Mishpatim - "Va'avadtem Es Hashem Elokeichem" - The Avodah of Prayer According to the Ways of Chassidus - Rabbi Asher Perkash

00:01 The Rebbe described this in his sichos about the Alter Rebbe. As is known, the Alter Rebbe came to Chassidus through his own efforts. His father, Rabbi Boruch, was a student of the Baal Shem Tov, but he kept this hidden. The Alter Rebbe did not know that his father was among the Baal Shem Tov’s students and close followers. His father did take him to the Baal Shem Tov when he was three years old, and the Baal Shem Tov cut his hair for the first time, gave him his first haircut and blessed him, as is known. But it is also known that his father told the Alter Rebbe that this rabbi, this [unclear], was his grandfather. The Alter Rebbe did not learn until later that it had been the holy Baal Shem Tov. All this was so that the Alter Rebbe would come to Chassidus through his own efforts, by his own choice. Around that time, when the Alter Rebbe was about twenty, he was already an extraordinary prodigy in every part of Torah, both its revealed and hidden dimensions—a tremendous genius. At that point, the Alter Rebbe stood at a crossroads. He wanted to go out and seek a way to reach a higher, deeper level in Torah study. He had a clearer sense of that path than he had before. And as he stood at that crossroads, the Alter Rebbe considered where to go. There were two places he could go,

02:09 two centers of divine service, which were also centers of Torah. The question was: Should he go to Vilna, or should he go to Mezritch? As the well-known story goes, the Alter Rebbe concluded: In Vilna he could learn how to study better, but he already knew how to study. In Mezritch they taught how to daven, and davening was something he still needed to learn how to do. That was his reason, and the Alter Rebbe did indeed travel to Mezritch. That is how he came to the Maggid of Mezritch. The story continues at length: at first, it took the Alter Rebbe time to find his place there, and he nearly left. But in the end, he formed a bond with the Maggid of Mezritch, stayed with him and became one of his foremost students. That was the course of the Alter Rebbe’s life: he went to Mezritch to learn about the service of davening. In our parsha, Parshas Mishpatim, it says later on: “You shall serve Hashem your G-d, and He will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove illness from your midst.” The blessings He promises following “You shall serve Hashem your G-d” then continue. What does “You shall serve Hashem your G-d” mean? What is the substance of this command, of this verse? As is known, the Rambam and the Ramban disagree on this point. The Rambam

04:18 cites this verse in connection with the mitzvah of davening. The Rambam rules that the mitzvah to daven is from the Torah—that is, it is a positive commandment requiring us to daven. The Rambam says, “It is a positive commandment to daven” to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as it says, “You shall serve Hashem your G-d.” That is what he writes in the Laws of Prayer in the Mishneh Torah. The Ramban, by contrast, disagrees with the Rambam and maintains that davening is not a positive commandment from the Torah. There is also a passage in the Gemara about the verse “and to serve Him with all your heart”: “What is service of the heart? This is davening.” The Rambam accordingly understands “You shall serve” as referring to the service of davening. But the Ramban holds that this is not a commandment from the Torah, and that the plain meaning is a general commandment. It is not a specific commandment obligating us in the service of davening. The Ramban says this in his commentary on the Torah as well: he interprets the verse “You shall serve Hashem your G-d” as ruling out idol worship, [unclear], not associating others with Him, [unclear], but serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu alone, and so on. That is how the Ramban interprets “You shall serve.” In any event, this is a well-known dispute among a number of the Rishonim. Most of the Rishonim do not agree with the Rambam. The Rambam’s view is one of the few that hold that davening is a positive commandment from the Torah, which he derives from the verse in Parshas Mishpatim, “You shall serve Hashem your G-d.” The halachic authorities do not rule like the Rambam, but like the Ramban. Other major halachic authorities, including the Rosh and the Ran, hold this way too, and the ruling is that davening is not a Torah obligation. The Alter Rebbe himself brings this in the Shulchan Aruch. In our Shulchan Aruch, the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, where the Alter Rebbe rules on whether davening is a positive commandment from the Torah, he presents both

