Tefilos Shabbes- Keil Odon

Shiur 17 – Tefilos Shabbes- Keil Odon

In keil odon, the kadmonim point out a fascinating observation. The first two verses are five words each, the last two verses are six words each, and all the verses in the middle are four words each. What do they correspond to?

The opening two verses correspond to the aseres hadibros (5 commandments on each of the luchos). The luchos are the source of the Torah. In keil odon, the opening five-verse phrases are like the idea and the source of all that is to follow. Based on this source, Hashem enters into our world, as we will see shortly.

The six verses correspond to the 12 tribes, who are the actualization of Klal Yisroel, comprising all the different types of members of Klal Yisroel. When we reach the end of keil odon, we will explain what this corresponds to.

1)The Olam of Hashem

אֵ-ל אָדוֹן עַל כָּל הַמַּעֲשִׂים

Hashem is the master of all

Hashem is the ruler over everything that happens in the world. This is beyond our understanding, as it contradicts the principle we live by, which is that we are responsible for our actions. On the one hand, if we damage our friend’s property, we must bear responsibility. On the other hand, in truth, it’s Hashem, Who rules over everything, Who caused the damage to happen.

Hashem ruling over everything that happens is a level of reality that doesn’t describe the whole picture. 

בָּרוּךְ וּמְבֹרָךְ בְּפִי כָּל נְשָׁמָה

Blessed in the mouth of every neshamah

The other part of the picture is that the penimius (the neshama) of the person can develop things and keep making them better (‘boruch umevorach’ means to improve and increase continually. This is learned from the double expression of brocha). 

These are the two sheroshim in the world (denoted by the two five-word phrases).

גָּדְלוֹ וְטוּבוֹ מָלֵא עוֹלָם

His greatness and goodness fill the world

‘godlo’ is middas hachessed.

‘vetuvo‘ is how He connects with the creation.

His chessed and connection with creation fill the world.

דַּעַת וּתְבוּנָה סוֹבְבִים אוֹתוֹ

Daas and tevunah connote His concept/tachlis of the world, which encompasses the entirety of the world. Bilaam made the mistake of thinking that there was a place in the world where he could escape from Hashem’s tachlis of the world.

The first two verses are the two basic concepts. The following two verses illustrate how Hashem guides the world based on these two concepts.

Now we enter into the world of the malachim. In this world everything is clear that it is from Hashem. 

2)Olam of the Malochim

הַמִּתְגָּאֶה עַל חַיּוֹת הַקֹּדֶשׁ

Who is proud above all the holy animals

Hashem is at a level above His shluchim, the malachim.

וְנֶהְדָּר בְּכָבוֹד עַל הַמֶּרְכָּבָה

Honored above the chariot

Merkavah is like a car. Through a car, a person goes to another place. Hashem‘s honor, so to speak, enters the vehicle for His kovod to go to a different world (that of the malochim).

This is the beginning of His interaction with the world. In His initial interaction, when He is within His world, He remains high above it.

זְכוּת וּמִישׁוֹר לִפְנֵי כִסְאוֹ

Merit and straight before His throne

Everything is very clear and correct in front of His kisei.

חֶסֶד וְרַחֲמִים לִפְנֵי כְבוֹדוֹ

Kindness and compassion before His honour

In front of His kovod, there is chessed and rachamim. These middos allow us to exist.

3)The World of the Celestial powers

טוֹבִים מְאוֹרוֹת שֶׁבָּרָא אֱלקינוּ

Good are the luminaries that He created 

Now we detail Hashem coming closer to us.

Besides malachim, there are kochos (which are not shluchim of Hashem), which Hashem has made in heaven. These kochos affect the reality.

For example, somebody who is born in mazal maadim will be a shofech domim-a shochet, a mohel or a murderer.

Regarding mazalos and stars, we have a problem. People often think that if one believes in the stars and astrology, they are opposed to the Torah. But, on the other hand, the Torah speaks about mazalos. If so, not believing in the mazalos is being a kofer against the Torah.

The truth of the matter is that we don’t believe that the stars have something to offer. Instead, we use the stars as simonim to the ruchniyus kochos. We can see and sense the stars despite them being very high above us. This is a siman to the ruchniyus, which, despite its being very high above our level that we cannot sense it, nevertheless we know it exists.

טוֹבִים מְאוֹרוֹת שֶׁבָּרָא אֱלקינוּ

Good are the luminaries that our G-d created

I feel that these meoros refer to the sun and the moon, which were initially the same size as we see in Parshas Bereishis.

