So today we're going to continue in the series that we started on different portions of tefillah, and it's not that we're going to discuss different translations or interpretations of the different words of tefillah, but we're going through the general sections of tefillah to explain why we have those sections. Last week we discussed the first section, even though it was only two lines, but that's a whole section for itself and that was Modeh Ani. Today we are going to discuss the first section of davening, of the formal part of davening. You know that after Modeh Ani, and we get up and then we wash negel vasser, finally we say berachot, we say the Birchot Hashachar, we say all those blessings for the morning. And then we say korbanot, talk about the different sacrifices and איזהו מקומן, but that's all an introduction to davening. The first formal official section of davening that was established by the Chachamim is the section of davening that's called Pesukei Dezimra, the pesukim, the verses of song. And basically that starts from ברוך שאמר, and we have a little introduction to that itself, which is from הודו, but it goes from ברוך שאמר till after ישתבח, till ברכו. And from ברכו and on, from ברוך אתה השם אלקינו מלך העולם יוצר אור ובורא חושך, starts another section. That section is called ברכות קריאת שמע, the blessings of קריאת שמע. So we have the sections: פסוקי דזמרה, פסוקים of praise, I'll explain in a moment what that is. Then after that comes the section called ברכות קריאת שמע, the blessings of קריאת שמע. Then we have the section called קריאת שמע itself, the actual saying of the שמע. And then we have the section of שמונה עשרה, of the עמידה, the 18 or actually the 19 berachot that we say. And that was the main part of the tefillah. The main part of tefillah is the שמונה עשרה, those 18, 19 berachot. Reason I say 18, 19, because originally they were 18, and that's why it's called שמונה עשרה means 18, but later on another one was added by Rabban Gamliel, so now it's 19, but the name שמונה עשרה remained. And שמונה עשרה, that is the climax, that is the actual tefillah. And after that we have tachanun that we say, and the נפילת אפים when we put our head down, and then we have the end of the davening. But basically the davening is divided into four sections: it is פסוקי דזמרה, ברכות קריאת שמע, קריאת שמע, and שמונה עשרה. Actually in the Zohar it says that tefillah is compared to a ladder. And in a moment I'll, I explained it many times why and I'll repeat it again soon. On the פסוק by Yaakov Avinu in פרשת ויצא when it says he went to sleep and he had a dream, and in the dream he saw a סולם מוצב ארצה וראשו מגיע השמימה, he saw a ladder standing on the ground and its tip touched the שמים, touched the heaven, so the Zohar says סולם דא צלותא, the ladder that is davening. And it says in the Yerushalmi that in those days, I guess, an average ladder had four steps. They didn't have such high ladders. Had four steps, so too davening has four steps. So the first step is Pesukei D'Zimra, the second step is the berachot of Keriat Shema, the third step is the Keriat Shema itself, and the fourth step is Shemoneh Esrei. That's the going up, and then after that we go down. What we're going to discuss today is Pesukei D'Zimra. Pesukei D'Zimra means pesukim, verses of song, because what we do is from after Baruch She'amar, Baruch She'amar is the blessing that we say when we start the Pesukei D'Zimra, Yishtabach is the blessing that we say when we finish the Pesukei D'Zimra, and in between we have the Pesukei D'Zimra. Hodu is a little bit connected to it, but that's like an introduction. But basically after we have the blessings, what we do is we say different chapters of Tehillim and different parts, portions of other parts of the Torah where we describe the greatness of Hashem. Basically what it is, we sing the praise of Hashem. And if you look at the pesukim, that's what we say, we say those special kapitlech Tehillim which talk about Hashem and how Hashem controls the world, and how Hashem, all the stars and all the constellations, they all bow down to Hashem, and everything is batal to Hashem. We also have there the שירה, אז ישיר, which is also praise to Hashem when the Jews praised Hashem after they crossed the Yam Suf. One of the pesukim that we mention, and I'm mentioning that specifically because it'll be important for what we'll what I'll explain soon, we mention that Hashem chose Avraham Avinu, which means He chose the Jews. That's also mentioned here. אתה הוא השם אלקים אשר בחרת באברם, you are Hashem who chose Avram, and you took him out of Ur Kasdim, and you promised to give him the land, but basically these are pesukim that praise Hashem. We sing the song of praise. Pesukei D'Zimra means verses of praise of Hashem. Now, what is the reason why the chachamim established that the first section of davenen should be, Pesukei D'Zimra should be, verses of praise?