06:33 views. The Rambam rules that davening is a positive commandment from the Torah, with all the halachic implications derived from that. This brings us to something remarkable. There is a published letter the Alter Rebbe wrote during the well-known dispute over Chassidus in his time. As is known, in the time of the Maggid of Mezritch, and even more so in the Alter Rebbe’s time, there was widespread opposition to the entire revelation of Chassidus. One of the main arguments against Chassidus concerned precisely this point: its strong emphasis on the service of davening. The argument was that davening is a rabbinic obligation, while Torah study is a Torah obligation; moreover, the Torah repeatedly commands us to study. The Gemara says of Torah study that it is “equal to them all,” and says very severe things about “anyone who is able to engage in Torah study and does not do so.” The Alter Rebbe brings this in Tanya, chapter 1—formidable words. So the objection was that chassidim, students of the Baal Shem Tov, placed such strong emphasis on the service of davening, and that chassidim always tried to devote time to it: to davening itself, to davening at length, to davening with contemplation, to davening in the right atmosphere. There was a whole approach centered on the service of davening, while Torah study seemed to occupy a lesser place. The argument was: How could that be? Torah study is a Torah obligation, whereas the service of davening is only rabbinic. The Alter Rebbe therefore wrote a letter to

08:40 answer the objections being raised, and that letter was published in the Alter Rebbe’s Igros Kodesh. In it, the Alter Rebbe writes, among other things, in these words: “And those who say that davening is rabbinic have never seen light in their lives.” They have never seen light, never seen illumination—“have never seen light in their lives.” Those are the Alter Rebbe’s words. Ever since the Alter Rebbe wrote them, the question has always been asked: What does this mean? How can one say such words—“And those who say that davening is rabbinic have never seen light in their lives”? At first glance, it seems as though the Alter Rebbe is accepting the Rambam’s view here, that davening is a Torah obligation. But how can that be, when most halachic authorities disagree with the Rambam? All the more so since the Alter Rebbe himself does not rule like the Rambam in the Shulchan Aruch. And beyond that, how can he use such sharp language—“those who say that davening is rabbinic have never seen light in their lives”—when he is speaking about luminaries of the Jewish people, truly great Torah scholars, leading Rishonim: the Ramban, the Rosh, and so on? How can one say of them that they “have never seen light in their lives”? How can one say such words at all? It is a difficult question. Interestingly, the Rebbe explained this on two occasions, giving two distinct explanations. Both are

10:18 fundamental explanations that reveal the inner depth of the service of davening according to Chassidus. The Rebbe spoke about this at one of the farbrengens—the 19 Kislev 5717 farbrengen, on Motzaei Shabbos, a very large farbrengen. Among the subjects he discussed, the Rebbe mentioned this account and explained what the statement “And those who say that davening is rabbinic have never seen light in their lives” means. To understand it, we can put it this way: We do not say of the Ramban, who disagrees with the Rambam and rules that davening is rabbinic, that he never saw light in his life. But as is known, if you look at what the Ramban writes in his comments on the Rambam’s Sefer Hamitzvos, what does he say there? The Ramban sets out his position on why davening is only rabbinic, and discusses the whole matter. Nevertheless, the Ramban writes: When does this apply? When [unclear], to davening in which one asks for one’s needs, [unclear]. But, the Ramban says, davening in a time of distress—when a Jew, or the Jewish people as a whole, or a group of Jews, a number of Jews, are in distress—then there is an obligation from the Torah, a Torah mitzvah, to daven. And he cites a verse, not from our parsha but from later on, in Parshas Behaaloscha, that…

