Because when we start off saying that we're going to speak about a relationship, it shows some comparison, some connection, something that will combine two things. And the next word we say is, a relationship between who? Between who? Between man and God. When we think of man and God, automatically, this is as if making speaking about something which are very, very far apart, which almost impossible to say there should be a relationship. Because man is just a human being, blood and flesh, limited to the limits of the physical world, while God is unlimited, infinite, He is supreme, He is anything that we could any word which would show that He is supreme could use. So, as if we cannot even say that there is a connection, a relationship between man and God. But on the other hand, we do say there is a relationship between man and God. And the question is, how do we know there is? Why are we so sure that there is a relationship between man and God, that we're able to discuss this topic and discuss what it means, a relationship between man and God, and how the relationship comes about? The first thing we have to know is, who says there is a relationship between man and God? But when we start thinking in the this topic of the relationship between man and God, we are forced to say, if we just think a little bit deeper into this topic, we are forced to say that there must be a relationship between man and God. Because we believe, we know that God created the world. The world didn't happen by itself, as maybe some people would think, but the truth is that God created the world. The essence, the essential part of the world was the human being that God created. Everything else in the world is to serve the person, to serve the human being. As we find also in the Gemara. The Gemara says that what is the reason why the human being, Adam Harishon, was created on the sixth day? He was created the last, after everything else was created. So the Gemara says many reasons. One of the reasons is כדי שימצא הכל מוכן לסעודה, that he should find everything ready to his party, to his meal. Everything in the world was created for the human being. So, therefore, the human being had to be created at the end, so everything will be there ready for him to start doing what he's supposed to do. So, we say here that God created the the world with the human being being its middle point, its at- its essence. The reason, the purpose was for the human being. When we think of this idea that God created the world, we are forced to say, again, logically forced to say, we are logically forced to say that there is a purpose in the creation of the world. Even a just a plain human being in our level, if he's just a normal person, he wouldn't do something without a purpose, without a reason. Who does something that has no reason, just just to do it? As in Yiddish we would say, א משוגענער, נישט קיין נארמאלער מענטש. But a person that has some sechel, and a person that knows what he's doing, surely would do something only for a certain purpose. Sometimes the purpose is a good purpose. Sometimes it could be a bad purpose. He has bad intentions, but he has some intentions there while he's doing something. Sometimes he could do something correct, sometimes his intentions would be a mistake. He thought that this would be good and this would come out of a certain thing, and it didn't. Everything is possible. But, one thing is for sure, that when a person, a normal person does something, there must be a reason why he did it. There must be a purpose, a goal he is trying to reach, whether it's a higher goal or a lower goal, depends who's doing it. A great mind would do something with a deep goal. A person who's just a plain, normal human being would do it to the goal in his level. But there must be some goal in what the person is doing. If it is so when we speak of a human being, it is certainly so when we speak of God. That surely, when He created the world, He didn't just do it for no reason. He just decided to make a world just like that. Surely he had a reason why he created the world and the essence of the world, which is the human being. So we already come to this point, that there is definitely logically a reason, a purpose for the creation of the world. When we continue along this line of thought, we have to continue and say that it is sure that God told us, told the world the purpose of why he created the world. Because again, when we look at a plain, normal human being, when he makes something for some purpose or let's say, in an example, he would ask someone to come over his house for a purpose, he wants him to do something for him. So it wouldn't make sense if he'd invite him over to his house with a reason for something and he wouldn't tell him the reason, and he'd let him sit there. How should the guy know what his reason is, what the purpose is? If God created the world, and certainly there must be a reason for it, he just didn't do it just like that. So there is a reason, something he wants of the people that exist in the world. So certainly he told them what this purpose is. He wouldn't just create them for a purpose and let them wander and worry and think and not know what the purpose is. So this logically forces us to say that God gave us some type of laws. He gave us some type of book. He told us somehow or other, he revealed to us what the purpose of the creation of the world. Actually, this is the Torah. He gave us the Torah where he tells us what he wants of us. I'm not going to explain and I cannot explain and there is no explanation why he wanted this, we're not going into that, but we do know what he wanted. What was the purpose of our creation? He gave us a book of laws. And those people that argue and say the Torah is not מן השמים, the Torah was not given by God. So we would ask them, so you do admit that God created the world? Well, if they admit, if not then it's a different story. But if they admit that God created the world, and if they have some sechel, some logic, they will admit that God had a purpose in creating the world in creating the world. Then how is it possible that he left the world without anything, without telling them what he wants of them? So they say the Torah is not מן השמים, the Torah was not given by God, it was man-made. People got together, God