סידור חב״ד (חלק 1)

00:00 This is Igris, and this is one of the last times for a long time that we're not going to look at letters from exactly fifty years ago. Uh, this is maybe one of the, uh, last or second to last of our free-for-all. We're running throughout Igris, picking up interesting letters that we found along the way in the past and didn't get a chance to look at closely. And the one that we're looking at today is from volume... It always says it at the bottom down here in these printouts. This is from Volume eighteen, and you will find it on page two hundred. The letter is Vav Tov Dalet Shin, and we're gonna look at something like seven letters today. One, two, three, four, five, six. Six at least. Six letters today. Uh, and this is, I think, gonna be the beginning of a two-part series, and we're gonna talk about Nusach Chabad, Nusach Arizal, davening with our Nusach, the unique, uh, form of tefillah, the unique organization of the siddur that is characteristic of Chabad houses everywhere, Nusach Arizal, as understood by the Alter Rebbe, as transmitted by the Alter Rebbe. Uh, what I wanna talk about today is we're gonna look at a bunch of letters where people write to the Rebbe asking if they should switch to adopt Nusach Chabad. They're davening Nusach Ashkenaz, they're davening Nusach Sefard. They have a different Nusach that they and their families going back generations were raised with, and they write to the Rebbe asking if they

01:04 should switch their Nusach to daven like us. We'll see the Rebbe's answers to this, and, uh, we'll also see the Rebbe's answers to, uh, a shul that wrote to the Rebbe saying two shuls were merging and which Nusach to use. And we'll talk a little bit about the value, according to the Rebbe, of Nusach Ari, of the Alter Rebbe's Nusach specifically. Tomorrow, the goal, Im Yirtze Hashem, is to talk about what to do if you daven Nusach Ari and, uh, you are-- find yourself in a shul that is inhospitable to that. You need to daven for the Amid, or you're in a shul, and you're suddenly, you know, doing Ashamnu while they're doing Tachnun. The Rebbe has many letters answering what to do when you find yourself in that sort of pickle. So that we're gonna cover tomorrow. Also, the specifics of which Nusachais you can switch between, whether you're allowed to take on another Nusach for the day, things like that we're gonna save for tomorrow. I tried to do it on one share, and it just-- it was not happening. I'm not sure we're gonna get through all of this, let alone all of that. So, without further ado, the letter is Vav Tov Dalet Shin from the year taf shin yud tes. Let me make it a little bigger. And here we go. Shalom Ubracha, the Rebbe writes. "Naman u'mechtavim Yud Zayin Shvat. I'm answering your letter from Yud Zayin Shvat. V'kes va'derech im tzedek lispal lomkan l'alah v'Nusach Arizal." You wrote

02:05 to me saying that you would like from now on to daven Nusach Arizal. Of course, they were not davening that before. "Hu Nusach Rabbeinu Hazaken m'kubal et Tsvas Chabad." This is not the Nusach Arizal that you can pick up in your local Sfarim store. It is noteworthy that the Arizal never actually wrote a siddur. The Arizal transmitted his kavanot and his order of tefillah to his students. They put together various siddurim. Most of them were sort of a nudge and wink kind of siddur, where it would say hints to what to do because the Mekubalim understood what they needed to, needed to do. They just needed some guidelines. So we really didn't have an authoritative Arizal siddur ever, really. And a couple have come down through the ages. At some point, there were literally tens of different kinds of Arizal siddurim. And as we'll see, the Rebbe's gonna explain this in some of his letters, but the Alter Rebbe sat down with sixty versions of them. Actually says in this letter, too, sixty versions of them and put together the authoritative one and also removed all the Kabbalistic kavanot, uh, so they wouldn't get confusing for people, but otherwise left the order of tefillah according to Arizal. That's why the Rebbe is saying here n-that the, uh, s-Nusach Arizal you're talking about, let's just clarify, you mean you wanna daven Arizal, which is the Alter Rebbe's Nusach that has been accepted by Chasidi Chabad. The Rebbe responds, "Tov v'nochah nadav v'meid." Very good idea. Great

