So, as you just heard, the topic today is תפילה, and I see that there are some people who are more in the beginning, some are already in a higher level, so I don't know if what I'm going to say will fit everybody, but I hope everyone will be able to take something out of it. You know that תפילה means, as commonly translated in English, prayer, or as we call it in Yiddish, דאווענען. I know that in the last few years, I don't know this year or last year, but the last few years, four or five years, a lot has been written and said in the even in the secular media about the importance of prayer. I've saw seen some articles that they write that it's important for someone to pray and they see, statistics shows that when people pray, a sick person prays, so it helps his recovery, and they've seen it. But this is all from a secular approach, meaning for simple secular reasons that they feel psychologically that it works. Number one, they claim that if a person thinks that by praying it's going to help him, it lifts his spirits, so he's in a better mood, so you have a positive attitude. If you have a positive attitude, it's always better for your health, so it's much easier to cure a person if he has a positive attitude. So it's a very practical reason. Even a person who might unfortunately be an atheist, not even believe in God, will say, pray. In Yiddish we'll say, רעד זיך איין, think that it'll be good and it'll make you feel better, it'll give you lift your spirits, and then it's a good idea. Or another idea is it's always good, a person should get things off his chest. So you got to speak it out to somebody. And this is true, even in the תורה we find such a concept. There's a פסוק that says, דאגה בלב איש ישיחנה. If there's a worry in the heart of a person, ישיחנה. The word ישיחנה, the גמרא, תלמוד tells us, has two meanings. One meaning is from the word הסח הדעת, take your mind away from it. If something is bothering you, just don't think about it. And there's another opinion, ישיחנה comes from the word שיחה, which means talk. Talk it out. If you talk it out, it'll help you. So if you talk it out to a friend, it helps. Imagine you're talking it out in your mind to God, so certainly that'll help. And that's the whole idea, all these articles that I've seen that they write is very practical, psychological reason why it's important to pray. But this is not really what תפילה, what prayer, what דאווענען is the way it is according to the Jewish religion, according to the תורה. According to the תורה, it is a מצוה to דאווען. It is a מצוה, it's a positive commandment to pray. We know there are 613 commandments in the תורה. There are six 365 negative commandments, where the תורה says you're not allowed to do certain things. And then there are רמ״ח מצות עשה, ר״מ״ח, 248 positive מצות. One of these positive מצות, one of these positive commandments that a Jew is obligated, must do, is to pray. And this is one of the commandments of the תורה. And where is this מצוה of praying taken from? There's the verse, the פסוק which says, ולעבדו בכל לבבכם, that you should serve Him, serve God, serve השם with all your heart. And the גמרא tells us, איזו היא עבודה שבלב, what's called service of the heart? זו תפילה, that's תפילה. דאווענען, prayer is the service of the heart. And this is where we take out the idea of prayer. What is the מצוה of prayer? I'm going to go into a lot of these details, I'm just saying general general points, and then I'm going to explain them as we go along. What is the מצוה of prayer? So there is the way the מצוה is from the תורה, and then we have what the חכמים, the sages instituted. Because we know that a lot of things that we do in our Jewish religion is that was established, instituted by the חכמים, by our sages. But we must keep it, because God told the Jews and in the תורה that whatever the sages throughout the generations will tell you, you must listen. So we listen to the sages because the תורה told us, so we're basically listening to God. The מצוה of prayer, as it is from the תורה, is that a person must pray to God, which means to ask God for his needs at least once a day, and whenever a person feels he's in need, whenever a person feels that there is some trouble he has and there is something that he needs, he must, it's a מצוה, an obligation, he must turn to God and pray to God. There is no set expression that you have to use, no set words that you have to use, whatever you feel feel, however you feel, you could express it whichever way you want. That's from the תורה. Came the חכמים, the rabbis, the sages, and they instituted that you have to pray three times a day, שחרית, מנחה, מעריב, and there are certain things that you have to say. They made up the שמונה עשרה, the 18 or 19 blessings, that that's what you have to say, but that's all מדרבנן. That's what the מצוה of prayer is, from one angle. There's another aspect to the מצוה of prayer, and like I said I'm going to get more into the details, is that this is a time when you communicate and you connect to God. And I'm going to explain the connection between these two because they seem to be two separate things. One is that when you have a need you must pray to God, or every day ask for your needs from God, and the other thing is that it's a way you feel close to God, you bring out your feeling towards God, you express your feeling towards God. But they're connected, and I'll explain it by first starting what is this idea that a person must pray to God, must ask him for his needs, what's the idea behind it? If a person needs something, it's only natural that you're going to ask for it. And if you don't want to ask for it, that's your tough luck. You don't want, don't. Why is there a מצוה, why did God give us a commandment that you must pray to him and ask him when you feel in need that you must ask him? What's the idea behind it? Why is there a commandment like that? And the answer is the מצוה of prayer is part and connected to the concept of אמונה and בטחון, to the concept of faith and trust in השם. When a person prays to God, he expresses the fact that he believes. And sometimes I hate to use the word \"believe\" because believe means, you know, \"I believe, you could believe differently.