Laws of Prayer and the Priestly Blessing, Chapter 1 (Auto Translated)

Laws of Prayer and Priestly Blessing — The Positive Commandment to Pray Every Day

Introduction — Sponsorship and the Segulah of Supporting Torah

A good moed. We are going to begin learning today, with God’s help, the Rambam’s Sefer Ahavah, starting with Hilchos Tefillah (Laws of Prayer).

Let us mention our esteemed sponsor, the esteemed supporter of Torah and lover of Torah, R’ Yoel Weinberger, who donated the first shiurim, and from him others should learn and do likewise. Yes, rabbosai, whoever wants to be like the wealthy man, should learn that it is also a segulah, whoever gives money for the shiur, it is a segulah “tithe so that you will become wealthy.” There is also a halachah, the lovers of rabbis, one who loves the sages, one who loves the Torah, will have children or sons-in-law who are Torah scholars, or he himself will become a Torah scholar. It may be that if one gives money for Torah, one will merit to understand the Torah better. It is tried and tested.

One hundred percent. If someone donates to our shiur and he sits and learns, and he doesn’t become a Torah scholar after twenty-five years of learning, money back guaranteed. No, no, I mean it helps, it is certainly a segulah that helps. True, one still needs to learn, but it makes a difference. It’s the importance, yes. When a person values something, it’s simple that when a person puts in the money, he values it, he cherishes it.

Why Birkas Kohanim is Together with Hilchos Tefillah

Okay, Hilchos Tefillah U’Birkas Kohanim. So, the Rambam put this together. It’s the Rambam’s order many times, that if for example in Hilchos Avodah Zarah he included things that have a connection to avodah zarah. For example, Birkas Kohanim is a somewhat different type of blessing, it’s a mitzvah that falls upon a Kohen, but it’s something that is done during davening, it’s a part of tefillah. That is, Chazal incorporated it into the nusach of tefillah that Birkas Kohanim is done during Shemoneh Esrei. So he included it because it’s short, it doesn’t have so many laws, but the main part of it is Hilchos Tefillah, all the laws that have to do with davening.

Discussion: Birkas Kohanim as a Type of Tefillah

Interesting point, I hadn’t thought about this before, what is the simple meaning that it’s called Hilchos Birkas Kohanim. It could also be that the simple meaning, we don’t think this way because we don’t feel connected to saying Birkas Kohanim every day, but Birkas Kohanim is also a type of tefillah that the Kohanim pray for Jews. Yes, I wanted to say something simpler, that’s also correct. We’re not accustomed, because we say duchening only on Yom Tov, which isn’t so ingrained. But for example in Eretz Yisrael, it’s almost as if there are three mitzvos that one must do every morning, there is Krias Shema, that is Krias Shema of Shacharis, then there is Shemoneh Esrei tefillah, and there is Birkas Kohanim. So these are the main mitzvos d’Oraisa from the order of tefillah. There are many things, one can say the order of tefillah includes Yishtabach, Nishmas, all kinds of beautiful things that are included, but this isn’t just d’Rabbanan or… One can also look at it, as I said, that this is the way that the Kohen prays. The Kohen’s tefillah is a part of… that he has a mitzvah of blessing, of praying. What does he do? Blessing means praying for Jews. He prays for Jews. He says “May Hashem bless you,” he is praying for Jews. This is a mitzvah that is our tefillah. He has two types of tefillos. It’s not that a Yisrael has one type of tefillah, our tefillah, davening for oneself, or one can daven for others too, but that is the manner of davening, and he has a manner of davening of blessing Jews.

No, perhaps our tefillah, our tefillah is also brachos. We say “Baruch Atah Hashem.” And it could still be that the shaliach tzibbur isn’t so different from Birkas Kohanim. We say a part “Baruch Atah Hashem, Rofei cholei amo Yisrael.” The Kohen is a sort of way of blessing all Jews. Yes, it’s very different from “May Hashem bless you and guard you,” but it’s a nusach of humility toward the Jews, blessing them. True, true, true. But I think more simply it’s because he, as he does many times, takes a short mitzvah and puts it with the family of mitzvos. He could have put it with other laws of Kohanim, the impurity of a Kohen, but it fits better that the form of how the mitzvah is done has much more connection to tefillah.

Introduction — Daily Mitzvos in Sefer Ahavah

Right, about “to bless every day.” About this, because there are two things one can say in Sefer Ahavah, daily mitzvos. These are the two things one does every day. Love and fear. Two, two. One also does it during davening, perhaps this is only d’Rabbanan, one does it during davening, I don’t know, but these are things that are every day. Very good, you’re right that the Rambam says both things “every day.” Just as in Sefer Ahavah, as we’ve already discussed several times, that ahavah is that one keeps doing avodas Hashem daily, every day, several times a day. This is “in your love for her you shall always be absorbed,” that’s what ahavah means.

The Rambam’s Language: Two Positive Commandments

The Rambam says thus: Hilchos Tefillah U’Birkas Kohanim include two positive commandments. The first positive commandment is to serve Hashem through tefillah every day. To serve the Almighty through tefillah every day. It’s an interesting language, not “to pray every day,” because the Rambam is a writer where every word is a word. “To serve Hashem through tefillah every day,” to serve the Almighty through tefillah. The second is “for Kohanim to bless Israel every day.” On both of these things it’s not clear where the source is that it’s every day. Both tefillah, remember, it won’t properly bring a source that it’s once a day. The Rambam says “to serve Him and to serve Hashem,” we learn from this that it’s every day. I tell you, I tell you, in Kesef Mishneh he speaks about this. I tell you, in Kesef Mishneh it doesn’t say clearly that it’s every day, but this is how we see from the halachah, from the custom, from the way it’s done, that it’s every day.

Discussion: The Source for “Every Day”

Ah, Rabbi Yitzchak noted here the Sefer HaMitzvos. Ah, there it says yes? “That we were commanded to serve Him,” so it says in the verse “and you shall serve,” “and whom you shall serve.” Yes, but I don’t see that it says. He says, the Rambam, that essentially “and you shall serve Hashem your God” means all, do all mitzvos, that means to be a servant of Hashem. But Chazal say that the more specific meaning of avodah means tefillah. Well, good, I don’t see that he brought the Sefer HaMitzvos from Bechukosai. In any case, he brings it here, but nothing is written there. Interesting.

Here itself the Rambam brings that avodah is called tefillah, study, and the Temple. On the Torah, on the Temple? The Rambam explains, “in His sanctuary” means that one must pray in a place of the Temple. The Rambam says this in another place.

Digression: Learning on Chol HaMoed and the Matter of “Half for Hashem and Half for You”

Perhaps I should say a Torah, because it’s evening, one says, we’re learning now Chol HaMoed. I should say a Torah, that tadir v’she’eino tadir, it’s a bit difficult for us to learn, it’s Yom Tov. And sometimes the people who made learning schedules, they made it so that Shabbos, Yom Tov, and so on are skipped. Until recently, when they began to make new schedules, the, what’s it called, the daily column. Yes, all the schedules of recent years don’t make the mistake anymore, they make it, it doesn’t stop on Shabbos and Yom Tov.

I think the reason is simple, because as long as there wasn’t the thing of technology, now there is a thing that a person heard shiurim, so all shiurim were local. So with local Jews, one must somewhere learn “half for Hashem and half for you” every day. Okay, Yom Kippur, sometimes a day of Yom Kippur happens, Purim, they already made a lo plug. But Shabbos, why shouldn’t one learn the Daf Yomi? Or Chol HaMoed, “and they gave walkers to know.” One wants to keep Chol HaMoed conventionally, one wants to learn something related to the day. But when learning is a whole production, and one must make sure the mics work, and that the system works, it’s really not a Shabbos Yom Tov thing.

Someone wanted to share that it could be that those who made the earlier learning schedules, they didn’t think that one would learn online. Online is each person on their own, and the learning is such a statement, it’s almost such a thing. It could be that one may even say it on Tisha B’Av, because it’s just a daily schedule that’s written in the poskim. Our Torah lessons are prayers, kinos.

Discussion: Why We Don’t Measure Exactly “Half for Hashem and Half for You”

I had another thought, I apologize for digressing, but I asked, why don’t we see Jews who are great machmirim, the people who have on their dining room table a chart of shiurim, why shouldn’t they have a clock that measures the minutes, and one should make the “half for Hashem and half for you” be exactly half?

And my answer was with an introduction from a well-known story about R’ Baruch Mordechai. A Jew saw R’ Baruch Mordechai sitting with a Gemara and munching popcorn. He asks the Rosh Yeshiva, “Is this how one learns Gemara?” He says, “No, this is how one eats popcorn.”

So the simple meaning, my answer is this, that for us the “half for you” is also “for you.” How does one eat the meal? One opens a zemiros, one sings zemiros, one says a dvar Torah. The “for you” is also mixed with “for Hashem.” And the “for Hashem” is also, when one sits and learns, one also holds a coffee, one enjoys oneself while learning. The “for you” and the “for Hashem” is the Chassidic way that it’s mixed, it’s become one big bundle. So about this, it’s a good answer, no? About this one doesn’t need to divide half and half exactly.

Interesting, yes. When they come to siman 529, we’ll see how the Rema wants yes, seemingly, to make it exactly half and half. Yes, he says the Magen Avraham, that one goes to the beis midrash and one goes home. But didn’t the Rema also think that one would say zemiros at the meal or divrei Torah? I don’t know. I think that is indeed “for you.” “For Hashem” means that one doesn’t drink coffee. That’s a good answer, don’t take away the answer. No, it’s true.

Daily Mitzvos — Talmud Torah and Tefillah

In any case, yes, I would also want to say that one should grasp Sefer HaChinuch means daily mitzvos. I thought this way, that even Yom Tov, many times one gets confused. Yom Tov comes, it’s a completely different daily schedule. But essentially the daily mitzvos, the serious matters, one must continue. Even if a person has a certain shiur. But Talmud Torah isn’t in half. Talmud Torah is in measure. There are two measures here, daily. Here daily means 24 hours a day. Talmud Torah isn’t every day, but it’s the whole day, every day the whole day. You spoke truly. I thought that it’s like similar, as Torah brings, a person has spiritual food and physical food, yes? Physicality one must eat, whatever, two three times a day, and this must sustain a person in nefesh. The nefesh must daven and must learn. So, it’s like if someone would say, okay, Pesach one indeed eats only matzah, one doesn’t eat the normal foods that one eats all year, but one still keeps eating. There is once Yom Kippur when one doesn’t eat, also, one eats before and after. One cannot go away. There is, you want to make a special party, a special thing, first one must eat. So, first a person must eat a bit, learn every day, daven a bit every day. Krias Shema tells us the same thing. Sometimes one adds a piyut, and so on. Okay, anyway, the Rambam says thus.

Halachah 1 — The Positive Commandment to Pray Every Day

I’m going to learn the mitzvah of tefillah. The Rambam says, the first halachah of the first chapter, the first halachah of tefillah, the Rambam says, it’s a mitzvah to pray every day, a positive commandment, a positive commandment from the Torah to pray every day, as it says, he brings the verses, “and you shall serve Hashem your God.” From the oral tradition Chazal said, from the oral tradition learned that it’s a halachah l’Moshe miSinai, it says that it comes from Moshe Rabbeinu, the Oral Torah, they said that this service, the service that the Torah speaks of here is tefillah.

Question: The First Verse is a Blessing, Not a Command

I saw in the commentators, the Rambam struggles a bit, “and you shall serve Hashem your God,” seemingly in the Torah this is a blessing. The Almighty says, “and you shall serve Hashem your God and He will bless your bread.” Why doesn’t he bring “do the service”? Why does he bring it in the form of a positive commandment? Perhaps about this is the midrash? No? There isn’t a midrash that stands on this verse and one turns it that this is tefillah? Not certain.

The Second Verse: “Service of the Heart, This is Tefillah”

And also, ah, and it says, the second verse that he brings from “and it will be if you listen” is “and to serve Him with all your heart.” The Sages said, what is the service of the heart? This is tefillah. Here it already says more clearly. Besides the fact that in general avodah is tefillah, service of the heart is certainly tefillah.

