Explanations of the Prayer - Hodu - Part 8

00:00 Speaker 1 It says—here they are speaking, you remember all these verses up to this point, up to the next two verses. They are verses about the Ark, the Ark of the Covenant. When they brought the Ark, King David—there are several possibilities: whether King David sang this, or the cows sang it, or the Levi’im who carried the Ark. Whoever was there, yes, they all sang it together, addressing everyone. The whole chapter, from Hodu to Romemu, consists of verses from when they brought the Ark to its place. All the Jewish people were there, and they said this entire passage. So here he is addressing the entire people, all the Jewish people who were there, and telling them: After we have seen all the wonders of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, everything we have discussed until now—the wonders and all the greatness of Hashem revealed through the Ark; through it, as we discussed, all these matters of exile, creation, and the entire world, and how the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is revealed—after seeing that, and likewise when Moshiach comes, as we said the Midrash teaches that this is also a song for the future, when there will be a revelation of G-dliness like there was when they brought the Ark to the Beis Hamikdash, he tells the Jewish people to say together: After contemplating all these things, even though we are not yet in a time of Geulah and do not see this openly, we know it is true, that this is the inner reality, the truth of things. Therefore, “and say”—we, the Jewish people, must say and ask that all these things also come about

02:00 Speaker 1 in actual practice. “Save us, O G-d of our salvation”—this is the request that follows the contemplation of all these matters of Geulah and Moshiach, everything we have discussed until now. So, naturally, “and say”: We must say, “Save us, O G-d of our salvation”—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu should save us—“and gather us and deliver us from the nations.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu should gather us and deliver us from the nations, “so that we may give thanks to Your holy name and glory in Your praise.” We should merit to give thanks to Hashem’s name and glory in Your praise. So what do we have here? We have a request that comes after all this contemplation: a request to see it in actual practice, with our physical eyes. A request for Geulah, in other words—that a Jew asks to see with his physical eyes how Hakadosh Boruch Hu saves us from all the nations. After all, the whole point we discussed here about the nations and peoples in relation to Israel is that the nations, too, will be transformed and will themselves recognize the truth. That was the whole goal: that the nations, too, will be transformed to holiness and recognize the truth, which is not only within Israel. So this should come about tangibly: “gather us and deliver us from the nations,” so that we can give thanks to Your holy name and bring this about in a tangible way.

03:16 Speaker 2 Why does it say here, “gather us and deliver us”?

03:19 Speaker 1 I don’t know. I don’t know; no, no, I don’t know how to explain it. These are verses. One moment, let me finish the last verse, which is actually the last verse of Hodu: “Blessed is Hashem, the G-d of Israel, from world to world. And all the people said, ‘Amen,’ and praised Hashem.” This is the end of the passage from Divrei Hayamim. Romemu begins a different subject. Up to Romemu is the end of the song of the Ark. So what does it say? “Blessed is Hashem, the G-d of Israel, from world to world.” Yes, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who is the G-d of Israel, is blessed from world to world. “And all the people said, ‘Amen,’ and praised Hashem.” All the people who were there at the time, who saw everything that happened, said “Amen” and praised Hashem. What is the point of these two verses? That is their plain meaning. What do they mean according to Chassidus? In general, according to Chassidus, as we discussed once before, some verses in davening are phrased as requests. As we said, there are two parts to davening: verses that speak in praise and thanks of Hashem’s greatness, and verses phrased as requests. One explanation in Chassidus of the verses phrased as requests—particularly these verses that speak about the nations—is that they refer to the animal soul. According to Chassidus, when we say “nations” in davening, it does not refer only to the nations literally. It also refers to the “non-Jew within you,” the one within a person, and so on: the animal soul, the yetzer hara that each person has. So when we ask, “Save us, Hashem, O G-d of our salvation, and gather us and deliver us

05:22 Speaker 1 from the nations,” we also have in mind salvation from the “non-Jew within you,” from our animal soul. So we say, “Save us, O G-d of our salvation, and gather us and deliver us from the nations.” A person comes to daven and wants to pray. Then the yetzer hara comes and starts throwing in all kinds of distracting thoughts, all kinds of musings and confusion. So we ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to save us, gather us, and deliver us. That is why Chassidus explains the precise wording “gather us.” What does “gather us” mean? It refers to the scattering of the mind. A person begins to daven, and his thoughts are in a thousand places. One thought is about breakfast; another is about the mikveh. A third is about the afternoon. A fourth is about something that will happen in a week, a month, next year. His mind is full of confusion, and his thoughts are scattered all over. So that is the request: “gather us.” We ask to be able to gather all our thoughts, which are scattered among all sorts of worldly matters, and bring them together, unite them all. “And deliver us from the nations”—from the animal soul, the yetzer hara—so that we can daven, give thanks to Your holy name, and glory in Your praise. There is one more point about these verses, but we will leave it for next time.