\" It expresses that a person, a איד, knows that the one that's able to help him is God. That means he believes in God. That means he has faith in God. That means he trusts God. So this is a form of expression of his אמונה and בטחון. And השם wants us to express it. Just like there is an obligation, a מצוה for a Jew to believe in God, it's an obligation, you can't say, \"Well, it's up to my to me.\" The same way there is a מצוה that God gave us to express our faith and our trust in God through our prayer when we feel in need. And God wants it to happen. Why? There's a ספר, holy book called the ספר העקידה, written by a great great צדיק. So he writes there, God is טבע הטוב, he's good. We have no other word, so we use the word \"nature\", he's naturally good, but there's no such thing as nature by God, but he is good. And he always wants to, if you need something, he always wants to help you. But sometimes you don't deserve it. But he would like to help you anyway, even if you don't deserve it. So he wants you to deserve it. So he said to us, if you pray to me, and you express the feeling that you believe in me, you express the fact that you trust me, that itself is a זכות, is a merit for you to deserve to get helped. And he says, besides that's something else, he says that way God has established, and even though God is the boss and can do whatever he wants, but he has established, as we learn in the תורה, that there is a בית דין של מעלה, there is a court up there in heaven, and God put everything in their hands that they should decide what should be given down here, what should happen. And he doesn't, so to speak, mix in. And they are very, very critical, and they're very, not always will they agree that this person should get what he's asking for. But God wants to overrule them. So he said, pray to me, and if you pray to me, what's going to happen? Then this will make you deserve, and they won't be able to stop me from helping you and giving you what you need. But the bottom line is that praying is an expression of a person's faith and בטחון, trust in השם. And that's why דאווענען is connected to the service of the heart, because this is an expression of the person's feeling that השם, God is the one in control. That's how you serve. How do you serve God? By giving yourself over to him, self-nullification, expressing the fact that you believe and you know that he's the one that's going to help you. And that's what happens during the time of prayer. So even though we say prayer is בקשת צרכיו, it's a time when you ask for your needs, this itself is also a service of the heart, of a feeling that you have towards God. And that's why the רמב״ם says that it's not enough just to ask God, you know, \"Please give me what I need,\" or when we say the שמונה עשרה, you have to beg. He says the expression ויתחנן, you have to feel begging. What is idea of begging? When you beg somebody, what are you doing? You're showing, \"I need you you, I have nothing of my own, I need you to give me. God wants us to do it when we ask for our needs because that's a way we serve God with our heart. But then the question is, why do we have to say it with words? Why is it not enough if we think in our mind? God knows what we think, God knows the thoughts of a person, so why do we have to say it בדיבור? Why do we have to say it with words? And the answer is, if we want to express to השם, not if we want to, God wants us to express to Him the fact that we believe and know that He is the one to give us, and we put our whole self into it, the most important part, attribute, that a human being has is the כח הדיבור, is the ability to speak. Even though normally we know that the highest attribute of a human being is the brain, with which way is a human being greater than an animal? Human being has שכל, and an animal doesn't. Nevertheless, we know in the רמב״ם and in all קבלה and all other places, when we want to describe what is the specialty of a person, we call him the מדבר, the one that could speak. Why the מדבר? We have, you know, in the רמב״ם we learn, all over in חסידות we learn there are four categories: דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר. דומם are the unmovable objects, צומח is plant life, חי is animal life, then the human being. So the human being is not called the משכיל. משכיל would mean the one with שכל, with brains, with ability to understand. We call him the מדבר, the speaker, because that represents the greatest part of the person, and this includes the שכל also, because in order to speak you have to have שכל. I mean, there are some people who speak without שכל, okay, but we're not talking about that. You have to have ability, you have to have שכל. Why can't a an animal speak? Because he doesn't have that level of שכל. Why can't a little child speak? Doesn't have that level of שכל. You have to have שכל to speak. So when we say a person is able to speak, that includes everything. So when we want to describe, what is a human being? The speaker. So when we want, when the תורה, השם wanted that the Jews, a איד, and actually every human being, should express his faith to in השם and his trust in השם, and become deserving of השם to help him, he has to do it through speech. By doing it through speech, you're using the most important part of yourself in order to show השם that you believe in Him and you trust Him, which is a way you express the feeling of your heart. But the truth is it goes a little bit further also. דאווענען, besides asking for our needs, דאווענען, תפילה, prayer, is a time when we basically connect to השם, which is a time when we communicate with השם. We know what it says in the זוהר, in the holy זוהר written by רב שמעון בן יוחאי, he says that in חומש we find the story of יעקב אבינו when he lay down to sleep and he had a dream, in his dream he saw a ladder, and the פסוק, the verse says it was a סולם מוצב ארצה