Innovation: Service of the Heart is the Essence, the Words are the Expression

Service of the heart, it’s very interesting, because tefillah means saying the words, but tefillah is only like the end. That is, first there is service of the heart, and this is brought out with words. It’s very interesting, yes? But one says, service of the heart this is tefillah. Means that truly the essence of tefillah, as we will later see the Rambam in the later chapters, the Rambam has an essential positive commandment of tefillah, and one must know that one is speaking to the Almighty. Yes, I would have thought… because the tefillah is only an, how should I say, an expression, the way that the service of the heart comes out in actions… One cannot see on a person outside if he has service of the heart, but the tefillah shows it. But the essence is the service of the heart, this is what it says here.

Alternative Interpretations in “And to Serve Him with All Your Heart”

So I would have thought that when one says this service is tefillah, means what would service be besides tefillah? Before we go into the distinction of speech or the heart, the intention of the heart or the words that one says, I would have thought that usually what avodah means, seemingly a person who knows Chumash, who learns Torah… service of the Temple, yes. The simple meaning is, it means service of the Temple, it means sacrifices. And “heart” means to exclude sacrifices. That is, certainly not bringing a sacrifice which is in action, one brings a sheep or a thing. A service that is in the heart is not in the action of sacrifices. Right. Now, whether the essence of tefillah is in the heart, in the head, in the words, okay, that’s already details of this.

But I would have said “and to serve Him with all your heart” and also “Him you shall serve,” seemingly one could have said means to do all mitzvos. This is a general name to be a servant of Hashem, that is to follow everything that the Almighty commands, as this is the job of a servant. I think this is what is meant today. Service of Hashem, what does service of Hashem mean? That one should do not with half a heart. “And you shall love Hashem your God” and “and to serve Him with all your heart.” That is, you should conduct yourself like a Jew, basically. It’s just a general name. And also “with all your heart” doesn’t mean you should do a thing only things that are in the heart. Do with the whole heart, do with love, as “and you shall love Hashem your God… with all your heart.” That the heart should not be with hypocrisy, not like it says with any falsehood, where he says “found women and taught them” etc., he says how…

The Innovation of the Derasha

But this is one derasha. The derasha was understood that this is an innovation seemingly, there is such a type of service, which is tefillah. Where is the service? Not in the Temple, not in a sacrifice, but in the heart. It’s a service of belief between each person and the Almighty, or something like that, and this is tefillah. Very nice.

“Every Day” — From Where?

The Verses Don’t Say “Every Day”

But it’s very interesting, because in the two verses we haven’t seen any measure of every day. But the Rambam says “every day.”

The Kesef Mishneh’s Answer — A Mitzvah Without a Time Must Be Every Day

True, I already know where you got that the Kesef Mishneh brings that the Ramban argues with the Rambam, and he says it’s only a mitzvah d’rabbanan, and that’s how he derives it from the Gemaras. And he brings that the Rambam himself sees more that sometimes a person must certainly pray min haTorah, but the “every day” is not… he doesn’t see “every day.” So says the Kesef Mishneh, and apparently the Rambam would hold that something that has no time must be done every day, because if not, what would you say, once in a lifetime you must pray? The normal side, when you place something into time, you say it’s a daily thing, unless it’s a mitzvah once a year, like matzah. But if it’s not a mitzvah that depends on a certain time, a certain yom tov, but it’s a mitzvah that one should sometimes pray, then you must pray every day, because if not, when will it happen? It’s perhaps once a year, it’s a “shema yifneh.”

Proof from Tefillin

I thought to add to this, that there is a mitzvah of tefillin, and we all know that one puts on tefillin every day. It’s not stated clearly in the Torah, or perhaps not even in other… I don’t remember if in Torah she’baal peh it says yes, one must do it every day. But all the poskim accepted simply, that when a mitzvah is a matter of avodas Hashem, which is a mitzvah that one must do sometimes, you know, one must make a protest once, no one says that one must make a protest every day. Okay, going to Hashem to prevent good things. But something that is avodas Hashem, something that has to do with a person’s soul, with a person’s heart, that he should be an oved Hashem, is a mitzvah every day. Tefillin reminds, reminds a person that he must be an oved Hashem, or tzitzis, is a mitzvah every day. That’s how one would learn it from the Rambam.

Prayer is a Derech HaChaim

What would be wrong if it’s once a week? I mean, Shabbos is once a week. Say all other things. It’s every day, just as a person eats every day. Actually they made it as a part of the lifestyle. That a lifestyle of a Jew is to pray. Just as every day a person eats, and a person sleeps, and a person works, and every day a person is engaged with his wife. These are things that have to do with a derech hachaim of a person. It says in the Torah one should pray, it doesn’t say when. But prayer is a derech hachaim. It’s one of the avodah shebalev, it’s one of the things that a person should always be directed to the Almighty, always thank the Almighty. Every day is the normal seder hachaim, everything happens every day.

Discussion: What Does “Every Day” Mean — Once a Day or Seder HaChaim?

Speaker 2:

One must ask, just as I said that one must eat every day. One must ask whether “every day” means specifically once a day, or it means every day. It could be that “every day” is somewhat not exact, because we’ll see later that the Rambam says clearly that the time of prayer is not min haTorah. So, what does “every day” mean? Not necessarily it means once a day. Do you understand? When he says “every day shall be a person’s prayer…”

Speaker 1:

It seems yes, because there is tashlumim. Okay, tashlumim is perhaps only d’rabbanan on the thing. I don’t know exactly, do you understand? I don’t know exactly. It could be, you’re right according to the Rambam. I know that sometimes a person misses a day, he goes to a wedding, the next day is a ruined day, he doesn’t eat properly, he doesn’t work, it’s such a destroyed day. He says that he didn’t fulfill that day on the d’oraisa with that calculation.

The answer is that every day, a normal day when a person does everything he does, every day a person does all the basics. A normal person, he sees his children every day, he does chinuch every day in a certain manner, it’s not that he sees his children, he looks at them, he sees his wife every day, he goes into work every day. People do things every day. So prayer also became a part of life, avodah shebalev.

Speaker 2:

Fine. So “every day” doesn’t mean that there’s a minimum like once a day. It’s more like you say, it’s the seder, or something like that sort of thing I would think makes more sense.

Speaker 1:

That’s how one can think, yes.

Discussion: The Ramban’s Position — Prayer Only in Time of Trouble

It’s interesting to see, you mention that the Ramban… The world doesn’t grasp, the Ramban says there’s a mitzvah only in time of trouble, but the Ramban also has an extra mitzvah of praying in time of trouble, which is the mitzvah of fasting. According to the Ramban there is a mitzvah d’oraisa that when there is a trouble… on the community or on the individual, one should cry out to Hashem, and it’s a matter of crying out, and that is fasting.

The Distinction Between Daily Prayer and Fast Prayer — From Moreh Nevuchim

I saw explicitly, and last night I looked through in Moreh Nevuchim in the reasons for the mitzvos, he writes explicitly the distinction, he makes a distinction between daily prayer and fast prayer, which has a different meaning, because… It also has a different type of prayer, because he says there not to begin with praise and… right, also the fast, what should be the matter of the fast, everyone remembers, the fast is more a matter to show that everything that comes, comes… not avodah shebalev, it’s more to show reward and punishment, that everything is not coincidence, and one heals through doing teshuvah. It has to do with teshuvah. For example, a normal prayer doesn’t have to do with teshuvah, it has to do with avodah shebalev, you can say to remember the Almighty, whatever, it’s not the topic of doing teshuvah. It’s not the main prayer of every day is not the topic of requesting needs, it’s to say that what one does, what one receives, is reward and punishment. It’s a different topic.

The Ramban’s Prayer is Not the Same as the Rambam’s Crying Out in Time of Trouble

If when the Ramban says that prayer is only when there is trouble, he’s not saying that there’s only the mitzvah of crying out in time of trouble like the Rambam’s crying out in time of trouble. He says that prayer has no time of every day. Perhaps altogether he didn’t accept the way that the Beis Yosef says in Kesef Mishneh, that if there’s a mitzvah and the Torah doesn’t say when it is, it must be every day. Perhaps that’s where his main split is. Yes, yes. I mean that the Ramban’s interpretation, let’s say in another way, the Ramban… that the prayer that the Ramban is indeed obligating, will also be that it should be praise and thanksgiving and requesting needs. It’s not the crying out of a time of trouble. It’s not the Rambam’s crying out. It’s not the same thing. The Rambam calls it crying out in time of trouble, which the Ramban calls to pray for needs, perhaps not necessarily in time of trouble, but to pray for needs, but not every day. These are different parameters, it’s not the same thing. The dispute is not exactly equal. The Ramban is expert, he doesn’t bring the Rambam’s language.

Digression: Seder of Pesach

But I think at the seder, that at the seder we have… One says there praise and thanksgiving, I know already, one says prayer too, and one also says, one asks for the redemption. But there is there also like we eat maror and “vatzaak,” we demonstrate also such a crying out in time of trouble. We remind ourselves how it was the time of trouble in Egypt, there is in it the matter of crying out in time of trouble, and one eats the maror literally as if one should feel the crying out. Okay.

Speaker 2:

Yes. Okay, so that is the mitzvah, it’s a mitzvah, a positive commandment. The Ramban has a good argument, it says in the Gemara that Krias Shema is d’oraisa and prayer is d’rabbanan.

The Rambam’s Answer — The Gemara Means Nusach and Time, Not the Essence of Prayer

But the answer is the Rambam’s answer, and that’s what he says here, that the Gemara says prayer is d’rabbanan means the nusach of prayer or the time of prayer and the like. The Gemara doesn’t mean to say the essential nature of praying. That is the Rambam’s distinction, and apparently that’s what he means to answer the Ramban’s question.

So what is he going to say now? Yes, one…

Halacha 1 (Continued) — “The Number of This Prayer is Not from the Torah”

Speaker 1:

Yes. It’s not that only the essence of prayer is d’oraisa, but certainly one minimum. One minimum of a prayer is min haTorah. That is… he’s going to say later that we pray two times a day at least, or three times a day, so… min haTorah one only needs to pray once. He says, “and the number of this prayer is not from the Torah.”

According to what we’ve just arrived at, one can understand it even better. Not simply once, but that there should have been a minimum min haTorah as well. Min haTorah is a matter, as you say, a person is a prayer. He must pray. “What is a person,” a person is a prayer. I don’t have a question, I don’t want one. Ah, the Rambam, right, right. He doesn’t say the minimum, there must be only one. Very good, very interesting.

Min HaTorah There is No Nusach, No Number, No Time

Um… yes. “And the number of this prayer is not from the Torah.” Very interesting. Also the nusach, “the number of the prayer” which is called the formula of prayer, the way we pray is not min haTorah, “and this prayer has no fixed number from the Torah.” I mean this piece comes very clearly into the way we said it, that prayer has no nusach or no… min haTorah, the intention is we don’t have a nusach or a time. But perhaps it would have been enough, perhaps also min haTorah, one should need to think about this, that one must always begin with praise and end with thanksgiving, whether it is yes min haTorah. It could have been the essence min haTorah, and one acknowledges with this that every day a person remembers the Almighty and he prays avodah shebalev. Yes.

Halacha 1 (Continued) — Women and Slaves are Obligated in Prayer

Speaker 2:

Yes, it doesn’t seem so. Says the Rambam, “therefore, since the time of prayer is not from the Torah,” and the time is not min haTorah, “women and slaves are obligated in prayer. Because it is not a positive time-bound commandment,” not the time causes it, but the mitzvah is a continuous mitzvah. Therefore one should say. Krias Shema which we defined last night, is Krias Shema the reason, we said that Krias Shema women are exempt, why? Because it’s a positive time-bound commandment. But prayer is not a positive time-bound commandment, one it has a time, the time is d’rabbanan. So automatically they are obligated in prayer. The Gemara doesn’t even say,

Prayer D’Oraisa and D’Rabbanan — Women are Obligated in Prayer, the Form of Prayer, and the Number of Prayers

Halacha 1 (Continued) — Women are Obligated in Prayer

Prayer is Not a Positive Time-Bound Commandment

Speaker 1: Not the time causes it, but the mitzvah is such a continuous mitzvah. Like Krias Shema, what did the Rambam say? By Krias Shema the reason we learned that Krias Shema women are exempt, why? Because it’s a positive time-bound commandment. But prayer is not a positive time-bound commandment. Ah, it has a time, the time is d’rabbanan. What does it mean that they are obligated in prayer? The Gemara says differently.

