Explanations of the Prayer - Hodu - Part 5

00:00 Speaker 1 The whole sequence of verses here begins to speak about the wonders that Hakadosh Boruch Hu performed for the Jewish people: “The offspring of Israel, His servant; the children of Yaakov, His chosen ones. He is Hashem our G-d; His judgments are throughout the earth. Remember His covenant forever, the word He commanded for a thousand generations, which He made with Avraham, and His oath to Yitzchak.” And so the verses continue, up to “Do not touch My anointed ones, and do no harm to My prophets.” “Sing to Hashem”—this whole sequence of verses. What is the progression of ideas here? There are several ways to explain it. Last time, we explained that after speaking about a Jew’s purpose in contemplating G-dliness—coming to a revelation of the name Havayah, to an awareness of what is above nature, and seeing within nature what is above nature—the passage begins to recount ways in which the Jewish people experienced conduct above nature, with all the details it describes. Hakadosh Boruch Hu promised them the Torah and the Land of Israel, and He gave them these things. Through all the twists and turns of the generations, Hakadosh Boruch Hu protected them. He protected us before—long before—the Giving of the Torah, and afterward, through everything that followed. As it says of the Jewish people, “They went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people,” and so on. This shows a special Divine providence over the Jewish people. That is one way to explain the sequence of verses here. There is another way, connected to something we also discussed once before. All these verses relate to the story of the Ark. We spoke once about how this whole passage concerns the Holy Ark. The story was that the Ark was with the Philistines: they had taken it and thought they had, as it were, defeated the Jewish people. But in practice, it was precisely through

02:18 Speaker 1 this that their downfall came, because it brought plagues upon the Philistines. This relates to the broader idea of the work of refining the sparks. In other words, this whole episode teaches us about that work. Jews go from place to place and find themselves there seemingly in exile, as though the non-Jew rules over us. We are in exile under foreign rule. But the truth is that the entire purpose is to refine the sparks. So it seems, at first glance, that kelipah rules over holiness. But the whole purpose is the work of refining the sparks: afterward, the Jew refines them. Not only does the kelipah do no harm—on the contrary, it is depleted, because through his work the Jew draws out all the sparks of holiness within it. That is the whole idea of refining the sparks. And it is connected to prayer, because prayer is all about this work. Prayer is about refining the animal soul. Prayer is about refining and elevating the sparks of holiness. Through prayer, through contemplating the greatness of Hashem, a Jew elevates in prayer all the sparks of holiness from throughout the day. As explained in Chassidus, what is the meaning of prayer? It is “a ladder set upon the earth, with its top reaching heaven, and angels of G-d ascending and descending on it.” Prayer is like a ladder: all the sparks of holiness are elevated through prayer. In prayer a Jew connects with G-dliness, and by connecting with G-dliness he also connects everything in his life, including all his material affairs, with G-dliness. So this entire section explains the process and the inner meaning of the work of refining the sparks. That is the meaning here. Thus, it explains that Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s “judgments are throughout the earth.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu carries out His judgments

04:09 Speaker 1 throughout the world, as happened with the Holy Ark when the Philistines took it. But Hakadosh Boruch Hu judged the Philistines. On the contrary, it was precisely through this that Hakadosh Boruch Hu struck them, the sparks of holiness were drawn out from them, and all those punishments came upon them. This is what the verse said at the beginning: “Make His deeds known among the nations”—all the ways Hakadosh Boruch Hu acts to draw sparks of holiness out of the kelipos. The same applies here. So it begins: “Remember His covenant forever, the word He commanded for a thousand generations.” This is the covenant Hakadosh Boruch Hu made. The covenant refers to the covenant of the Torah, to the covenant... There are several explanations in the Midrash. What covenant does this refer to? It refers to the Torah; the Torah is called a covenant—“Hashem made a covenant.” That is the meaning of covenant. It refers to the Torah, which is why it says “for a thousand generations.” This is what the Gemara says in Tractate Shabbos, in its discussion of the Torah: the Torah had already existed for a thousand generations. You want to understand “a thousand generations”? It refers to the Torah. Yes, because there were twenty-six generations from the creation of the world until Moshe Rabbeinu, plus another 974 generations—that makes a thousand. “A thousand generations” refers to the Torah. Yes, “the word He commanded for a thousand generations.” There is another view there in the Gemara that the thousand generations refer to bris milah: twenty generations until Avraham, plus 980 generations before bris milah. There are several views about what it refers to, but in any event, it refers to the covenant of the Torah, through which the work of refining the sparks is accomplished. And this explains what Hakadosh Boruch Hu promised us. Then we have “the land of Canaan.” The land of Canaan represents this whole work of refining the sparks. Why is it called that? Chassidus explains why the Land of Israel is called