וראשו מגיע השמימה, there was a ladder standing down on the ground and its tip, its top, touched the שמים, touched the heavens. And the זוהר says סולם דא צלותא. That's Aramaic, זוהר was written in Aramaic. This ladder is דאווענען. When you דאווען, what you're really doing is you're starting off on the bottom, just like the ladder on the bottom, and there are steps, and you're walking up the steps, and you're getting closer to the top. The bottom is down here, the top is to heaven, which represents God, and we are traveling, walking all the way up, and there are different steps, and I might explain it later if we have the time, the different steps, but we're going up steps. So a time of דאווענען is when a person is supposed to communicate and give himself over to God besides asking for his needs, which in itself as I said is an expression of your feeling and your trust in השם, but it's a time when you're supposed to feel connected to השם, connect yourself as we go along the דאווענען to connect to השם. That's why the word for prayer in Hebrew is תפילה. The רבי explains that there are three words which there is no real translation for it in English or in any other language, because the word in Hebrew means something else. We know there are three main things in Judaism: תפילה and צדקה and there's תורה, there's תפילה and צדקה and תשובה, doing תשובה, repentance. In English, תשובה is repentance, תפילה is prayer, צדקה is charity, and the רבי says these words are mistrans- translated, but there's no other way. Charity means I'm giving you a present, a gift. It's not yours, it's mine, but I'm giving you, doing you a favor. According to the תורה, that's not what צדקה is. The word צדקה in Hebrew comes from the word צדק. What's צדק? צדק means right. Charity is not right. If I don't want to give you, there's nothing wrong. I don't have to give you my things. If I'm a nice person, I'll give you. תורה tells you that's not true, you must give. Because when you have a lot of money, it's not all yours. Some of it God gave you to be the messenger or the, I would say the treasurer for the people who don't have. So when you give, it's a צדק, it's a, it's a must. In English, we translate as charity. Same thing with תשובה. תשובה is repentance. What does repentance mean? Repentance means you go away from yourself. You behaved in a certain way, and you repent, you leave it and you go away. You know what תשובה in Hebrew means? To return, just the opposite. Because we know that every Jew in essence is good, when you do something wrong, you went away from yourself, and תשובה means to return. And the same thing the רבי says is תפילה. תפילה has another meaning. In English, it's prayer. Prayer means you're praying to somebody, you're asking somebody. Who's God? You're asking God to give you what you need. The word תפילה has another meaning. תפילה means to connect. In Hebrew, the word תפילה means to connect. When we daven, it's the time when we connect to השם, which means we elevate ourselves, we're supposed to, that's really what davening is really supposed to be. We're supposed to have in mind things which will elevate us and bring us closer to God. It says in the תלמוד that חסידים הראשונים, now the earlier חסידים, which means the earlier sages. Imagine, in the time of the תלמוד they already called them earlier sages. The תלמוד is already written close to 2,000 years and this goes back before. When they davened, they used to spend three hours every time they davened. So when they davened three times a day, they spent nine hours. One hour before, meditating before they davened, an hour the davening, an hour after. Together it's nine hours. What did they do through these nine, these nine hours? What they did was they were constantly thinking and meditating and working on themselves to reach levels of unclothed themselves, so to speak, of all the physical desires and start thinking more and more and get closer to, to השם, get closer to God. Actually, if you look in the שולחן ערוך, which is the שולחן ערוך is what guides us in our life, in שולחן ערוך it says that before you start davening, you have to meditate, contemplate on what. So it says two things: רוממות הא-ל ושפלות האדם. רוממות הא-ל means the greatness of God, and the lowness of a person. It doesn't mean a person should become, God forbid, sad or depressed, but to realize that the real being is God, and what am I am nothing but an expression of God's will. That's what I am. And that you could take at the time of davening. When you daven, that's what a person is supposed to feel. So davening is really an עבודה שבלב. Really, it's a service of the heart. So it's a service of the heart, even in the simple meaning of davening, that you pray to השם, asking Him to give you your needs, because then you express your trust and belief and faith and all the other words that we can use in God. Besides that, it's a time when a person really is supposed to elevate himself, and unclothe himself from all the physical desires, and go up and get closer to השם. This was the, this is what תפילה means. This is the way the מצוה of תפילה was given by השם. That's why it's called עבודה שבלב, it's a service of the heart. But this went on like this for many, many years. Every איד fulfilled the מצוה of תפילה in his own way. Everyone was able to express his feeling, and asking השם for his needs in whatever words he wanted. But people were in a higher level, so people were able to express their feelings, and able to elevate themselves, and unclothe themselves from all the physical desires and the low things, the coarse things of this world, and purify themselves and elevate themselves, get closer to השם. And everyone was able to do it on their own. But as time passed, and it came to the time, at the end or even after the first Temple, the first בית המקדש, that was a big change in the level of the people. We know that in many things. There was, we call, ירידת הדורות, the generations came down, there was a descent in the spiritual level of the אידן. And the sages of that time realized