Apparently, apparently, from the time of prayer they would indeed remain exempt, or the mitzvah is d’rabbanan is different? Women and slaves are perhaps only obligated in the essence of prayer? Apparently.

The Distinction Between the Gemara and the Rambam

It’s interesting, the Gemara says differently than the Rambam. The Gemara says, why is… yes, it’s a Mishnah that women are exempt from Krias Shema and from tefillin, and obligated in prayer. Says the Gemara, why prayer? “It is mercy.” The Gemara says that they are obligated in prayer because prayer is simply mercy. A woman also needs prayer, doesn’t a woman need to pray that the Almighty should help her? She needs it too. But the Gemara says that it’s obvious. The Gemara, no, because he meant that it’s a positive time-bound commandment. The Rambam answers with his learning that it’s true, d’oraisa it’s not a positive time-bound commandment, but the mercy is the d’oraisa. But it’s interesting that it’s not in the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvos.

Question: Are Women Exempt from Fixed Prayers?

But I see that Rav Rabinowitz also considers this, whether the women would have to be exempt from the fixed prayers every day, perhaps they should remain with the essential obligation. And what does he say? But he doesn’t say so, because it could be that the rule that women are exempt from positive time-bound commandments is on the d’oraisa ones. No, not necessarily, because we see that by Chanukah and Purim one has some other reason, because “they too were in that miracle.” It’s not clear. There are contemporary poskim, later poskim, who are divided about this.

The Magen Avraham’s Position

I remember for example, everyone knows that the Magen Avraham said that women are obligated in prayer, says the Magen Avraham, if women don’t conduct themselves to pray, but he says that presumably they do pray. Every woman says some morning blessings, some Modeh Ani, and one fulfills with this, because he goes with the approach that the nusach is not indispensable. The nusach and the number, the nusach is an extra thing, but the time of it is time-bound. But it could be that the Rambam learned that once the women are obligated because it’s a mitzvah that is not time-bound, but that one established the manner how to do it, they are indeed obligated, because the essential mitzvah is not a time-bound mitzvah.

The Practice in Reality

But in practice one doesn’t see, most generations one doesn’t see that women used to pray Shacharis Mincha Maariv. Not even women in seminaries, not even… not even the rebbetzin of the Belzer girl, the rebbetzin of the Rema, the daughter of the Rema, when she was already busy, they made for her prayers, supplications such in Yiddish, because they didn’t pray the regular prayers. But one sees that somehow, the custom of Israel for the most part, the contemporary poskim, especially the Lithuanian ones, do indeed hold that women are obligated to pray, at least two times a day. We don’t see the custom, it seems the custom is that they are obligated in prayers, that they pray, they say Modeh Ani, they have their own formulations of prayer. So one can say according to the Rambam. One can say differently, that what the Gemara says “women are obligated in prayer,” and I don’t know when the Mishnah says “prayer,” does that indeed mean the nusach, the order and the nusach. I don’t know. Okay.

Halacha 2 — The Form of Prayer D’Oraisa

“The Obligation of This Mitzvah is Thus”

Speaker 1: Says the Rambam further, “rather the obligation of this mitzvah is thus.” Ah, now what is indeed d’oraisa? Now the Rambam is going to explain, until now the Rambam has been explaining the essential law, now the Rambam is going to explain actually how it became that there is indeed a nusach of prayer. He begins with how historically, but here he’s explaining what the essence of prayer is. The essence of prayer, the definition when one says “this is prayer,” what does prayer mean? Prayer doesn’t mean only giving a “to-do list” to the Creator “I need this and that,” but it has a manner. It has a manner that this means a humble beautiful way of asking a king. One must say first the praise and ask and end with praise. I don’t know if this is indispensable. I don’t know if this is… I don’t know if this is indispensable, but the Rambam does indeed seem that the essential form of prayer… right, right. But you can give yourself a nusach. But it’s not simple that there is an essential law, the Rambam puts forth the essential law, afterwards how one fulfills, or can you yourself make a nusach. It’s more that this he says in order to explain why this changed. That once it was indeed so the custom, one prayed every day each one himself, afterwards it changed.

Discussion: Prayer Must Have a Form of Service of Hashem

Speaker 2: No, but I would perhaps indeed say, that if prayer should only mean “I need livelihood, please give me livelihood,” the words for example, as a person would think here, that is not at all any service of Hashem. You haven’t thanked and recognized that the Almighty is great, and that the Almighty owes you nothing. That is a prayer, that is like when a person is a pauper, he calls every day ten people to ask. Yes, he also asks the Almighty. That wouldn’t be called prayer at all. Prayer must have in it something a certain importance, something a certain service of Hashem.

Prayer from the Torah and the Enactment of the Men of the Great Assembly — Facing the Temple, Number of Prayers, and Prayer Text

Speaker 1: I agree, I agree. I just want to bring out, I don’t want to understand that this is the law. If someone, for example, is b’dieved, for example like the women that the Magen Avraham says and the like, someone who doesn’t pray with the order, he does pray, I already know there are laws, because it was certainly good that you should do it in the proper order, but it’s not an obligation that you must do it that way. The Rambam puts it down this way, “the obligation of this mitzvah is thus.” Where does the Rambam get this from? Is there a Gemara that says about this that it must be praise? I remember such a thing, but does the Gemara say that this should be from the Torah? Did the Rambam hold that this is the essence of prayer or the foundation of prayer? This is certainly behind the order, the structure of the prayer that we have, and the Gemara says it outside of the structure. The Gemara brings such language, “a person should always arrange the praise of the Omnipresent and afterwards pray,” and what does it look like that it’s something that was earlier. The Gemara says “a person should always arrange the praise of the Omnipresent,” for so we find by Moshe, he says, “You have begun to show.” It’s clear from this that “for so we find by Moshe,” the Rambam held that this means it’s already from the Torah. This is the form of prayer.

Speaker 2: This is not a part of the enactment of the Sages of the formula of prayer, rather this is still before the formula of prayer.

Speaker 1: But this was still before those who enacted prayer.

Speaker 2: But Moshe Rabbeinu also prayed in this version.

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 2: It was already introduced then.

Speaker 1: Fine, good. Yes, let’s, let’s read. “These.”

Speaker 2: Yes.

The Language of the Rambam: Praise, Request, and Thanksgiving

Speaker 1: “These,” how does one do it? “The obligation of this mitzvah is thus, that a person should pray and supplicate every day.” A person should every day… is there a difference between the words “pray” and “supplicate”?

Speaker 2: I don’t know.

Speaker 1: To beseech. He says, how does one do it? “And tells the praise of the Holy One, Blessed be He.” One says the praise of the Almighty, that means how great the Almighty is. The first praise is not a personal praise. The Almighty is… praise means to laud, not to thank. Yes, later he also says “gives praise and thanksgiving,” but first it’s not a personal praise, rather the Almighty is great, the Almighty is the King of the entire world, “King of kings of kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He, the Great, the Mighty, and the Awesome,” the greatness of the Almighty.

“And afterwards he asks for his needs that he needs,” he requests the needs that he must have, and he requests it “with petition and supplication.” One sees here very clearly, one requests for one’s own needs. One doesn’t request here for the redemption, and I don’t know for the community of Israel. One requests for… what is personal. “Many needs,” one is also many needs. “That he needs,” he says here a bit about… every person also needs… “prays and supplicates.” The tone here is a bit of a personal thing.

Okay. “And afterwards he gives,” afterwards he gives praise and thanksgiving… it’s true, but the Rambam relates the story that was in earlier times, in a short prayer, which is a public prayer and so on. He says, “And afterwards, after requesting his needs, he gives praise and thanksgiving to Hashem for the good that He bestowed upon him.” He thanks the Almighty personally. He says His praise, he begins with praise, “Great Creator, You are the King of the world,” and afterwards he says, “Great Creator who has done so much good for me.” And he thanks the Almighty, “praise and thanksgiving.”

Discussion: Difference Between Praise and Thanksgiving

Speaker 2: I would have said that if it weren’t for the word “praise,” it wouldn’t need to be so forced. You could say plainly, first he says the greatness of the Almighty, and afterwards he says thanksgiving. Thanking is not the same thing as praise. But you can say that the Rambam held… the Rambam writes in the Shemoneh Esrei there are also both, there is praise before thanksgiving. And therefore he says that the Rambam held that simply thanking the Almighty, not literally one doesn’t thank the Almighty, the Almighty is not a person that you need to tell him thank you. It’s much clearer when you say, it’s a praise on the particular things that He bestowed upon him, for the good that He bestowed upon him.

Speaker 1: So from this it comes out that thanksgiving is also essentially praise, only as you say, it’s a different kind of praise. But I would have said simply, more physically I would have said that they’re generally two different things. Here you see, the Almighty is great. Here you say, “Almighty, thank you, You gave me.” Thank you one cannot say to the Almighty, I mean, thank you is a blessing, yes? May your strength be straight. But thanksgiving… I’ve seen people ask whether one may say “thank you, Creator,” but it’s obviously that thank you means thanks. It was a question with an obvious answer.

Speaker 2: True, true, it’s a far stretch. I’m just saying that technically speaking… does thank you mean thanksgiving, or? One always says thank you. Thank you is a… the meaning of the word is thanksgiving. Later the Rambam says that one may not pray in a stammering language. It could be that saying “thank you” is a stammering language. Perhaps that’s the problem. “Thank you I have.” “Thank you” doesn’t mean “may your strength be straight.” “Thank you” is something a new word overnight. “Thank you” is a thanksgiving, it means t-h-a-n-k-s. Okay.

“Each Person According to His Ability”

Speaker 1: The Rambam says, “Each person according to his ability.” What he has now said, the praise, request, and thanksgiving, is “each person according to his ability.” Yes, that means this is the freedom. You don’t have to have a process of how much, when, and which version. Each person according to what he understands, according to his ability. “Ability” doesn’t mean ability here, it means his language, his capability, his understanding.

And the Rambam goes to explain the “according to his ability”: “If he was fluent, he increases in supplication and request.” He says again “prays and supplicates,” and here he says “supplication and request.” The word “supplication”… they’re all synonyms here, as I see it. Perhaps each thing originally means something, but I don’t see that one can be precise here, because he would have had to maintain the same language as here. I mean it’s not specifically “supplication and request.” Perhaps mainly, generally speaking, mainly, in practice, the essence of prayer is the supplication. Everything is around this. Can’t one just be poor together in the world? No, one says first “You are great” etc. “Fluent” here also doesn’t mean accustomed, “fluent” means more like “learned,” like he’s seen it a few times. “Learned” and “fluent” mean the same thing. It means he has good language.

“And if he was of uncircumcised lips,” he has a blocked mouth, he speaks with difficulty, “he speaks according to his ability.” One also doesn’t speak, because seemingly the thing can even be halfway in thought. Yes, he’s weak, he can’t maintain himself at a prayer. It means he doesn’t have order, he doesn’t think in an orderly way. “Uncircumcised lips” means like usually, if you give a young man today to write a prayer, it will look like this: it will be masculine, feminine, singular, plural, Yiddish, English. It’s “uncircumcised lips,” in short. But if he can’t, he speaks what he can.

Time of Prayer from the Torah

And when does one do this? “At any time he wishes,” when a desire to pray seizes him. He needs once a day, but there was no difference whether early morning, afternoon, night. He needs every day. A person doesn’t need every day.

Law 3 — Number of Prayers from the Torah

Speaker 1: Okay, and the obligation, he says, and the obligation of the number of prayers, each person according to his ability. It would also have been each person according to his ability. Some pray once a day, certain people would have prayed once a day. And some pray

Prayer from the Torah and the Enactment of the Men of the Great Assembly — Facing the Temple, Number of Prayers, and Prayer Text

Facing the Temple — Direction of Prayer from the Torah

Speaker 1: I don’t know what he has to know this, we hold putting in feelings here. I don’t know, perhaps according to what he understands that it’s nice to make a hint, to pray once or twice and the like.