11:56 The Torah says in Parshas Behaaloscha: “When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, you shall sound the trumpets.” From this verse, the Ramban learns that there is a positive Torah commandment to pray when Jews face war and distress. This, too, is based on the Torah’s words “you shall sound”: prayer and supplication [unclear]. And this is a remarkable point in the view of the halachic authorities: although according to some authorities prayer is a rabbinic commandment, in a time of distress it is a Torah commandment, when there is an “enemy who oppresses you.” The Rebbe explains this beautifully in relation to the avodah of prayer that Chassidus teaches us. We said earlier that the Alter Rebbe went to Mezritch to learn about the service of the heart—prayer. When we speak in halachic terms about asking for one’s needs, we mean asking for a livelihood and for material needs. That is, of course, part of prayer: part of the blessings and requests we make while praying. We ask for what we need, and we do need these things. We need a livelihood; we need our children, and children in general, to be healthy; and so on. We ask for these things in “Bareich Aleinu,” in “Refa’einu,” and so forth. But Chassidus teaches us that the avodah of prayer has another dimension altogether, a higher one: that prayer is not only

13:37 about asking for one’s material needs. Prayer must involve something more complete [unclear]. This is already required according to the revealed teachings of Torah, as the Gemara says in Tractate Berachos: “One should stand to pray only in a state of solemnity.” There must be contemplation and humility. As brought in the Shulchan Aruch and the Rema, before prayer one should contemplate the greatness of Hashem and the lowliness of man. Contemplate Hashem’s greatness, His grandeur, and contemplate one’s own lowliness. Contemplate how distant one is: how far one is from G-dliness because of one’s standing and condition, because of one’s body, one’s animal soul, the yetzer hara, and all these things. One is far from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And in the avodah of prayer, one must [unclear], for this is a battle. Prayer time is a time of battle. It is the battle of the G-dly soul. The G-dly soul contemplates Hashem’s greatness, and it wants to bring the animal soul to love Hashem too. Through prolonged contemplation during the avodah of prayer, [unclear]. When a person contemplates Hashem’s greatness, reflects on Pesukei Dezimra, and considers all the wonderful things said there—how Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings into being, gives life to, and sustains

15:09 every detail and every creature; the creation of the world; the special, extraordinary love Hakadosh Boruch Hu has for Jews; [unclear] and the miracles and wonders—then he sees just how far he truly is from all of this. It awakens a powerful feeling in him, a sense of brokenheartedness and bitterness. Then he feels that he is in distress. He feels that he is facing an “enemy who oppresses,” and that is the “enemy who oppresses”: the animal soul itself. It is the concealment of the body and animal soul, which do not allow the soul to leave its exile and draw close to our Father in Heaven. This is what the entire avodah of prayer is about. The Alter Rebbe says in Tanya that the avodah of prayer is like an only son who is imprisoned and held captive, sitting in a dungeon, and then leaves captivity and comes to his father, the king. How great the joy when he returns to his father, the king! And when the avodah of prayer is concerned with this, then it truly is a matter of [unclear]. For then, when he is in distress, he feels that he is in distress—the distress caused by the “enemy who oppresses,” by the body and the animal soul. That is the real distress he is in. He wants to leave that distress and draw close to G-dliness. Then he feels that this is the true meaning of the Exodus from Egypt: leaving confinement behind.

16:36 Then prayer becomes a Torah commandment. Yet according to the halachic authorities, prayer is rabbinic. The Alter Rebbe relates, in the well-known account, the story chassidim tell about the renowned chossid Reb Yitzchak Isaac of Homil. He came from a family of great Torah scholars who opposed the path of Chassidus. He heard about the Alter Rebbe and came to him as a young man. Yes, as chassidim say, he came to the Alter Rebbe at the age of sixteen, when he was already a tremendous genius. He had already studied the entire Shas several times. By the time he came to the Alter Rebbe, he was already brilliant in many areas of Torah and Shas. That is how he became a chossid. As is well known from a letter Reb Yitzchak Isaac of Homil himself sent to chassidim much later, years afterward, it became a matter touching his very soul to grasp what Chassidus says: to grasp the depth of “there is nothing besides Him,” the concept of Hashem’s true unity that the Baal Shem Tov revealed and that the Alter Rebbe enabled him to understand in a maamar. And as he writes in his own words, [unclear]—that is, he asked the Alter Rebbe, pleaded with him, to be able to grasp and feel Hashem’s true unity, the genuine feeling of “there is nothing besides Him” that Chassidus revealed. This is an example of [unclear]. When one feels—well, the Rebbe’s daily study of three chapters of Rambam or one chapter of Rambam began after Pesach 5744. And whenever there was