forbid, and wrote the Torah. So let's think about it. So what did God do to give, how did God reveal his purpose in creating the world? He didn't. So then God is worse than a person who's abnormal. A person who is only normal would surely do something with a purpose and reveal the purpose to the person he wants him to accomplish his purpose. So certainly we must say that there was some type of of revelation of God to tell us what he wants of us. And this forces us to say too that not only is the Torah shebichtav from God, but also the Torah sheba'al peh. The Torah is divided into two parts, the written Torah and the oral Torah. The Torah the five books of Moses the five books of Moshe Rabbeinu the Chamishah Chumshei Torah, and then we have the Torah sheba'al peh which is the Gemara and the other sefarim. They are the oral law, they were given over orally to Moshe Rabbeinu, they were not written down. So here we have people that say that the written Torah was given by Hashem, by God, but the oral Torah was not. And there were groups of people in the time of the Gemara yet that were called Tzedukim, that this was their belief. There were people later on called the Kara'im that they also believed only in the Torah shebichtav the written Torah, not in the Torah sheba'al peh. They said the Torah sheba'al peh, the written the oral law was not given was not given by God. But, again, this does not make sense. Because if we look into the written Torah and without the explanation of the oral Torah given over to us, passed over to us by the rabbis of all generations, by looking into the written Torah we still do still do not understand what we have to do. For instance, let's give an example. The Torah says you should rest on Shabbos. What does rest on Shabbos mean? Can mean many things. Rest on Shabbos means to sit, lie in bed all day. It means, could mean not to do certain types of work. That could mean many things. Now by having the written Torah without the explanation of Torah sheba'al peh, we're still confused. God still didn't reveal to us what is our purpose, he just gave us outlines, not telling us truly what it is to be done. The תורה שבעל פה, the oral Torah is what explains that Shabbos means you're not allowed to do the 39 specific types of work. If not for the תורה שבעל פה, we would think to strike a match on Shabbos, nothing wrong with that. We would think to open the light on Shabbos, nothing's wrong with that. We have to have the oral Torah to tell us the specific laws what we are to do. Take, for instance, tefillin. The Torah says you shall strap it around your hand, close by your heart, you should put it between your eyes. What should you put? How should you put? We don't know. Maybe you should take a potato and put it on top of your eyes. Maybe you should take a carrot, maybe you should take wood, maybe who knows what? The Torah doesn't say anything. It is the oral law that comes, the rabbis explain to us that they received from their rabbis, and they from their rabbis, back to Moshe Rabbeinu, that when the Torah says you should tie it between your eyes, we mean you should take leather boxes made in such and such a way, written in such and such a way, put it in such and such a place. The תורה שבעל פה is what explains to us what we are to do. So if we would believe, chas v'shalom, that only the written Torah was given by God, and the oral Torah was not, so we're back to our problem. So it comes out that God left us, put us into the world, certainly had a purpose in creating the world, certainly wants something of us, and didn't tell us. Or He gave us some kind of book, which is very confusing, we still don't know what to do, and that's what He says now, as we would say in Yiddish, klap zikh kop an vant, do what you want, figure it out yourself. That's impossible, a normal person wouldn't do it either. So if we understand a normal person would surely specify to the people that he wants to do something, tell him what he wants, how he wants, certainly Hashem did. So we come and reach this point that when God created the world with the human being as its middle point, as the essential part of the creation, He surely gave us the Torah, and He gave us the תורה שבכתב, the written Torah, and the oral Torah, and says this is your purpose in the creation, this is what I want of you. And therefore, what comes out? That when we do what is wanted of us by God, we fulfill His wishes, automatically we are related to Him. And as I mentioned other times, that when we do something for someone else, whoever it may be, this actual doing the other person's will is a means of connection, a means of relationship. His will is done by me, I am doing it for him, so this itself causes a relationship. So here we come to the answer to the question of to the answer on the question that I started in the beginning: who knows that maybe there is no relationship? We said there is a relationship between God and man, the question was asked, maybe we cannot relate to Him? Maybe we cannot be connected to Him? The answer is very plain. If He created the world, and He certainly had a purpose, and He gave us a book of laws, תורה שבכתב and תורה שבעל פה, telling us what He wants of us, this is His will, for whatever reason, we won't go into that, as I said before, I don't know why, no one knows why, but this what certainly is. So, by doing His will, automatically we are connected and related to Him. Even more so, the question is answered even stronger than we had in the beginning. Our question was how do we know that we can relate to Him, that we can be connected to Him? Now that we come to this point, not only can we be related to Him, we have to be related to Him. There is no two ways about it. It's just that we have our free choice, God created us in a way that He gave us free choice not to do what is expected of us. But if we want to do what is expected of us, then we have to, not only we are able to relate to Him, we have to relate to Him, because we have to fulfill His wishes, we have to come to the goal that He, He with a capital H, He wanted of us when He created the world. And this is תורה ומצוות. So it comes out that our whole purpose of being created in this world was to do His will and therefore, automatically, relating to Him and becoming closer to Him.