The Tur writes that this is based on the Gemara. The Gemara actually talks about the Shemoneh Esrei itself, but the same logic will apply here too. The Gemara says that when it comes to ask Hashem for our needs, the order has to be, תחילה יסדר אדם שבחו של מקום, first a person should praise השם, ואחר כך יתפלל, then you should daven. And that's why in the Shemoneh Esrei itself, till we get to those blessings which are asking Hashem for our needs, starting off with אתה חונן, the first one that starts off with אתה חונן לאדם דעת, which means You gave, You give people wisdom, and we're asking Hashem to give us wisdom, then we ask Hashem make us do teshuvah, make us learn, give us parnasah, give us health, all the different things we ask, but before that, we have three blessings starting from the beginning where we praise Hashem. And the Gemara says in the name of Rav Shamlai, he said that the order has to be that before we go to ask Hashem to be mispallel, to daven to Hashem, we have to first be mesader, put that, say the praise of Hashem, and that is concerning the Shemoneh Esrei specifically. So, too, in the general tefillah, the Chachamim established that the first section of tefillah, not only in the Shemoneh Esrei itself, but bichlal, the whole section of tefillah, the first section of tefillah should be pesukim where we praise Hashem, and that's why we say all these different pesukim. Now, there are obviously reasons why they chose these pesukim, I'm sure there are other pesukim which praise Hashem, so every single pasuk has a specific reason why that was chosen, but we are, like I said before, not going into the details. Maybe that'll be another series which could take a year, 10 years, to go through every little bit of davenen why they chose that, but generally speaking, they chose, the Chachamim chose pesukim that deal with the praise of Hashem. That is the reason why we have Pesukei DeZimrah, because that is like the order: first we have to praise Hashem and then we're able to daven to Hashem. That's the reason given by the Tur. Tosafot and the Rosh give another reason. The Gemara says, אין עומדים להתפלל אלא מתוך שמחה של מצוה. You shall not start davenen unless you first have simcha shel mitzvah, you have the feeling of joy in the mitzvot of Hashem. And if you don't have that, don't daven, which means you've got to make sure you have that first. So, in order to have the simcha shel mitzvah, the chachamim established we should say these pesukim, and these pesukim, being that they're a song, they're singing praise to Hashem, that will be מעורר, will awaken within the person the feeling of simcha, and a feeling of simcha shel mitzvah, because it's all connected to a mitzvah. So, then we're able to daven, because אין עומדים להתפלל, you shall not start davenen unless you have simcha shel mitzvah. That is the reason of Tosafot. So, here we have two separate reasons why the chachamim established Pesukei Dezimra in the beginning of davenen. In truth, the Alter Rebbe in Shulchan Aruch brings both reasons. So, obviously, the Alter Rebbe holds that they're not two separate reasons. They're both true, they're both reasons, and it seems from the Alter Rebbe Shulchan Aruch that they're both two parts of the same thing. It's not like two separate reasons that have nothing to do to each other. They are connected, as we will see, that the two reasons, even though they seem like two separate reasons, there is a connection between the two reasons. What I'm going to try to do is elaborate on what I just said, the reason why we say Pesukei Dezimra. In order to understand the the deeper peshat behind all this, we first have to understand, what does it mean that we have to praise Hashem? Why does Hashem want us to praise Him? What does He need our praise? When we talk about a human being, we understand what it means to praise the person. A person enjoys it, it makes him feel good. But why, when we talk about Hashem, what is the idea of praising Hashem? And the question is twofold: number one, you only praise somebody when the praise will mean something to him. When you have a person that gets affected by praise, he feels good, it gets him excited, so there is a reason to praise him. Hashem will not get excited with the praise that we give Him. Who are we? Imagine if a little little cockroach would praise you, what would you gain from it? Would that mean anything to you? As far as the cockroach is from Hashem, we, from us, we are further from Hashem. So, what is the idea of us praising Him? Does He get excited over us that we praise Him? Who are we? Hashem is Hashem, and we are here, and our praise means something to Him? That's one part of the question. And the second part of the question is the Gemara says that when we praise Hashem, basically we're limiting Him. Therefore, there is not enough praise. Better not to praise Him. There is a pasuk that says, \"ולך דומיה תהלה,\" the best praise for Hashem is to shh, be quiet. Don't say anything. Because when you praise Hashem with something good, you are saying as if that's what He is, but really He is much, much more, more than that. And the example given is, imagine you would praise a millionaire by saying, \"This guy, wow, he has ten dollars.\" That's not a praise! That's an insult! A person who is very poor, has doesn't have a penny, and finally got himself ten dollars, oh you say, \"Wow, this guy got ten dollars,\" and that's a praise. But if you're going to say this guy who is a millionaire has ten dollars, that's a joke! And that's not a praise, that's an insult. So, whatever we will praise Hashem, those praises don't really mean anything. So, what is the idea of praising Hashem? From both sides: it's the one that praise, who are we that Hashem should care that we praise Him? And the praise itself, what kind of idea, what is the idea of praising Him, when whatever we'll say, He is much, much more than that, and it's even less than ten dollars compared to a million. So, why would we praise Him? What's the idea of saying that you have to be מסדר שבחו של מקום, that you have to praise Hashem? But in order to understand that, let's get a little bit into the idea: what is tefillah? What is davening? People are used to thinking that tefillah means a time when you beg Hashem for the things that you need. You ask Hashem to give you what you need. That's how you translate tefillah in English with the word \"prayer.