03:09 idea. Definitely switch. "Uv'frat hapis yipadu Chsiddim, especially according to the stories that Chsiddim tell." And you'll see in all of these letters, the Rebbe always attributes this to a story of Chsiddim. Apparently, there's no other source for it, no written source. "Asher Rabbeinu Hazaken bir Nusach zeh meshiş siddurim, that the Alter Rebbe chose this Nusach after looking at sixty other siddurim and putting together the absolute best version of tefillah, at least according to the Arizal. Eleh shekiven shaal pi hamuv in ei zeh m'kemem efshar lachlif min Nusach Ashkenaz v'Nusach Sefard. Min Sefard l'Nusach Ari, aval lei la'hefech. Tzarich lachlif ki sheyas li Nusach Ari, zeh l'tamid." The Rebbe says, however, do be careful. Uh, be careful because when you're going from, uh, Ashkenaz, you're allowed to start in Ashkenaz and switch to Nusach Sefard. You'll find this in Halachot Sfarim. You're allowed to switch from Nusach Sefard to Nusach Ari, so you can upgrade to Nusach Ari, but you can never go back. Somebody who davens Chabad Nusach is not allowed to switch and decide now they're davening Nusach Ashkenaz or Nusach Sefard for any reason. "Tzarich lachlif," therefore, if you really wanna take this on, you have to make sure it's forever, that once you start Nusach Ari, "zeh l'tamid," that you'll never go back. This does mean, and I think we'll find this borne out in a lot of the letters we're seeing, so I'm telling it to you right now, I am almost certain that the shiita therefore is that if somebody

04:16 rai-- was raised in a Chabad household and growing up davened Nusach Chabad, and then later on in life decides that they're going to join a different congregation, uh, Sefard or Ashkenaz, they still must daven Nusach Ari. It doesn't look like they're allowed to switch back. Uh, you're allowed to go from Ashkenaz to Sefard and Sefard to Ari, but not from Ari back down to Sefard or Ashkenaz. "V'sheilasach," and this is not coming from the Rebbe. This is actually-- He quotes many shailot and tshuvot, not in this letter, but in another letter we'll see he has a lot of sources for this idea. "V'sheilasach," regarding your question, "Chasid Chabad shemispal le'niateiv ve'es hakneses shesham negin lema v'shamru im hu gam hu yomar?" Says, "What should I do when-- with, with, with V'shamru? I daven in a regular shul, a shul that doesn't use my Nusach, and the big V'shamru is always the biggest question that comes up in these situations on Kabbalat Shabbos. Right before Shemoneh Esreh, everybody except for us pretty much has the custom to say Api to V'shamru. And according to us, we don't have that in our Nusach, although we do have it in our siddur. It's something that we specifically don't say that is in our siddurim. There's a whole story with that. Uh, what do I do when everybody else is saying V'shamru? The Rebbe says, "Ni'ali shlo yomar." I think you shouldn't say it. "Keyin shekabbalah al atzmo psaktin sheyes bo zeh chashash le'afsek." You brought-- You, you're accepting

05:19 upon yourself the Alter Rebbe's position. His position is that this could be an interruption in tefillah, which is not permitted. "Kim psak Rabbeinu Hazaken v'frat shmin ge'ul mispallem minyan." Specifically, when those in-- when people are davening in a minyan, "Du ama isidab zeh she'einem nafshi shar mispallem imnim," uh, you certainly don't have to say even if everybody else is saying. And he gives a couple sources for this. "Gam bimhevi le'niateivha ein lei le'omru." Even if he's the chazan, he shouldn't say V'shamru. And, uh, the reason for this that he says a little bit here but also is mentioned in another letter that I'm not sure I brought you, so I'm gonna tell you 'cause I don't remember which ones I kept. There are literally hundreds of letters like this, so I don't remember which ones I kept and which ones I tossed. But, uh, the Rebbe explains elsewhere that a, a chazan, you don't really notice when he doesn't say V'shamru. If he says, um, if he says the last line of that beracha and then pauses, the kehillah will say V'shamru, and he can go right into Shemoneh Esreh. The Rebbe doesn't feel that a chazan or a congregant needs to bother with V'shamru. Uh, in any event, the Rebbe gives a beracha, says l' mention on the Tziyan, and, uh, gives him a beracha for his Saffa in Torah and Mitzvahs, and that is our first letter. Now, the reason why I put this letter that I labeled as number four next is