20:24 an opportunity for a farbrengen, the Rebbe would take that day’s Rambam study and explain a point in one of the halachos studied in the three chapters in depth. The Rebbe did this for a number of years. During that initial period, a farbrengen happened to fall precisely when the study was on the laws of prayer. The Rebbe spoke about it at length and explained a remarkable nuance. He discussed the Rambam’s position that prayer is a Torah commandment, and the positions of the halachic authorities who hold that prayer is rabbinic. And he cited the letter, the Igeres Hakodesh of the Alter Rebbe, in which he writes: “Even those who say that prayer is rabbinic have never seen light in their lives.” And he asked that same question again: How can one say such a thing—that those who say prayer is rabbinic “have never seen light in their lives”? He then gave a remarkable interpretation, a different explanation of the entire matter. By way of introduction, there is a question the Alter Rebbe asks in Likkutei Torah, in Parshas Balak. The Alter Rebbe says [unclear]. There the Alter Rebbe discusses prayer. He brings the different positions—those who say prayer is a Torah commandment and those who say it is rabbinic—but the halachic authorities generally rule

21:46 that prayer is rabbinic. There the Alter Rebbe asks a very interesting question. His question is simple: How can prayer be only rabbinic? That is the accepted ruling; that is how the halachic authorities rule; and that is also the ruling in the Shulchan Aruch—that prayer is rabbinic. But the question is this: Prayer is such a central part of a person’s life—a Jew asks Hakadosh Boruch Hu for his needs and requests. The Gemara and Midrashim speak of this, and in many places we see the greatness of prayer, the power a Jew has, and the power of prayer. It is such a central part of a person’s life: whatever he needs, he must know and believe that a Jew can ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu for it. How can something so great be only rabbinic, without the force of a Torah commandment? That is the question the Alter Rebbe asks there. The Alter Rebbe begins his explanation with this point: As is known, there are 613 mitzvos—248 positive commandments and 365 prohibitions. And the reason for these numbers is known: Why specifically 248 positive commandments and 365 prohibitions? The Gemara says this in Tractate Makkos, and the Rambam brings it in Mishneh Torah. The Zohar explicitly states that there are

23:12 248 limbs and 365 sinews. That is, the human body consists of 248 limbs. Corresponding to them are 248 positive commandments, each connected to a limb in the person. On the other side, the 365 sinews correspond to the 365 prohibitions. [unclear] That is the significance of the prohibitions. In other words, the 365 sinews correspond to the 365 prohibitions. The Mishnah, the Gemara, and the Rambam enumerate where the 248 limbs are and how they are arranged in the human body. How does one arrive at the number 248? But as the Alter Rebbe explains there in Likkutei Torah, there is a part of the body not counted among the 248 limbs: the spinal cord. The Mishnah does not count the spinal cord as one of the 248 limbs. Why? Because it is not a limb. In other words, the limbs are individual parts. There is the hand, the foot, the eye, the nose, and the ear. These are individual parts. Each is a distinct part in its own right, with its own particular vitality from the body, and corresponding to these 248 limbs are the 248 positive commandments.

24:39 The spinal cord, the spine, is not a separate, individual matter. It is not an organ or a vessel unto itself; it is what sustains the body. It is the part on which the entire human body stands. Yes, it supports the whole body. And precisely because it supports the body, because it is the foundation on which the body and its entire existence rest, it is not counted among the 248 individual limbs. On the contrary, it sustains all 248 limbs. Along these lines, the Alter Rebbe says, based on the Gemara in Berachos concerning the Shemoneh Esrei, that its eighteen blessings correspond to the eighteen vertebrae of the spine. In other words, the spinal cord, the spine, is connected to the blessings of the Shemoneh Esrei. On this, the Rebbe builds the explanation in the maamar: Why is prayer not a Torah obligation? No, sorry—prayer is not a Torah obligation; it is rabbinic. Not because prayer is on a lower level than all the mitzvos, but on the contrary, precisely the opposite. As everyone understands, the reason the spinal cord, the spine, is not counted among the 248 limbs is not that it is less important than the limbs. On the contrary, it supports them; it is the foundation of life on which