\" Prayer means that. You look in the dictionary, prayer means that you're asking Hashem to give you what you need. Which basically is the mitzvah of tefillah, it's true. I'm not saying this is not true. It is true that the mitzvah of tefillah is that whenever a person is in need, he has to ask Hashem. That's the way the mitzvah of tefillah is מדאורייתא from the Torah. The chachamim established a certain order, a certain times, and certain words we have to say, but the essential mitzvah of tefillah is that whenever we need something, we have to ask Hashem. That is true, so that is true tefillah. But this is not the essence of tefillah. The essence of tefillah is a time when the as the pasuk says by Chana, the first woman that we find really davened, we find in the Chumash in in Tanach, she said, \"ואשפך נפשי אל השם,\" that I am pouring out my soul to Hashem. It's a time when we pour out our soul to Hashem. It's a time when we communicate with Hashem. That's the that's what tefillah is. What it really means is it's a time when we connect to Hashem. That's what tefillah is supposed to be. And that is the real translation of the word tefillah. Tefillah is translated as prayer, but tefillah also has another meaning which means connection. The word tefillah in Hebrew means connection. When the son of Leah, na- some not of Leah, was born, Naftali, she named him Naftali. Because why did she name him Naftali? \"כי נפתולי אלקים נפתלתי עם אחתי.\" Rachel said that I got connected. Hashem connected me with my sister. Now I'm like my sister, I also have a child. So, the word נפתלי, אלקים נפתלתי, means connected. Or that there is an expression in the Mishnah where it says, if a vessel, a כלי חרס, broke, an earthenware vessel broke, and then you put it together again, there's a whole question, does it become tamei or not? The expression is התופל כלי חרס, if someone connects an earthenware. What's the word תופל? ת, ו, פ, ל. So, the word tefillah means connection. It's a time when we connect to Hashem, which in other words means it's a time when we have to have our dvekut to Hashem. The reason tefillah is connected also to ask Hashem when you need something is because the best time you're able to ask Hashem for something that you need is when you communicate with Him, and when you are connected to Him. So, the real concept of tefillah is the communication, and then we ask Hashem. It's not like people think it's the opposite, that tefillah means to ask Hashem for what we need, and at that time, we communicate, we try to get close to Him. It works the other way. Where do we know the concept of tefillah from Chumash? Because the pasuk says, \"ועבדתם את השם אלקיכם בכל לבבכם,\" you shall serve Hashem with all your heart. What does it mean to serve Hashem with your heart? Serving is something that you do. You serve serve Hashem by doing something. In a human, by a human being you serve, you bring him food, you do something. In those days, by lehavdil gods, avodah zarah, how would you worship avodah zarah? How do you serve avodah zarah? You would bring korbanot. Lehavdil lehavdil by Hashem also. But what does it mean to serve with the heart? If Hashem would say, \"You shall serve me by bringing sacrifices to me,\" that makes sense. What does it mean to serve Hashem with your heart? So the Gemara says, \"איזו היא עבודה שבלב? הוי אומר זו תפילה.\" Tefillah is the service of the heart, which means not the asking Hashem for our needs, but it's the feeling that we have that we connect ourselves to Hashem. In truth, when it comes to discuss what is the actual technical mitzvah of tefillah, we always say it's the mitzvah of saying the words of the asking Hashem for our needs. That is true, that is the technical part of tefillah, but that's only the superficial part. The main part of tefillah is the feeling that we have that we connect ourselves to Hashem. But the reason we count the technical part of the speaking and asking Hashem, because that's a rule that whenever we have a mitzvah that is made up of two sections, a section that has to do with feeling and thought, machshavah, and another section that has to do with speech or action, in the מנין המצות, in the, when we enumerate the mitzvot, we always count the technical part. But it doesn't mean that that's the main thing. Just to use an example, the mitzvah of teshuvah. What's the mitzvah of teshuvah? That you have to return to Hashem. Mitzvah of teshuvah is made up of three parts: you have to regret the past, you have to make up your mind for the future that you never again will do the aveirah, and then you have to confess with your lips. And when we look in the Rambam, which part of teshuvah does he count in the number of mitzvot? Only the vidui, only the part of confession. And the reason the Rebbe explains is because since it's a mitzvah that has two sections to it, a mitzvah of feeling, a part of feeling and a part of speaking, so you count the part of speaking. The same thing when it comes to learn Torah. When we learn Torah, the most important part is to understand what we're learning. Nevertheless, the halachah is you're not allowed to learn before you make a berachah in the morning, ברכת התורה, but that's only if you speak words of Torah. To think words of Torah, you're allowed, because that's not really the mitzvah, even though that's the most important part, but when we count the technical part, we always count that part. Same thing with tefillah. Really the main, most important part of tefillah is the feeling that we have, the connection that we get to Hashem at the time of davenen. The part that we're supposed to speak and the part that we're asking Hashem for our needs, that's the superficial part of it, but the main part is that feeling we have.