If we look a little bit into the side, we could and see that actually, this is the purpose of everything in the world. The purpose of everything in the world is to elevate itself and relate to something above itself. Meaning to say, the world, everything includes, that includes everything, is divided into four parts, four categories: דומם, צומח, חי, ומדבר. They include the four categories of דומם, which means the objects that are not able to move, like sand, rocks, and so forth, צומח are the the plants, Things that grow, חי are the animals that live, and מדבר is the speaking human being. The purpose of every one of these categories is to elevate itself and to come to a higher level. The purpose of the דומם, of the unmovable objects, is to reach a level that it will not be דומם anymore, it'll become part of the צומח. When you plant something in the ground and the plant gets its nourishment from the ground, the plant is united with the ground. So the ground around the plant becomes part of the growing world. So the ground, the דומם becomes part, is elevated to the part of צומח. When an animal eats grass, eats anything, any other food, it elevates the צומח, the צומח becomes part of the animal, becomes part of חי. As the saying goes, you are what you eat. It's true! The animal is what it eats. So when the animal eats grass, the grass becomes part of the animal. So now the grass is not at the level of צומח anymore, now became part of the level of of חי. It became part of the higher level, of the animalistic level. Then, when the human being eats the animal, kosher animal for sure, so then what happens? That becomes part of the human being. So the piece of flesh that originally was in the level of animal, the animal world, becomes now in a higher level, is elevated to the level of a human being. This is by the way the reason why we don't find in the Torah that the Torah should encourage vegetarianism. The Torah is a Torah of chesed, so Torah does only good and only wants good. So why shouldn't the Torah encourage people to be vegetarians and not to eat meat? It's tzaar baalei chaim, the animal suffers. And the truth is that we do find that Torah does care about animals, and when an animal is still alive, the Torah says you're not allowed to make it suffer. You're not allowed to make an animal have pain. It's an issur deoraita, it's a prohibition not from the rabbis, from the Torah! So why isn't it that the Torah should prohibit eating animals, or at least encourage you shouldn't eat animals, better to be a vegetarian? You make the animal suffer by eating it. The truth is it's not. The way the Torah looks at it, you're doing the animal a favor. You're elevating the animal to a higher level. Till now the animal was in the level of animal, of chai. Now the animal is elevated by the person eating it, becoming דם ובשר כבשרו, becoming blood and flesh of the human being. The animal now becomes human! So you elevate it. Just like these are to be elevated, the fourth level, which is the מדבר, the human being, his goal is to elevate himself too. But the question is: where can he go? The דומם, the lowest, could go to the to the צומח, to the growing. The growing could go to the animal. The animal could go to the human. And where could the human go? He is the top. And as I said before, he is the center point of the creation. He is the center point of the whole universe! So where can he go? His goal is to relate to God. God is above the limits of the human being. The goal of the person is to elevate himself, become close to the level above him. He is the highest level of creation. He is to elevate himself to the Creator, to God. How is he able to? So as I said before, by listening to God, doing his mitzvot, which we have to do because otherwise we are not fulfilling, we are not doing what is expected of us as a purpose of creation. So we must do it, and by doing his will, automatically we elevate ourselves and we become a level we could say a little bit above the world, we become close to him.

But the question is: after all, how are we be able how are we able to become close to him when we are so different and so opposite of him? We are human beings which are limited to what the physical world has for us. He is unlimited, supreme, and everything that as I mentioned before. How is it possible after all that we should have some connection to him? And the answer is very plain to this: it is only within the limits of this world that a limited being cannot unite itself with an unlimited being. They're two opposites. But when we're speaking here of God, Who is unlimited himself, and he was the one that gave us the mitzvot, he was the one that created us, and he was the one that made, had the purpose in creation, creating the world. So it is in his ability to cause this, to cause that we should be able to relate to him, be related to him, and be able to be connected to him. We cannot understand this. We cannot have an explanation to it, because it is beyond our understanding to understand how it's possible that these two opposites should have any relationship, but that makes no difference. Because we, with our limited minds, don't understand, doesn't make a difference and doesn't disprove the truth. On the contrary, I would say, if we would be able to understand it, then I would question the whole idea. If it is so that God that we believe in is unlimited, and is so great, how in the world do we expect to understand him, and understand his ways, and understand his abilities? It's impossible. The Gemara says, it's just an example, that פילא בקופא דמחטא, to push through an elephant through a hole of a needle, it's impossible. You can't do it. Why? The elephant is very big, the hole of a needle is very small, and it's impossible to get something very big through a very small hole. The elephant and the small hole are both limited. The difference is only in how limited. This one is bigger, and this one is smaller. But actually, they're both limited. And how much bigger is the elephant than the hole of the needle? 100 times, a thousand times, 10,000 times, but that's about it. Still, it is impossible for a limited being, which is bigger, to come through, pass through, a small hole, which is also limited. Now imagine if we want, if we expect, in our sechel, in our brain, which is limited, we all agree that our brain is limited, how great your brain is, it's still limited to something, to a level, and God's understanding and knowledge and ability and everything is unlimited. Now how do we expect in our limited brain to comprehend the unlimited? It's impossible. And therefore, by us not understanding a way of Hashem does not question it at all. If we would understand it, then I would say, how is it possible? If he is truly unlimited, then how are we, the limited beings, able to understand? This is an explanation why some people, to some people's questions that they ask, there are so many things in the Torah, so many mitzvot that have no explanation, how could I do it? It couldn't be given by God, God wouldn't speak things which don't make sense, God wouldn't tell us to do things