06:16 just because this letter is from only about a month later, maybe less than a month later. Let me see. This is, uh Other of other Rishon, and this one is the same year of Yud Beis . This is two weeks later. Two weeks later, the Rebbe says almost the exact same thing, possibly to somebody else. However, the way the Rebbe words the letter, he says, "I think I've already answered this question." So I think this might be a follow-up letter where the person, for some reason, received this letter from the Rebbe that we just read and was not clear on what they should do. I guess possibly because the Rebbe says in this letter, "You should do it, but only if you're sure you're gonna do it forever." So maybe that left them in doubt as to what the Rebbe actually wants them to do. So the Rebbe writes, . In response to your letter about changing your Nusach, I think I answered already. it's a good idea, I want you to switch. as he says in the previous letter, the Alter Rebbe set up his Nusach from the sixty other Siddurim and is based-- as is explained in other places, you can switch from Ashkenaz to Sefard and from Sefard to Ari, but not opposite. So make sure the will be on the condition that you never intend to go back on this. Uh, now in response to some of his other questions, when should you start? Um, I, I love this answer. I

07:29 wonder things like this all the time. I've been looking for this sentence forever, and you know what? I'm gonna also screenshot it because I need it for a million other things. Take this sentence to heart about everything in life. Look at the Rebbe's answer. you ask me, when should I start? Should I start Rosh Hashanah? Should I start Yom Teretz Kislev? What's the right day to start a new ? The Rebbe says, I don't understand. once you've decided to do something, why are you pushing off starting it? What? I'm waiting till it's the right day for it, the right time, I'm in the right mindset. Once I decide I'm gonna do something, do it right now. There's no start time. You started, you start today. And the fact that you tell me that it's, uh, a little bit confusing, you're gonna cause confusion, and I think he also means it'll be a little bit confusing for him. He goes, "Yeah, everybody who started davening Nusach Chabad initially caused some confusion." Nusach Chabad is relatively new. That means the first generation of people who davened this Nusach all either were confused or confused people around them. nonetheless, they started davening with this. and the group of people who daven with this Nusach has only grown since then. Uh, this is another question down here that we're not gonna cover right now, and he tells them to learn a little bit of... Oh, one lo- o- one more thing down here I do wanna say 'cause it's

08:37 just interesting. He says that you mentioned, uh, I think this person writing to the Rebbe was saying something like, "I wanna start davening Nusach Chabad, but I'm not sure I'm okay with everything in Tanya. I don't know if I understand the Siddurs." The Rebbe says back, "That would, that would you say that there are in Tanya, that up until now you don't really understand ?" That's the way the whole Torah is. Don't tell me that, uh, there's some pieces of the Torah you don't understand, so you're hesitating to take up a new . Um, the, the entire Torah is that way. There's no part of the Torah that's entirely understandable. when you start off learning it, you only understand the big overarching principles. and as time goes on, you'll increase in your understanding. We have many, many other letters that follow this, uh, rule. I'm comfortable saying this is the Rebbe's shita because I found it in no less than twenty letters where people write to the Rebbe saying, "Should I switch?" And the Rebbe specifically tells them to switch to Nusach Chabad. I think the Rebbe would say that anybody from any tradition should feel completely comfortable switching to Nusach Chabad, and we're gonna see that bear out and I brought you, uh, three more letters that are illustrative of this, but I'm telling you, it's really in at least twenty of them. This is as close to a shita as you can get, that it is, that it is okay, good, enough to

