Explanations of the Prayer - Hodu - Part 12

00:00 Speaker 1 There’s a story about the Alter Rebbe after he was released from prison, on 19 Kislev, the Yom Tov of his Geulah. One of the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim was called Reb Bizi Komna[?]. One year on 19 Kislev, Reb Bizi Komna[?] was very happy. He climbed onto a table or a chair and said: “For whom was this Yom Tov? For whom is this Yom Tov of 19 Kislev? For whom was the victory?” Can we say the Yom Tov was for the chassidim, for us? It hasn’t changed us at all. We didn’t behave properly before, and we don’t behave properly now either. We don’t understand anything. Can we say it was for the Alter Rebbe—that it made a difference to him whether he was imprisoned or released? For the Alter Rebbe, being inside prison or outside it was the same, because the whole imprisonment meant nothing to him. He was a spiritual person. The suffering of prison didn’t... So who gained from it? The one who gained was Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Why Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Because without the Alter Rebbe there would have been no Chassidus in the world. There would have been no Chassidus in the world. What is Chassidus? Chassidus explains Hakadosh Boruch Hu to us. So without Chassidus, we wouldn’t know about Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That’s the meaning of “Salvation belongs to Hashem.” It is His salvation. “Salvation belongs to Hashem”: when you think about it, when you look closely, you see that in the end, the one who gains from the salvation is Hashem. That is the meaning of “Salvation belongs to Hashem; Your blessing is upon Your people, Selah.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives blessings to the Jewish people, but in the end, the one who gains from it is He Himself. It is His salvation. According to this,

02:09 Speaker 1 there’s a story brought in the Midrash. There’s a Midrash on the verse about Moshe and Aharon, “Hashem, who made Moshe and Aharon.” That’s in Shmuel. The Midrash says something very unusual: what does “Hashem, who made Moshe and Aharon” mean? That it was really Moshe and Aharon who “made” Hashem. That’s what the Midrash says. They tell of a time when the Alter Rebbe was imprisoned. One of the people there, one of the interrogators, asked him to explain this Midrash. What does the Midrash mean when it says that Moshe and Aharon made Hashem? The Alter Rebbe explained to them that as long as Moshe and Aharon had not come to Egypt, the people in Egypt said, “I do not know Hashem.” They didn’t believe in Hashem’s existence, and they thought that they themselves had done it all. Pharaoh said, “I made myself.” It was specifically through all the miracles and plagues and everything Moshe and Aharon did in Egypt that Hashem’s existence, so to speak, became known in the world. Hashem’s existence was revealed in the world. That’s the meaning of Moshe and Aharon having “made” Hashem: they brought about the revelation of Hashem’s existence in the world. The same is true whenever there are miracles and wonders: they reveal Hashem’s existence in the world. So that’s the meaning of “Salvation belongs to Hashem; Your blessing is upon Your people, Selah.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu blesses us, and the salvation is His salvation. Without the miracles and wonders, without all the things Hashem does, we wouldn’t know about Hashem. There would be an “us,” but no “You”; we wouldn’t know about Hashem. Through “Your blessing is upon Your people, Selah,” the salvation belongs to Hashem. Through it, Hashem’s name becomes known and revealed in the world. Then it says, “Hashem of Hosts is with us; the G-d of Yaakov is our stronghold, Selah.

04:06 Speaker 1 Hashem of Hosts, fortunate is the person who trusts in You. Hashem, save us; may the King answer us on the day we call.” These three verses appear many times in davening. We say them many times. We also say these verses earlier, in Korbanos. We say them here, before Maariv, and in Uva Letzion. We use these verses several times a day. The source for this is in the Yerushalmi. In tractate Berachos, several of the sages discuss these verses and say that they should never leave a person’s mouth. In other words, we should say these verses often. They are fundamental verses in the daily davening, and it says there, “They shall not leave your mouth.” Yes?

05:00 Speaker 2 Yes, Rabbi.

05:01 Speaker 1 [unclear]. It says that these verses should always be on a person’s lips. Apparently, on the basis of this Yerushalmi, they were included in several places in the davening. What is the content of these verses? These three verses in Tehillim are verses about trust, verses about trust. So whenever we reach a part of davening where we make requests—and really, in every davening we come to ask for something—we preface it with these verses. They express a Jew’s trust in Hakadosh Boruch Hu that He will grant what he asks. That is why we say them before Shacharis, before Mincha, and before Maariv. We say them before Shacharis in Korbanos and here as well; we say them before Mincha in Korbanos; and we say them before Maariv, before we begin Maariv. With these verses, we awaken our trust in Hashem and know that Hashem will listen. What does the first verse say? “Hashem of Hosts is with us; the G-d of Yaakov is our stronghold, Selah.” First, we declare it as a fact: Hashem of Hosts is with us. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is Hashem of Hosts. What does “Hosts” mean, and why do we mention this name of Hashem specifically here? Hosts is one of the seven names of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Midrash says that the name “Hosts” is connected with His fighting the wicked. Each name is connected with something different. “Hosts” is the name associated with Hakadosh Boruch Hu as He is present in the world and directs affairs in the world. That is why it says that when He fights the wicked, He is called “Hosts.” This name is connected with

