Yaakov Avinu had the dream of the ladder. You start down and you throughout davening you're going up and up and you're going closer to Hashem. It's a time when you express your feeling to Hashem, not only asking him for your needs. It's a time when you communicate with Hashem and it's a time when you, like it says by Chana, \"ואשפוך את נפשי\". Okay, this is a feeling that you have of getting closer to Hashem.

Now, when did the נוסח התפילה start? We said that the Rabbanan made the נוסח התפילה. And I said it was the Anshei Knesses Hagedolah. It came after, by the time of the churban, right after the חורבן בית המקדש of the Bayis Rishon. Till then, there was no set time and there was no set words. Why? Because if tefillah is בקשת צרכיו to ask the Eibershter, and tefillah is an expression of feeling towards the Eibershter, every person was able to do it according to the way he wants. Every person, the way he was able to express himself, and people were able to express themselves. People were able to express the proper words which would express their בקשת צרכיו, express their connection to the Eibershter, and people were able to do it. We know that by the חורבן בית המקדש it was ירידת הדורות, the generations got lower. All the גזירות דרבנן happened when? When did all these דינים דרבנן, which is סייגים, fences, you can't do this because you might come to this, the רבנן made all these דינים, all happened towards the end of the בית ראשון and after the חורבן and beginning of the בית שני. Why happened then? Because by the חורבן בית המקדש at that תקופה, the Yidden became much lower מדרגה. And therefore, certain things that were not afraid before might happen, people are not so great, so we're afraid that people might be negligent, people might forget, all kinds of things. So the רבנן made גזירות. The same thing with davening. Since there was this חורבן בית המקדש and the Yidden were in a lower מדרגה, the Yidden were not able to express themselves properly to the Eibershter. Express their feeling and express their needs and express properly the way you're supposed to talk to the Eibershter. The Yidden were not able to do it, because people didn't know. If you look in the Rambam, the Rambam says when they made the tefillah because they didn't know the language, that's what he says. The Yidden didn't know the proper language. It doesn't mean only the language, it means pashut the way to express yourself. So the חכמים decided that we are going to set a rule exactly how to do it, and we're going to set up tefillos, and the way we're going to set it up, it's going to include all the possible needs that a human being might have, a Yid might have. And we will be metaken that you should say this לשון this way, and by doing that you will have expressed the proper way, סיי בנוגע how to speak to the Eibershter, סיי what to say, and everything to be expressed in it. Because you have to know how to talk to the Eibershter. There's a פסוק that says: \"אלוקים בשמים ואתה על הארץ על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים\". The Eibershter is in heaven, you're down here, so don't talk too much. Imagine you'd go into a king and you ask him something, you have to prepare yourself exactly which words to use, because otherwise you could fleder, you could hak a chaynik. And it's gonna throw you out, and who knows what it's gonna be. You gotta be careful when you talk to to a chashuv person, to a king, to the Eibershter. So they made, and exactly what they made I'm gonna explain soon, that's how we get the different נוסחאות, they made up different ברכות, תפילות, that when you say that, that includes everything. They say a מעשה, someone came to the Rabbi Rashab once and he said there's a certain thing that he needs. So the Rabbi Rashab said to him, that's what I heard, \"daven!\" So he says, \"I don't know how to express it.\" So he says, \"Daven the davenen that you're supposed to, and there you'll have what the things that you need.\" So he said, \"But I don't see where it says, in which which of the brachot is it?\" So he says the חז\"ל, when they made the tefillot, they put it in such a way that every possible thing should be there. You might not see it, but everything is there. That's how they put it. And that's all because the people couldn't express themselves. Then there's another nekudah, when there was the חורבן בית המקדש, there's one thing that stopped. What is that? Korbanot. No more korbanot. By korbanot, the main thing of the korban was not the animal. I mean, physically that was the main thing, but the korbanot were that when you brought a korban, the people who brought the korban were supposed to think in their mind that whatever is done to the בהמה should have really been done to them, which really means it's a feeling of teshuvah, a feeling of giving yourself over to the Eibershter. So when you brought the actual physical korban, it came along with all these things that you have to feel. Now that the בית המקדש is destroyed, so you don't have the korbanot. So again, this is another reason the chachamim looked to say, let's find something to do that will be the place of the korbanot. That means whatever you're supposed to accomplish through korbanot, the feeling you're supposed to have, which we cannot have now because we don't have the physical