05:49 Speaker 1 the land of Canaan. Why is it called the land of Canaan? Canaan, after all, is the name of a non-Jew. Why do we use the name “the land of Canaan”? Chassidus explains that Canaan is related to hachna’ah, subduing. That is the work of refining the sparks: a Jew is in the world and makes it into the land of Canaan. He takes the world—its physicality and materiality—and subdues it. He subdues the kelipah and makes it into a dwelling place for Hashem in the lower realms. He brings it into the domain of holiness. So Canaan conveys the idea of subduing. “To you I will give the land of Canaan”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu will give us the land of Canaan, the physical world, so that we can bring it into the domain of holiness. Chassidus also explains that Canaan means a merchant, and is connected with commerce. It says that when Yehudah married a woman, he married the daughter of a Canaanite. Rashi asks: What does “Canaanite” mean? A merchant—someone engaged in trade. That is another meaning of “Canaanite” in the language of the verse, and it too refers to the work of refining the sparks, which is like doing business. A Jew goes out into the world, uses material things, refines the spark within them and elevates it to G-dliness. That, too, is like doing business with all the things of this world. So that is the meaning of “To you I will give the land of Canaan, the portion of your inheritance”: a Jew must take the world, its physicality—the Canaan, the affairs of this world, the matters of commerce—and subdue them, making them into a dwelling place in the lower realms, a dwelling place for G-dliness, a place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is central to the work of prayer. And so it continues, giving an example: “They went from nation to nation.” In other words, this can refer to Jews moving from place to place, going from country to country, for this very purpose: to refine the sparks. That is the general idea.

07:41 Speaker 1 This is the whole idea of exile. All these things—Jews wandering in exile, going from country to country, being expelled and going somewhere else—the whole process of exile, in which a Jew goes from one non-Jewish nation to another, is for this purpose. That is what the verse means when it says, “He did not allow anyone to oppress them, and He rebuked kings on their behalf.” It is not as the nations think: that when Jews go into exile, the nations rule over us. On the contrary, “He did not allow anyone to oppress them.” The forces of kelipah cannot steal us away and rule over a Jew. Rather, in the end, through his work of refining the world, through teshuvah, the Jew does the opposite: he elevates the sparks and turns the earth—the entire world—into Eretz Yisroel. As the Tzemach Tzedek said, “Make Eretz Yisroel here.” That is a Jew’s task everywhere in the world: to make Eretz Yisroel. And this is the idea of prayer. That is why it is connected here to the beginning of prayer, because this is the whole point of the work of prayer. The work of prayer is to refine the animal soul and every part of the world, and to make it a dwelling place for Hashem in the lower realms. That is the main point of the work of prayer. That is why it says in Eitz Chaim, as quoted in Tanya, that the primary avodah in the footsteps of Moshiach is the work of prayer, because that is the time to do it. In prayer, a person elevates all the sparks of holiness from the entire day, from all his dealings with the material world, and connects himself to what is Above. Through that, he connects all material things to what is Above. So that is the continuation of the verses here: “Do not touch My anointed ones, and do no harm to My prophets.” This refers to the souls of the Jewish people. Hakadosh Boruch Hu protects us so that kelipah, this world, and material things do not, G-d forbid, steal us away. Rather, in the end, the opposite happens: we become masters over the world, and we transform the world so that what is Above is revealed in it.

09:26 Speaker 1 So that it becomes a dwelling place for Hashem in the lower realms. That is another way these verses are explained. Continuing with the verses—well, since we are at the celebration at Beis HaNasi, there is an explanation here from the Tzemach Tzedek. We touched on the verse that says, “Remember His covenant forever, the word He commanded for a thousand generations.” The Gemara says this refers to the Torah. There is also another view in the Gemara that it refers to the covenant, as we said earlier. Yes. The covenant—which covenant? The covenant of the Torah, or the covenant of bris milah? The Tzemach Tzedek explains the significance of a thousand generations. Why a thousand? What is the spiritual significance of saying that the Torah and bris milah existed for a thousand generations? What is the significance of a thousand? He explains that the word for “thousand,” elef, has the same letters as the letter alef. Yes. The Torah begins with a beis, but the Ten Commandments begin with an alef. Chassidus explains the difference between the world and the Torah: the account of the world begins with a beis—“Bereishis bara Elokim.” Beis corresponds to chochmah, whereas alef corresponds to keser. In the alef-beis, alef is keser and beis is chochmah. Alef has the same letters as pele, “wonder.” Yes, alef corresponds to keser, because alef has the same letters as pele, and pele refers to keser, which is above the chain of spiritual worlds. And beis is “Wisdom has built her house.” Chochmah—“Wisdom has built her house.” Beis signifies a house, so it is connected with chochmah: “Wisdom has built her house.” It follows, then, that alef corresponds to keser. Alef has the same letters as pele, and therefore the Ten Commandments begin with an alef, because the Torah comes from keser. The Torah is drawn down from keser. Hm?

11:09 Speaker 2 The Ten Commandments.

11:09 Speaker 1 The Ten Commandments, yes. Because the Ten Commandments are drawn down from keser, which is above the chain of spiritual worlds. Yes, and in counting, too, it is known that there are units, tens, hundreds, and thousands. In this system, units correspond to malchus, tens to the middos, hundreds to the intellectual faculties, and thousands to keser. The number one thousand is associated with keser. So both of these things—the drawing down of the Ten Commandments from keser, above the chain of spiritual worlds, and the covenant, bris milah—are a drawing down from above the chain of spiritual worlds. Both have this aspect. That is why the verse speaks of “a thousand generations” in connection with both of them: it signifies a drawing down from above the chain of spiritual worlds. Yes. So that is the explanation. In other words, he explains there that this is the significance of the thousand generations. He also explains there that the shape of the letter alef is connected with elef, “a thousand.” The letter alef has a point above, a point below, and a line in the middle. He explains that this is the whole idea of the Torah: to make the connection. The point below refers to the Jewish people. Hm? To the Jewish people. [unclear]. Here I am continuing the connection through which all the sparks are refined, all the points.