that no more can most of the people express themselves, first of all, express themselves in how to beg beg השם, because you're talking to השם, you got to use the proper words, you got to use the words that fit to speak to a king, especially to a king of the kings, and not everyone is able to do it. Not everybody was able to express their feelings and have the proper words that will bring out their elevation and their level of getting closer to השם. So the חכמים decided what we got to do, we got to establish certain times when we feel is the right time, and certain things that I what we tell them to do to say, and those things that we tell them to say, those words will contain the ability of elevating themselves, and contain the proper ability of asking השם for their needs. So they established שמונה עשרה, the 18 ברכות that we say, they established those ברכות, and later on רבן גמליאל added a 19th one, and these ברכות include, I have to tell you, include all possible needs that a person might have throughout all generations. The חכמים were such great sages, great צדיקים, they saw the future, and they put into the small שמונה עשרה everything a person is able to ever want and ever need. Once somebody came to the רבי רש״ב, the fifth לובאוויטשער רבי, and said he has a certain thing that he needs, so the רבי told him, \"So דאווען for it.\" So he says, \"I I don't know where to דאווען. I don't know what to say.\" So he says, \"I could tell you, look for it. In שמונה עשרה, you'll find it. Whatever you need, you'll find it in the שמונה עשרה. It's there.\" So these are the words that will express everything that a person might need, and these are the words that contain the idea of a person elevating himself. And then there's another thing that happened at the same period. Besides the fact that we said there was ירידת הדורות, the descent in the high spiritual level, and the people on their own couldn't do it, so they needed a set thing that were given by the sages, another thing happened: the בית המקדש was destroyed. The temple was destroyed. And what happened when the temple was destroyed? We have no more קרבנות. In the time of the בית המקדש, we had קרבנות, sacrifices. After the בית המקדש was destroyed, no more sacrifices. When the first בית המקדש was destroyed, they had no more sacrifices. And that was a big problem, I'll tell you why, because the רמב״ן says that when a person brought a קרבן, what it really meant was this was just a physical act, an expression of what really it made the person that brought the קרבן go through. When a person brought a קרבן, you know what he had to think in his mind? That whatever is done to this animal really has to be done to me. And השם was so kind that He made it that we should do it to the animal, but really it has to be done to me because I deserve it. And when a person brought a קרבן, this was supposed to bring through his mind the understanding of getting closer to השם. Know what the word קרבן means? Well, everyone translates that קרבן is sacrifice. The word קרבן comes from the word קירוב, closeness. קירוב הכוחות והחושים, it says it's closeness making your your your your senses and your attributes closer to God. That's what a קרבן is. Know what the main part of the קרבן was? They would sprinkle the blood on the altar, on the מזבח, which had the fire, and they would sacrifice, they would burn the fats of the animal. And all the commentaries say that this represented to the person, when the person saw that, what it made him think, that what I'm really sacrificing to God is my blood. What's blood? Blood is the heat, blood is the excitement, blood is the life. I'm giving up to God, I'm sacrificing, I'm putting it on the altar, and it represented me. And the fats, know what fats represent? Fats represent pleasure. Says in the גמרא that fats by a person comes more from the pleasure you have than from what you eat. Maybe that's a good idea for a diet. So, if someone wants to go on a diet, don't have to eat less, you just don't eat with such געשמאק, such such taste. It says that makes you fat. So when they put the fats on the מזבח, burned it in the fire that had come down from heaven, that was a representation, and every person had that in mind that I'm giving myself over to God. קירוב הכוחות והחושים, my כוחות, my senses, my my all my מידות, my attributes are all given over to God. When the בית המקדש was destroyed, we had no more of it. So the קרבנות, which helped out a lot in the concept of of what's of of what you, a ייד is supposed to do, was missing. This was another reason why the חכמים said we have to do something to substitute the קרבנות, and not to substitute the physical part of it only, that we don't have it, but The deeper meaning of the קרבנות, which is the time when a person is able to get close to God. So they said, \"We'll make the תפילה,\" and that's why the תלמוד says תפילות במקום קרבנות תקנום, that תפילות come in the place of the קרבנות, of the sacrifices, because this is what really the sacrifices were. What we have now in דאווענען, the inner meaning of דאווענען, this is what the קרבנות meant. So they established תפילה in such a way that we should take place of the קרבנות. And there's another thing. We said before, when a person prays to השם, to ask Him for his needs, and makes him worthy and deserving of השם giving him what he needs. When they had קרבנות, the קרבנות themselves brought down from השם all the needs that people need, or it says the expression, all the השפעות, all the the influences, things that השם wants to give to the world, came through the קרבנות. We know that during the holiday of סוכות, they brought 70 קרבנות, and it says why? Because there are 70 nations in the world, and this would give the 70 nations their nourishment. This brought it down. When נח, after the flood, he brought a קרבן, קרבנות to השם, this made השם be משפיע, give to the world a promise He'll never destroy the world. When בלעם wanted to do something and have some kind of influences coming down from heaven, what did he tell, if you learn חומש, what did he tell בלק? Be מקריב a קרבן, go sacrifice some קרבנות. קרבנות had this quality of bringing down all these great השפעות and things that השם wants to give to us. When the בית המקדש was destroyed, that was lost. So few things happened as we see. When the בית המקדש was destroyed, at that time, that same period was ירידת הדורות, the level of the people went down, that they were not able to feel the same way and express themselves the same way. What happened was the קרבנות were not there anymore, and since the קרבנות were not there anymore, the feeling that the קרבנות brought in closeness to השם was not there anymore. The קרבנות were not there anymore, and therefore, these השפעות, these things that השם would give through the קרבנות, weren't there anymore. So the חכמים said, \"We'll substitute it with something that is similar.