26:07 all the limbs depend. The same is true of the avodah of prayer. The fact that prayer is not one of the 248 positive Torah commandments does not mean it is less important than they are. On the contrary, prayer is the spinal cord. It is what supports them: the avodah of prayer connects a Jew with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Every day, a Jew prays and stands before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and that prayer gives him all his vitality—a soul illuminating the body. Through it, all his mitzvos are sustained. A Jew who prays fulfills mitzvos in an entirely different way: the mitzvah is truly alive, an inwardly felt mitzvah. So the avodah of prayer is not one of the 248 positive commandments, the 248 limbs. On the contrary, it is what sustains all 248 limbs. And based on this, the Rebbe said—and so this maamar lets us understand the matter in an entirely different way—the fact that prayer is rabbinic is not merely no reason to be lenient. That was the argument people used, G-d forbid, to diminish their care in the avodah of prayer. The chassidim say: Does prayer matter less because it is rabbinic? On the contrary, [unclear], as the Gemara in Makkos says: [unclear].

27:34 This gives us an entirely different approach to the avodah of prayer. We then understand what it means that prayer is rabbinic: not only does it not lower or diminish the value of the avodah of prayer; on the contrary, it brings out the depth of prayer’s significance with even greater force and strength. This is what the Alter Rebbe wrote to the chassidim in that letter: although prayer is rabbinic, they want to see that as grounds for leniency, [unclear]. That comes from not reaching the depth of the matter, which reveals its inner dimension—the true, inner reason why prayer is rabbinic. [unclear]. The inner dimension of Torah comes and reveals the depth and inner significance of the avodah of prayer: that it is the spine and spinal cord of [unclear] and of all the mitzvos, of the entire Torah with its 248 positive commandments and 365 prohibitions, and of making a dwelling place for Hashem in the lower realms. This gives a person an entirely different approach, a different path, a different respect and a different devotion toward the whole avodah of prayer. This is what we find among our Rebbeim, [unclear], as we know from the stories the chassidim tell. And with our Rebbe, [unclear], and the Rebbeim after them, we find among chassidim [unclear]. In the maamarim and explanations [unclear], to become more inspired in prayer: contemplating the greatness of Hashem and the lowliness of man, and contemplating the avodah of prayer in order to awaken love of Hashem, awe of Hashem, and the service of Hashem.

29:08 With joy. And all of this is attained through the avodah of prayer. This is what the weekly parsha says: “You shall serve Hashem your G-d,” which refers to [unclear] the avodah of prayer. It then says, “And He will bless your bread and your water,” followed by “And I will remove illness from your midst,” and also, “There will be no miscarrying or barren woman in your land,” and “I will fill the number of your days.” These are blessings in every area—children, life, and sustenance. [unclear]. What do children, life, and sustenance mean in all these areas? That is [unclear]. They mean children, life, and sustenance literally, in the material sense, and also children, life, and sustenance in their inner sense—what each means in a person’s spiritual service. [unclear] What is the matter of children? It refers to love and awe; life refers to inner vitality. Then there is sustenance, the inner dimension, Torah, which [unclear], and so on, as explained in the maamarim on this verse. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu give everyone, in everyday life and in the literal, material sense, children, life, and abundant sustenance, here in this physical world. And [unclear] may all the blessings stated in the weekly parsha be fulfilled—both the blessings connected with the conquest of the Land and the material blessings of children, life, and abundant sustenance. Yes, and may we merit the principal blessing, as we stand at Shabbos Mevarchim for the month of Adar, Shabbos Parshas Shekalim, when we join one redemption to another: may we merit, speedily in our days, amen, the true and complete Geulah, and may Jews [unclear] with joy and gladness, speedily. So may it be for us.