Now, in order to have a feeling of closeness to Hashem or we call it deveikut to Hashem, the first thing we have to do is get rid of all the negativity that we have within us, because that'll all block us from getting close to Hashem, from having deveikut. But besides that, that's obvious that we have to get rid of all that, but besides that, we have to work on our נפש הבהמית, on our animalistic soul, that he should also want to get close to Hashem, which means, in order for us to get close to Hashem, who are we? We are the body, and we have that life that's within us, that life force that's within us, which is not holy. We have a neshamah, too. We have a נפש אלוקית, a godly soul. But the godly soul is fine. The godly soul always wants to be connected to Hashem. What we have to work on is that we, as we are human beings, with our נפש הבהמית, with our animalistic soul, should want to get close to Hashem. That's what we need. Animalistic souls, you, people think we have a yetzer hara. We know we have a yetzer hara, but people think a yetzer hara means there's some kind of little מלאך, some kind of angel inside your heart that knocks on you and says, \"Listen here, do an aveirah or do things which are not proper.\" That's not so. The fact that we are create, we were created, and the fact that we are part of the nature of the world, part of the creation, that itself makes it that naturally, normally, we are pulled to physical matters rather than spiritual matters. That's only normal. That's what we mean. We have a נפש הבהמית. We have within us that life force which is part of nature, and therefore, as far as our nature is concerned, we are pulled to gashmiyus, we are pulled to physicality. We're not pulled to godliness. That's something that's beyond creation. That's the Creator, not creation. So, when we are within the creation, we are pulled to all these גשמיותדיקע things. And that blocks us from being close to Hashem, from getting the dveikus, the connection to Hashem. So what we have to do before we are able to reach the height of tefillah, which is the connection, what we have to do is work on ourselves to make sure, besides getting rid of all negativity, but even in the positive way, to make sure that we are able, we want to get close to Hashem. And who's the we? We as we are, with the body and our animalistic instincts that's within within us, the נפש הבהמית, which we want to get close to Hashem. And that's not an easy job. That's a very hard job. See, when you stand in front of a king, a human being, it is not hard to feel bitul, to feel self-nullification towards the king, because you see him with your eyes, you see him with your physical eyes. You know very clearly his power, and you know who he is. So the moment you walk over in front of the king, you don't have to work hard to stand there כעבדא קמיה מריה, like a servant in front of his master. It's a physical thing. There's nothing that's going to stop you, certainly, you can see it. And the feeling to have the feeling of fear and the feeling of bitul is natural. But when we're talking about getting that feeling towards Hashem, and Hashem we don't see. We believe in Hashem, we know He's there, but that belief is just a belief in our mind. It's far, it's not simple. The fact that we don't see Him doesn't mean He's not there, obviously, we know that. Someone who will say that because we don't see Him, then He's not there, that's stupid. Reminds me always of that joke I always repeat when I was in Russia twenty years ago when things were still bad. So someone there told me a joke. See, in Russia they always taught the children atheism. So the teacher once got up, and the teacher was discussing, and the teacher said to the children, picked up the pencil and said, \"Do you see the pencil?\" Everyone said, \"Yes.\" \"So, you see, there is a pencil.\" Then the teacher picked up the book. Said to the children, \"Do you see a book?\" \"Yes.\" \"So, there is a book.\" Then the teacher says, \"Do you see God?\" Everyone says, \"No.\" \"See, there is no God.\" So one smart boy gets up and he turns around to the class and says, \"Do you see the teacher's brains?\" \"No, the teacher has no brains.\" The fact that we don't see it doesn't mean it's not there. But nevertheless, we don't really have the feeling naturally towards it because it's not there. And we have to work very hard. And that's why we need steps in order to get to that point. When we come to Shemoneh Esrei, that's the epitome of our dveikus, of our connection to Hashem. But we have to go up there. There it says when we stand Shemoneh Esrei, we stand כעבדא קמיה מריה. Why is it that by Shemoneh Esrei we stand and we're not allowed to move, we can't sit, we have to stand, we can't look out, because that's the climax that we live, that we lead to, we reach, that we're standing in front of Hashem. But in order to get to that point that we should really feel it, there has