\" And that was תפילה. That's why we always know, we learn always, that דאווענען is in place of קרבנות. When it says in פרקי אבות that the world stands on three things, על התורה, על העבודה, ועל גמילות חסדים, on the תורה, on the service, and on good deeds, on מצוות. What is עבודה? What is the service? Simple translation, simple interpretation is קרבנות, sacrifices. Also, עבודה is דאווענען because they go together. דאווענען accomplishes the same thing as the sacrifices. So this is what the חכמים did, and they said, they decided, and they figured it out. And who were these חכמים? These were the אנשי כנסת הגדולה. These were the greatest sages, a group of 120 sages that lived at that time, that was right at the end of the first Temple, throughout the 70 years of exile of בבל, into the second בית המקדש. And they established this to substitute the קרבנות. Now one might ask, \"But then they rebuilt the בית המקדש, so they brought קרבנות again.\" But the truth is, the level of the second בית המקדש was not the same as the first. So it didn't have that same influence and same accomplishment as the first. Besides the fact after they established the דאווענען, they're not going to take it away even though we have the בית המקדש, but anyway, it wasn't the same. We know there were five major, major special things that were there in the first Temple were not there in the second. The level was much lower, so the people still needed this תפילה in addition to the קרבנות that they had then, but the קרבנות did not accomplish as much as before, and they continued with it. Certainly after the destruction of the second בית המקדש, certainly we need the תפילה to take the place of what was there before. So they established these ברכות, these 18 ברכות called שמונה עשרה, 18 blessings. They established, then later on, they felt that there's a new one and they needed it also, they established a 19th. And that was the foundation of what תפילה is. That means that מדאורייתא, from the תורה, we said there's no time and no set wording that you have to use, but the חכמים saw that in order to accomplish what the תורה wants us to accomplish, at this point, from then and on, we have to use the special words and we have to have special times, and they felt this is the right time, and they worked on it and they set it up. As time passed, there were other sages who added certain things, and eventually it turned out into the whole דאווענען of שחרית. Originally it was only the שמונה עשרה, and added came out to the whole שחרית, where we start from הודו all the way through the end of דאווענען. Slowly some חכמים added this, some חכמים added this, and that turned into the, and they each saw in his generation what's needed for that generation, and it got developed by the sages into what we have now in the סידור. And that took place of the קרבנות 100%. So if you want to call it, you could say that the סידור is a miniature בית המקדש. When you have the סידור and you use the סידור in the proper way in the proper times, it's a miniature בית המקדש, and you're able to accomplish what they accomplished in the time of the בית המקדש. And the way it's set up is, as I said in the beginning, that it's like a ladder, and there are different steps. And that's why, generally speaking, we have in the דאווענען, we have four sections. We start from the bottom, and we go up. The ירושלמי says the ירושלמי, the תלמוד ירושלמי, says that a ladder has four steps, which means a simple ladder, I mean, I'm sure there are ladders with many steps, but a general ladder is four steps. So the ladder of דאווענען has four steps. What are the four steps? The four steps, as it was established by the sages, like I said, through the generations, is from ברוך שאמר, and I'm sure most of you know all this, and if you, those that are just starting, just to hear, from ברוך שאמר till ישתבח is one section, that's one step. That's what we call פסוקי דזמרה. Then after ברוך שאמר, after, I mean, ברכו, after ישתבח, ברכו, till קריאת שמע, till שמע ישראל, is a second step. That's called ברכות קריאת שמע, the blessings of קריאת שמע. Then you have the section of קריאת שמע, from קריאת שמע and on, and then you have the fourth section, which is the שמונה עשרה. And these are basically four steps of a person elevating himself. If a person would understand everything that he says and looking deeper into the commentaries, and certainly learning it in חסידות, you will see how these levels are steps. See, starting from הודו, which is still ברוך שאמר, according to נוסח ספרד and נוסח ארי, our נוסח, that's not part of דאווענען. It's not not דאווענען, but it's only like the preparation to your service. ברוך שאמר starts the service. And you have four steps in going up higher and higher. And just to go a little bit, just a little bit in קבלה, in the kabbalistic explanation, the four steps are parallel to the four worlds. And everyone knows, we learn in קבלה, we learn in חסידות, there are four worlds: אצילות, בריאה, יצירה, and עשיה. I'm sure you all learned this already. This is the most fundamental concepts of חסידות. There are first four spiritual worlds, and then we have the physical world. אצילות is the highest, that's a world which is the closest to God. Then you have בריאה is