09:38 switch to, uh, Nusach Chabad from another Nusach, but of course not to go back the other direction. This letter is Vav Shin Lamed Beis. The last letter I read, I don't think I said what the, uh, number was on it. The number on the last one was Vav Tav Shin Chaf Alef. This one is, uh, Vav Shin Lamed Beis. It's from the year Tav Shin Yud Ches, so it's a year earlier. And the Rebbe writes, I'm responding to your letter. You didn't tell me when you wrote it, and you wrote there that you've been accepted into Gan Yisrael, and he gives them a beracha that Gan Yisrael should be run appropriately, that it should ful-- that it should live up to its name. that which you wrote to me about switching your Nusach Hatefila, how you daven. it's the right thing to do, switching to Nusach Chabad. It's the right thing to do. as is explained in many places. the Rebbe's telling this again, that it's okay to switch from Ashkenaz to Sefard and from Sefard to Ari, but not the other way around. so make sure that when you do switch over to, to our Nusach, you, uh, make it a a very firm resolution. make sure that this change is going to be a lasting change and that from now on you're gonna daven Nusach HaAri. the Rebbe mentions this in almost all the letters as a selling point for our Nusach. The Alter Rebbe, who he says here is the Pesik in

10:49 Nister because of Tanya, and the Pesik in Nigla because of Shulchan Aruch, they organized the siddur based on sixty other versions of the siddur that existed. So based on sixty versions, he put together the absolute best. he tells him, "I'm sure you're gonna keep up with Chitas, and Hashem should protect you from..." And I'm-- Excuse me. You should be careful to, to be careful about these Sdom from now on. Okay. One more letter that illustrates this idea, and then I'll show you some things that are a little bit different, like what to do in a shul. Uh, this is Daled Tav Tav Mem He. This is in Tav Shin Yud Zayin. And the Rebbe writes, in response to your letter from Chaf Heh Tishrei. I was very happy to read that at the beginning of this new year you began davening with the Nusach Haboror shel Nusach HaAri Zal. He calls this the Nusach Haboror, the clear Nusach of the clarified Nusach of the Alter Rebbe, which is the Nusach HaAri. it should be God's will, it should be God's will, the yard prayer should be accepted among the Tefilas of the entire Jewish people. As the beracha in the middle of the Shemoneh Esreh goes, uh, when we ask about our own needs, you should give us, graciously give us wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, which is of course the acronym Chabad. And people should notice, this is very interesting to me, people should notice the positive change in all of your bakashas that will

12:06 come from now on, as if he's saying that now that you're davening Nusach Chabad, it should be noticeable to you and those around you that you're davening better, that your tefilas are working better. it should be God's will. There should be no more than the bare necessary, uh, no excessive in your-- in, in the fulfillment of all of the blessings that are due to you, um, especially now that you've switched over to daven- A more effective Nusach, which is really what he's saying here, . The Rebbe is saying that I expect that now that you've switched over to Nusach Chabad, your davening is gonna work better. . In response to your question, he asked at the very end of the letter, how should you act on Shabbos and Yom Tov when you're davening a shul that is not Nusach Chabad? The Rebbe says, . You only need to worry about this if you're gonna be the chazan. Ask me if you're a chazan, but you're not a chazan, . Certainly, when you're davening on your own, it's not even a question. Stick with your own Nusach. . There's many practical, uh, cases of this happening. . This is, uh, the way that it was always done in prior generations. . And the same thing applies to V'shamru and the Rebbe's bracha and the signature. I know I told you we're gonna get more into this tomorrow, so I'm not gonna dwell on this right now. The question of what to do in other shuls, it's

