Explanations of the Prayer - Hodu - Part 7

00:00 Speaker 1 About the—about the self-nullification of creation brought about through our avodah, right? Here he is speaking about what we accomplish through our avodah: G-dliness is revealed in the world, and that brings all of creation to nullify itself before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. At first he says, “Splendor and majesty are before Him.” I mistakenly said last week that splendor is higher than majesty. I have to correct that mistake. I looked into it afterward, and it is the other way around: majesty is higher than splendor. In any case, “splendor and majesty are before Him” refers to self-nullification, a profound self-nullification before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There is a self-nullification associated with splendor, a self-nullification that becomes invested in the created reality. Through created beings nullifying themselves before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, joy is aroused in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is along the lines of what is written: the greatest joy, the greatest pleasure Hakadosh Boruch Hu has, comes from the self-nullification of created beings, from the bittul of the yesh. There is a parable about this from the Maggid of Mezritch, involving a talking bird, a parrot. When people want to bring pleasure to a king who is in a state where nothing interests him, bringing him a wise person to speak words of wisdom with him will not give the king pleasure. But if they bring a talking bird, a parrot that says a few words, that will give the king pleasure. Or a child—as it sometimes says, they bring a child, and that cheers the king, restores his pleasure, and awakens in him the desire to bestow. Even though the child’s speech, or the speech of the parrot, the talking bird, is not at all comparable. There are great sages who speak

02:13 Speaker 1 words of wisdom, while the bird says only a few words. But the novelty of it—that a bird, an animal, speaks, or that a small child speaks—arouses pleasure. It is explained in the name of the Maggid that this is the point: specifically when created beings in this lowly world nullify their independent existence. When great angels, or even lofty souls, nullify themselves, that is not such a novelty. The novelty is specifically that created beings down below nullify themselves before G-dliness, and that gives Hakadosh Boruch Hu tremendous pleasure. The bittul of the yesh has this novelty, the novelty of its self-nullification. That arouses pleasure and joy Above. So this is the meaning of “Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and joy are in His place”: through “splendor and majesty are before Him,” through created beings nullifying themselves before the splendor and majesty of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “strength and joy are in His place.” Joy is brought about in His place—joy Above. And that joy Above is the pleasure, the vitality of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, brought about through the avodah of the Jewish people. He continues: “Give to Hashem, families of nations; give to Hashem glory and strength. Give to Hashem the glory of His name; bring an offering and come before Him. Bow before Hashem in the beauty of holiness.” This speaks about all created beings and all worlds nullifying themselves before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Here he explains in greater detail several levels, several ways in which created beings nullify themselves before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Give to Hashem.” What does “give” mean? It means to give, yes, an act of giving. “Give to Hashem, families of nations; give to Hashem glory and strength.” On the plain level, as it is explained, the Tanach often repeats itself for its poetic style, for the beauty of its language. David often does this, repeating something in different words. Often, when he wants to—

04:11 Speaker 2 “Give”?

04:11 Speaker 1 Hm?

04:12 Speaker 2 “Give.”

04:13 Speaker 1 “Give” means to give.

04:14 Speaker 2 Yes.

04:15 Speaker 1 So the plain meaning is as though it says one thing: “Give to Hashem, families of nations”—the families of the nations should give to Hashem. What should they give Him? “Give to Hashem glory and strength.” Give Hashem glory and strength. It could have said just once, “Give to Hashem, families of nations, glory and strength,” meaning that all the families of the nations should give Hakadosh Boruch Hu glory and strength. But it repeats the phrase for the beauty of the language. Then it repeats it again: “Give to Hashem the glory of His name.” What should they give Him? Glory and strength. But according to Chassidus, these are three distinct ideas. According to Chassidus, “Give to Hashem” means, as we say in Yiddish, untergeben zich—to give oneself over. “Give to Hashem”: give. Give what? Give yourselves. “Give to Hashem, families of nations” means that the families of nations—this physical world, the entire reality of the world—are called “families of nations.” “Give to Hashem”: give yourselves over, surrender yourselves to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is the self-nullification of the entire world before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Within this itself, he says “give” three times: “Give to Hashem,” “give to Hashem,” “give to Hashem.” Three times, corresponding to three worlds: the lowly world, the world of Asiyah; the world of angels, which is the world of Yetzirah; and the world of souls, the world of Beriah. These are the three worlds: Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. When speaking of these three worlds, he begins with “families of nations.” That is the world of Asiyah, the lowly world. This material world is called “families of nations.” So “give to Hashem” means, as it were, give yourselves over to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Then “give to Hashem glory and strength” corresponds to the world of Yetzirah, the world of angels. After that, “give to Hashem the glory of His name” refers to the world of souls, where there is a closer connection. So there