a lower one, יצירה is lower, and עשיה is even lower. And we're all the way down in עשיה, but in the physical עשיה. And when we דאווען, we're supposed to go up, because when we think of these four worlds, I want to tell you, and I'm sure you learned this in חסידות, so you know, it's not that you have אצילות over there, בריאה is over there. Someone asked me, how far, how many miles away is אצילות? Where is that? That's next to the moon? That's that's Jupiter? Where where is אצילות? These are four spiritual levels which are down here. A person, a ייד, could be in the level of אצילות. If he really feels close to God in the most refined, highest level, he is in the level of אצילות. There are some people are not that high, so they would feel their closeness to God like the level of בריאה. Some would feel like the level of יצירה, and some, the lowest, like the level of עשיה. It says in the אלטער רבי, the בעל התניא writes in תורה אור, when משה רבינו spoke to פרעה, we're learning these weeks' פרשיות, משה spoke to פרעה, and they were standing as close as this, within a few feet, what you had was אצילות standing next to the most deepest, worst levels, spiritual levels of קליפה, of the evil forces, because אצילות is not up there. משה רבינו represented אצילות, because his closeness to השם was so great. פרעה represented the other extreme, the worst. But they were next to each other, because it's not place over there over there, it's a level. When we start דאווענען, every morning we start from the beginning. We are very low. We wake up in the morning from sleeping, we start, so the first level is going to the step of עשיה, we're reaching a level of feeling we should be feeling close to God in the level of עשיה. Then we go a second step, the level of יצירה, then the level of בריאה, and finally, when we get to שמונה עשרה, we should be at the level of אצילות. Why is it that by שמונה עשרה you have to stand, you're not allowed to look out, you're not allowed to motion to anybody, you have to stand, using the expression of the שולחן ערוך, taken from the גמרא, כעבדא קמי מריה, like a slave in front of his master, like a person standing in front of the king. And the תלמוד tells us, if a person stands in front of the king, you can't move. Imagine if a person would stand and talk to the king, and all of a sudden he sees somebody pass by, he'll say hello, the גמרא says, you know what happens if you do that? You're put to death! Cuz you're standing in front of the king. By a time we get to שמונה עשרה, you're supposed to feel that you're standing in front of the king. That's why you have to stand, you can't sit. See, when you come to קריאת שמע, שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד, we say Hear, O Israel, God, our God, God is one. And when we say, \"Hear, O Israel,\" we don't mean hear. Use your ears to hear. Hear means to understand. So at that point, you should already be at a level where you understand השם אחד, that God is one. But still, you're able to sit. But when it comes to שמונה עשרה, you must stand up, and you must stand and not move, and really, the way it says in שולחן ערוך, you should stand like this and not move. We do shake, but that's not because we're trying to do we're doing something against our respect for God, but it's because in order to bring out our excitement, so we do that sometimes, and it says also shaking by דאווענען is like it says by מתן תורה when השם gave the תורה at הר סיני, it says, וירא העם וינועו, the people saw and they shook. So from there it comes that we shake. So every ייד if you notice, a ייד when he דאווענס he shakes, when a ייד learns he shakes. Says another thing why we shake is because it says, נר השם נשמת אדם, the נשמה, the soul of a person, of a ייד is like a candle. Candle always flickers. So our נשמה shakes. They tell a story that once there was the מהר״ל מפראג, the great מהר״ל מפראג, a great צדיק. So there were some people that wanted to like test him. So they got a non-Jewish boy, they taught him יידיש, and he was a very smart boy, and they taught him how to learn a piece of גמרא, and then they brought him to the מהר״ל to test him. And the מהר״ל tested him, and when he finished, he walked away, he knew everything. As he walked away, the מהר״ל turns around to his students, \"This kid is a שייגעץ, he's a גוי.\" So they said, \"רבי, what makes you say so?\" \"He didn't shake once,\" he said. ס'איז נישט געווען קיין שאקל, he didn't shake once. So the fact that we shake is not in any way an expression of disrespect, but at that point we're supposed to have the greatest respect, not only because of respect, because we feel that way, 'cause this is what דאווענען is, as I said before, עבודה שבלב, the service of the heart, that we feel that we get close to השם, we get close to God. That's what the מצוה of תפילה is, and this is how the חכמים established, and this is what we have to do, and this is how we דאווען. There's only one question that we have to answer. It seems like there's a contradiction between the two things that we said. We said דאווענען is basically asking השם for our needs. We call it בקשת צרכיו, asking השם for our needs. And then we say it's a time when we self-nullification, we give ourselves over to God, and we're supposed to reach a level of אצילות, and we're supposed to reach the highest level, communicate with God, the greatest things. How do the two match, how do the two fit together? If you reach a level when you're completely self self-nullified, let's call it, I don't know, in Hebrew, in חסידות we call it ביטול, you have the greatest ביטול to השם, you don't think of yourself at all. Asking for my needs means I'm thinking of myself. If I don't think of myself, I don't have any needs. Why does a person have needs? Because I care about myself. I need. But how do the two things together? You have to ask God for your needs, and at the same time we say you have to feel completely בטל, and we say ask is a מצוה to ask for your needs, and it's an obligation to ask for your needs. And the truth is that this question is even more