korban, so let's do So they made the tefillot. So it's these two things together: it's ירידת הדורות and the lack of korbanot that happened by the חורבן בית המקדש that made the chachamim decide that we have to make tefillah is a מצוה דאורייתא, but to make a certain time that you daven, similar to korbanot three times a day, and should be in a certain expression, a certain nusach, so you will be saying the right things and using the right words, and if you think about it, everything that you need and everything that you have to feel is in those words of the tefillah. So the chachamim came, the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah came and they were mesaken 18 brachot, 18 18 tefillot, 18 parts of Shemoneh Esrei, that's why it's called Shemoneh Esrei. A little later, by the time of Rabban Gamliel, they saw that there was one thing that was not included in these 18 brachot, and that's the צרות that we have from the apikorsim, from the צדוקים, from all this, and that was somehow not included. So that's why Rabban Gamliel got up and was metaken a 19th bracha, the bracha of ולמלשינים וכו', so now really it's not 18 brachot, it's 19 brachot. Now these 19 brachot contain everything that a person needs when the Chachamim were metaken it. Now, when the Chachamim were metaken these brachot, this is going the nekudah of the inyan of trying to answer the she'eilah, where did the nuschaot come from? The Chachamim did not make up the words of Shemoneh Esreh. It's gonna sound shocking, we all know that Chachamim made it up. The Chachamim did not decide exactly which words we have to use. If the Chachamim would decide which words you have to use, and they said this is the way you have to use, it's like every mitzvah derabbanan, everyone does it the same. All the difference is in different minhagim, something else, but the mitzvah derabbanan, every Yid, all the Yidden from all different סוגים, חוגים, are all the same. There wouldn't be a difference in how you daven, what the Shemoneh Esreh would be, because the Chachamim said which words to use. The Chachamim did not say which words to use. What the Chachamim did was that they decided on certain rules what brachot we want you to say and which תוכן הענין should be put into these brachot, and each person davent his own way. So it was not a lot different a lot different, but not so much different than before. Before, everyone said whatever he wanted. So now the Chachamim did the same thing. They said, we need to have 19 brachot, or originally 18 brachot. We have to have one bracha, let's say, one bracha should talk about asking the Eibershter to cure you. There has to be a bracha like that. That bracha has to contain certain תוכן of ענינים of what the Chachamim said. Then there are kelalim in halacha that they made, klalim of how the bracha has to be made up. And they said then now you should daven according to these rules and daven these 18 brachot and later daven these 19 brachot. They didn't make up exactly the physical words. What happened? So one person davent like this, said the same תוכן. This guy davent like this with the same תוכן based on the same rule, but he used different words, and he used different words. And everyone used their own words in the same concept of the brachot.

Now, but this is something that I'm just imagining, if there was a great person, a גרויסער רב, and he had a big community, and they heard him davenen in a certain he used a certain type of words, I would imagine that all the people who were his talmidim or as we would call nowadays his chasidim, probably said the words of this 19 brachot the same way that he did. Because if that's their Rebbe, their let's say their rav, and he's doing it, so they did it. So what happened? So here you got a thousand people saying these 19 brachot based on what the chachamim said in a certain expression, certain way. A different rav in a different place, he said that he did the same thing: he took the same klalim, and the same rule, the same halachot, and the same תוכן that the chachamim said, but he expressed it in different words. So you had his people davenen those different words. So automatically what turned out now, after this, let's say, 25 years later, you have two נוסחאות! It's the same thing, that's all based on the same, it's two נוסחאות. He has it's the same Shemoneh Esreh, the same תוכן, but the wording he has different wording, and he has different wording. And could be they had 150 נוסחאות, who knows? Later, what happened to that? Later these נוסחאות broke up and like merged, and it turned into a few נוסחאות. But it's all based on the klalim or the the the תוכן that the chachamim put into it. This will explain just to show you where we see this. We learn in Shulchan Aruch, you just learned הלכות ראש השנה. There, in הלכות ראש השנה, it speaks about Shemoneh Esreh of Musaf. Says you have to have מלכיות, זכרונות, and שופרות. And you have to say, in each one of them you have to say how many? How many pesukim do you have to say in each? 10. Three Torah, three נביאים, three כתובים, that's where you got three: three Torah, three נביאים, three כתובים, and then one more, the tenth, back to Torah. So you have to 10 pesukim. Malchuyot, zichronot, and shofarot. Then it says a strange din in Shulchan Aruch, that you should