13:16 not as clear-cut as the Rebbe says in this letter. He explains himself more in other letters, but, uh, that does also sort of capture his position on, uh, on our Nusach and other shuls. This is a letter that is la-labeled dalet shin nun from chaf er of taf shin taz zayin, and, uh, this is a letter to somebody who is merging two shuls. So they're merging two shuls together. I'm not sure if one of them had Nusach Chabad or neither of them did, but, uh, the upshot of this letter will be that now that you're merging the two shuls together and making a new shul, it definitely should be Nusach Chabad. So let's read the letter. . Let me make it a little bit bigger. . So, um, you asked me about, uh, merging these two shuls together, and, uh, you asked me for a name for these two shuls, and, uh, I gave you a telephone response 'cause you told me it was time-sensitive, but, um, I'm also putting this in writing, and this is the following. . Even though names are important, . Certainly, this applies to the name of the shul. . The Rebbe says, "I understand that the name of something is important, that names of shuls matter, and, uh, it does have significance in, uh, Torah and Minhag Yisrael. But if you wanna know what fight to have over this, let them pick whatever name they want as long as you get the Nusach, because what we really want is

14:37 to make sure the Nusach of the shul is Nusach Chabad. So name it whatever you want. I wanted to-- I'm worried about the Nusach. . It's explained at length in many shalas and chovas of the Acharonim when it comes to switching over Nusach. The Maskana of the Acharonim is you can switch from Nusach Ashkenaz to Nusach Sfarad, but not from Sfarad, from, not from Sfarad to Ashkenaz. And from that, it should also be understood how important it is that specifically Nusach Ari, which is . So the Rebbe here is explaining this shit that he's mentioned in a few letters, you can go from Ashkenaz to Sfarad and Sfarad to Ari, but not back. The Rebbe is saying that the idea here is that we believe that Sfarad is more Miduraya than Ashkenaz, and we believe that Ari is more Miduraya than Sfarad. So you can be . It's sort of a crass way to say it, and certainly our friends who daven other Nusach might not appreciate saying that the Ashkenaz is the least reliable, Sfarad is the next most reliable, and Chabad the most reliable. But this is exactly what the Rebbe is saying, and that's why you're not allowed to go back, is that once you switch to the most reliable Nusach, which is the Alter Rebbe's, this can also maybe help us understand why earlier the Alter Rebbe keeps on saying-- I'm sorry, the Rebbe keeps on saying that the Alter Rebbe pulled this from sixty other siddurim. The one that is

15:40 most reliable is without a doubt the Alter Rebbe's version, given just how much work he put into it, sixty different versions. Also, the fact that he's the posek in Niglen, posek in Nister. Yeah, obviously, his is the most reliable. Since his is the most reliable, we're saying here that, uh, Nusach, . Excuse me, I wanna make sure I read the lotion again. Um, you should understand this. . This is a version of Nusach Sfarad that is even more Miduraya. So, uh, he's-- the Rebbe's, uh, the Rebbe's carving up territory here and saying it's not just, you know, everybody has a Nusach, everybody can enter whatever gate they want, the sort of, uh, the sort of kumbaya version of this. This is a much more strict version of this. Ari is simply the best one. If you switch to it, you're stuck with it. . Specifically, when it comes to the Alter Rebbe, . That's what people nowadays call Nusach Ari Z"L. There really is nobody davening. There's a Nusach Ari Z"L of the Rashash. There's a siddur that goes around. I don't know of anybody who davens it, though. Practically speaking, if you daven Nusach Ari nowadays, you're using the Alter Rebbe's. . He clarified this from many different Nusach. . He pulled this from sixty different siddurim, . Therefore, it is my opinion that also when it comes to these two shuls that we are having merged together, . What's that Ateiva? Is that the rule of the Ateiva, or is that the word