if we were talking about the ראש השנה, see ראש השנה especially we see, what do we pray for on ראש השנה? Well, everyone knows ראש השנה is a day of judgment. We ask השם to give us a happy and a healthy year. We should be healthy, we should have a lot of money, we should have all the physical needs things that we need, spiritual things that we need, we ask השם for our needs. That's what we're supposed to do. And that's mentioned in the תפילות of ראש השנה that the חכמים established. And at the same time we say, what is the real thing of ראש השנה is accepting God as our king. ראש השנה is considered the day of the coronation of God, of the acceptance, we express the fact that we accept God as our king. If you look through שמונה עשרה, there are so many parts, so many verses that deal with it. We say, ומלוך אתה השם לבדך, you shall reign over us, we give ourselves over, the whole thing is it's a day when we accept God as king. As a matter of fact, the reason the real reason of the מצוה of שופר is this is the way they used to crown the king. Even up to today, when you have an inauguration of the president, they blow trumpets. So שופר represents the fact that we're crowning השם as king. What do you mean you crown a person as king? You give yourself over, say, \"Well, you're going to become our king. We are your servants. We give ourselves over to you.\" And at the same time, we דאווען to השם, yeah, we give ourselves over to you, we're nothing, and you're the you're really what it is, and we're only an expression of your will and of your desire, whatever it is. And at the same time, we need this, we need that. How do the two things fit together? And the answer is that when a person reaches reaches a level where he recognizes the truth of God, the truth of השם, then he's really able to ask for his needs in a proper way. Now I'll explain what I mean. Why does a person need something? Well, why do you need to eat? Because you're hungry. Your body is hungry. Why do you need money? Because I have to live, I have to buy food, I have to live. I have to, you know, it's a physical world here, we got to live. That's not the real thing. The real way a Jew is supposed to reach, the level he's supposed to reach, is supposed to feel: I have one thing. I have a mission here in this world. God gave me a mission. Why did God put me here? To have fun? I doubt it. I mean, even people who do that, they know deep, deep down that's not the reason why they're here. Why did השם put us in this world? You live how many years you live and then you indulge and that's it? That's not it. What is the real reason why we were put in this world? God gave us a mission. He put us in this world and he wants us to transform this physical world into a spiritual thing, like it says, השם had a desire, God had a desire to make this physical, low world into a dwelling place for him. And how do you do that? Through doing מצוות, learning תורה. You can't do a מצוה if you're not healthy. You can't learn if you're not healthy. You can't give charity if you don't have money. You can't send your children to have a good Jewish education if you don't have money. You can't buy a nice pair of תפילין if you don't have money. So in order for us to fulfill our mission in this world, we have to have all the needs that that that a person needs. So you could ask for your needs because I need it, or you could ask for your needs, we tell השם, because you need it. You need it, it's for you. It's not for me, I don't care about myself. I care about you because at שמונה עשרה you reach a level where you care only about השם. And because of that, this is why I'm asking for my needs. And therefore, the two things are not a contradiction. You're asking for your needs, and at the same time you don't exist, so to speak, almost. But at that time, you ask for your needs because your needs are really asked the way it should be asked for. There is a story told that the רבי מהר״ש, was the fourth ליובאוויטשער רבי, when he saw once, he was sitting by the window and he saw two of his children, one became רבי later, years later, and one was his brother, the רז״א, and one was רבי רש״ב, and they were talking, and they were discussing: What do we see the difference between a ייד and a גוי? And the רבי מהר״ש called them in and said, \"I want to show you something.\" And he says, \"Please, do me a favor. Go call the גוייִשע wagon driver. I want to talk to him.\" So he called him in and he says, \"Did you eat today?\" He said, \"Yeah, sure I ate.\" \"Did you eat good?\" \"Sure, plenty, I'm full.\" \"Why did you eat?\" \"Why did I eat? So I should be able to have a good time. If I'm healthy, I'm able to take a drink,\" you know, the Russian גוים, \"take a good drink of vodka and have a good time.\" \"Good,\" told him to go. Then he says, \"Call me in the Jewish wagon driver, the קוטשער, בנציון the קוטשער.\" He was the the the wagon driver, בעל עגלה. And he called him in and said, \"Did you eat today?\" \"Yeah, I ate.\" \"Did you eat enough?\" \"Yeah, enough.\" The other guy said, \"Yeah, also.\" \"Why did you eat?\" \"Why did I eat? So I should be healthy.\" He says, \"Why do you have to be healthy?\" \"Why I have to be healthy? So I should be able to say a chapter of תהלים, I should be able to learn a little bit, I should be able to fulfill a מצוה.\" He says, \"This is the difference. This is how it's supposed to be.