06:04 Speaker 1 are three levels of worlds: Asiyah, Yetzirah, and Beriah. These three worlds encompass the entire reality of all three worlds together—the whole order of worlds. “Give to Hashem”: they must give themselves over to Hashem. It is brought in Chassidus that the word “havu,” “give,” has the same numerical value as “echad,” “one.” Havu equals thirteen, the same number as echad. That is the meaning of “give to Hashem”: the oneness of Hashem. All created beings nullifying themselves before Hakadosh Boruch Hu is an expression of oneness. There is the oneness of the world of Asiyah, the oneness of the world of Yetzirah, and the oneness of the world of Beriah. It is like what we say in the Pesach Haggadah: “One is wise, one is wicked, one is simple.” Chassidus explains that each one has his own “one,” the oneness of Hashem that shines within each and every one. So too here, there is “give to Hashem,” the self-nullification before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as it exists in Asiyah, Yetzirah, and Beriah. Then he begins to speak about Atzilus. “Bring an offering and come before Him.” An offering is like a korban; the minchah offering represents the whole idea of avodah, the avodah of davening, the idea of a korban—the avodah of refining the world. In the avodah of davening, a person offers up his animal soul, an offering to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Bring an offering”: through the avodah of nullifying the world, the created beings, and the yesh, a person nullifies himself and gives himself over to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is like an offering, like a korban a person brings to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, which brings pleasure Above. That is why it is also called a minchah. It is written in Chassidus that minchah is related to the expression “nachas ruach,” pleasure; minchah comes from a root related to nachas. This is the pleasure brought about Above through the self-nullification of created beings, the self-nullification of all

07:53 Speaker 1 Between a person and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It is like the offering: it is the means that brings pleasure Above. “And come before Him”—it is specifically through this that they come before Him. What does “before Him” mean? It means His innermost dimension. They reach the innermost dimension of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. They bring pleasure Above, and specifically through “bring an offering” they come before Him, to His innermost dimension. “Bow before Hashem in the splendor of holiness.” This refers to the world of Atzilus, where the bittul is on a higher level. Up to the three instances of “ascribe,” as we said, the reference is to Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. But bowing is complete bittul. When a person bows, nullifying himself entirely, that is the bittul of the world of Atzilus. Yes, “Bow before Hashem in the splendor of holiness”—“holiness” also refers to Atzilus. Holiness is a term used in Chassidus as well. So “Bow before Hashem in the splendor of holiness” refers to bittul, bittul of one’s very existence, corresponding to the world of Atzilus. Absolute bittul, complete self-nullification. That is the order of the verse. First it speaks generally, and then it gives the details. In detail, there is bittul in each world according to its level. The ultimate point is that specifically through this we come before Him: through serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu and offering up the animal soul, we reach His innermost dimension, until we reach the level of “Bow before Hashem in the splendor of holiness,” which is bittul of one’s very existence. As explained in Chassidus, these four levels—Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah—are also present in davening: Hodu, Pesukei Dezimra, Shema, and Shemoneh Esrei. These are four levels of davening corresponding to the four worlds. “Ascribe to Hashem, families of the nations”—that is the verse. This relates to the stages of Hodu and Pesukei Dezimra; “tremble” relates to Hodu. There are several ways of explaining it. “And you shall love Hashem your G-d” is another matter. This relates to Pesukei Dezimra. “Ascribe to Hashem the glory of His name” corresponds to Shema, and “Bow before Hashem in the splendor of holiness”—bowing