07:01 Speaker 1 the realm of creation, with Hashem’s relationship to created beings. When there is a relationship to created beings, it is specifically the name “Hosts.” That is why there is a dispute in the Gemara about whether “Hosts” is a holy name. One opinion, that of Rabbi Yosi, says that “Hosts” is not a holy name at all. It’s a dispute. This name is so involved in the world that, according to one opinion, it does not have the status of a holy name at all. Holiness means being above the world. Because “Hosts” is a name involved in creation, there is an opinion that it is not a holy name. In practice, the halachic ruling is that it is a holy name. So what does the verse say? “Hashem of Hosts is with us.” It begins with the name Havayah, the loftiest name, the explicit name of Hashem. Then it says “Hosts,” the name associated with the lowest level, with being here in the world, where one must fight all kinds of things that oppose Hashem. So we say “Hashem of Hosts”: the name Havayah, which encompasses past, present, and future and is above nature, is drawn into “Hosts,” the name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu as He is present in the world. “Is with us”—He is specifically with us, with the Jewish people. “The G-d of Yaakov is our stronghold, Selah.” In other words, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the One who gives us strength. He is our stronghold, the One we rely on and trust. A stronghold is what gives us strength: He supports us and lifts us up, the G-d of Yaakov. That’s the first point. The first verse states a reality: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is always with us, and He protects us and lifts us up. Then the second verse adds something and turns to what is required of a person: “Hashem of Hosts, fortunate is the person who trusts in You.”

08:54 Speaker 1 A person who trusts in Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who has bitachon—“Fortunate is the person who trusts in Hashem.” So he says that, on the one hand, we see that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is always with us. On the other hand, we’re told that it’s important for a person to trust in Hashem. When a person trusts in Hashem—meaning, he trusts that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him—that helps him see Hashem’s salvation more openly. Because although Hashem is always with us, when a person lacks bitachon, that itself causes it to become hidden. It causes Hashem’s salvation to be concealed; we don’t see it openly. But when a person brings his bitachon out into the open—“Fortunate is the person who trusts in You,” a person who trusts in Hashem—it’s like the well-known story about the Tzemach Tzedek. There was a sick child, and the doctors said there was no hope for him. His father, Reb Michoel Halter[?], went to the Tzemach Tzedek. The doctors had told him that the child wouldn’t live more than a few hours, and he went to the Tzemach Tzedek. It took him several weeks to get there. According to the natural course of things, the child should already have died, but he had bitachon. He went to the Tzemach Tzedek. When he arrived, he began to cry. He didn’t even know what to ask for, because there were no telephones; he didn’t know whether his son was alive or not. He began to cry. The Tzemach Tzedek told him, “Think good, and it will be good. Think good, and it will be good.” He said he didn’t even have the strength to think good. He told the Rebbe, “You think good.” So the Rebbe said, “I’m thinking good too, but it’s important that you think good as well, and then you’ll see that everything will be good.” So he returned home. His son was already

10:37 Speaker 1 healthy and well. That’s the well-known saying from which this whole idea comes: that the thought itself should be good. The very bitachon a person awakens—it isn’t a simple matter to be confident all the time. Bitachon means trusting in Hashem without making calculations. The point is that bitachon itself is the vessel. The very fact that a person relies on Hashem and trusts that Hashem can do anything, and that Hashem can give him open good—that itself is the vessel that brings Hashem’s salvation. So that’s what he’s saying here: “Hashem, save us.” “Hashem Tzevaos, fortunate is the person who trusts in You.” When a person trusts in Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he also sees openly how Hakadosh Boruch Hu protects him. After that comes the request. So first of all, it’s a fact that Hashem is our stronghold. Then comes the part that concerns the person: a person needs to live with bitachon. “Fortunate is the person who trusts in You.” After that comes the request we make on that basis: “Hashem, save us; may the King answer us on the day we call.” What is asked of a person? That he live with this bitachon too. And then the third thing is the request. We ask Hashem to save us, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will indeed send it to us. Now comes the prayer, the request that Hashem save us: that Hakadosh Boruch Hu save us, and “may the King answer us on the day we call”—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu answer us on the very day we call to Him. What does that mean? What does it mean that we ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to answer us on the very day we call to Him? What is meant by “answer us on the day we call”? As is well known in Chassidus, when a person asks for something—for example, in material matters, when someone makes a request of a king—there are two possibilities. Sometimes a person makes a request of the king, and the king tells him, “We’ll think about it.” Yes, we’ll think about it—so we’ll think about it, right?

12:29 Speaker 1 And sometimes it can take time to think about it. The king has to discuss it with his advisers, go here and there, go through all kinds of things, and then it might get held up along the way before anything comes of it—if anything comes of it at all. Sometimes a person makes a request when the king is in a good mood, and he answers him immediately, with kindness and compassion, giving him everything he wants. That’s what we’re asking for: that it not go through all kinds of bureaucracy—that’s what it’s called, bureaucracy—but that as soon as we ask, “on the day we call,” it should come at that very moment. Then it will come without obstacles or delays, and the blessing will flow down. And what do you do? There’s more to this, but we’ll leave it for next time. It’s late already. Okay.