\" And this is on ראש השנה, we ask השם for our needs, at the same time we say to השם we're nothing, but we're asking for our needs because this is what you want. And every day by דאווענען, we ask for our needs, this is really what it should mean. But one can ask a very, very simple question: How many people do you know that when they ask for their needs have this in mind? We're saying this is what really דאווענען is, you're supposed to get close to השם, and you ask for your needs because this is what השם wants, and you don't care about yourself, and you're really there just to fulfill the mission that השם put upon you in this world. How many people do you know that do it? I mean, there are, I'm sure there are some people that actually feel that feel that way, feel it, but most people don't. And the answer is, and the רבי once explained this, even though we don't feel it, when we דאווען for our needs, we we we really mean our needs, but our נשמה that's inside, our נשמה really feels that the needs are there only for just this for this reason. We might not feel it superficially. There's a very interesting interpretation of the בעל שם טוב on a certain verse. There's a פסוק that says like this: רעבים גם צמאים נפשם בהם תתעטף. I'll translate: The hungry ones and the thirsty ones, their soul is wrapped around it. Now, simple meaning is that when a person is hungry and thirsty, His whole soul is involved, you know, he's hungry, he's really hungry and thirsty. The בעל שם טוב said, \"No. You think you're hungry because your body wants to eat. You think you're thirsty because your body wants to eat. נפשם בהם תתעטף. It's your נשמה that's, the נפש, it's your holy soul that wants it. Because by eating and becoming healthy, you're fulfilling the will of God, because you're able to be healthy to serve God. So you think, you superficially think, that רעבים גם צמאים, I'm hungry. Comes the בעל שם טוב and says no, נפשם בהם תתעטף, what's wrapped around it, what's really in it? It's your soul that is hungry.\" So every איד who davens to השם because he's hungry and he needs food, or he needs money, and he thinks he needs money because he needs to buy groceries and he doesn't have it for the physical reason, his נשמה wants him to buy it and get it, so he should be able to serve God. So as much as you don't feel it, we don't feel it, but the נשמה feels it and it's there automatically. It's like the רבי once said, there's an expression in גמרא that you should, really you have to do everything with the proper intentions, which we call לשמה. לשמה means for the rights, for the sake of God. So it says, even if you don't do that, מתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה. If you do many times without the proper intentions, you'll reach the level of doing it with intentions. So the רבי says the word means something else, not מתוך, through. מתוך means the inner part, the inside of doing it for whatever reason we think we're doing it is what? Is the real reason. So every איד essentially, whether he knows it or not, whether he believes it or not, inside him when he davens, your נשמה davens along with you, even though your physical mouth is davening, but your soul, your holy soul is praying along with you, and your holy soul is praying for the right reasons. So as much as we might not feel it, you're praying for the right reasons. And this is what the whole idea of prayer is, to ask השם for our needs, because we express our belief and faith and trust and all these other words in השם, that we know that He is the one that's able to help us. We say words that express the fact that we're elevating ourselves and trying to get closer to Him, and this is the beginning of the day. The beginning of the day is when we set the foundation, and all day our day is different. But since a few hours pass and it wears off a little bit, so we got to have a miniature davening, a little bit of davening, so we say מנחה. Then when it gets late at night, we forget about it again, it gets, wears off, so we got to daven מעריב. Then we go to sleep. Oh, then completely wears off. Wake up in the morning, we got to start all over again. But hopefully when we start all over again, it's not the same level. There's a little bit of a trace left of what we did yesterday, and now we're going to a higher level. This is what it's supposed to be. I just want to add one thing, which probably bothers many people: if the חכמים established the נוסח, we call it, what you're supposed to say, how do we have so many different versions of davening? So I just want to explain just once: the חכמים did not give the exact words to use. They gave the rules of what each תפלה, each prayer, each ברכה has to contain. And different great people established different words. So the יסוד, the foundation, the, the נקודה, the most important part of each, of the davening is all the same by everybody. All Jews daven the same. Just the different wording, because they all express the same thing, and there are different wordings how to express it. Our נוסח, which is נוסח האריז\"ל, the one that we daven, that Lubavitch davens, which is the נוסח of the אלטער רבי, is called the נוסח האריז\"ל. It wasn't written by the אריז\"ל, by the famous אריז\"ל. It's על פי האריז\"ל, that means the אלטער רבי looked into the קבלה according to the אריז\"ל, and based on what the אריז\"ל writes, he figured out how according to that קבלה the davening has to be. So according to the אריז\"ל, הודו has to come before ברוך שאמר, and every other things. And just to mention another thing, the אלטער רבי, when he established his נוסח, made sure that everything fits according to grammar, according to קבלה, according to הלכה, according to everything that is possible. That that's, the צמח צדק, his grandson, the third ליובאוויטשער רבי, writes that my grandfather chose out of so many different versions of davening, סולת נקיה, the most, the most fine flour after it was sifted and sifted and sifted, and he took it all out, and he established the נוסח. And this נוסח is something that through this, these words of davening, you could reach the highest levels. And anything that a person needs, oh you could say your own words, but that's not the most important, you could, in שמונה עשרה, in davening you have it, and we ask השם, and if you daven the right way, השם will answer. He will answer and He will listen to the prayers, because then if we daven the right way and we become deserving of His accepting our תפלות and answering, He will answer us. And what I'd like to say is that the main תפלה we need, which is שמונה עשרה is mentioned many times is that we need משיח. And if we really pray properly with the whole heart, השם will bring משיח very, very soon, בקרוב ממש.