know, this and this pasuk you cannot use, 'cause that's talking about zichronot, let's say, the of the goyim, let's say. This type of pasuk you cannot use. I never when I was a kid I learned it, I never understood it. What do you mean you can't use, as if it's up to me to use or not to? I have a siddur, a machzor, and I daven what it says in the machzor! Why do they have to tell me don't use that pasuk? What do you mean, I'm going to use that pasuk? I'm going to decide which pasuk, what to use? Like you say I'm going to decide how to davenen Shemoneh Esrei? Shemoneh Esrei is in the machzor, the siddur, and I'm davenen whatever it says there! What does it mean, why did they why is there a din, which is Shulchan Aruch takes coming from the Gemara, why is there a din in Gemara, don't use this type of pasuk, use this type of pasuk, if there is a set way to do it, that's what they said? The answer is very pashut. The חכמים did not tell you the the לשון of the bracha. They just said you have to use 10 pesukim: three Torah, three נביאים, three כתובים, and then one Torah. Gave you כללים, and these are כללים they said. And every person when he daven used his own pesukim, because there was no set נוסח then. They used everyone used whatever he felt in that area, in in in לגבי this מלכיות, זכרונות, and שופרות. The same is with the whole davenen, that everything the the people used their own נוסחאות. It says in in Gemara a a a klal, which I also never understood. It says, if a חזן דאווענט, and תפלתו שגורה בפיו, and the tefillah goes smooth, then you know that the Eibershter will accept this tefillah. If, says, it doesn't go so smooth, then it's not so good. What do you mean it doesn't go so smooth? Why, he couldn't read the עברי? What happened? What do you mean goes smooth, it doesn't go smooth? You have a Siddur, and and you say it. Or if in those days they didn't have it printed, they didn't have it written, so, but people knew the nusach. There's a set nusach. What do you mean, he forgot all of a sudden, he davent for 20 years and he forgot what to say? What does it mean it doesn't go smooth? It doesn't even say he forgot that you stopped, that's a different din if you stopped, someone takes over. It's not שגור על פיו, it was possible for people to davenen, and every day they said a different davenen. They said the same Shemoneh Esrei, but the way they expressed those same תוכן, the same ענין, with the same idea, with the same הלכות that we had to say, but now he said this expression, now he said this expression. So you have to, בשעת מעשה, decide what to do. And sometimes, you know, things don't go smooth. You you know what to say, but bist stuck, you start thinking which pasuk or what to say. But if you don't say that, if you say there's a set nusach, then this whole thing of not going smooth could be maybe when you just become Bar Mitzvah, you start davenen, you didn't know yet, so you're not used to it yet. But regular, how is that such a thing, this is a סימן מן השמים? The peshat is because the people did each one did their own way. This is בנוגע שמונה עשרה. Shemoneh Esrei was what Anshei Knesset Hagedolah decided. But then besides Shemoneh Esrei, there are other things which the chachamim established in davenen, but the real tefillah is the Amidah is Shemoneh Esrei. There are other things that the chachamim established in davenen, which is the ברכות קריאת שמע, and then you have Pesukei D'zimra, and all the other things which you're not going into. But the bottom line, it turned out that after all the generations of adding to it, and adding, adding this, adding that, that's what turned into the davenen that we have, Shacharit, or Mincha, or Maariv. And this all takes care of what used to be in the time of the Beis Hamikdash without people having to do it, without having the חכמים have to make a nusach, and without with having korbanot. So, like it says in some places that the siddur really, the davenen is a mobile Beis Hamikdash, that's what it is. It's in place of the korbanot, and it expresses what they expressed in the time of the Beis Hamikdash without having a special תקנה, special how to do. Because the נקודות are the same. Exactly. What he's saying is the opposite. Why are they so close? Because the bottom line is that you have to say this, you have to say this, you have to say this, and they all put it in the same thing. The different few words that changed, that's where it changed, but in the major parts of it, they were all the same. And it's possible also that people got together, and when they heard one another, so they picked up, you know, oh, the way he expressed himself, that one is very good, so they started expressing good, and it developed, this whole change of nuschaot developed into the few nuschaot that we have. הגם it says there are 60 nuschaot, major ones there are a few. But in the each one itself, in נוסח ספרד סידור, you could find different siddurim with certain things different. And certain in in in the Sefardim itself, from their real ספרדישע סידורים, you have from עדת from Italy, you have from from Morocco, you have from this, and they have different nuschaot, so there are a lot of different things, but they're not such major differences. But anyway anyway, getting back, so we have the different things here out.

