Explanations of the Prayer - Hodu - Part 15

00:01 Let’s talk about the conclusion. After all the requests he finishes with here—all the different things we ask for, that Hashem have mercy on us, forgive us, show us kindness, save us, and so on—we ask Hashem to take us out of exile. “Arise and help us”: that Hashem should, so to speak, wake from sleep, take us out of all our troubles, and save us from exile. Then we conclude with three verses, verses of trust. You could say they explain where we get the strength to make these requests. The first says: “I am Hashem your G-d, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells us: “I am Hashem your G-d.” He is our G-d, and He took us out of Egypt. He didn’t simply take us out; the verse says specifically, “Who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” In other words, leaving Egypt wasn’t merely a move from slavery to freedom. In the Exodus, Hakadosh Boruch Hu raised us to a higher level and made us His people. “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” So Hakadosh Boruch Hu is, as it were, telling us: Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. What does this verse mean? The Gemara says that a person shouldn’t make expansive requests. It says a person should pray and ask for a little—I think it’s in Tractate Berachos. I don’t mean that a person isn’t allowed to ask when he prays. Rather, he should ask like a poor person at the door. When someone comes to ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he should be like a poor person asking at the door. A poor person knocks, makes his request, and is happy with whatever he’s given. He doesn’t ask for a million dollars. He asks for something, yes, but for small things. So a Jew coming to Hakadosh Boruch Hu should also always be at the door. The Gemara asks:

02:56 Doesn’t it say, “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it”? The Gemara answers that this refers to words of Torah. That is where a person can ask expansively; when it comes to prayer, he should be like a poor person at the door. But like—like Purim. With words of Torah, though, we say, “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” There a person should indeed conduct himself expansively, with a sense of abundance. So the Rebbe asks—there’s another Gemara, in the Yerushalmi; I don’t remember all the details—especially since we say this verse as part of prayer. That means we also apply it to prayer: “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” The Rebbe says something wonderful: the continuation of the verse itself answers the question. A Jew does indeed come to Hakadosh Boruch Hu like a poor person at the door. When a Jew comes to pray, he feels poor. What does that mean? On his own, a person is poor. He has nothing—not just materially, but spiritually. He feels he is on a very low level. Who am I? What am I? How can I come and ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu for anything? A person should always feel that he is lacking, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu owes him nothing. So, on his own, he doesn’t have the audacity to ask. On his own, he is poor. But once a person makes himself humble before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he is no longer coming on the strength of his own abilities. He comes through that humility, not with a sense of self—whether I deserve something or don’t deserve it. When a person makes himself humble before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, then, on the contrary, there are no limits. He can ask expansively too. It’s as though

04:58 he isn’t asking because of his own concerns. He isn’t asking from the standpoint of “I need it; I deserve it.” He asks so that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will give and bestow. He isn’t asking for himself, as it says; he is asking for the sake of Heaven, not treating his personal needs as matters of ego. That is what is being said here. So they say: “I am Hashem your G-d, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” As long as a person is in Egypt—in a spiritual Egypt, in constraints and limitations—he cannot ask. But once he reflects on “I am Hashem your G-d, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt,” he realizes that Hakadosh Boruch Hu took him out of Egypt. Hakadosh Boruch Hu took him out of those narrow confines, and he belongs to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So he is above those limitations. He no longer feels like a poor person at the door; he feels he can ask expansively. He can come and ask: “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” In short, the Rebbe’s point is that a Jew can approach Him. A Jew reflects on the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu took us out of Egypt, out of those narrow confines. That means we belong to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so we can even come with the audacity to make expansive requests. A Jew can ask for Moshiach. A Jew can ask for the Geulah. He can ask for the loftiest things. He has no limitations. When are there limitations? When I look at myself and feel that I’m at the door, still in Egypt. But once I reflect on “I am Hashem your G-d, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt,” then, because of that, it is “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” A Jew can ask expansively too. So this continues the prayer in which we ask, “Arise,

06:45 help us and redeem us for the sake of Your kindness”—that there should be Geulah. All of this rests on our reflecting that Hakadosh Boruch Hu took us out of Egypt. Then it continues: “Fortunate is the people for whom this is so; fortunate is the people whose G-d is Hashem.” Yes, we are happy and fortunate that we have Hakadosh Boruch Hu, that He is with us and is our G-d. So we trust that He will save us and take us out of this world with all its exile. It says, “Fortunate is the people for whom this is so.” Where does that come from? “For whom this is so”—we have what Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives us. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with us and cares for us. There is a vort attributed to Rabbi Treblich [unclear]. Rabbi Treblich [unclear] explains that “so” means firmness. It means resolve, or stubbornness: “That’s how it is,” without questions. “Fortunate is the people for whom this is so”—that is what we have. A Jew has the strength of the soul, this quality of “that’s how it is.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave a Jew the capacity for mesirus nefesh. Through that, a Jew can be bound to what is above him, always. That is a Jew’s bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And [unclear], from that point we are certain that Hakadosh Boruch Hu, too, will treat us in that way. “Shekachah” has the same numerical value as “Moshe,” and refers to Moshe Rabbeinu. So “for whom this is so” means that we have Moshe. And all this [unclear] Hakadosh Boruch Hu. [unclear] We trust in Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kindness, that He will do all these things for us. We have just one last verse. We’ll have to continue

08:37 next week, and then we’ll finish.