Okay. The Rambam says further, but one thing, it’s interesting to see, towards where did one pray. This also looks like from the Torah. And all of them prayed facing the Temple. It looks like this was also already from the essence of prayer. Yes, and when it’s not from the Torah, it means that it’s literally from the Torah, but it’s a general matter, it’s not an enactment of the Sages, but this one always did. One prayed facing the Temple, towards the place of the Temple, wherever he may be, wherever one is, one prayed, as it says in the verse, “and they shall pray toward this House.” Wherever one was, one prayed.

Very good. And it also says, by Daniel it says explicitly. The “and they shall pray toward this House” is a bit of interpretation, because it could be that one came there. One can also see a bit by Yaakov, “this is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven,” it says that he said that here is the place where “this is none other than the house of God.” About Daniel it says explicitly that he prayed toward Jerusalem, with an open window.

And it’s interesting, because one must think, this is seemingly, he’s still speaking before there was a Temple.

Speaker 2: Very good.

Speaker 1: No, Daniel was at the time of the destruction.

Speaker 2: But I say, that the obligation is from the Torah, it says that it’s from Mount Sinai.

Speaker 1: Very good, that’s very good. That’s well said. Let’s say that the Temple then was the Tabernacle.

The Rambam in the Guide for the Perplexed — Avraham Avinu Established the Direction of Prayer

Ah, there’s an interesting thing that I saw. The Rambam in the Guide says that Avraham Avinu established this place of prayer, because it says “direction of prayer,” he fixed the prayer. There it says “as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of Hashem it shall be seen.’” So Avraham Avinu established the thing that one should pray towards Mount Moriah. So says the Rambam.

The Rambam only says, and he even says an explanation why, but… and he says that even though it doesn’t say in the Torah explicitly that the place of the Temple should be there, he says he gives reasons, because they didn’t want the nations to grab it, and the like, other reasons why it doesn’t say Jerusalem. But it’s implied from the Rambam, so it seems, that this is an enactment of Avraham Avinu. So already all the Jews used to already pray towards, okay, take it, towards Jerusalem from those times, only it doesn’t say explicitly. But so it sounds from the Rambam.

The Kesef Mishneh — Two Interpretations of “Wherever It May Be”

But the Kesef Mishneh says “wherever it may be” can mean two things: either it means wherever the Jews are, whether they’re in America, whether they’re in the desert, one prays towards the Temple. Or he says, the Temple wherever it may be, whether it’s in Shiloh, whether it’s in Gilgal, whether it’s in the desert. “The Temple” doesn’t mean the Temple, it means the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of Shiloh, whatever it is.

I say, so according to my source it’s certain that it means the first way.

Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I understand.

“The Divine Presence in the West” — The Rambam’s Explanation

Speaker 1: The Rambam also brings that he learns that it says “the Divine Presence in the West.” “The Divine Presence in the West” the Rambam says, what does “the Divine Presence in the West” mean? That Avraham Avinu went against idolatry. All the idolaters bow to the east, because the sun comes out there. So he made exactly the opposite.

But also “west” doesn’t mean specifically west, it means in the west of the place of the Temple, of the Temple Mount. Interestingly, we pray to the east from there, because by chance we are west to the Land of Israel, but essentially it’s not east, it’s essentially “the Divine Presence in the West.”

The Kesef Mishneh — Proof from “Serve Him with His Torah, Serve Him in His Temple”

The Kesef Mishneh also says, from where do we know that facing the Temple is a basic thing even before the enactments of the Sages? He says, he brings there “Serve Him with His Torah, serve Him in His Temple.” He says, “in His Temple” was written even before there was a Temple. So, so the Rambam learned, to serve toward the place of the Temple. So the Rambam learned the plain meaning. He brings the Rambam in the Commentary on the Mishnah and the Book of Commandments together, that “serve Him in His Temple” doesn’t mean “in His Temple,” it means “toward His Temple.”

It appears from the Rambam that as if this is… we also learned that idolatry is called, it didn’t stand properly about this, but the thing is, when there’s a place of prayer, even if it’s not there, one prays towards the place of the Temple, the Rambam understood that this is a basic thing.

Comparison with Muslims — Direction of Prayer is a Basic Human Thing

Also because for example the Muslims also held this as a basic thing. The Rambam wanted to say that they pray to Mecca, they also did this to spite the Jews. First initially they also prayed to Jerusalem, afterwards they wanted to be different, so they did so. He understood that this is invalid, and therefore he says Avraham Avinu went differently than idolatry. Idolatry also had a way how one prays, one prays to the east because there is the sun. So this is a basic thing, praying is to a certain direction.

Avraham Avinu one also saw the opposite, that we don’t like the thing that there must be a sanctuary where one must pray, but towards a direction is yes a thing, but opposite from their sanctuary. It’s always the two kinds of things: a bit one does the same kind of thing but differently, a bit one doesn’t do at all. This is from the things that one does, one makes a direction of prayer, one doesn’t pray simply into the world.

It appears that people have that it’s missing, one can’t simply pray, pray into the air. One prays in some direction. Why? I don’t know, that’s how it goes.

Discussion: Practical Difference for Hitbodedut — Must One Pray to the East?

It’s not simple, because I think for example a new innovation, a new innovation in law from today. They said, yes, and they always say, I mean, I know that this is a law, but Reb Nachman of Breslov argued that a person who prays privately, he makes hitbodedut as he called it, he essentially fulfills prayer from the Torah. So he brings, Reb Nachman said that one should make hitbodedut, he brings this Rambam. That if one looks in the Rambam one sees that the essence of prayer is not to say what it says, the essence of prayer is to say “according to his ability,” that he should talk it out and just say. So he said that the prayer that one must yes do, the prayer that one must do is what one must do, so that one should connect in the service of Hashem.

So it comes out from the Rambam, first of all, that one must be in purity of body and hands, as was already said. Secondly it comes out that if one makes hitbodedut one must make it to the east. Because if facing the Temple is a general enactment, it’s not a Torah matter, it’s a thing that is before the text of the prayer, perhaps when a person prays privately it’s also a matter.

I mean, once people had the sense in their head and knew where east is. Most people that you’ll ask today, you’ll place him in a random place, he won’t know, in a forest he won’t know at all which side is east. He’ll have to go search. Once this was a matter, that when a person… we don’t live so strongly with the idea of which side I am. A person’s consciousness, because once one didn’t have any maps and days. The only thing that one had is one knew which side.

Speaker 2: No, I know.

Speaker 1: No, I think whether the obligation has perhaps changed, because it’s not today part of the person’s consciousness.

Speaker 2: Ah, okay, what… innovations.

Speaker 1: Okay, we’re talking now what is the obligation.

Speaker 2: No, what I mean to say, in honor of this perhaps it’s enough that the person prays toward the direction, I mean in thought.

Speaker 1: Again, everything goes to Jerusalem. One does an action, because what it used to be, once, today there’s less of this, but it used to be all Jews, that if they had trouble one went to the study hall, and went to the holy ark, and requested to the holy ark, such kinds of things. There’s also this to be. Even in the study hall, many Hasidic study halls, one plays around with the east thing. It’s not regarding east, it’s not regarding east at all. But one must have it for such problems, because one must build oneself a certain way.

I say, if it’s such a basic as it’s literally the essence of prayer like tefillin from the Torah, one wouldn’t play around. One is very far from Jerusalem, it was figured out about how to calculate. It’s never brought punctually, what one says that one must be southeast. It’s certain that the essence is to be some way, that it’s not specifically punctual.

But so, it’s already a matter of law, and I already know that one must so, it’s very strongly called in. In practice there was also the matter in the study halls. I mean, in Kabbalah there’s also that one should pray to all four sides. The study halls, the old study halls, were benches towards all sides. But when praying one stands up. One stands up to the east. But we’ll see the Rambam about this.

Law 3: “And So It Was Always from Moshe Rabbeinu Until Ezra” — Prayer Before the Enactments

The Rambam’s Explanation of the Establishment of Fixed Prayer

Halacha 3 (continued) – “And so it was always from Moshe Rabbeinu until Ezra”

Okay, so the Rambam says further, “And so it was always from Moshe Rabbeinu until Ezra”. From Moshe until Ezra, which is the essence of Torah she’baal peh (Oral Torah), it’s interesting what the Rambam says. Starting from the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah (Men of the Great Assembly). It was such that prayer was more left to each individual person, how many times to pray and the text and so forth.

Proof from Tanach – Prayers Without a Fixed Text

Apparently, one can bring a proof for this, as is stated according to the Rambam’s view. One can look in the Chumash. One can see, Yaakov Avinu said a prayer, Daniel said a prayer, Yirmiyahu said prayers. There are many prayers in Tanach that we see from Moshe until Ezra. We don’t see any of them said “Baruch Atah Hashem.” The order of Shemoneh Esrei. They said according to need, according to the matter.

The Rambam’s Approach – Chachamim React to Reality, They Don’t Make New Things

The Rambam, every time a major change happened, he blames it on the exile, on the difficulties. No, it’s actually so. It could be that it comes from his sensitivity to bal tosif (not adding to the Torah), that one shouldn’t make any major change in the Torah. But the change happens in reality, afterwards a change happens in the Torah.

Many times, not just a major change, when it becomes like a formalization. Yes, when they wrote, you probably spoke about the… they wrote the Mishnah, or the Talmud, the Rambam himself. When it becomes more like a… when it becomes more like a fixed thing, that one makes an order, a text, usually beforehand there was some great trouble.

People today for example don’t understand why everything became so formal. There’s an order how one makes a wedding, and how one makes a tisch, everything comes with a certain order. One must know, since Israel was exiled, there were great troubles, and people forgot more or less. The people would have done as it was before, one wouldn’t have needed anything, but it became that it becomes formal.

And I think that the Rambam has like a concept that chachamim don’t make new things, rather chachamim look at reality. Moshe Rabbeinu didn’t go down to bring slav (quail) just like that, rather the people were hungry, as it says in Nachalas Nevi’im. One doesn’t go make a siddur. The chachamim aren’t dictators who seek to change things because that’s what they feel like, rather they are here to update the Torah, and that the Torah needs to adjust itself.

Halacha 4: “Since Israel was exiled in the days of Nevuchadnetzar the wicked” – The Confusion of Languages

The Rambam says, “Since Israel was exiled in the days of Nevuchadnetzar the wicked”, by the first exile, the destruction of the First Temple, when Nevuchadnetzar the wicked expelled the Jews, “they became mixed with Persia and Greece and the other nations”, they became mixed in the empires of Persia, of Greece, and so forth, “and children were born to them in the lands of the nations”. He doesn’t mean the empires, he means also the empires, but he also means the people. Simply in the countries. It could be that they remained in Eretz Yisrael, but Eretz Yisrael was part of the Persian empire.

And “children were born to them”, so he says yes, “children were born to them in the lands of the nations”, they were expelled and there were gentiles in the language. “And the language of those children became confused”, this we see a bit the concept of “they preserved their language.” From Moshe Rabbeinu it was, as we always mention on Pesach, “they preserved their language.” But in exile it became “their language became confused”, the language became, which is “and the language of each one was mixed from many languages”.

Very interesting. This is an exile phenomenon. When a nation sits very long in one place and there isn’t a large amount of immigration, the language remains very clear and interesting.

The Language Confusion in Exile and the Enactment of Shemoneh Esrei Blessings

Halacha 4 (continued) – “Their languages became confused” and the concept of “they did not change their language”

Interesting, here one sees a bit the concept of “they did not change their language.” From Moshe Rabbeinu it was as one always mentions on Pesach “they did not change their language”, but in exile it became “their languages became confused”, the language became that “each one is mixed from many languages.”

This is interesting, this is an exile of… when a nation sits very long in one place and there isn’t a large amount of immigration, the language remains very clear and precise. But once it becomes a mixture, so the Jews started speaking, part they spoke words that they remembered from lashon hakodesh (Hebrew) from the grandfathers and from the grandmothers, part they picked up from Persia and Greece. “And when they would speak, no one could speak all his needs in one language but in confusion.” At least one couldn’t speak one language, but in confusion. “As it says, ‘and their children half spoke Ashdodite’”, he brings a verse on this, “that in the days of Nechemiah”, this is approximately in the times of Ezra, yes, Ezra and Nechemiah were one group, half the nation speaks Ashdodite, that’s the nation that lived in the city of Ashdod and so on. What? The city of Ashdod is a modern city. It’s the same place. “And they don’t recognize how to speak Judean”, they couldn’t speak Judean, meaning here lashon hakodesh, “and according to the language of each people”. They couldn’t speak like the language of their own nation.