Now, let's get to some of the כללים that the חכמים made when it comes to daven, just to the tefillot. So, there are certain things that they inserted that you have to speak about, but then there are other things כללים that they gave when it comes to a bracha. For instance, you have to have סמוך לחתימה מעין החתימה. Right before you finish off the bracha, you have to mention something that's in the same meaning of what the bracha is going to be. It has to be סמוך לחתימה מעין הפתיחה. At the end has to be similar to what was in the beginning. That's just some of the כללים. Then there are other things. When you daven and you say brachot, and there are different nuschaot, you have to keep in mind that the words that you use have to be אויסגעהאלטן על פי דקדוק. You're speaking to the Eibershter. There is a way to speak, there is the grammar, and which we don't learn much of it. And when did this start that we stopped learning dikduk? Emol they used to learn dikduk. But since the משכילים started the Reform movement, their main thing was that, what did they learn? They learned Tanach, and they learned dikduk. So, the frume people stopped learning Tanach and stopped learning dikduk. And since then, it's like that. Even though it's the right thing to do. The Frierdiker Rebbe writes in a letter we should learn dikduk. Somebody came over to the Rebbe by dollars once, and asking the Rebbe, how come in Lubavitch they don't learn dikduk? So, the Rebbe answered him, \"dikduk!\" According to dikduk, you have to stress the end, not dikduk, but dikduk. So, when he said to the Rebbe, why don't you learn dikduk? So, the Rebbe wanted to show him that you yourself don't know what you're talking about. So, he said, why don't you learn dikduk? So, the Rebbe said, \"dikduk!\" You have to say dikduk. But we don't learn dikduk, but the דאווענען that you do has to be אויסגעהאלטן על פי דקדוק. Then there's a third thing that the siddur has to be אויסגעהאלטן. And that's something that mainly was adapted years later, has to be אויסגעהאלטן על פי קבלה. There are so many things על פי קבלה that the words have to fit, even to Kabbalah, those that care about started from the Arizal. The problem is to have a nusach that is על פי הלכה and it fits על פי קבלה and it fits על פי דקדוק is very hard. Because if you're going to fit it in על פי דקדוק, but then it won't fit על פי קבלה, קבלה there are so many shemot and so many גימטריאות and so many things, and if you're gonna have it the dikduk way, it won't fit the Kabbalah. If you're gonna have it some the halachah way, it won't fit the dikduk. If you're going to have the the dikduk way, not always will it fit the halachah, and our dikduk, so you got a problem. There were different as people who stressed mostly different parts. Some people stressed mainly the Kabbalah part. That's where you have the the siddurim which are על פי קבלה. Siddur HaArizal. I don't mean the Alter Rebbe's siddur, our our nusach. Our nusach is not called נוסח האריז״ל. It's called נוסח האריז״ל, but that's not. If you look at the cover of the siddur, what does it say? סידור תהלת ה׳ על פי נוסח האריז״ל. What do you mean על פי נוסח האריז״ל? It's not נוסח האריז״ל, it's על פי. Because basically, the Arizal did not write a נוסח התפלה. The Arizal did not write a siddur. The Arizal gave over כוונות על פי קבלה in the davenen. Based on those כוונות, you could establish a nusach that should fit to those כוונות. So you have basically mainly two siddurim which are called Siddur HaArizal. One was made by Reb Shabbatai Rashkover, and one was made by Reb Yaakov Kapil. And they're full of כוונות there and things, and there is a נוסח התפלה. And as much as we call that Siddur HaArizal, both of them, the Arizal did not write that nusach. The Arizal wrote no nusach. Exactly which nusach did the Arizal דאווען? Well, he davened mostly like the Sephardim, which is that's why it started נוסח ספרד, even though Ashkenazim, the חסידישע דאווען נוסח ספרד even though they're Ashkenazim, not Sephardim. But they because by the Arizal started, למשל, the main thing, a person will ask you, show me a difference between ספרד and Ashkenaz. Hodu and Baruch She'amar, that's the first thing, what comes first? So there, according to the כוונות of HaArizal, הודו is before Baruch She'amar. So when they made a Siddur HaArizal, he made first Hodu then Baruch She'amar. Not that the Arizal made that nusach. So Reb Shabbatai Roshkover learned the kavanot of HaArizal, and he made his nusach. Reb Yaakov Kapl also did the same thing, he studied the kavanot, and he was years later, after this, at the time of the Baal Shem Tov, learned the kavanot of HaArizal and this, and came up with according to that all the different things, there is a nusach he came.