to be steps. That's why there's a ladder with steps that we have to go up. And it's not easy. What we have to do is, like I said, get rid of our physical yeshus, let's call it. Not only some people think you have to get rid of the klipah, the evil that we have. Let's forget about evil. We have to get rid of our yeshus. Know what yeshus means? Yeshus means our selfishness, our ego, our who we are. And the fact that we have that yeshus, that self selfness, whatever we'll call, I mean I just made up a word or something, but the fact that we have that is not bad, it's not something that's wrong. It's natural, but we've got to get rid of it in order to really connect ourselves to Hashem, because that blocks it from Hashem. That's why in Zohar and different places, tefillah is called a war. It says in the Zohar: שעת צלותא, שעת קרבא. The time of davenen, the time of war. With whom are we fighting? You think we're fighting with some with with the terrorists? We're fighting with ourselves. We're fighting with the klipah that we have, but not klipah evil, with our yeshus, with our fact that we are a being. That that itself is a contradiction to the true dveikus in Hashem. The true connection to Hashem means that we realize that Hashem is the real, true, true one being. The fact that we feel ourselves a metziut, I'm also something, that doesn't allow us to have the real deveikut. That's what we call yeshut. If you're fancier, you call it yetzer hara, but that's really yeshut. The word yesh, know what the word yesh means? Yesh means a being, that's all. The word yesh means a being. The fact that we are a being, that's already something that blocks us from being close to Hashem. By Chasidim The greatest insult would be when they would say to somebody, \"Du bist a yesh!\" Big deal, you're a yesh, you're a you're a something, so I'm something. Because you learn Chasidus, you know that that, what do you mean I'm a something? No, there's no something. They even say a difference, it's a joke, a difference between a Chasid a baal gaavah and a non-Chasid a baal gaavah. A non-Chasid a baal gaavah says to somebody, \"You are nothing, and I'm something.\" And the Chasid a baal gaavah says, \"I'm nothing, and you're two times nothing.\" But the fact that he knows that he's nothing, that is but that's what but naturally we don't know that. That's called a yesh. They even say this is again, it's not a joke, but it's a vort. The Gemara says that we have three titles. We have the yetzer hara, the Satan, and the malach hamavet. The yetzer hara is the one is the evil inclination that comes to tell us to do wrong things. Then we have the Satan, he's the prosecutor against us. And then the malach hamavet is the one that kills. And the Gemara says, you should know that they're all the same. הוא היצר הרע, הוא השטן, הוא המלאך המות. First he comes down in a form of a yetzer hara and tries to convince us to do aveirot, then he goes up and he prosecutes, and then he's sent down to be the malach hamavet. But Chasidim used to say like this, what happened was, and listen to this, that originally Hashem gave him a name yetzer hara, I'm sorry, malach hamavet. And he started doing his job. But then people realized malach hamavet is a terrible guy, so they stopped listening to him. So he came to Hashem, and he says to Hashem, \"Listen here, people realize who I am. I can't do my job. They're not accepting me.\" So Hashem said, \"You know what? I'll change your name. And I'll start calling you Satan.\" Satan sounds already more fancy. So he came down to this world again as the Satan, and he started doing his job. People didn't realize. But then the people realized eventually that it's the same guy, just with a different disguise. So he came again to Hashem and complained. He says, \"Hashem, they caught on who I am.\" Hashem said, \"I'll give you a new name: yetzer hara.\" יצר, יצר is like a מלאך, it sounds fancy, it sounds good. So he came down and started doing his job again as a yetzer hara. But after a while, after many years, people caught on. He comes back to Hashem, and he says, \"Hashem, they caught on. What do I do now?\" \"Give you a new name: נפש הבהמית.\" נפש הבהמית, \"Oh, that sounds a נפש. A נפש is a soul. You come down in the shape of a soul, people think you're something gewaltig, great.\" So he came down, oh, he was matzliach! He started working, people are listening to him. But after a while, people realize who this guy is. So he came back to Hashem, and he said, \"Hashem, I got a problem again.\" So Hashem said, \"I'll give you a new name. Now your name is יש.\" And it's still working. But we have to remember that הוא היש, הוא הנפש הבהמית, הוא היצר הרע, הוא השטן, הוא המלאך המות. It's all one. So basically, what I'm trying to get to is that we all have this ישות in us which doesn't allow us to reach the level of being דבוק, connected to Hashem. So what do we do? And the Chachamim knew that that's a problem.