16:56 that he wants for the name of the shul? I don't know. I don't know. . It's possibly saying it should be called a Nusach Ari Z"L shul. I, I can't tell from Nusach Ateiva. Ateiva is, Ateiva is the amud. Yeah. What does that mean, Nusach-- Oh, does that mean Nusach Ateiva is like the Nusach of the, of the- The chazan should be Nusach Ari, and that's, that's gonna create- Thanks, Peretz. That, that makes a lot more sense. Yeah. 'Cause he did say he wasn't getting into the name issue. Thanks. So therefore, um, with Peretz's help, therefore, it is my opinion that when these two shuls- Strange way of saying it, though. That's why I, I-- It's strange. It's a strange way of saying it. Nusach Ateiva. I've never seen it used that way before, but I definitely think that's what it means. The other one doesn't make sense. I'm with Peretz. Um, I'm gonna get a pin. I'm with Peretz. . When, uh, we do merge these two shuls together, they should, uh, the, the Nusach of the table, the Nusach of the amud that is davened from the amud should be Nusach Ari Z"L. . In order to establish the most fundamental part, . I'm still-- I don't know. . I, I, I'm now leaning in the other direction at the end of that sentence. Whatever. The point is, the Rebbe definitely wants these shuls when they merge to be Nusach Ari shul. . It should be God's will that you will succeed in

18:07 implanting in all of the people who daven there that the tefilah should have, uh, all effects at all hours of the day, and my kavana is ki pshuta, is as simple as it sounds. That the first bracha, . That the first bracha where we ask for, uh, havan havedas, . That that idea of havan havedas should also extend throughout the entire day, and bracha acharon, the next bracha, where we talk about these ideas of teshuvah and selicha of our sins, should also stand there as a, uh, as a yeserides teshuvah, even when they're at work. . Nothing can stand before His will. So the Rebbe here is giving the most incredible bracha, which is that when I say to Hashem, "Please give me wisdom and knowledge," I shouldn't just have that during tefilah, but I should have that all day. When I say, "Hashem, please help me do teshuvah," I should be in a state of teshuvah the entire day. May that be God's will that that happen in your shul. . So what we're seeing across these letters is a real push from the Rebbe, uh, a stronger push than I would have expected. I, I always had the idea that our Nusach was special. I certainly had the idea that we should be davening our Nusach. I wouldn't have thought going into this discussion that the Rebbe would advise people switch to our Nusach necessarily. Uh, certainly, I wouldn't advise-- I wouldn't, uh, I wouldn't have s- uh, suspected he'd push it so

19:10 hard. I also wouldn't have expected what the Rebbe said in a few letters at this point, that our Nusach is not just different, but objectively better, that it is a better Nusach, that it is the most middot version of all the Nusach, and it's the most middot version of Nusach Sefard, and that therefore, you can if you're gonna switch, make sure you do it forever. These are all things that I found somewhat surprising, and, uh, there is a sicha that maybe explains why the Rebbe feels this way. We're gonna conclude with the sicha. It's an edited sicha. Look at the sichas. Uh, it is in volume Lamed Tes in Devarim, uh, on page forty-four is where I am. It's a, it's a Rosh Hashanah sicha. And at the beginning of this paragraph in Beis, the Rebbe talks about the kavana that's mentioned at the beginning of Tekiyat HaShofar, where it says you're supposed to say the Mizmor seven times. And for Kabbalistic reasons, I assume. I mean, I've always assumed. I-- That's my kavana when I do it, is that it's the, it's zo, right? 'Cause seven is usually a zo thing. But frankly, the Rebbe's whole point here is that we don't really... most people don't really know why they're doing it, but the siddur nonetheless tells us to do it. The siddur is telling us to do a Kabbalistic kavana without telling us the kavana, which it would seem would defeat the purpose of a Kabbalistic kavana. Meaning, if the entire point of

20:10 a Kabbalistic intent is to have a Kabbalistic intent, then not telling me why I'm doing it and having me go through the motions would seem to be somewhat useless. The Rebbe then from there launches in a discussion of what makes the Alter Rebbe's siddur so special and why he feels the way that he does in all the previous letters that we've read, why we're willing to tell people switch over to our Nusach, why we're willing to tell people our Nusach is more middot, and what exactly it accomplishes. So we're gonna read this over here. The Rebbe says, "I wanna add an explanation, and I want to make an introduction first, uh, when it comes to the general introduction, when it comes to about these, uh, about the relevance to the to the Alter Rebbe's siddur. Even though he set up the siddur, uh, his siddur according to the intents of the Arizal, it should be exactly right the way Kabbalah says. So every word that's slightly different, every letter that's slightly different, you know we do things a little differently. Sometimes vowelizations are a little different. Every detail of that is the Alter Rebbe telling us what is supposed to be according to Kabbalah. It's also very exact when it comes to grammar and language. We never have anything to defend when it comes to our siddur. If you find something in our siddur, uh, the Rebbe is willing to stand up and tell you that it is the most middot when it comes to