The Alter Rebbe came and did the exact same thing. He learned just as well as them the kavanot of HaArizal, and based on the kavanot of HaArizal, he made a siddur. But what the Alter Rebbe did, they based it mainly according to the kabbalah of the Arizal, ממילא it's more mechuvan to kabbalah. And because of that it doesn't fit some things to to halacha, al kol panim, you must find teirutzim, but not so simple. And sometimes doesn't fit to dikduk, because if you want to make it kabbalistic, it doesn't fit to dikduk. The Alter Rebbe's kuntz, the Alter Rebbe's trick was he made a nusach based on the Kabbalat HaArizal, fit exactly it should אויסגעהאלטן על פי דקדוק and אויסגעהאלטן על פי הלכה. And as the Tzemach Tzedek writes that the Alter Rebbe, when he made his siddur, he used 60 different nuschaot, because he didn't make up anything of his own. But he picked from each nusach what fits according to the way he understood in nigleh, in halacha, kabbalah, and dikduk, and he picked out the best. The lashon says he picked סולת נקיה. Like when you have flour and you want to sift it to get the best, most fine, refined flour, he got the most refined nusach. And the ma'alah is that it fits to דקדוק, fits to Kabbalah, and fits to halachah. And if it fits to Kabbalah, it's על פי נוסח האריז״ל. The Alter Rebbe did not put in the כוונות. He did not put like the other siddurim, they have all kinds of כוונות with shemot, the Alter Rebbe didn't put it in. Like the Shaar Hakolel writes, the Alter Rebbe wrote a סידור השוה לכל נפש. Something that is everybody, you don't have to have כוונות. But all the כוונות are in it, and it's all made according to the כוונות. A few places where the Alter Rebbe put in כוונות, who can tell me some examples? Where? By תקיעת שופר, a little bit, yeah, תקיעת שופר. By הלל הגדול, by כי לעולם חסדו, he says יו״ד ק״י וא״ו ק״י. Where else? אנא בכח, he has the shemot there. In the seder, when you pour the makot, says that you have to be מכוין קליפות, מלכות, whatever. So he put in כוונות by קלאפן הושענות, there are not, but some places, very few, mostly didn't put in, but it's all in there. And this is the ma'alah of the nusach of the Alter Rebbe that we daven, which we call Nusach HaAri. בכלל it says from the Ari that there are, בכללות, developed, he doesn't say developed, I'm using the word because it should fit to what I said before, but it's 12 the 12 נוסחאות mainly, and then there's a 13th. The 12 נוסחאות are based because of 12 shevatim, and each shevet has his own שער. In the בית המקדש there were 12 she'arim, 12 gates. And each shevet, person belonged to each shevet, would go through his gate. So the davenen also was based according to connection to his shevet. But what happens if a person didn't know who's shevet he belongs to? Or what happens a ger, who doesn't have a shevet? So there was a שער הכולל. There was one gate that was good for everybody. So in the nuschaot, the שער הכולל, the Rebbe's great-grandfather writes, that the nusach of the Alter Rebbe, Nusach HaAri, which we call Nusach HaAri, is like a שער הכולל, that this is made for everybody, anybody could go through that gate, could go to the Aibershter through there. But what I want to do is just take a few of the berachot and show you, and when you talk to a misnaged, and one of the complaints they have is, \"So, the Alter Rebbe made his own nusach? How did he, so to speak, dare to do it? He decided on his own.\" So, first of all, the answer is very pashut. You ask him, \"How in the world did the Gra have the chutzpah to make a nusach?\" There's a Siddur HaGra. With completely as different as our nusach is from the וועלטישע נוסח, the Gra's nusach is even worse, much different. The difference is the Gra didn't have the mazal, no one's davening that nusach. He wrote it and it's there and there's a Siddur HaGra, but very few people in the world say daven Nusach HaGra. There are still some. And the Alter Rebbe had hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people davening the nusach that he wrote. But if you're going to טענה, היתכן he could do it, if the Gra could do it, why couldn't the Alter Rebbe do it? Ai it's other things seem, \"Oh, it's weird, you don't do this, you don't don't say ושמרו.