So what the Chachamim said, first thing to do is say Pesukei d'Zimra. What do we have in Pesukei d'Zimra? When we look in Pesukei d'Zimra, we have this pesukim where we praise Hashem. And we praise Hashem with what? It's not for the benefit of Hashem. Usually when you praise somebody, it's for the benefit of the person you praise. You want him to enjoy it, you want him to like it, you want him to get a compliment. Here it's for our benefit. There are two ways of praising Hashem. We could praise Hashem with things which are beyond the creation, and we could praise Hashem with things which are part of the creation. Sometimes we say Hashem is so great that He's beyond this world, and everything that He made is nothing compared to Him, and He is in truth, He would never have made it, it was He had to lower Himself. But then there is another part. We praise Hashem with things of the world itself. We look into the world, and we say, \"Look, there's such great stars, you have the sun and the moon. And all that came from Hashem?\" So we start thinking to ourselves that the whole world is batel to Hashem, which means we don't praise Hashem with things which are beyond nature, but we praise Hashem from within the nature itself. We know that Hashem is both. Hashem is beyond nature, supernatural, and Hashem is within the nature. Basically, as we always learned, that's the difference between the name הויה, י-ה-ו-ה of Hashem, and the name אלקים. The name אלקים is the way Hashem is in nature, that's why the word Elokim is the גימטריא, the numerical value of הטבע, of the nature, and י-ה-ו-ה is היה, הוה, ויהיה together, it's past, present, and future in one word. That's a way Hashem is beyond nature. So sometimes we praise Hashem, and that's a different ענין, beyond nature. But here what we do in these פסוקים, we don't praise Hashem with things beyond nature. We praise Hashem with things in nature, to show that the whole nature is only there because of Hashem. And the whole nature bows down to Hashem, and Hashem controls the nature, which basically means not only the nature, part of the nature is me. I am part of the nature. I'm a creature, I was created. And Hashem is my בעל הבית, and my whole life is because of Hashem. There's a פסוק that says לאהבה את השם אלקיך כי הוא חייך, you shall love Hashem because He is your life. Sometimes you're able to love Hashem, you think it says high מדרגה of person loving Hashem cuz He's so great and so removed from the world that I have to get close to Him. But here we're talking about the opposite, loving Hashem because He's my life. Imagine someone gives you your life, someone saves one's life, all your whole life you feel thankful to this person. You always show appreciation. There is nothing that you could do to make this person happy, you know he saved your life. Even if a person didn't save your life, he just helped you once, you feel appreciation. Certainly a person who saved your life. What about Hashem who didn't save our lives, He gave us, He made us? That ישות that we have, which doesn't allow us to get close to Hashem, but when we realize that our whole being is only here because of Hashem, as we say in the in the פסוקי דזמרה, then that makes it easy for us that now we are able to get davek to Hashem. That's why the word פסוקי דזמרה, זמרה means song. But the word zimrah, it says in חסידות, has another meaning. It comes from the expression לזמר עריצים. When a person would cut out the thorns from the trees, that's called לזמר עריצים. פסוקי דזמרה is basically to get rid of the thorns. To get rid of that thorn that we have, which doesn't allow us to reach the level that we're supposed to reach in תפילה, פסוקי דזמרה helps us do it. That's why there's a פסוק that says, and we say it in פסוקי דזמרה too, רוממות אל בגרונם וחרב פיפיות בידם, which here, we say it in one of the פסוקים. רוממות אל בגרונם means if you have the praise of Hashem in your throat, וחרב פיפיות בידם, then you hold a sword, which is a double-edged sword in your hand. What does that mean? By praising Hashem, by doing that we are actually fighting with our own ישות. We realize that Hashem is in control of nature and made the nature. So Hashem is really controlling me. My whole being is there because of Hashem. So how could I not be davek to Hashem? And this is something that the נפש הבהמית could understand. The נפש הבהמית means our nature could understand that. When we talk about Hashem as He's beyond nature, then you could say, \"Well, that's emunah. How do we know that? We have no concept of beyond nature, so we're just told about it.\" But what nature is we know. And when we start thinking and realizing and praising Hashem for the nature that He made, that He is in control of nature, then it makes it that we should naturally be able to be vessels to become davek to Hashem. This is the reason why it is also called a song. What is the idea of a song? When does a person sing a song? If a person has a feeling, an overwhelming feeling that he cannot express in simple words, it comes out in a song. That's really what a song... well, people enjoy singing, that's besides, but the real concept of a song is that when a person has a feeling, so when you have a feeling, you say it. But sometimes feeling is so great that you can't even say it, it comes out in the in the song. And this is what we're talking about here. This is supposed to be a song, meaning it's supposed to be overwhelming, overtake us, that our whole being should be flooded, so to speak, with realizing who that we're nothing, and we have to become davek to Hashem. And we could realize that in our seichel, because we're doing it through the nature, not through beyond nature. That's why it says פסוקי דזמרה should be said out loud, because פסוקי דזמרה is the time when we are supposed to combat this נפש הבהמית that we have. And the נפש הבהמית is called a בהמה, because naturally we're like an animal, we're like a בהמה. Just like a בהמה, all it cares is about itself, and it doesn't have seichel, it just has ta'avot, and when it does what it wants, naturally we are just because of our natural existence, we would be the same. Actually it says עיר פרא אדם יולד. A person is born, if a person would be born in the jungle and no one would train the person to do anything, he would grow up like an animal, because naturally that's how we are. We just have seichel, so we work on ourselves, but naturally that's how we are. A בהמה, what it does does loud and strong, says רב תבואות בכח שור, there's a lot of