The Rambam’s Interpretation of the Verse in Nechemiah

The Rambam interprets thus, not only couldn’t they now… so it’s very interesting, because the verse here is essentially complaining about the foreign wives that they took, yes, Ashdodite women, Ammonite women, Moabite women. And he says that what happened, very interesting, Nechemiah, this is Nechemiah, but this isn’t… yes, Nechemiah is speaking here. Nechemiah is complaining here about the assimilation, yes, about how Jews mixed with gentiles, all of them married gentile women. Afterwards, you know what happened when one married gentile women? Your children couldn’t even speak lashon hakodesh. That’s the terrible thing. He doesn’t say about the idolatry, it could be they didn’t serve any idolatry already then.

Here the marriage to foreign women isn’t mentioned, he says here the very living among gentiles. Good, but yes, he says you afterwards what the prophet, not prophet, Nechemiah says, yes, one can see how terrible it is, about what is said, I saw people speaking, for example, people in Eretz Yisrael, he goes to chutz la’aretz (outside the Land), his children didn’t even know any Hebrew. Ah, yes. His children… it means, one becomes torn away not just physically, but also in the culture, spiritually one becomes torn away. Or that the mother speaks Ashdodite and your father speaks Judean, you don’t know this and not that. But so it is, the Rambam calls this a confusion. Also earlier we spoke about forgetting, forgetting is a bad word. The Rambam said that it’s a confused word, it’s not a good word.

The Rambam’s Harsh Evaluation of Language Mixing

Many people have said, I know, in Lakewood one speaks English, one speaks Yiddish-English, a bit of Hebrew, and a bit mixed together. And Jews in Hungary spoke a mixture of Yiddish with Hungarian. And people look at it as it’s okay, that’s how it goes. But the Rambam doesn’t look at it that way, a person must have a clear language. And when one speaks a mixture, that’s a… I think, no, the simple meaning would have wanted to say what is a sign, it’s not a cause, it’s not a sin. But here you see that it’s not a nice thing, it’s not a way to speak to a king. The Rambam held that there’s a certain formality, one should speak nicely. That’s one thing.

I thought, yes, perhaps another interpretation. But it could be the Rambam was a very formal person, he had, he simply wouldn’t have liked that one speaks that way, as they say, he’s ignorant in three languages, yes, he doesn’t know any… a fool is in Yiddish, English, Hebrew, lashon hakodesh.

Two Possible Reasons for the Enactment

But it could be the Rambam thought that it’s perhaps more that one feels foreign. Ah, ah, that’s what I wanted to say. I mean that it’s very possible that this is a national matter, a matter of… so it looks like the next piece. Look, “when one of those who prayed, his tongue was too short to ask for his needs and to tell the praise of the Holy One Blessed be He in lashon hakodesh”, one of the Jews in those times who prayed, he didn’t have a rich enough lashon hakodesh to request his needs, he couldn’t express himself in lashon hakodesh. What did he do? “He would mix with it other languages”.

I think, this is the matter, not just the confusion. It’s a great shame that you’re not a complete Jew, you’re such a Persian Jew that you mix together Jewish with Persian. So at prayer one mentioned again the disgrace that Jews are no longer a unified nation. Not only is this a shame, I would have thought that people stop praying because of this. Because a person comes to shul, he doesn’t feel in a place where the people are united, the prayer is built on languages of verses.

The Feeling of Foreignness When Praying

How does a person pray, does he pray to the God of Yaakov, to the Almighty who took us out of Egypt. And instead of saying “Mitzrayim”, he’ll say “Egypt”. He feels… imagine that a person comes to the seder and he says, “Hello Moshe, come come Moshe”. The Moshe with the plagues… The person feels that… a person goes to shul, I don’t know, people come to shul, he can’t even speak the language, ours also do a bit like this, they’ll call our… a thing of our fellows. One isn’t accustomed to speaking in lashon hakodesh, and one doesn’t come, one feels foreign.

It’s a big problem for us Jews, if one wants to look what’s the difference between Jews in Eretz Yisrael and Jews in America. Jews in Eretz Yisrael, a normal boy who understands a bit, he can open a siddur and approximately understand what is being said. A boy in America, unfortunately, he can translate Gemara, but he opens the siddur and he doesn’t know what he’s saying. Literally what the Rambam said. Imagine when he didn’t even have a siddur, how bad it would have been. He would have tried to serve, he would have tried to say “pa pa pa”, he wouldn’t have known.

Discussion: Praying in Yiddish as a Solution?

There’s also the part that all Jews pray approximately in one language. There’s something of a concept of “a language elevated above all languages”, Jews have a certain language. Right, right. It could be that “and His banner over me is love” is also a strengthening, or there’s a merit in what you’re saying. I just want to bring out, one says that there’s a problem that people don’t feel connected with the siddur, let them pray in Yiddish. That’s a solution, but that’s also a solution that helps on one side and it destroys on the other side, because he becomes disconnected from the language.

But it could be that the reason why they changed isn’t a law in the laws of prayer, it could be that it’s a law in general, in Klal Yisrael (the Jewish people), so that Jews should have a language in which they can. But prayer is prayer. It wouldn’t invalidate the prayer, because the prayer still has the asking for needs and the praise and thanksgiving, that’s correct. It wouldn’t, but one still had a language. So much, one still wrote until Anshei Knesset HaGedolah in a true lashon hakodesh. Yes, almost everyone can understand it, whoever can a bit. But it’s not simple that he’ll now be able to speak that way all day. He’ll know that when he prays, he prays like a Jew. He’s not mixed, he doesn’t feel foreign when praying. He’s a sort of “half Ashdodite”, but when praying he’s completely a Jew. More such a thing.

Although fundamentally prayer is in any language, it’s not a law that one must pray in that. But it’s correct, one can’t say that one must pray in that. One must pray in that. And it could be that this is important, that one should connect. We’ll think, we’ll think. The first thing you say, it could be it’s not a law in prayer, it’s a law in Klal Yisrael, in the form of Klal Yisrael.

And the second thing, the Rambam says, even in prayer there’s a law. The person stands before a king, as the Gemara says? Standing before a king, does he speak like a Breslover, shouting? There’s a claim, many people have a claim on this, it’s not so simple.

Halacha 5 – The Enactment of Ezra and His Court

The Rambam says further, look, here one sees it clearly. The paytanim (liturgical poets) very much wanted that the prayer should be beautiful and orderly. The Rambam says further, “And when Ezra and his court saw”, Ezra and his court, these are also called Anshei Knesset HaGedolah, saw this situation, they stood up, they took it into their hands, “and they enacted for them eighteen blessings in order”, they made the eighteen blessings in order, on the order of prayer from beginning with praise and ending.

Halacha 6 – The Structure of Shemoneh Esrei Blessings

So the Rambam explains, what is the order? The first three are praise toward Heaven, and they spoke earlier that first one speaks the praise of the Almighty, you say “the great, mighty and awesome God”, “revives the dead”, “heals the sick”, and so forth, “holy”, the greatness of the Almighty. The last three are thanksgiving, “we give thanks to You” for all the good that You do with me, “for our lives that are entrusted in Your hand” and so forth. “Grant peace” is a bit interesting here, but it says there… but one of them has clear thanksgiving, Modim. He tells you, “in the light of Your face You gave us” You gave us the Torah of life, it’s not clear.

“And the middle ones”, in the middle twelve blessings, “in them is the request for all things”, one asks for all things. Which all things? He says, one counts out there the most important things, “which are like fathers to all the desires of each person”, among the twelve blessings one counts out everything so it should include everything that a person needs to have, “and for the need of the entire community”, both what individual people need to have, and both what the community needs to have.

Discussion: “Fathers” and “Offspring” in the Blessings

What does it mean like fathers and offspring? Yes, it doesn’t mean an agriculturalist, you make an accounting, healing, blessing, redemption, livelihood, that’s more or less. You need specifically such a type of livelihood, but it’s already an offspring of those things. More or less, I don’t know what you can think.

Discussion: Why Are Shidduchim and Raising Children Missing?

There are a few things that people have complaints that they don’t appear in Shemoneh Esrei. For example shidduchim (matches) don’t appear, or for example raising children. There are certain things that don’t appear at all in Shemoneh Esrei. It seems that in the time of Anshei Knesset HaGedolah they didn’t think that these are the most important things, that there’s no need, and know that it’s actually difficult.

One can’t put it in with one of the… everything one can, but there’s certainly something a whole hand that sees when people ask for blessings, there’s a… basically, Ezra said, imagine that one is a speaker, and he makes… and the children aren’t mentioned, it seems. Right. There are two big things that people are struggling with why they don’t appear. It could be that… I don’t know why.

But Chazal also made that… so the Gemara says, that at Shomei’a Tefillah (He who hears prayer) one can add. But the Rambam made yes specifically for all the needs of a person, and also the needs of the community. But apparently in the reality of that time it was actually different. People could have several wives, prayer was made mainly for the men, the text of the prayer.

But for example, praying that one should have children is one of the first prayers that appears in the Torah, “and Yitzchak entreated Hashem opposite his wife”. It’s not something that started today. For a shidduch also, Eliezer prayed to find a shidduch for Yitzchak. Yes, it’s not innovations that one thought up these types of prayers.

Okay, interesting. Perhaps it’s because it’s more occasional. I think that the things one prays for are things that are every day. Every day a person needs livelihood. These things are for once in a lifetime you need a shidduch, you need children. It’s not the other type of prayers. Perhaps those types of prayers one specifically doesn’t want them to be in Shemoneh Esrei.

The Order: First Personal Needs, Then Community Needs

Okay, it’s interesting. He says first the personal needs of each person, and it’s actually so, because one begins with knowledge, repentance, healing, and afterwards one asks for redemption, building of Jerusalem. First one asks for what is relevant to oneself.

The Main Purpose of the Enactment

The Rambam says, why did they do it this way? So that it should be arranged in everyone’s mouth, so that for everyone it should be prepared, arranged, it should be organized in everyone’s mouth, and they should learn it quickly, that one should be able to know it by heart. And the prayer of these stammerers should be a complete prayer like the prayer of one with clear language. So that also the stammerer, the one who has a confused language, should also be able to pray a proper prayer like one who has a beautiful language.

It’s very beautiful. So the reason why they actually made a prayer is because of quality.

The Enactment of the Prayer Text and the Fixing of the Number of Daily Prayers

Halacha 3 (continued) – The Reason for Enacting a Fixed Text: So That They Should Be Arranged in Everyone’s Mouth

In order that they should be arranged in everyone’s mouth, so that each person should have it prepared, arranged, it should be organized in everyone’s mouth, and they should learn them quickly. Consequently, and the prayer of these stammerers should be a complete prayer like the prayer of those with clear speech.

So that even the stammerer, the one who has garbled speech, should also be able to pray a proper prayer just like someone who has beautiful speech. Very nice. This is the reason why they established the text of prayer – it’s about quality.

It appears here that a master of clear speech could have actually remained with his clear speech. Now there’s such a principle of no distinction, everyone will adjust. Aha. And so this entire matter, they established all the blessings and prayers arranged in the mouth of all Israel. It appears here, first they made the Shemoneh Esrei prayer, and they added all the blessings and prayers so that it should be arranged in the mouth of all Israel. So that every matter of blessing should be arranged in the mouth of the stammerer. It’s not just about the… It could be that you’ll say it more beautifully later, not until Ezra and Nehemiah. But they went further, and they went and made it so that even when one needs to make a blessing on bread there should be a clear blessing, so that even the stammerer, the person who doesn’t have good speech, should know what to pray.