\" In the Siddur HaGra also says not to say ושמרו. Once I was davening somewhere, I didn't say ושמרו, someone walks over to me, a misnagdish guy, \"Why don't you say ושמרו?\" I said, \"Because I follow the מנהג Gra, so that's why I don't say ושמרו, that's why I follow מנהג Gra, so...\" Actually in Yerushalayim, a lot of people follow the מנהג Gra, they don't say ושמרו. So they say. Anyway, so and this is a reason, what's the reason we don't say ושמרו? Because of halacha! Because of a hefsek! And those that do say have we could say על מה שיסמוכו, they also have shittot, but the Alter Rebbe paskened like these shittot that you're not allowed to, you make a hefsek.

But I want to go through some of the berachot in some in the Shemoneh Esrei, which just shows very clear. Take, l'mashal, there's the the famous one that you always mention, את צמח דוד עבדך מהרה תצמיח. Okay, let's taytsh the words. You're saying to the Eibershter that צמח, the growth of David, you should make, וקרנו תרום בישועתך כי לישועתך קוינו כל היום, because we're hoping for your yeshuah, ברוך אתה ה' מצמיח קרן ישועה. In Nusach Sefard, actually in Ashkenaz not, but in Nusach Sefard, it says like this, כי לישועתך קוינו כל היום ומצפים לישועה. And we hope for a yeshuah. ברוך אתה ה' מצמיח קרן ישועה. Now here, if we say כי לישועתך קוינו כל היום, what's the pshat ומצפים לישועה? So the vort I'll tell you. The Alter Rebbe looked through everything and he saw everything and he saw the truth. In the old siddurim, years years ago, after כי לישועתך קוינו כל היום, says we hope for you all day, they had, in little words, a kavanah, what you have to be mechaven. ומצפים לישועה, here you have to hope for a yeshuah. The next generation of printers put in and printed those words in big letters! So now you דאווען, כי לישועתך קוינו כל ומצפים לישועה. That's not what to say! That was written as a kavanah. I saw myself a siddur, I don't know which one, where it says, כי לישועתך קוינו כל היום, then it says in small in parentheses, כאן צריכים לצפות לישועה. Here you have to hope for a yeshuah. So the Alter Rebbe who did everything did the did the research so much, I'm talking בגשמיות, חוץ רוח הקודש, and he saw that this doesn't belong here. So the Alter Rebbe said, \"Don't say it.\" Take the ברכה ובנה ירושלים, here, ולירושלים עירך. ולירושלים עירך ברחמים תשוב, you should return to ירושלים, ותשכון בתוכה כאשר דברת, we asking the Eibershter to rest there, וכסא דוד עבדך מהרה בתוכה תכין, and that the chair of דוד you should establish there, ובנה אותה בקרוב בימינו בנין עולם, and build it up in our soon, as a as a בנין עולם, ברוך אתה ה' בונה ירושלים. The Alter Rebbe switched. If you look at other siddurim, it's the opposite. First you say ובנה אותה בקרוב בימינו בנין עולם, and then you say וכסא דוד עבדך, ברוך אתה ה' בונה ירושלים. Why did the Alter Rebbe change it? Very simple. Because על פי הלכה, you have to have סמוך לחתימה, before the end, you have to have the words which are similar to the end. Which words are similar to בונה ירושלים? ובנה אותה בקרוב בימינו בנין עולם or וכסא דוד עבדך מהרה בתוכה תכין? ובנה אותה בקרוב בימינו. ברוך אתה ה' בונה ירושלים. It's a binyan. Again, so the Alter Rebbe switched it around, so it should be סמוך לחתימה מעין החתימה. This is, then I'll show you something על פי קבלה. ברך עלינו. תן ברכה על פני האדמה, ושבענו מטובך, וברך שנותינו. Now, in other nuschaot it says, על פני האדמה ושבענו מטובה, that give the brachah to the אדמה, ושבענו, make us satisfied, מטובה, from its good. Goes on, on the, its field. What does the Alter Rebbe say? ושבענו מטובך, from Your good. We're talking about the Eibershter's good. Now, they claim that פני האדמה ושבענו מטובה, if you look at the סופי תיבות, the