strength in an ox. we have our ox too. So since we're trying to overcome this נפש הבהמית, who is basically heated and something is there, we do the same in the opposite way. That when we say this song, which is to overcome it, and to make the נפש הבהמית use its koach towards Hashem, it's done with קול רעש, it's done with noise. Besides, it says another reason. It says, since this is a time when we're getting rid of our ישות, it says that when you put a big piece of wood on fire, it knacks. It makes noise. If you put a like straw or little little toothpicks on fire, it quiet, it's quiet. But when you have to fight, when you put a big piece of wood on fire, it makes noise, because it's really fighting. That's really what we're doing. We are fighting our yetzer hara, so that's why it's done loud, and it's done in the form of a it becomes a song, because it's something it's overwhelming. Which is really what was the avodah of the Leviim in the Beit Hamikdash. In the Beit Hamikdash, we know we had the Kohanim, they did the service in the Beit Hamikdash with the korbanot. They slaughtered it, they spritzed the blood, they did the service of the korbanot. But then you had the Leviim. What was their job? Leviim sang songs. And it says in the Zohar, what was the idea of the songs? When they sang the song, the point was, this was a way of getting close to Hashem. Because the whole concept of a korban is to bring a person close to Hashem. The word korban comes from the word kiruv. Kiruv means closeness. It's to get close to Hashem. So in order to get close to, and what, to get what close to Hashem? Our נפש הבהמית. That's why they would take a בהמה, an animal, and bring it as a korban, and that was supposed to represent and help us take our בהמה and our בהמה make close to Hashem. So they would sing. This would express the fact that there is an overwhelming feeling to get close to Hashem and to get rid of the בהמה. The בהמה would get burnt. And which part of the בהמה actually would they bring on the מזבח? The blood and the fat of most korbanot. Because the blood, that represents the heat of the person. The fat, that represents the pleasure of the person. It says in Gemara, and I, and it's physically true, that the pleasure is something that makes the person fat. Person, says a פסוק, שמועה טובה תדשן עצם. Good news will make your bone fat. So the pleasure, which is the fat, and the blood, which is the heat, that went on the מזבח from the בהמה. And along with that came the song of the Leviim, because that's the way that would be expressed that they're able to get close. Tefillah, we know, davenen is במקום קרבנות. Daven takes the place of korbanot, which is the same thing. In davenen, we have to also take our בהמה, and we think of it, we have a בהמה inside a yetzer hara, that's not what it is. We, if I might say it, we are the בהמה. Just the fact that we are who we are naturally, without getting close to Hashem, we are like an animal. Naturally, we are just pushed and pulled to gashmiyut like a בהמה. We have to get that close to Hashem. So we have the pesukei dezimra that helps us, by realizing the greatness of Hashem within the nature, that makes us realize that we really are able to get close to Hashem, and we should we could get close to Hashem. This is the idea of the second reason. You see, this explains the first reason, that what is the idea of saying pesukei dezimra? By doing that, we praise Hashem before we daven, and the idea of praising Hashem in this way is so we should be ready to get close to Hashem. But the second reason was that this is to bring us to simcha shel mitzvah, to bring us to have a simcha in the mitzvah. And that's also connected, because what is the פשט שמחה של מצוה? Where does a person get the simcha of doing the mitzvah? Let me explain that. We know it's very important for a person to have simcha when you do a mitzvah. Besides the actual doing of the mitzvah, to do a mitzvah with joy is very important. The Rambam says, שמחה של מצוה עבודה גדולה היא. It's a very important avodah to be simcha shel mitzvah. Where does a Why would a person have to have simcha? You do a mitzvah, but why is it so important to have simcha? So the Rambam gives two words why it's important and where the simcha comes from. He says simcha shel mitzvah means שמחת הקל שציוונו. It's the simcha that a person has that Hashem commanded us to do something. Just that. Imagine if we start thinking, who is Hashem, and who am I? We're so far apart. And nevertheless, Hashem lowered Himself from the high level that He is, came down to me, and commanded me to do something. Shouldn't I be happy? Imagine if the greatest person in the world you could imagine, the Rebbe would come over to you and ask you to do something for you, no matter what, the smallest thing. You know how you would feel? Lehavdil lehavdil, the President of the United States walks over to you, says, please do me a favor, do something for me. You'd be very happy, you'd be on the seventh cloud for weeks! The President came to me and asked me to do something for him. If a person is not happy with that, that shows, or he doesn't or he's not normal, or he doesn't know what the President is, or a person is not happy with something that's so great. A person is told, get you'll get a million dollars, and he's not happy, or he doesn't know what money is, or he's not normal, he can't hear, I don't know, something's wrong with the guy. But you have to be happy. So when we know what it means that Hashem commanded us to do a mitzvah, we have to be happy. That's what the Rambam says, if a person doesn't have the simcha shel mitzvah, that shows there's something wrong. So what is the idea of simcha shel mitzvah? Simcha shel mitzvah is the idea of recognizing that Hashem came down to him to give him the mitzvah. That's what we need here. We need here, by pesukei dezimra, we need that we, as we are down here low, what who we are, should feel that we are able to connect ourselves to Hashem. So the pesukei dezimra brings out, number one, it's the praise of Hashem, which makes it possible us for us to get close, to get davek. Pesukei dezimra is the simcha shel mitzvah, is the second reason that we said. This brings out that simcha, that recognition that Hashem, who's so great, is down here within me, came down to me. So if he came down to me, so I with my נפש הבהמית am able to feel close to him. This is why the chachamim were מתקן and said that we have to do this before the before we start, we have to praise Hashem.