These lights are good.

יְצָרָם בְּדַעַת בְּבִינָה וּבְהַשְׂכֵּל

He created them with daas and tevunah

Binah and daas went into these meoros. Therefore, they work exactly according to what Hashem wants.

כֹּחַ וּגְבוּרָה נָתַן בָּהֶם

Power and might he put in them

לִהְיוֹת מוֹשְׁלִים בְּקֶרֶב תֵּבֵל

To be controllers in the tevel

Their koach and gevurah come from Hashem. He gives over the kochos to them, which become theirs. This gives them their rulership. Hashem‘s presence is hidden in the realm of the stars. This is opposed to the realm of the malochim, where Hashem‘s presence is revealed. This is why Hashem‘s name features in the names of the malochim (Michoel, Refael), whereas the kochavim and the shemesh are not called kochavkel, shemeshkel, etc.

מְלֵאִים זִיו וּמְפִיקִים נֹגַהּ

Filled with splendor

We do not receive the light of the meoros as this would be blinding. Instead, we only receive the shine from them.

שְׂמֵחִים בְּצֵאתָם וְשָׂשִׂים בְּבוֹאָם

Happy in their going out and rejoicing in their coming

עוֹשִׂים בְּאֵימָה רְצוֹן קוֹנָם

Doing with fear the ratzon of their owner

The meoros do the ratzon of Hashem, and they do everything naturally and with simchah.

Our World

We enter our world on the day of Shabbos. On Shabbos, we enter a world that is entirely penimius. On this special day, we speak about the world using heavenly language. We speak in a way to bring out the penimius/the idea of the world. What is the place where the world is expressed in its penimius version? The moon. The moon is the closest heavenly body to Earth.

The moon is an entity in the heavens, but it orbits the Earth. This is why we see the moon from different sides, and this is why the moon seems to change-sometimes it’s whole, and sometimes it’s part. This is because it goes around Earth. We don’t see the other stars from the back because they are far away from us. Therefore, we only see the star itself.

The penimius world is like the moon-some times are better than others, and some times are worse. There’s more light at times than others.

פְּאֵר וְכָבוֹד נוֹתְנִים לִשְׁמוֹ

Splendor and honor they give to His name

The penimius is the destination of everything. The point of the destination of everything is our avodah in this world which is to bring kovod for Hashem.

צָהֳלָה וְרִנָּה לְזֵכֶר מַלְכוּתוֹ

Song for the remembrance of His malchus

Hashem’s malchus is revealed in our world.

קָרָא לַשֶּׁמֶשׁ וַיִּזְרַח אוֹר

He called to the sun and it shone light

We stop speaking about the meoros. Now we speak about the sun.

רָאָה וְהִתְקִין צוּרַת הַלְּבָנָה

He saw and fixed the form of the moon

Hashem makes the moon be different sizes at different times.

Let’s summarize what we’ve seen before we continue. First, keil odon speaks from within Hashem’s world. From Hashem’s world, His influence comes to the world of the malochim. From there, it travels to the world of the meoros. Then, it reaches our world. On Shabbos, we speak about our world in the sense of its penimius, as seen from the sun and the moon.

שֶׁבַח נוֹתְנִים לוֹ כָּל צְבָא מָרוֹם      

They give Him praise

Now, we reach the last two verses, each of six words. We, therefore, now say the most essential part of all these worlds-our world where we give praise to Hashem!

תִּפְאֶרֶת וּגְדֻלָּה שְׂרָפִים וְאוֹפַנִּים וְחַיּוֹת הַקֹּדֶשׁ

Splendor and greatness,the serafim etc.

The Nefesh Hachaim says that these are the different levels of the penimius of the world.

Serafim are the malochim who are so close to Hashem that they are as if burnt from His presence.

Chayos Hakodesh are the life of the world. They are life itself.

Ofanim, like an ‘ofen,’ which is a wheel. They make the world run.

All these three give praise to Hashem.  

We see a great contrast here from what we say during the rest of the week. During the week, we say in hameir laaretz ‘heichin ufoal zohorei chamah, etc.’ We describe Hashem’s actions but only what He does in our world. In Keil Odon, which is said on Shabbos, the day when the penimius of the world is revealed, we trace Hashem’s actions from their source. We see how they come into our world, rooted in His world.

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Written by Rabbi Rapport