last letters of these four words makes up what? פני is י', האדמה is ה', v'sav'einu is ו', and מטובה, ה'. What is it? יו״ד ק״י וא״ו ק״י. The way we have it, it's י', then a ה', ו', and a ך'. In Kabbalah it says that the shem that's connected to parnasah, which is barech aleinu, is the שם יו״ד ק״י וא״ו כ״ף. That's, it's a special שם, יו״ד ק״י וא״ו כ״ף. And according to this, על פי קבלה it fits. And there must be other reasons, also. Just to give you another small example before we finish, this is in the berachot that we say after, by haftarah. And this everyone knows, because you get maftir for your bar mitzvah, so everyone said it. So here it says like this, here: רחם על ציון כי היא בית חיינו, or בית חיינו, you should have rachmanut on Tzion because that's our place of our life. ולעלובת נפש תושיע ותשמח מהרה בימינו. And עלובת means people who are embarrassed, the low people, help them and make them happy במהרה בימינו. If you look in other nuschaot, I think everybody besides the Alter Rebbe doesn't have the word תשמח: ולעלובת נפש תושיע מהרה בימינו. ברוך אתה ה' משמח ציון בבניה. Why did the Alter Rebbe put in תשמח? Because if you finish off משמח ציון, you got to have מעין החתימה, you got to have the word simchah. So he put in תושיע ותשמח. So this is על פי הלכה. Here you have על פי הלכה. Just one more point. When it comes to kedushah in Shabbos, when we say, here: ממקומך מלכנו תופיע ותמלוך עלינו כי מחכים אנחנו לך, מתי תמלוך בציון, we're asking when will you be a king in ציון, בקרוב בימינו לעולם ועד תשכון, תתגדל ותתקדש בתוך ירושלים עירך. If you look in all other siddurim, where is the dot? Where do you stop? So it says like this: מחכים אנחנו לך, מתי תמלוך בציון, בקרוב בימינו לעולם ועד, תשכון. Stop. תתגדל ותתקדש בתוך ירושלים עירך. Now, we don't find anywhere in Torah that לעולם ועד should not be an end. Always לעולם ועד, ימלוך ה' לעולם ועד. לעולם ועד is always the end of something. It's not לעולם ועד תשכון, we don't have that. Besides that, if you look in the Rambam, there לעולם ועד was a stop. And this is what happened: in Rambam it says that after לעולם ועד, you should say Amen. People, originally, years before, when they used to say this Kedushah, when the Chazan said the words לעולם ועד, the Olam would answer Amen. Then he would continue, תשכון תתגדל. For some reason, the Chachamim decided that not to say Amen in the middle of Kedushah. So what did they do? To avoid the people from saying Amen, they made them say fast. Don't give a chance for people to say Amen. So say, you say, בקרוב בימינו לעולם ועד תשכון תתגדל, to make sure that there's no space in between. So what happened? So it turned out that people thought that לעולם ועד תשכון, because they used to go fast to תשכון and then they slow down. But the Alter Rebbe did everything correct, so he looked and he said, this is wrong. So this is the way you have to do it: you have to have לעולם ועד, and then you have to stop, because that's a stop. And we Takeh see, תשכון, תתגדל ותתקדש goes together. The ו' is only by ותתקדש, because that's when you say three things: this, and this, and this, you don't say and the second time. So תשכון, תתגדל ותתקדש. Anyway, this is just examples of things according to the Alter Rebbe's nusach. So the bottom line is what you have to know from here is: we have the best nusach in the world. We have the right nusach of the world, the right one. Everything is, because they all have דגלי ישראל, fine, but everyone is right, and we're doubly right. Not that everyone, chas v'shalom, is not right, we're right. Just like Lubavitch is in everything, everything, the best of everything is Lubavitch. The Rebbes themselves daven Nusach HaAri, the Alter Rebbe's nusach. In Ger, the Gerrer Rebbe's all daven Nusach HaAri. Why? Because they realized that this is the real nusach. Why didn't they tell everyone to stop, to change? I don't know, maybe become Lubavitcher chasidim, I don't know what what the problem is. But this is the bottom line.