Then there's another point which is really connected to this. You have the famous פסוק where it says, ואתה קדוש יושב תהלות ישראל, and you, the holy one, sit on the praise of Jews. And Chassidus says, what does that mean? What is the peshat sitting? The peshat sitting is when a person stands and you lower yourself, that's the peshat you're sitting down. We want Hashem to lower himself and come down within us. We want to have the Shechinah within us. So the Pasuk tells us, ואתה קדוש יושב, what will make the holy one, blessed be he, Hashem, sit down, which means come down to us? תהלות ישראל, that is through the praise that the Yidden praise Hashem. When we praise Hashem, Hashem has so much enjoyment, not that he needs it, for us, it shows how much we feel that Hashem is within us and helps us, that he's so happy, says, for that, I will dwell within you. When you ask a Yid and you say, how are you? And he says, thanks Hashem for giving me help, just by saying that, you bring Hashem within you. Well, here comes in the famous story of the Baal Shem Tov, that he when he was in the earlier years, he used to go around and just ask people how they are: how are your children? How's your wife? How are you? How's Parnasa? Just in order to hear from them Baruch Hashem, geloybt der eybershter, all kinds of expressions. And the story goes, he once came into a town, and the town there was a, let's say, פרוש, a person who locked himself in a room for forty years and he sat and learned. Fine. And wouldn't talk to anybody. And the Baal Shem Tov saw him, walked over to him, said, Reb Yid, vos macht ir? How are you? He didn't pay attention, didn't turn around to him. So the Baal Shem Tov says to him, why don't you answer me? You know, if you don't answer me, chas veshalom, you could cause for השם צו אוועקגיין פון דער וועלט. In Yiddish, אוועקגיין פון דער וועלט means to pass away, to die. So it sounded like he said to him, if you don't answer me, you're going to cause Hashem to pass away, to go away. So the guy heard some guy saying such nonsense, he turned around, he said, what are you talking about? So he said to him, the Pasuk says, ואתה קדוש יושב, you, holy one, what makes you sit? What brings you down? תהלות ישראל, the praise of Yidden. And you don't want to praise Hashem? Because when we praise Hashem, we bring Hashem down within us. And this is what we're saying here: when we daven, what we really doing is we have to get close to Hashem. We're working ourselves up, walking up the ladder to get close to Hashem, by the time we come to Shemoneh Esrei, we are standing right in front of Hashem. And in order to get to there, we have to do all kinds of things. So P'sukei D'Zimra is the first step on that ladder that we have to make sure that we're able to do it by working on our נפש הבהמית. So one of the things that we do is we praise Hashem, and when we praise Hashem, that makes Hashem closer to us, and therefore we are able to work to get דבוק to Hashem by praising Hashem. And this is why the חכמים established the P'sukei D'Zimra should be the beginning of davenen. But this is not the only thing that we do. After P'sukei D'Zimra, and a person who davens properly, and the חכמים, when they established the davenen, they established it according to the way it should be, and this could take technically hours to really think what it means and reach a level So where we feel already that our נפש הבהמית, our ישות is getting ready, already realizes, you know, Hashem is in control of the nature of me, then we could continue, it's not finished yet, then we could continue to go to ברכות קריאת שמע, and that we have to have another shiur to know what does ברכות קריאת שמע add, and then we go to קריאת שמע, and finally the end is that we go to שמונה עשרה when we stand in front of Hashem like an עבד ממש, we feel one with Hashem. And then the whole purpose is that afterwards we go down the ladder and we bring down that feeling that we had down into our daily lives, and that is the part of the davenen afterwards. But that's for the