which have no reason behind it, if it was given by God, everything must be clear, must have its reason. The truth is just opposite. If every single mitzvah in the Torah, and every single word in the, word in the Torah, would be understood by our mind, I would be maybe the first one to question the whole Torah. I would question whether the Torah was really given by God. Because I wouldn't be able to understand, how is it possible that the Torah given by God, who is unlimited, should be completely understood by our limited minds? I would feel that the Torah was written by somebody who is in my level, therefore I am able to understand it. By not understanding many, many parts of the Torah, this is a proof that, on the contrary, the Torah was given by somebody we can't understand. And this applies not only to the Torah, this applies also to things that happen in the world. There are many people that question, there are so many things that happen in the world that have no answers. And the famous question, I don't want to get into the subject, but the famous question is the six million. There is no answer to it. There is no reason. Any reason we give, we'll always find questions on it. There is no real reason for it. So people come to a conclusion, well, this shows that God does not rule over the world, he doesn't exist, and so forth, and therefore there are no mitzvot, we don't have to do anything. On the contrary, if we would be able to understand the ways of Hashem, we'd be able to explain every single detail in what's happening in the world, then I would think that this is a proof that the world is ruled by somebody who is in my level, that I am able to comprehend, to understand his ways. Then I would question whether really God, who is infinite, rules over the world. Since we believe, we know that God, who is infinite, His ways are unable to be understood, He rules over the world. Therefore, there are so many happenings in the world that cannot be explained, and we don't know why. But this is all this all does not question, chas veshalom, God forbid, that it is God who does it all. Or by the Torah, by not understanding many, many details, and I'm telling you the truth. Sometimes we try to tell people there are reasons for this and reasons for that, and don't worry, we'll explain it to you. I'm telling you the truth, 95% of the mitzvot don't have an explanation. And those mitzvot that do have explanations, there are many, many details in the mitzvot that don't have an explanation. Any mitzvah you pick, the mitzvah of Shabbos has an explanation. God rested six days, the seventh day God worked six days and the seventh day He rested. So that explains Shabbos in general. But why this detail? Why only these 39 works, types of work, am I not allowed to do? Why muktzeh? Why this? Why any detail? Tzitzit? Maybe this doesn't have such a good reason. Take Pesach, has a good reason. The Jews were in Egypt, they ate matzah when they left, we eat matzah too. But why I have to clean the house and not find one speck of chametz? And what's wrong, why do you have to do this detail, it's so many details in every mitzvah that do not have a reason. And the answer to this is, it's not a reason, but it's an answer, because in our limited minds we are unable to understand the true meaning in God's wisdom, because it's unlimited. It is just, we could say, בחסד עליון, God being so good did us a favor and with His strong ability that He is able to do anything, made it possible for us to understand a drop, a little bit. That little bit that we do understand, we do have the reason for it, that's a favor that He did with to us that we should at least have some type of understanding. But really, it is impossible for us to understand. So that answers the Torah, the mitzvot, that answers also the actions, the things that happen in the world, that also answers the subject we started speaking about. The question was, we said that we must be united with God, that we're forced to do it, that's our purpose here in life. We must elevate ourselves, getting closer to God. And the question was, how is it possible we finite beings to be united with someone who is infinite? The answer was God can do anything. But the question is, but still we don't understand how He's able to do it. That makes no difference. On the contrary, because He is so great, and His ability is an ability which is unlimited, we with our limited minds cannot understand His unlimited actions, His unlimited ability, and we cannot understand how it's possible for us to be united to Him. But the fact is that we must say, as I stated in the beginning, that we must relate to Him and be close to Him, because He created the world with a purpose, He gave us the purpose in the Torah, Torah shebichtav and Torah shebe'al peh. We by doing the Torah, the mitzvot, doing His will which He certainly gave us, so that itself is a connection that we have with Him, that itself makes us relate to Him, makes us closer to Him.

When we reach this point already that we relate to Him because we fulfill the mission that He sent us down to this world for, so this adds another point. It comes out, according to this, that to fulfill this mission and to elevate ourselves to get closer to God is not only something we have to do, this is our whole מהות, this is our whole being. The whole reason why our being exists in this world is just for this purpose. Because other and do what God wants of us, and therefore be related, be close to Him. And if so, a person cannot say that a certain time of the day he will do things which will make him closer to God, and a certain time of the day he does things that have no connection to God, things that do not make him closer to God. It is impossible. It's as if he'll be saying that 10 minutes you have a purpose in your creation, 10 minutes later you have there's no purpose and why you exist at this moment in the world. It is as if saying God created the person that for 10 minutes a day that takes him to put on tefillin, there is a purpose for his creation. 10 minutes later when he goes about his other things, there is no purpose. There is nothing that God wants of him to do at that moment. It's impossible to say that. If God created the world and we exist, and as I said in the beginning, it is impossible to say that there isn't that God should do something for no reason, so we cannot say that there are 10 minutes of the person's life that these 10 minutes there is no reason why God created him. Impossible. So we must say that there is a reason every second of the person's daily life why he exists in the world at that moment. And this purpose is fulfilled by listening to God. But the truth is there is not a mitzvah that we have to do every single day, a single second of the day. But this teaches us that every single second of the day, a person is supposed to serve Hashem. This is the goal a person's to reach. We're not saying that there are many people that are on this level, but we are looking at the goal a person is supposed to reach, that every second of his life there is a goal that he has to reach, there is every