Tefilos Shabbos – Yotzer – Ahavo rabbo

Shiur 19 – Yotzer and Ahavah Rabbah

We will discuss the second part of the beracha of lokeil shovas, which discusses the world and tevah. Before we begin talking about the world and tevah, we first need to understand the Rambam in Yesodei Hatorah, perek 2, halachah 1,2.

The Rambam says that there is a mitzvah to love and fear Hashem. ‘What is the way to love and fear Hashem? When man will understand His greatly wondrous actions and creations, and he will see from them that you cannot put a value on His chochmah  and that His chochmah has no limit, immediately he will love and praise Hashem, and he will have a great taavah to know Hashem.

Why does somebody with great chochmah cause us to love them? Take a chessmaster who possesses great wisdom, do we love him? No. He might be very wise, but he also might be a horrible person.

So why does chochmah lead to ahavah? The chochmah that the Rambam is referring to is not abstract intelligence. Instead, chochmah means a mehalech. This mehalech has an aim and development to it. The whole aim is towards us. Recognizing that all the laws of the Torah are aimed at us, makes us love Him.

The Torah approach to looking at the briyah of the world is never one of objectivity. It is not interested in water’s chemical makeup, with all its intricacies and greatness. Instead, the Torah’s interest in water is how it makes a mikvah and all the complexities involving mayim sheuvim, etc.

A good illustration of the basic Jewish approach to wisdom is that when writing a book, there is wisdom in determining how much ink will be required for printing it. However extraordinary this wisdom may be, the real wisdom and interest lie in what can be gained from reading the book. This is what Torah is interested in-what does the book teach us? The Jewish approach to the creation of the world is focused on how it is aimed towards us.

תִּתְבָּרַךְ מוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ

You should be blessed, our Salvation

What do we gain from the world? We get yeshuah from Hashem.

תִּתְבָּרַךְ צוּרֵנוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ וְגוֹאֲלֵנוּ בּוֹרֵא קְדוֹשִׁים

You should be blessed, our Rock, our King etc.

He created malachim that do everything in the creation. However, don’t make a mistake – tzureinu and malkeinu is behind everything that they are doing.

יִשְׁתַּבַּח שִׁמְךָ לָעַד מַלְכֵּנוּ יוֹצֵר מְשָׁרְתִים

Your name should be praised forever etc.

A close friend and I were having a discussion when we were learning in Kollel. He said to me that chatzos only lasts for a second-the sun goes around in a circle, and it is exactly at the highest point above head for only one moment. I disagreed with him, as this is not how Torah is built. It’s not a mathematical construction. Rather, Torah is interested in how the creation of the world affects us. Chatzos lasts for 30 minutes (not the essential chatzos, but the sun is at the highest point for about 30 minutes).

וּמַשְׁמִיעִים בְּיִרְאָה יַחַד בְּקוֹל דִּבְרֵי אֱלֹקים חַיִּים וּמֶלֶךְ עוֹלָם

And they make heard with fear etc.

Everything is run according to what Hashem wants.

כֻּלָּם אֲהוּבִים כֻּלָּם בְּרוּרִים

All of them are beloved, all of them are clear.

Everything is in harmony with one another (ahavah). There is clarity on everything.

וְכֻלָּם פּוֹתְחִים אֶת פִּיהֶם בִּקְדֻשָּׁה וּבְטָהֳרָה בְּשִׁירָה וּבְזִמְרָה, וּמְבָרְכִים וּמְשַׁבְּחִים וּמְפָאֲרִים וּמַעֲרִיצִים וּמַקְדִּישִׁים וּמַמְלִיכִים 

The whole briyah praises Hashem.

אֶת שֵׁם הָאֵ-ל הַמֶּלֶךְ הַגָּדוֹל הַגִּבּוֹר וְהַנּוֹרָא קָדוֹשׁ הוּא

The name of Hashem, the great King, the mighty One etc.

The world that is aimed at us, has an ingredient of kedushah to it. Kedushah means that it is out of our reach. Nevertheless, it is part of the world. This means that the world is not under our rulership, but instead it has this kedushah element to it.

וְנוֹתְנִים רְשׁוּת זֶה לָזֶה, לְהַקְדִּישׁ

And they give permission to one another

There are different madreigos of malachim. Here we say that all the different malachim need to be given permission from one another to sanctify Hashem. Both the lower malachim from the higher ones and the higher ones from those lower than them require permission. Since kedushah is something that is beyond everyone, the higher ones are also equally separated from the kedushah as much as the lower malachim.