We saw earlier that he said that the blessings and the blessings of Shema, he said that the Men of the Great Assembly made them. Remember? The Men of the Great Assembly established for Israel blessings and prayers, sanctifications and havdalos, so he brings the Gemara. But I remember that the Rambam himself already said, do you remember in the Laws of Reciting Shema? When he spoke about the blessings of Shema, I remember that he already gave some kind of statement that one must say the text because the Men of the Great Assembly made it. Yes? Look, these blessings, this is the language, Laws of Reciting Shema chapter 1, these blessings and also all the other blessings are arranged in the mouth of all Israel. It’s interesting. Apparently he means to say that it’s oral Torah, arranged in the mouth of all Israel, what does that mean? How do all these blessings stand? All Jews know that it’s written in a siddur. The Rambam already wrote it in a siddur, but the Rambam says, Ezra and his court established them, so he says there. He says yes, apparently that all blessings are from the Men of the Great Assembly.

Discussion: Formality versus Authenticity

Speaker 2:

They spoke here about, you mentioned Rav Nachman, in practice it seems that the Sages preferred the formality versus the authenticity.

Speaker 1:

You can say that. It’s much more when a person prays in his own language, it’s a certain more authentic, it’s easier to have intention. But it’s more important the idea that it should be beautiful, that it should be correct, that there shouldn’t be any contradictions, one can’t help it. Today, especially Chassidim, place such a huge emphasis on the authenticity, on the truthfulness, and one forgets that the order, the organization, the formality, is very very important. Here we see that Ezra’s court held that there shouldn’t be any stammerers, and it’s more important than…

Speaker 2:

But doesn’t it come out that there’s no chance for personal prayer and for other prayers?

Speaker 1:

Yes, I meant that one can indeed make a special time for supplications, after praying Tachanun, or personal prayer and the like. That’s one thing.

Second, you see here that he says that very much, everything is to help the stammerers. All these things are simply to help the stammerers. And the truth is, the truth is, even the Breslovers, yes, Rebbe Nachman says that one should make prayers, so Reb Noson went and wrote a whole book of “Likutei Tefillos”. Because people, many times when you tell a Breslover, he says one should do hitbodedut, the person comes back and he says, “I don’t know what to say.” It’s very sad! It’s very sad! It means that a person is not organized in his head what he needs. And this is actually part of prayer, being organized in the head what I need, knowing a list. Not saying, “Creator, help me, please.” That’s also good, that’s a helplessness, such a cry of “I’m so broken, I don’t even know what to say.” But…

But regarding the sadness, the Sages helped, the Sages come to help the stammerers. “The Torah takes pity on the stammerer” perhaps there’s a verse already in it, all this is to help so that the stammerers should be able to say it beautifully. This is all actually love of Israel, he wants to elevate the simple Jews.

In other words, if before it would have been like this, let’s say it comes to a sheva brachos, one says Birkat Hamazon, yes? The sage who says the beautiful text and the piyutim, the expressions, would start to stutter. Now everyone says the same beautiful text. It’s a certain truth, yes.

Praise at the End of Prayer – Closeness and Distance

Speaker 2:

I see that the Rambam’s commentator doesn’t know from where he takes that there should be praise also at the end. The “a person should always arrange praise of the Omnipresent and then pray” is a Gemara from Moshe. But this is at the end.

Speaker 1:

So I think an interesting explanation, perhaps the word is like this, we always need to become close to the Almighty, one must also maintain the distance, remember that the Almighty is a great awesome King. So when a person starts asking here his “to-do list” from the Almighty, “Creator, I need this, I need that, I need this,” so the praise before and the praise after is like strengthening that the Almighty is very great. So don’t be your… It’s such a concept of closeness and distance, yes, but “when I come before the King I have no deeds.” I think so. Okay, stop it just a minute, I need to go out.

Law 4 – The Establishment of the Number of Daily Prayers

The Number of Prayers Corresponding to the Sacrifices

Speaker 1:

Ah, besides the fact that they made the text, they also made how often one should pray, how many times a day one should pray. It seems, this is interesting, in the Rambam it seems that there are like two laws. There’s the law of how many times a day one prays, and then each one of the prayers has a time, but it’s not the same thing. Perhaps this is the explanation of “compensatory prayers,” the explanation that he’s completing, the explanation, today I prayed three times. It’s separate from the fact that today one needs to pray in the morning, afternoon and at night.

But what should actually make it three times a day? Why shouldn’t it be left once a day? One must think about it, let’s see. Apparently they established that the number of prayers should be like the number of sacrifices. That the amount of prayers, how many times a day one prays, is as many as how many sacrifices one brings a day. Which sacrifices? There are two types of sacrifices every day, two prayers each day corresponding to the two tamid offerings. As the Gemara says, “prayers were established corresponding to sacrifices.”

Apparently the explanation is that they looked at the Temple. The Temple is the model of service of God. Yes, service of the heart is prayer, but the main service, as the Gemara says “serve Him in His Temple,” is if in the Temple once a day is not enough, rather there are two. It’s interesting, it’s very similar to Shema, and also both are, morning and night. It’s as if the day is divided into two. There are two sacrifices. The same thing, two prayers each day corresponding to the two tamid offerings.

The Rambam says, once it was said, yes, that prayers are corresponding to sacrifices, they made it entirely corresponding to sacrifices. If there are days when the basic service of God is that there should also be another sacrifice, they added another prayer. And every day that has a musaf sacrifice, they established in it a third prayer corresponding to the musaf sacrifice. It’s interesting, because if you would say that the word is because every day has two parts, there’s morning and there’s night, one should pray both, as we learned regarding Shema and also regarding Torah study, so how does a musaf sacrifice come in? One must think. It seems from earlier, the thing that the Rambam said that according to his ability, it seems that there’s a concept to pray more than once a day. “Would that a person pray all day long” is the maximum, but there is indeed a thing, a beautiful thing, that one prays two times a day, three times a day, four times, five times, like the Muslims pray. It would be a beautiful thing to pray several times a day.

So the Sages formalized it. There was even a difference between the Land of Israel and Babylon, in the Land of Israel one prayed seven times a day, in Babylon one prayed two times a day. So the Sages formalized it, and they formalized it, they used the structure. The Rambam doesn’t say that it’s certainly the sacrifices. They used the structure that you said, they used the structure of the times of the sacrifices. And apparently “the day rejoices in the deeds of your fathers” is simply a holiday, there’s more joy and gladness, it doesn’t have to do with times. Times is another thing.

They made it that a more holy day, that there’s such a thing, it happens sometimes, one prays enlarged the level four times. Or a day when one gives more for service of God, a day when one doesn’t work, a day that’s a holiday. Not every day that has musaf one doesn’t work, but Rosh Chodesh, but there’s more a concept that is… It fits, such a holy day fits to make more prayers. We see Yom Kippur or a fast day one makes five prayers. Not because there’s more time on Yom Kippur, it’s a more beautiful thing, it’s a virtue to make more prayers.

Discussion: The Connection of Prayer to Shema

Speaker 2:

Interesting, we put together everything is one thing, the blessings of Shema with Shemoneh Esrei is one long thing, and then we also juxtapose redemption to prayer. Here it seems that it has no connection.

Speaker 1:

Originally not. Originally not. I said, one can say the other reason, one prays two times a day because one reads Shema two times a day, and with each Shema one added… But not Mincha. Maariv is optional.

But I’m already speaking when one needs to say something novel. You meant to say what you said about the musaf sacrifice, this is apparently by chance. Actually the main thing is to make another prayer. That one makes another prayer corresponding to musaf, we’re already talking about something else. Musaf is indeed a request for needs, one only asks for the redemption. It’s a request for needs of the community.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

Right, I only said that it’s not the simple explanation that one needs to say… The Rambam says it this way. So it says in the Gemara, prayer corresponding to sacrifices. One could have said that it’s in place of sacrifices, as “and we will render the offerings of our lips.” But there was prayer in the time when there were sacrifices too. Then it wasn’t such a great thing, then it was secondary. On the contrary, it’s not the simple explanation that one prays musaf because we can’t make the musaf sacrifice, and one says this for musaf, because today is in such a situation. We’re not talking about the problem that we have that we can’t make any musaf, and it fits for the time. Rather actually, why does one pray musaf? For the same reason why one makes a musaf sacrifice, because today is a holiday, today is Chol Hamoed, there comes to be another prayer.

It’s a different type of service. On the contrary.

Names of the Prayers

Speaker 1:

And the prayer that corresponds to the tamid of the afternoon, why does one call it Shacharit prayer? Or Shacharit, he says Shacharit prayer because the time is morning. But no, because it’s corresponding to the sacrifice of the morning. He doesn’t say because, I don’t know. He says, “The prayer that corresponds to the tamid of the afternoon, and it is called Mincha.” What does the word mincha mean? Mincha, I don’t know. Mincha is a mincha that one offers meal offerings? What does it come in? I don’t know. It’s not clear why Mincha is called Mincha. When the sun sets, it’s “the rest of the sun”? He doesn’t say. He brings that the Rambam in the Commentary on the Mishnah says that Mincha is the name for afternoon. Nu, fine. Why is that the name? Why is it called Mincha? “At the time of the mincha” such language appears in the prophets. At the time of the mincha, when one brings perhaps a meal offering? No. I’m not sure.

Okay. “And the prayer that corresponds to the tamid of the afternoon is called Mincha prayer.” He doesn’t say why it’s called Mincha. Why is it called… “And the prayer that corresponds to the musafim is called the Musaf prayer.” That’s obvious. What is the concept of Mincha?

Speaker 2:

On the contrary, find it. Let’s see if yours says here some good explanation.

Speaker 1:

Where is the Rambam that we have? He doesn’t say. I don’t know. I think that I remembered that there’s no good explanation for this. On the contrary, I don’t know any good explanation for it. Mincha means a gift, right? As “a gift is sent.” Mincha, yes. When one offers a mincha on the altar. Is also a mincha in the language of a gift apparently? Mincha, flour, and mincha, and pancake, it’s all gifts. No, a gift for the altar.

Speaker 2:

Ah, why specifically the sacrifice of flour is called a mincha I also don’t know. We see that mincha can be called, other sacrifices can also be called mincha. As… I don’t actually remember. Mincha. Ah, at the time of the mincha, again.

Maariv Prayer, Neilah Prayer, and the Number of Prayers

Maariv Prayer — Optional or Obligatory

Speaker 1: As “a gift is sent.” Mincha, yes. When one offers a mincha on the altar is also a mincha in the language of a gift?

Speaker 2: Apparently.

Speaker 1: Mincha, flour, pancake, griddle, it’s all gifts.

Speaker 2: No, a gift for the altar.

Speaker 1: Ah, why specifically the sacrifice of flour is called a mincha I also don’t know.

Digression: What Does the Word “Mincha” Mean?

Speaker 1: We see that mincha can be called, other sacrifices can also be called mincha. As… How? I don’t actually remember. Mincha… Ah, “at the time of the mincha.” Again, “at the time of the mincha” doesn’t mean at the time of mincha?

Speaker 2: It means yes.

Speaker 1: Why do you say so?

Speaker 2: “At the time of the mincha” of Elijah the prophet, what is the translation?

Speaker 1: “And it was at the time of the mincha.” It’s the time of the meal offering, so the commentators say here. “At the time of the mincha” means at the time when one offers the tamid of the afternoon.

Speaker 2: I know, that’s what it’s called, I know. I don’t know why mincha is called mincha.

Speaker 1: Not that I let him rest.

Speaker 2: Nu, say something.

Speaker 1: He took to rest, I don’t know.

Speaker 2: Mincha is not from the language of rest. There’s mincha and menucha, it’s the same letters but it’s a different word. Mincha means… “evening mincha.” I don’t know. “Evening mincha.” “Let my prayer be set forth as incense before You, the lifting up of my hands as the evening mincha.”

Speaker 1: Yes, also a verse in Psalms. Can mean the gift of the night.

Speaker 2: Yes, but you see that in the morning it’s not called a mincha. Something there’s some reason that… “vain mincha.”

Speaker 1: No, now everything means mincha, a mincha of…

Speaker 2: No, it says many times mincha that it just says. But we see a few times verses that mincha is evening.

Speaker 1: Yes, and also here, “at the time of the evening mincha.”

Speaker 2: Perhaps in the afternoon they used to bring the meal offerings, and because of that it was so called, I don’t know. We already see in the verses that afternoon is called mincha.

Speaker 1: Nu, in Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the Jews would certainly have had an explanation for this.

Speaker 2: They would have had an explanation, what should I do? Okay, I’ll search for the explanation.