second of his life there is a purpose, there is a mission that he has to accomplish. And that is the peshat that it says in Shulchan Aruch that except the mitzvot that we have, that we have to do every moment, every time the mitzvah comes up, there is a commandment of בכל דרכיך דעהו, which means in all your ways you shall know Hashem. Which means not only that when you do mitzvot, when you put on tefillin, when you learn Torah, when you're in shul, that's when you have to listen to Hashem and that's when you close to Hashem, but בכל דרכיך, in all your ways, when a person does things which are his own ways, his own business, not Hashem's ways, not mitzvot, not Torah, so בכל דרכיך, in all your ways, דעהו, you have to know Him. And וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, it says in Pirkei Avot. All your deeds should be for the sake of Hashem. All your deeds. It doesn't say that when you do a mitzvah you should do it for the sake of Hashem. That certainly. But it's adding more: וכל מעשיך, everything that you do on your own, which means that when you eat and you sleep and you go do your business, which is not a mitzvah, still it has to be לשם שמים, it has to be for the sake of Hashem. But why? Why couldn't we say that when you do mitzvot you're listening to Hashem, so you're doing it for Hashem, when you daven you're doing it for Hashem, when you learn you're doing it for Hashem, but when you're eating you're doing it for yourself? But that's impossible, because it would mean to say that at this moment while you're eating, there is no purpose in your life, there is no purpose in your being created, you're existing now. That couldn't be. There must be a purpose. What is the purpose? To serve Hashem, as we said before, the whole purpose of the creation is to serve Hashem. So at the moment that we are eating and sleeping and drinking and walking, anything we can think of, and breathing, we have to serve Hashem. That's the פשט, בכל דרכיך דעהו, in all your ways you shall know Him. וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, everything you do should be for the sake of Hashem. Especially when we're doing mitzvot, then certainly we have to keep this in mind, that when we do the mitzvah we're not just doing it for the physical reason chas veshalom. Like some people would say they eat kasher because it's healthier. It probably is healthier, and it's true, but that's not why we do it. Because then you wouldn't be doing it because you're serving Hashem, and our purpose is to serve Hashem. So when we eat kasher, it's because God commanded us in the Torah to eat kasher. And since He gave it to us in the Torah, which is the book of laws given by Hashem as an explanation of what our purpose is, so then we have to do it because He told us to do it. And the same applies not only to those mitzvot that we do because they are commandments of God. Even when we do those מצוות בין אדם לחבירו that deal between man and man, and here many people think that when it comes to between man and man, not to steal, not to harm someone else, to be nice, to give tzedakah, to give charity, and so forth, when it comes to these we don't have to keep in mind that we're doing it for the sake of Hashem. Here we are able to do it because we're nice people and society expects us to do it. But the truth is if we be doing it for that purpose, then we're not doing it for the purpose that we were created for. We were created to serve Hashem, to do the purpose to to accomplish the purpose that is expected, the mission that God sent us down here. So when we do those mitzvot, we have to do it for the Except, besides, that if we are going to do those mitzvot, not because they were commanded by God, but we do it because our mind tells us, then we're never sure that we're going to keep it. Today my mind tells me that I should be nice to somebody else, I should do him a favor. Tomorrow my own mind could tell me, \"Well, maybe you shouldn't.\" And as history showed us, the Germans, they were the most educated, they were high-level society, and what happened? What happened to their society, what happened to their understanding? They decided with their mind that the Jews don't belong in the world. So their mind turned into this. You can never rely on your own mind. So when a person would keep the mitzvot, the משפטים, the מצוות בין אדם לחבירו, between man and man, based on his own understanding, we're never sure it's going to last. That's why we find in the עשרת הדברות, in the Ten Commandments, there are two types, two parts: the first five and the second five. The first five are very important mitzvot, starting with אנכי ה׳ אלקיך, \"I am God your Lord,\" which is the deepest concept in the Jewish religion. לא יהיה לך אלהים אחרים, you shall not have idols and so forth. Shabbos, you should keep Shabbos, an important mitzvah. Then we look at the other side, what does it say? לא תרצח, don't kill, don't steal, don't commit adultery, and so forth. Things which any human being would understand himself. But the Torah, Hashem told us, remember that if you want the לא תרצח to exist, you want the people to know that לא תרצח, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you have to remember אנכי ה׳ אלקיך, that everything is based on God's commandments. But that is a side reason why we have to keep in mind, when we're doing these commandments, we have to keep in mind that they were commanded by God. But except that, going back to the point I spoke about before, that since our whole purpose of being created is to fulfill God's will, so anything we do has to be an expression of this, has to be an expression of fulfilling God's will. Anything we do in the day, especially when it comes to mitzvot, and therefore those mitzvot that are בין אדם לחבירו between man and man also have to be an expression of the person fulfilling the will of God, not of the person fulfilling his own will, his own mind's will, or his own mind's understanding that it understands you shall not steal. That is not the reason. That is also the reason why we should do it, but that is not the main reason. The main reason is because we were commanded by God. And by doing this mitzvah, by helping a poor person, we are listening to God, we are fulfilling our mission, we are doing what is expected of us. We are coming We are doing the purpose, we are accomplishing the purpose of why God created us. So this is the relationship between God and man. The question in the beginning, the topic is the relationship between God and man. Yes, this is There is a relationship. There must be a relationship. And the whole מהות, the whole being of the person, the whole essence, the whole essential reason why the person exists in the world is to fulfill the will of God and therefore to be related to Him, to be close to Him. But this is a general outlook in the topic, in the idea of the relationship between man and God. If we go more in detail, between everything that we do, between all the mitzvot that we keep, there are a few exceptional mitzvot that they specifically express this point of a person trying to elevate himself and relating to God.