Anyway, okay, just for two minutes because we have two minutes just to end with a vort on the parsha because shouldn't change that, is Avraham said to Sarah this parsha that, \"Tell them that you're my sister because otherwise they'll kill me,\" that's one thing, but then he said, what's the לשון הפסוק? Because of that they will be good to me, and Rashi says what does that mean? They'll give me a lot of מתנות. So the Rebbe asks the famous שאלה, the obvious שאלה, here let's see the words, kushya here, here, let's hear this, \"אמרי נא אחתי את למען ייטב לי בעבורך.\" So they'll be good to me, and Rashi says, \"יתנו לי מתנות.\" Listen here what Avraham is doing, he's putting her in danger so he should get a lot of money? What kind of משוגעת is that? That makes sense? Which husband first of all would do it to his wife? Go through all these problems and who knows what's going to happen to you? So mimeila the other thing he said that I should live, okay, it's pikuach nefesh whatever it is, but the first thing he's saying, \"So I should have מתנות so it's a good idea, you you go through all this trouble.\" Now the Zohar says that Avraham was guaranteed, he was sure that the zechut of Sarah will protect her, so he wasn't afraid. Yeah, but as much as she was protected from nothing bad happening to her, but she certainly went through a rough time, rough צער being kidnapped, being taken and this, so is it worth? It was Avraham that did it, why did he do it? So the Rebbe answers, the peshat is, it says that the Eibershter told Avraham Avinu, \"לך לך מארצך,\" and He promised him he'll have a lot of money, \"ואברכך,\" Rashi says בממון, He gave a lot of money. Here Avraham saw an opportunity for the berachah of the Eibershter to be fulfilled, so he felt if the Eibershter gave me a chance for the berachah to be fulfilled this is probably what I have to do, because this is the chance, the Eibershter's berachah, and the Eibershter's berachah to be fulfilled if you see an opportunity for it you have to grab it. Because the Eibershter when He gives a berachah, I mean the Rebbe doesn't say these words, but He gives a berachah it's all מלובש in derech hateva. Here in derech hateva you have to say, you can't say the Eibershter gave a bracha so I won't do anything, let the bracha come. Like the famous joke they say, it was a guy was drowning, and he was a maamin, he believed, and so there was a ship that passed by and tried to take him. He didn't want to go. He said, \"I trust the Eibershter, I want the Eibershter to help me. I don't know this guy is going to help me?\" So he didn't go on. Another ship passed by, three ships passed by, he wouldn't go on. And what happened to him? He drowned. He came למעלה and he had a complaint. He said to the Eibershter, \"I put my trust in You, so why didn't You help me?\" So the Eibershter says to him, \"I sent you three ships, why didn't you take them?\" You got to do it in derech hateva. So Avraham Avinu here saw in derech hateva that this is a chance, so he said obviously that's what I have to do. \"Oy it might hurt her?\" Obviously he was guaranteed because of her zechut, that in her zechut... So the bottom line is that in her zechut she was protected, and he got his money also through her zechut because the Zohar says that a person gets money through the zechut of his wife. Now the Rebbe says also we know that the person's neshama and the guf is compared to the husband and the wife. And the guf is like the wife, and the neshama is like the husband. And just like over here he gained a lot of things through his wife, the neshama gains a lot through the guf. And even though you go through hardships, the neshama coming down into the guf goes through all kinds of problems down here, but that's the way a person reaches the higher madregot, so yeridah letzorech aliyah.