Speaker 1: “The evening burnt offering is called mincha,” so says the Radak in Sefer HaShorashim, “for the morning burnt offering… ah, it says yes, in the morning there’s also mincha, but apparently it’s the mincha prayer because the evening burnt offering comes in the evening. In short. It says that with the tamid there was also a mincha?

Speaker 2: With every tamid there was a mincha?

Speaker 1: Yes, in the morning too, not only in the afternoon.

Speaker 2: So I don’t know. For some reason, the afternoon tamid offering of the afternoon is called the mincha offering.

Speaker 1: Yes, not clear.

Maariv Prayer — The Rambam’s Enactment

Speaker 1: Already, the Rambam says further, afterwards, And so they established, that a person should pray one prayer at night. Also at night, besides the two during the day, yes, they made a prayer that one says at night. What is the logic? He says, what? Behold there are only two sacrifices each day, there are only two sacrifices each day, but there are more than two sacrifices, because at night the altar is also active with sacrifices. It’s very interesting, one doesn’t actually offer any new sacrifice, but at night one offers all the fats and limbs, all the limbs of the tamid of the afternoon and it continues to be burned throughout the night, as it says “This is the burnt offering on its pyre on the altar all night until morning”, and the remaining sacrifices are consumed, besides the sacrifices from during the day, no, the voluntary sacrifices of the night. As it says, ah, here the Rambam brings in a new thing, it comes out that a person should also pray at night, night is indeed a time of prayer.

Chunk 6 Translation

Not just during the day, it’s very interesting. During the day is when a person arranges his needs (mesader tzrachav), during the day he has a big list, he needs this, he needs that, he needs matches (shidduchim), he needs livelihood (parnassah). But at night is a time of longing, a time of crying over his needs, yes, “al mishkavi baleilos bikashti es she’ahavah nafshi” (On my bed at night I sought the one my soul loves). So it says in the verse, “erev uvoker v’tzohorayim asicha v’ehemeh” (Evening, morning and noon I speak and moan), always I pray and I cry and I long to the Almighty, “erev uvoker v’tzohorayim.” It’s not clear, because I have a bit of a problem here, it’s interesting, the Rambam says here two different things. “Erev uvoker” apparently means Shacharis and Minchah, and “tzohorayim” means before Minchah. But the Rambam interprets the Gemara that speaks of three prayers, he interprets it as: “erev” means Ma’ariv, “boker” in the morning, “tzohorayim” means Minchah. But earlier he called it tefilat erev, tefilat Minchah. Minchah is erev.

Speaker 2: Yes, it seems there are two reasons. First there is a verse “erev uvoker v’tzohorayim,” and the Gemara brings from this a source that one must pray three times a day. And second, that tefilat Ma’ariv corresponds to the limbs that are digested all night (mitachel kol halaylah).

Speaker 1: Yes, but we see that Arvit is somewhat a weaker thing, “v’ein tefilat Arvit chovah k’tefilat Shacharis u’Minchah” (and tefilat Arvit is not an obligation like tefilat Shacharis and Minchah). Rabbi Shimon HaChori also didn’t know whether tefilat Arvit is optional (reshut) or obligatory (chovah).

Speaker 2: Rabbi Shimon? Someone came to ask in the beis midrash… no. Rabban Gamliel. Someone came to ask Rabban Gamliel, no? What’s the reason? Rabbi Shimon HaChori. Okay.

Speaker 1: V’af al pi chen nahagu kol Yisrael b’chol mekamos moshvoseihem l’hispalel Arvit, v’kibluha aleihem k’tefilat chovah (Nevertheless, all of Israel in all their dwelling places practiced praying Arvit, and accepted it upon themselves as an obligatory prayer). It didn’t become an obligation, it’s not obligatory. Nevertheless, all of Israel in all their dwelling places practiced praying Arvit and accepted it upon themselves as an obligatory prayer. It’s not an obligatory prayer, but we view it as an obligatory prayer. It’s not obligatory from the law of obligation, but obligatory from the law of custom (minhag).

Speaker 2: Yes, it’s not clear what this means.

Speaker 1: Okay. It seems there are three times of the day: there’s the beginning of night, there’s early morning, there’s afternoon, and there’s the beginning of night. Because erev doesn’t mean…

The Geonim’s Response Regarding Arvit

Speaker 1: In short, he brings that the Geonim… he brings here a responsum (teshuvah), and the end of the responsum is that people don’t know that tefilat Arvit is optional, therefore if one breaches the fence (poretz geder), goes against this, people think it’s an obligation. Ah, he is disrespectful (mevazeh)… he is disrespectful when he doesn’t pray tefilat Arvit. It’s like a davar shenohagu bo issur (something that people have practiced as forbidden), one cannot be lenient against other people who conduct themselves this way.

Speaker 2: There are people for whom it’s much easier to miss Minchah, because Minchah is, especially in winter, because that’s an obligation, it’s much harder than Ma’ariv.

Speaker 1: Okay, one must understand further the general principles (k’lalei hadvarim). When Rabbeinu Yonah says it’s not an obligation because the limbs that are being digested is also not an obligation, it’s just a custom like that, that when it’s cooking, the main thing should be offering. Right, I mean that the connection to the sacrifices (korbanos) is just like a sign, it’s not about it being optional (reshut). The reason why it’s optional is apparently because it’s really at the same time. It’s not really a time, perhaps most people go to sleep altogether already at Ma’ariv. That’s apparently the reason, one establishes it as corresponding to, it also fits the same way. That’s how I would have thought.

Says the commentator on the Rambam speaking about this, if one didn’t pray properly (k’sikunah), meaning one didn’t say v’sen brachah or kedushah, one wouldn’t have to repeat it at Ma’ariv, I wouldn’t have been obligated. But in practice, once Chazal, Klal Yisrael accepted it as an obligation… we had earlier that tevilas Ezra (Ezra’s immersion) the Jews didn’t accept, therefore it wasn’t an obligation. It’s very interesting, you see that the acceptance of the Jews is stronger than the enactment (takkanah) that the Sages enacted. Ezra and his court enacted tevilas Ezra, but Klal Yisrael didn’t accept it, so it didn’t become an obligation. And the prayer wasn’t enacted as an obligation (b’toras chovah), but Klal Yisrael accepted it as an obligation (toras chovah), so it became an obligation.

Question on the Geonim’s Reasoning

Speaker 2: Yes, but I don’t understand this, because as you say, they asked Rabban Gamliel whether tefilat Arvit is optional. Simply, in those times also there was already the custom that everyone comes and prays Ma’ariv, otherwise there wouldn’t have been a question. And nevertheless the Sages said it’s optional. So what’s the meaning that the Geonim say, you see that people pray Ma’ariv and everyone thinks it’s an obligation?

Speaker 1: Yes, and in the times of the Tannaim they also prayed Ma’ariv. And about this they said that they mean it’s a matter of appearance (maris ayin), therefore one will look like you’re wicked (rasha). But I ask you, what’s different? In the times of the Tannaim, did fewer people pray Ma’ariv? It’s also not so, from this I see that one must continue praying Ma’ariv, it’s not everything is optional. I would have said, it’s a novelty (chiddush) to me, perhaps not, perhaps someone will say no. If there was such a question whether tefilat Arvit is optional, it implies that not everyone prayed Ma’ariv in that time.

Speaker 2: Yes, could be.

Tefilat Ne’ilah

Speaker 1: Let’s continue. Once it was enacted that the prayers have to do with sacrifices, other things were added. Not just the prayers that correspond to sacrifices, but other things were added. They enacted another prayer, tefilat Minchah close to sunset (semuch lishki’as hachamah), between Minchah and Ma’ariv, meaning after Minchah close to sunset, they added another prayer on fast days only, in order to add supplication and request because of the fast (k’dei l’hosif techinah u’vakashah mipnei hata’anis). Meaning, it could be that with this one fulfills the crying out before Hashem on a fast day (ze’akah lifnei Hashem b’ta’anis), or the crying out more essentially with the fasting. Both are good. In honor of the fast day they added another prayer on the fast day. On a fast day they added another supplication and request. Apparently they made it after the two obligations. There are the obligations of Shacharis and Minchah. One doesn’t make it during. First one lets out the Torah obligation. One has already finished the Torah prayers. And it seems it’s more important than Ma’ariv. They made it before Ma’ariv. They made it before Ma’ariv, because they made it as long as it’s still the day of judgment (yom hadin). Ma’ariv is already the next day altogether.

Speaker 2: Yes, apparently the point is, it’s called Minchah actually, we’ll go see by the Rambam. Minchah doesn’t come right before sunset, Minchah comes a bit later. There remains such a time in the day that’s available, there’s no prayer at that time. But a time when there’s a fast, it’s a time when one prays, says the Rambam.

Speaker 1: It’s a prayer called tefilat Ne’ilah (nikras tefilat Ne’ilah). They gave it a name, tefilat Ne’ilah. Why is it called this? Because at the time when we pray it, meaning that the gates of heaven are locked from the sun and it appears (she’nin’alu sha’arei shamayim be’ad hashemesh v’nir’eh), the sky has already locked the sun. It’s in the process of locking the sun, because we pray it close to sunset (lifei she’anu mispallelin osah semuch lishki’as hachamah).

What Does “Sha’arei Shamayim” Mean by Ne’ilah

And the Rishonim have a dispute here what Ne’ilah means, what are the gates of the Temple (sha’arei heichal)? Is it the gates of the Temple of the Beis Hamikdash, or the gates of heaven (sha’arei shamayim). I always thought that sha’arei shamayim means that when we say at Ne’ilah “sha’arei shamayim pesach” (open the gates of heaven), that the time of acceptance of prayers is ending (zman kabbalas hatefillos). But as the Rambam says, and so it seems perhaps the simple meaning in the Rishonim, that sha’arei shamayim simply means the sky, as if it’s like “pesach dalasos” (open the doors), as we say in the blessings of Yotzer, there are such doors and gates that open and the sun comes out, and here it goes back, the sky is already being locked. But in this lies an image (dimuy), because a fast day is a closed day (yom atzur), a day that seems like the sky is locked. Also it’s written in Chassidus that one shouldn’t ask for anything, now it’s open. Ne’ilah means it’s locking now, the whole day was open, now is the time of Ne’ilah.

Recap — The Number of Prayers Each Day

Speaker 1: Says the Rambam, nimtza (it comes out), he’s going to give us such a recap. B’chol yom shalosh (on every day three), he starts with Arvit, yes, Shacharis u’Minchah. U’v’Shabbosos u’mo’adim v’roshei chodashim arba (and on Sabbaths and festivals and new moons four), because Musaf is added. Arvit, Shacharis and Minchah. On Sabbaths and festivals and new moons it’s four, because to the three is added tefilat hamusafin (the Musaf prayer). U’v’Yom HaKippurim chamesh (and on Yom Kippur five), because we said that on a fast day, there are those who say on Yom Kippur instead of saying what fast, because on a fast there’s also four, because on a fast there’s no Musaf, on a regular fast there’s no Musaf. There’s only Shacharis Minchah Ma’ariv, there’s only three prayers. So four is an elevation in prayers, and on a regular fast there’s an elevation in prayers. On a regular fast there’s Ne’ilah.

Laws of Prayer — Number of Prayers, Voluntary Prayer, and Prayer on Shabbat and Yom Tov

Law 10 — Number of Prayers Each Day

“On Sabbaths and festivals and new moons, four.”

He’s speaking from the verse, he’s speaking before he comes into Shacharis and Minchah. On Sabbaths and festivals and new moons, it’s four, because to the three is added tefilat hamusafin.

“And on Yom Kippur, five.”

Because we said that on fast days… no, he says on Yom Kippur, he should say on a fast day. Because on a fast there’s also four, because on a fast there’s no Musaf. A regular fast is four, without tefilat Ne’ilah. A regular fast will be only four, Shacharis, Minchah, Ne’ilah. But Yom Kippur, which is a day of Musaf, comes out five. Yes.

Law 11 — Voluntary Prayer (Tefilat Nedavah)

The Basic Law of Tefilat Nedavah

Now, he speaks about tefilat nedavah. Meaning, this fits very well with what I’m saying, that there’s a concept of multiplying prayers (marbeh tefillos). Meaning, from the Torah one only needs one, but one can as many as one wants. They made a certain schedule: three every day, four Shabbat Yom Tov Musaf, five Yom Kippur. But this is all the enactment. There still remains the thing that one can make more if one wants.