And this mitzvah is the mitzvah of tefillah, the mitzvah of davenen. The meaning of the word tefillah, the word davenen in Hebrew is not the way it is translated into English, \"prayer.\" It's a mistake. Prayer means to ask, to beg. Tefillah has another meaning to it. It also means to ask. But tefillah in Hebrew also has a meaning to connect. Tefillah comes from the word There's a Mishnah it says, התופל כלי חרס when you connect two things, and the Mishnah uses the expression התופל. One of the twelve tribes his name was Naftali, and the Chumash says, why was his name Naftali? Because the word Naftali comes from נפתולי אלהים נפתלתי. I was connected, I became closer to my sister. She also says, now I also have a child. Rachel then said, I also have a child like my sister. So the word tefillah comes from the word connection. In English, which means the goyishe concept of prayer is The Jewish, the Torah concept, concept of prayer is to connect. When a person starts davenen, it's a time when he is supposed to communicate, elevate himself, connect himself to Hashem. And this is similar to what we explained the other day, the other time, by teshuvah, that there is a mistake in the explanation of teshuvah too. The goyim in English translate teshuvah repentance. The true translation of teshuvah is return, and it's a big difference. Repentance would mean you're going away from your situation at the moment. Return means you're going back to your situation. You're going back to your true self. And tefillah the same. The goyim, the in English they don't have the concept of tefillah. They don't have the concept of a person connecting himself, relating to Hashem, communicating with Hashem. And the truth is that there's a third word which would fit into this category, because in the davenen of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, there is a saying that we say: תשובה, תפילה, וצדקה מעבירין את רוע הגזירה. That three things will take away the evil decree: teshuvah, repentance in English it would be, tefillah would mean prayer, and tzedakah would mean charity. And all of these three words are wrong. Teshuvah is not repentance, teshuvah is return. Tefillah is not prayer, tefillah is connection. Tzedakah is not charity. Charity means when you're doing a favor to somebody, you're giving him charity. The word tzedakah in Hebrew comes from the root of tzedek. Tzedek means right. When you're giving your money for tzedakah, you're not doing him a favor, you're doing the right thing. As it is explained in many sefarim that when a rich man gives tzedakah, he's not giving away something of his own to someone else, he's doing that person a favor. No. Hashem gave this person a פקדון. Gave this person, He made him watch over someone else's money. For whatever reason God had in this, instead of giving the money to the poor man, God said, \"You are rich,\" which means that you have in your possession some part of that person's money. When you give it to him, you're not doing him a favor, you're giving him yours, you're giving him his, so you're doing the correct thing. Like someone owes owes someone money would pay him back, he's not giving him charity, he's giving him what belongs to him. That is the Jewish concept of tzedakah. It's not charity, it's tzedek, it's right. So here we see that all these three, תפילה, תשובה, תפילה, וצדקה are not goyishe concepts, they're Jewish concepts. But what's important here, and not the other two, I just brought it in to show the the parallel between the three, but tefillah is not prayer, tefillah is connection. And it is explained in the Zohar that when we learn about Yaakov's dream, when he was sleeping and had a dream of a סולם מוצב ארצה וראשו מגיע השמימה, there was a ladder standing on the ground, and it was going up till the top, till the heavens. So it says in Zohar that this ladder, דא צלותא, this is davenen, this is tefillah. Tefillah is a ladder on what a person is able to walk up and get closer to Hashem. A ladder has steps, so davenen also has many steps. Generally, we find four steps in davenen, which are four ways of a person reaching the level of him his connection, his relationship to God. We look into the Siddur, and when we daven, we see there are four parts in davenen. The first part is called Pesukei Dezimra, the פסוקים, the parts of זמרה means song and praise, we praise Hashem. Then the other part which is called Birkat Kriat Shema, certain blessings we say as an introduction to the Kriat Shema, to שמע ישראל. Then we say Kriat Shema, which is שמע ישראל השם אלקינו השם אחד, \"Hear, O Israel, God our Lord, God is one.\" The last step is Shemoneh Esreh, when we stand and we cannot move, we cannot wink, we cannot turn around, we have to just stand and pray. These are four steps in the person's elevation, getting closer to Hashem. The first step is one step in his getting closer—I'm not going to go into the details of it. The second step is more and more, till we come the third step is Kriat Shema, where a person realizes שמע ישראל השם אלקינו השם אחד, that God is one, which means we realize, we feel God, we feel that He is one in the world, He is our God, השם אלקינו. The word אלקינו means not only our God, but as it's explained in Shulchan Aruch, it means our strength. We feel that we are close to Him, He is within us. Then we come to a higher level of Shemoneh Esreh where we have to stand. Why do we have to stand? Standing symbolizes a complete, a person completely given over to the one he's standing for. That's a way of showing respect. When we come to Shemoneh Esreh, we feel that great respect. We feel that God is right in front of us, He's right here and we're standing in front of Him. Imagine when you stand in front of a king, you can't move. The Gemara says if someone would stand in front of a king and do, make any movement, he would be considered a revolutionist and he would have to get, sent, death penalty. When we come to the level of Shemoneh Esreh, so that's what we feel. That's how it's supposed to be, the highest level of davenen would be, of tefillah it would be, that you feel then that you're completely given over, you're so close and so united to Hashem as if He's standing right in front of you. So therefore you have to stand and not move. That is the kavanah, the inner meaning of tefillah, of davenen. A person steps on the first step, goes on the second step, the third step of this ladder which will take him from ארצה, from the ground, from his level, from the limited world, השמימה, to the heavens as, like the ladder in his