09:42 Speaker 1 corresponds to Shemoneh Esrei, the bittul of one’s very existence in Shemoneh Esrei. It is also written, and brought in the sefarim, that the initials of “Bow before Hashem in the splendor of holiness” spell Kabbalah. This is Abba, which is Kabbalah; it is the concept of Atzilus and Torah, the inner dimension of Kabbalah. It is bittul of one’s very existence. That is why the initials of “Bow before Hashem in the splendor of holiness” spell Kabbalah. In any event, the verse continues: “Tremble before Him, all the earth; indeed, the world is firmly established and will not falter.” What does this mean? It means the bittul of the entire world before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Tremble” means fear, yirah. Yes, “Tremble before Him, all the earth”—the yirah and bittul of the entire world before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Indeed, the world is firmly established and will not falter”: through this, the world is established. “Established” in the sense of being set in place and secured, made firm and strong. Yes. Where do we find that? It is a matter of setting something right and establishing it, as in “He established the heavens.” He made it firm and strong. “Indeed, the world is firmly established and will not falter”: this is what strengthens the world so it will not fall. What does that mean here? On a simple level, in the natural order, fear would suggest the opposite. When a person is afraid, he loses his sense of self and becomes weak, as it were. Great fear weakens a person; he feels diminished. But the verse says, “Tremble before Him, all the earth.” The yirah and bittul of created beings before Hakadosh Boruch Hu do the opposite: they give strength. “Indeed, the world is firmly established and will not falter”—that is what strengthens the world. The bittul of creation, the world’s trembling and self-nullification before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, is precisely what gives the world the strength of its true existence. That is when the world is nullified before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is how it works. As Chassidus explains time and again, in all the maamarim, bittul and self-nullification before G-dliness are vital for created beings. So bittul is not a weakening

12:04 Speaker 1 of existence. On the contrary, the bittul of a created being before Hakadosh Boruch Hu makes its existence stronger. On our own, our existence is limited. But when we connect to G-dliness, which is true existence, then bittul before the Master of the Universe gives us true existence. That is what the verse means: through “Tremble before Him, all the earth,” through fear and yirah of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “the world is firmly established and will not falter.” That is what strengthens the world so it will not fall. Bittul before the Master of the Universe is its true existence. The sefarim also say that the initials of “Tremble before Him, all the earth” spell Chochmah. Yirah is connected with Chochmah: where there is yirah, there is Chochmah; Chochmah and yirah go together. The maamarim explain that Chochmah means bittul—koach mah. It is a matter of bittul and yirah. That is why yirah is specifically connected with Chochmah. So this is the meaning of “Tremble before Him, all the earth”: Chochmah, koach mah, the bittul of the world. This is true self-nullification before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and precisely this gives the world its true, enduring existence. Another verse. Enough? “Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad, and let them say among the nations: Hashem reigns.” Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad. Now the verse speaks about creation in greater detail: heaven and earth. It says that the revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the revelation of Hashem’s glory in the world—which, as we said, brings about the bittul of the entire world before Hakadosh Boruch Hu—brings joy. “Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad.” Moshiach will come, and there will be a revelation of G-dliness in the world, a revelation of holy G-dliness in the world. Then that revelation will bring joy and gladness into the world. So it says, “Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad.” Chassidic sefarim explain that gladness is a lower level than joy. Gladness is an expression of joy. But

13:57 Speaker 1 in any case, here it says, “Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad.” What are heaven and earth? The sefarim say that the initials of “Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad” spell Yud-Hei and Vav-Hei. Yes, “Let the heavens rejoice” gives Yud-Hei, and “the earth be glad” gives Vav-Hei. These are the two parts of the Name. Yud-Hei represents what is hidden, the higher levels of Chochmah and Binah, the concealed, higher levels. Yud-Hei. Vav-Hei represents the level that is more fully invested in the world. That is why “Let the heavens rejoice,” referring to the higher world, has the initials Yud-Hei, while “the earth be glad,” referring to the lower world, has the initials Vav-Hei. It says, “Let the heavens rejoice.” That is why “rejoice,” referring to the heavens, is in the masculine form, while “be glad,” referring to the earth, is in the feminine form. We are speaking of the higher world, for which the masculine form is fitting, and the lower world, for which the feminine form is fitting. That is their character. In short, “And let them say among the nations: Hashem reigns”—then the kingship of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is revealed throughout the world.