21:16 grammar, language, Kabbalah. And when you find people saying otherwise, they're simply ill-informed. Nonetheless, nonetheless, the Alter Rebbe, uh, does not include in his siddur any of the kavanot of the Arizal, because it simply does not apply to our people. The klal mashma, in general, the implication is the kavanot, the deep kavanot of the Arizal, they're really only shayach to Yechidai Segulah, the people who really know Kabbalah, people who understand how to make those kavanot. But it's, uh, so on one hand, we could say that. On one hand, we could say that he excluded them because they're not for everybody. But it would make a lot more sense to say The Rebbe is saying, on one hand, we could say the reason why the Alter Rebbe excludes the kavanot of the Arizal, the Kabbalah, from his siddur, is because most people can't understand it, so it's not shayach to them. But he says, "I think it's deeper than that." The Rebbe says, "It makes more sense to me to say that really he was sneaking the kavanot into the tefillah and giving everybody access to them." So even without, even without saying the kavanot, the way that he organized the siddur is that I'm automatically doing Kabbalah without knowing I'm doing Kabbalah if I'm davening according to the Alter Rebbe's Nusach, meaning that I'm davening like a Kabbalist and accomplishing what a Kabbalist would accomplish without knowing the Kabbalah. And the only loophole for that is the way the Alter Rebbe wrote the siddur. That's what

22:37 the Rebbe is saying here. So that's why the Alter Rebbe put together the siddur in the first place, is to make the entire Jewish people shayaach to Kabbalistic kavanot. So the idea was not to simplify Kabbalah, dumb down Kabbalah, and remove the Kabbalah. The idea was to put the Kabbalah so deeply into the structure of the siddur itself that when a person who knows no Kabbalah reads out of our siddur, unlike any other siddur, when they read out of our siddur, they are doing Kabbalah, uh, fully doing Kabbalah. They are tapping into the kavanot and the outcomes of that. This might explain why in earlier letters, the Rebbe keeps giving people berakhot that their tefillah should work better when they switch over. It works better 'cause they're able to, using the Alter Rebbe's siddur, tap into deep kavanot and deep Kabbalah that, uh, that normal people are not able to tap into, essentially. Once you start switching to Arizal, you can daven like a Kabbalist. Whereas if you're davening the other Nusach, you're davening according to your own abilities. Says this is, uh, similar to what the Alter Rebbe says, uh, in Hilchot Tamid. I wanna skip this section, just go right down here. The Rebbe concludes by saying this also applies to the kavanot of Tekiyat HaShofar, that they are shayaach l'chol nefesh. But the outcome of that for most people who don't understand how to think the kavanot is to say that Mizmor seven times, and by saying that Mizmor seven times, they're

23:47 not going through the motions. They're literally tapping into the same Kabbalah as a regular Kabbalist. So from this, I think we get some real powerful insight into why the Rebbe is telling people to switch to Nusach HaAri, why the Rebbe is, uh, such a champion of the Alter Rebbe's siddur, why the Rebbe says it's so much more middot, and more than anything else, really, why the Rebbe keeps on telling people that it fr- functionally works better, that if you're davening out of the Alter Rebbe's siddur, you're literally going to have more success in getting your tefillahs answered. This all really adds up when you look at the sicha. The Rebbe is saying here that the Alter Rebbe's plan in making the siddur was to secretly turn a simple person into a Kabbalist, not to, uh, not to ease them into it, not to explain it to them in a way that makes them understand it, but to give them the exact same experience and outcome as a Kabbalist without them literally needing to think Kabbalistic kavanot, which makes it an incredibly powerful siddur. Okay, that's it for part one.