dream, to the heavens, which means it will take him to Hashem. That's why it's so important to concentrate in davenen, and concentrate in the meaning of the davenen, the meaning of the words. And davenen, there is a special law: every mitzvah that you have to concentrate, but if a person did not really concentrate, מצוות אין צריכות כוונה, it doesn't really matter, he fulfilled the mitzvah anyway. When it comes to davenen, the Rambam says that if someone davens and doesn't have the concentration he should have, it's as if he didn't daven, because the whole concept of davenen is the meaning behind it, the way a person elevates himself from the lower level to the higher level, till you get to Shemoneh Esrei. But the purpose is not to remain in the higher level, the purpose is to take this higher level with you and come down to the world. And while you're in the world, while you're dealing with all the physical matters of the world, you should there feel your purpose in life. As I said before, the whole goal of every second of a person's life is to serve Hashem. How is a person able to do it? So we have the mitzvah of tefillah in the beginning of the day. That's the first thing a person should do: get up in the morning, daven. When you daven, you get this feeling, you should at least get this feeling that you are elevating yourself till you get very close to God. Then you come down from the ladder, and you take it along with you, this feeling that every second of your life you are close to Him, and every second of your life you are supposed to do what He expects of you to do. That's the second part of davenen, actually. After Shemoneh Esrei there are still a few parts of davenen. They are the way down from the ladder. That's where you take along what you accomplished when you came up on the ladder, the feeling you get when you got to the top, you take it along with you and you come down. That's why it's very important to concentrate on the second part of davenen too, and that's something that most people, when it comes after Shemoneh Esrei, that's when you rush through it and it's finished. It's not, it's very hard to go through those levels, because it might be even harder to come down and take along what you have, take your baggage with you, might be even harder than your way up. So we find that the Mezritcher Maggid, who was a student, a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov, so he didn't daven with a minyan. He wouldn't daven, because he had to concentrate in his davenen, it took him very long, so he would daven in his room, by himself. But after Shemoneh Esrei, he would daven with a minyan, from after Shemoneh Esrei till אחרי עלינו, till the end. And he explained why. He said, \"For this reason: because to go up the ladder, I want to be myself, I want to concentrate, and I am able to do it myself. But to come down with it, I need help of others,\" he said. \"I need a minyan.\" So he would daven, this is a fact, he would daven with a minyan from after Shemoneh Esrei on. He says that's the harder part of the davenen, because the concept of tefillah is the time when a person is to communicate, to relate to Hashem. And then after that, Shemoneh Esrei, when you come to the top, then you take it down, and all day long in what you, in what a person does all day long, he's supposed to take along with him for what he did davenen. And then he does the mitzvot the way he's supposed to do, with the feeling that you are accomplishing what you were sent down to the world for. You, the purpose of your creation is met in the mitzvot, and in everything else you do, בכל דרכיך דעהו, in everything that else that's in the world. So here, coming back to the beginning, we asked again, we asked before, \"What, is there a relationship between man and God?\" There sure is, and there must be. We have the ability for it, not from our own, we have the ability given to us by God. We have the mitzvah And it's only His strength that we are able to communicate with Him, even though we are so low, we are limited and He is unlimited. And this answers also other questions. There are people that say, \"You are right, we have to communicate with God, we have to relate to Him, we have to try to elevate ourselves, get closer to Him, but who says we have to do it by the ways you people think? By doing the mitzvot? I have my own way. I feel that my way of communicating to God, relating to Him, is by things that I feel is right.\" And the answer is very plain. If it would be a physical thing, any person would have the ability on his own to communicate to God and to relate to Him, then it will be possible that I feel I will be able to do it this way, someone else would feel he would be able to do it different. It is not on our own that we are able to do it. We can't, because it's something which is against the limits of the world. It is only because God gave us this ability. If He is the one that gave it, so we are able to elevate ourselves and connect ourselves to Him only by the ways that He told us. If we'll do it on our own, then we want to reach that stage on our own ability, we can't. We are only today able to do it through Him. And He said the only way to do it is by doing the Torah, learning the Torah, and listening to My mitzvot. It would be as if someone would say, example I also mentioned one of the classes here, that someone would say that I have to call somebody and he gave me his telephone number, and I don't like his number, I feel for him fit would be another number, and he'll can dial the other number till tomorrow, he'll never reach him. Because he gave him that number, and you have to call him, so you have to take his numbers. And if we want to call Him, we want to make a long-distance call, mitzvot are called a long-distance call. There's a story about somebody who was a great businessman, and he worked in an office and he was a religious Jew, and he was once in a meeting with the great people, I think it was a banker or something, and in the middle, it was getting late, he had to daven Mincha. So he got up in the middle of the important meeting and he started walking out. So they asked him, \"Where are you going?\" He said, \"I reminded myself I have to make a long-distance call.\" So they said, \"All right, if you have to make it, go ahead.