This is the Rambam, “tefillos eilu, ein pochsin meihem” (these prayers, one doesn’t subtract from them), one doesn’t make less, “aval mosifin aleihem” (but one adds to them), one can add. He says, one can’t make less, because these were the enactments of the Sages. But one can add, “im rotzeh adam she’yispalel kol hayom kulo” (if a person wants to pray the whole day), if a person wants to pray a whole day, “hareshus b’yado” (he has permission). Ah, praying a whole day means to say a whole day saying Shemoneh Esrei, not praying one long Shemoneh Esrei for a whole day. Saying five hundred Shemoneh Esreis. He’s speaking about praying another Shemoneh Esrei. No, no, no, no. That’s certainly permitted. One can say as many as one wants. Certainly. That’s what we’re talking about.

The Connection to Sacrifices

He says, “l’fichach, kol tefilah she’yosif” (therefore, every prayer that one adds), one can offer voluntary offerings (nedavos). Once there’s the Yom Tov, there’s corresponding to the sacrifices. You see that with sacrifices one can also add vows and voluntary offerings (nedarim u’nedavos) as many as one wants. One offers voluntary offerings. The structure fits very well.

The Law of Novelty in Tefilat Nedavah

“L’fichach” (therefore), he says, because the prayers are a voluntary prayer, he says, “l’fichach, tzarich she’yechadesh davar b’tefilah b’chol brachah u’vrachah min ha’emtza’iyos” (therefore, one must innovate something in the prayer in each and every one of the middle blessings). One doesn’t change in the first three and the last three. But in the middle ones, the middle blessings, one should add even in one blessing. Ideally one should add something in each blessing. “V’im chidesh afilu b’vrachah achas, k’dei l’hodi’a she’hi nedavah v’lo chovah” (and if one innovated even in one blessing, in order to make known that it’s voluntary and not obligatory), in order that it should be clear that it’s voluntary and not obligatory.

Discussion: Why “L’hodi’a”?

Why does the “to make known” (l’hodi’a) fall out? I don’t know. Perhaps the l’hodi’a was by one prayer. I thought perhaps, it means, if ideally tefilat nedavah, you always make tefilat nedavah, you say the same thing again, that’s just mockery (letzonus). Anyway, the point of tefilat nedavah, you say like a sacrifice, imagine he brings again the morning sacrifice that’s already been brought, it’s used up. One must bring a new thing. But the servant, at least he must make some small change, he adds, he gives a new version or a new point that he puts into his prayer, in order to show that he’s not making the voluntary prayer, it’s to make known that it should be voluntary.

No, perhaps it’s that the person himself should remember which are the basic ones, because if one day he’s not in the mood, he should still pray at least the three or the two. It’s important to maintain the distinction between voluntary offerings and obligations, however it looks. Yes. Okay.

The First Three and Last Three

But let’s continue, the addition is only in the middle ones. “Shalosh rishonos v’shalosh achronos l’olam ein mosifin bahem” (the first three and last three, one never adds to them), one doesn’t add, “v’lo pochsin meihem” (and doesn’t subtract from them), because one is changing from the formula the Sages established (meshaneh mimatbei’a shetav’u chachamim). One doesn’t change. Like the Gemara that says one shouldn’t change from the formula the Sages established.

It means, in the middle one doesn’t change, because that’s the law that one may add. Because one becomes needs, and he said earlier that the needs is ah, u’l’chach l’tzrachim, if one wants to mention the subcategories (toledos), one can mention the subcategories also.

Discussion: Can One Mention Toledos in Obligatory Prayer?

Apparently, he doesn’t say it clearly, but apparently one can mention toledos also in obligatory prayer also? No, perhaps only when one is praying? Yes, and the same law (v’hu hadin). That’s how it sounds. But here should be, one should make a… tefilat nedavah one must, obligatory prayer, he doesn’t say here clearly, but apparently that’s the law.

The Rambam, perhaps we’ll see later, he’s going to speak about this. I don’t remember that he should speak about this.

Rabbeinu Yonah’s Comment on Communal Needs

And the Rambam rules like Rabbi Eliezer, that ein mosifin bahem (one doesn’t add to them). But Rabbeinu Yonah adds a comment, that ein mosifin bahem tefillos pratiyos (one doesn’t add private prayers to them), but we find that they would add to them Zachreinu l’chaim and such things, because communal prayer one can add. I mean to say, communal needs (tzarchei tzibbur) one can add, we’re praying for Klal Yisrael. That’s a question. The Rambam brings later that this is a custom. I don’t know. Perhaps here we’re speaking of tefilat nedavah. One must understand why the Rema brings the law by tefilat nedavah. He brings altogether the law that one shouldn’t add.

Discussion: The Rema’s Position

But simple Jews also add blessings in the morning and various ones. But the Rema says that the individual shouldn’t add. But when the Rema adds, it’s a part of… it’s not lawlessness (pritzus aretz). One can hear. But it’s a part. No, it’s not clear.

Okay, let’s bring out one more law. Perhaps it’s true, after all, as the Gemara says that one shouldn’t add more than one. That’s another version. But that’s perhaps specifically by the praises (shevachim). I understand, it could be.

Question: Why Not by Modim?

But why… someone asked a good question. I understand, by the needs you say that the person sometimes has his own needs, he adds. Why shouldn’t he give thanks for his own thanksgivings? To add by Modim. We don’t see this. It’s not clear.

The Rema until now hasn’t said to add except by the topic of tefilat nedavah. And he even adds the reason “k’dei lo yed’u” (so they won’t know). It seems by the Rema that it’s even a deficiency (chesaron) the addition. Do you understand? Not that he says that adding is a nice thing, he adds his novelty. By the Rema it sounds the opposite, that this makes the prayer weaker. The obligatory prayer one says exactly what’s written. Ah, you make it your own prayer, okay, change it a bit so one won’t err, one won’t think that this is the obligatory prayer. It sounds like that.

Law 12 — The Congregation Doesn’t Pray Voluntary Prayer

Let’s finish the Rema. Yes, further. “Ein hatzibbur mispallelin tefilat nedavah” (the congregation doesn’t pray voluntary prayer). The voluntary prayer that one adds is an individual’s prayer, not a communal prayer. “V’ein hatzibbur mevi’in korban nedavah” (and the congregation doesn’t bring a voluntary sacrifice). We’ve been comparing to sacrifices the whole time, and the congregation doesn’t bring a voluntary sacrifice.

The Chasam Sofer’s Novelty

It fits very well with a responsum of the Chasam Sofer, I mean responsum 55, that matters of Chassidus – this is his critique of Chassidus – that matters of Chassidus, matters that are beyond the letter of the law (lifnim mishuras hadin), matters that are extra credit, have to do with it coming from the heart. If it becomes a… it’s very interesting, Moshe, now Pesach, very many people knew that… and by us at home they were so and so careful. One knows that a stringency (chumra) is that one of us, I do this. Once it becomes an obligation, one learns it in cheder that so and so one must do, it loses the whole distinction between the voluntary and the obligatory.

Olas Kayitz HaMizbe’ach

Okay, but back to here the simple meaning. The congregation doesn’t add voluntary prayer. Yes, the Rema asks a question, that yes, here one uses a thing like a communal voluntary offering (nedavas tzibbur). It means, olas kayitz hamizbe’ach (the elevation offering for the altar’s summer). Elevation offerings, there isn’t that one has too much money and then makes it a shekel, bring me a special elevation offering, it’s called for a voluntary offering. But he says it’s not common (eino motzi). A thing that’s not common (davar she’eino shachi’ach). Okay.

Musaf Shtayim

He says, usually it’s only on Shabbos and Yom Tov, there’s no need here for the community to have an extra prayer. But “one may not pray even as an individual Mussaf twice”. Furthermore, just as one cannot add Mussaf, one doesn’t add voluntary prayers (tefillos nedavah). Whether an obligatory olah offering or a voluntary one, we don’t say it’s different – the Mussaf offering, the Mussaf offering is a communal obligation (chovas hatzibbur).

Discussion: What Does “Mussaf Twice” Mean?

I don’t understand exactly what this means. Apparently, it means he prays Mussaf twice, he says twice about the Mussaf offering. If he prays Mussaf twice, he prays twice the prayer that corresponds to the Mussaf offering. The main prayer is just a prayer, there’s no difference. It means he prays Mincha, so what does it mean he prays Mussaf twice? But he’s apparently speaking about when one mentions the matter of Mussaf at Mincha, one mentions Mussaf. Okay.

Voluntary Prayer on Shabbos and Yom Tov

“There are early Geonim who forbade praying voluntary prayers on Shabbos and Yom Tov”. So one shouldn’t pray any voluntary prayers on Shabbos and Yom Tov at all, “because on them one only brings the obligatory offerings of the day”. Because on Shabbos and Yom Tov one only brings the offerings of the day, and one doesn’t add any offerings, therefore one shouldn’t add any…

Discussion: The Connection Between Prayer and Offerings

One must better understand the connection between prayer and offerings. It seems it’s more than just a remembrance of the offerings or… It could be for the same reason why one doesn’t bring voluntary offerings on Yom Tov. But I saw someone asks a question here, apparently the reason why one doesn’t bring voluntary offerings on Yom Tov is because it’s chol Yom Tov, essentially slaughtering and all these things are forbidden labors (melachos), and you only have permission for holy offerings, but a simple voluntary offering has no permission. If so, prayer has no connection.

The Rav’s Own Interpretation

The Rav says here his own interpretation. The Rav says, he engages with the Rav’s interpretation, he says that the reason stated in Rav Hai Gaon is specifically prayers of petition, because a person can constantly pray in order to ask for mercy, but on Shabbos and Yom Tov one doesn’t bring petitions. For thanksgiving this doesn’t apply. Why? Then he will give thanks and eat, give thanks to the Blessed One for His goodness.

Digression: Private Thanksgiving Prayers – “Thank You Hashem”

This relates to the conversation we had in a group recently, that we don’t see that there are private prayers for thanksgiving. It’s very interesting, today people say, it seems from this Rav that “thank you Hashem” is a blessing in vain (beracha levatala). Needs, asking from the Almighty – if only a person would pray all day long. Thanking the Almighty, it doesn’t say that there’s a concept to thank the Almighty all the time. We give thanks and we thank the Almighty for all Your kindnesses that are every day. And the Raavad argues that there’s no concept to do more.

Discussion: Blessings on Pleasures

Ah, but there is, there are other blessings. He’s speaking when it’s part of the text of the prayer, but that a person should thank the Almighty, he should say blessings to Him. I mean in the Laws of Blessings the Rambam does say that a person should say as many blessings as possible, a person should praise the Almighty as much as possible in the Laws of Blessings, for other kinds of things. We see in the Laws of Blessings he does speak of this. Yes yes, I know what you mean, the end of the Laws of Blessings. Yes yes, but not to add new blessings. He says one should make the regular blessings, because every time one eats one makes a blessing. On everything there’s a blessing that is required. One doesn’t say “ah, I thank the Almighty”. Do you understand?

It does exist, and we see that there’s a contradiction. Perhaps the Rambam would have said one should say “thank you Hashem”. Perhaps the Rambam would have liked this. As he answers, “and every day I will bless You and praise Your name forever and ever”. With this the Rambam answers regarding the laws. Yes yes yes, we see constantly from the laws of prayer that what people say today “thank you Hashem”, the Chassidic custom, is not so simple from the perspective of halacha. It seems yes, as you said before, it’s a matter of respect for the Almighty. That’s not your problem.

The Danger of Becoming Rote Speech

Your contradiction is, we say it becomes so rote on the tongue that it means nothing anymore. It means a young man puts on, “Baruch Hashem”, and he doesn’t mean anything. This is somewhat disrespectful. Can one hear this? But this isn’t the Chashmonaim and not the language. No, everyone should continue saying “thank you Hashem”, and one should say it with the proper intention. Rather the opposite, we say that every time you say “thank you Hashem”, you should remember to have in mind that you mean it genuinely. Because you said it’s already become cold.