\" If he would tell them he had to daven, I don't know if they would understand it, so he told a long-distance—well, he wasn't lying. He is making a long-distance call. Davenen is a long-distance call. Learning Torah is a long-distance call. It makes a long distance a short distance. It makes us closer to Him. How? Only by calling the number that He gave us. We cannot use our own numbers. What are the numbers? The book of laws that was given by God to us as an explanation of the of the purpose of our creation. And that is, as I said before, the תורה שבכתב, the written Torah, which is the base of our of the mitzvot, then the oral Torah, which explains it, which, as I said before, we must say it was given by God. By us listening to this and doing this, that is the way we are able to reach the point of a relationship between us and God. Before I just finish now, but before everyone leaves, I'd just like to mention, I think it's only right to mention, to give the credit of these classes to those the credit that is to the people that the credit is due. As everyone knows that the Rebbe sent to this yeshiva here five years ago eleven boys to start the yeshiva. They were here for three years, and while they were here, the yeshiva grew and many more boys came. Then, when they left, the Rebbe sent a new group of eleven boys. And these eleven boys, they do great things for the community. And every one of these boys, or some groups, have their own things that they do. Some have a משמר, you go into the shul there, you'll see boys sitting and learning now, they gather from other places, and every other group have other things that they do, good things that they do. There are two bachurim, two boys, that they arrange these classes, they send out the cards, they make sure people come, they make sure I come to speak. It's all their work, and the credit is due to them. The two boys are Mendel Reizes and Shaya Berkowitz. I think that we should give them credit, we can give them the recognition. I also would like that he should say a few words, just to tell the people some more details about the classes. And then, after he finishes, I'll come back if anybody has any questions. Just like to mention two things, two points. First of all is thank you, first of all. That's one. Also, I'd like to say that if people could try to put a little effort in—louder—people could try to put a little effort in to come five minutes earlier, so we should be able to start in time, exactly in time. I finish on time, no one should complain, I always finish nine o'clock. So. Try to come about five minutes earlier, like 5-10 to 8:00, so we're able to start 8:00 exactly. Also, it's very it's quite important for the שכר בטלה which we have have, such a yeshiva, each one should bring along another friend of his, and be a full place. Tonight was raining, I imagine, heavily. Also, I would like to announce that we are going to start giving out what we call the weekly dvar Torah. Bachurim get out, bachurim work over the the speech, the lecture of the Rebbe the previous, and checked over, and to be sold, quarter a piece. And if people will will be if there's a demand, we'll we'll print out the previous ones, too. No one has to pay. If people want to contribute, throw into pushke, will be useful. Lecture doesn't need money. Just throw into pushke. Thank you. You need? I bought a pencil for her. Bought a pencil and paper. There are no questions, I guess everything's understood. Oh, there is? Yes. Can you ever get away without one? You said it was important that a person davening to God understand what he's saying. Now, you'll find in this country especially people daven and don't know what they're davening, if you understand what I mean. They can daven in Hebrew, they don't know the meaning of it. And wait, let me finish. And I In my opinion, the biggest mistake that all these synagogues are making and why they are losing their congregations are because they do not do their services in English. They can do it in English and Hebrew. But like you take this synagogue here, it's only done in Hebrew. Your books are only in Hebrew, no English whatsoever. And I think that's one of the big mistakes of the Hebrew concept. Okay. It is true that a person should concentrate on what he's davening and he's supposed to know what he's saying, and understand. Therefore, those people who don't understand the Hebrew, I advise them they should buy or get English siddurim that have the translation. To change the way of davening in the shul itself, that they should start davening in English, is something that would be a change in the Jewish tradition. We always tried Jews always tried to have classes, if people couldn't do it on their own, teaching them פירוש המילות, the meaning of davening, the translation of the words. And if a person is able to do it on his own, it's very important. But we cannot change the system of a shul. It's important, maybe, that the members of the shul that feel the need of it should encourage their rabbi that he should make such classes. But I want to bring out another point here that is very important. What I said before to concentrate in davening, I didn't necessarily mean only the translation, the meaning of the words. I meant to say to concentrate on the concept of davening, that you are now relating to Hashem, becoming closer to Hashem by davening. So when you say the words and you don't even know what's the meaning, what the words mean, nevertheless, you are now praying to Him, you now are getting closer to Him. And I'd like to tell you a story which will bring out this idea. And this doesn't necessarily have to do with the meaning of the words. They tell a story of the Baal Shem Tov that once there was a a the time when the Baal Shem Tov was davening in shul on Rosh Hashanah, and he davent very long, maybe it was on Yom Kippur, davening very long Shemoneh Esrei, and he was crying a lot. And his talmidim, the disciples saw from far what's going on, and they saw their teacher crying, and they knew how great he was, what a great tzaddik he was. They understood that there must be some problems, must be some decrees that he sees that he is working on trying to destroy, and he can't, so he's crying. And the students saw that he was crying, so they also started crying and praying with more devotion, with more understanding, more concentration, and so forth. There was a little boy—I don't know like little, but there was a boy in shul that lived on a farm, who was never even taught how to daven. But it was Rosh Hashanah, so he came to shul, too. He didn't know what's going on. He saw everyone crying and everyone praying, so he also wanted to pray. And he couldn't; he didn't know how. All he knew was the sounds that the chickens make. That's, he was on a farm. So he felt