Lemoshol, someone who is outside the techum by one mile on Shabbos, is punished in the same way as someone who is only outside the techum by one step. They are both outside of the techum, and nothing else is relevant. There is no concept of being closer or further away in the realm of techum.

The gadol hador is equally removed from kedushah as is a simple person. Kedushah is in a different techum to both of them.

A large part of a person developing kedushah is to recognise their reliance on those who are lower than themselves. Since everyone is outside the techum of kedushah, everyone is removed from kedushah, and therefore, nobody can manage without some reliance on others.

בְּנַחַת רוּחַ

The serafim are so great that they are mevatel themselves to Hashem. Due to their greatness, they say everything calmly.

וְהָאוֹפַנִּים וְחַיּוֹת הַקֹּדֶשׁ בְּרַעַשׁ גָּדוֹל מִתְנַשְּׂאִים לְעֻמַּת שְׂרָפִים

The lesser ofanim and chayos hakodesh make a louder noise than the serafim.

בָּרוּךְ כְּבוֹד יְ-יָ מִמְּקוֹמוֹ

Blessed is the glory of Hashem from His place

They don’t know where His place is.

כִּי הוּא לְבַדּוֹ פּוֹעֵל גְּבוּרוֹת, עוֹשֶׂה חֲדָשׁוֹת, בַּעַל מִלְחָמוֹת, זוֹרֵעַ צְדָקוֹת, מַצְמִיחַ יְשׁוּעוֹת, בּוֹרֵא רְפוּאוֹת נוֹרָא תְהִלּוֹת, אֲדוֹן הַנִּפְלָאוֹ

We are speaking about the creation. In respect to what, do we speak? How we benefit from it and how it is all aimed towards us (like we said above).

אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר

May You illuminate a new light on Tziyon

The light from the six days of creation, which has no limit, is here for us.

אַהֲבָה רַבָּה אֲהַבְתָּנוּ יְ-יָ אֱלקינוּ, חֶמְלָה גְּדוֹלָה וִיתֵרָה חָמַלְתָּ עָלֵינוּ.

Hashem, You have loved us an abundance of love etc.

Hashem gave us new life through Torah. Torah always brings us a new level of life.

ּעֲבוּר אֲבוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁבָּטְחוּ בְךָ וַתְּלַמְּדֵם חֻקֵּי חַיִּים 

Many rishonim say that avoseinu refers to our fathers who stood on Har Sinai and received the Torah. The Rokeach says that it refers to Avrohom, Yitzchak, and Yaakov.

If so, we must ask what it means that He taught them the chukei chaim, since they did not receive the Torah from Hashem (just from ruach hakodesh), yet they fulfilled the Torah?

The rules of life refer to the rules of life of the Jewish nation. Hashem taught them this from nisyonos  and from things that Hashem told them to do. The Avos were taught how to bring down life from Hashem for the Jewish nation. This sort of life makes it possible for the Shechinah to come down to earth.

Botchu becho means to push the agenda of Hashem. The fact that the Avos were pushing Hashem’s agenda meant that Hashem wanted to teach them these chukei chaim.

כֵּן תְּחָנֵּנוּ וּתְלַמְּדֵנוּ

Our learning of Torah is not like that of the Avos. Nevertheless, we ask Hashem that our limmud hatorah should also bring down life to the world.

וְתֵן בְּלִבֵּנוּ לְהָבִין וּלְהַשְׂכִּיל, לִשְׁמֹעַ לִלְמֹד וּלְלַמֵּד, לִשְׁמֹר וְלַעֲשׂוֹת וּלְקַיֵּם, אֶת כָּל דִּבְרֵי תַלְמוּד תּוֹרָתֶךָ בְּאַהֲבָה

So that our limmud hatorah should be able to bring down life, we ask for all these things.

בָּטָחְנוּ

We also must push the agenda of Hashem.

וַהֲבִיאֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם מֵאַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת הָאָרֶץ, וְתוֹלִיכֵנוּ קוֹמְמִיּוּת לְאַרְצֵנוּ

Bring us to peace from the 4 corners of the land

We ask that our Torah learning should bring the world to its destination.

וְתוֹלִיכֵנוּ קוֹמְמִיּוּת לְאַרְצֵנוּ

And bring us upright to our land

Torah brings down life on multiple levels (komemius-multiple ‘kumos’).

וּבָנוּ בָחַרְתָּ מִכָּל עַם וְלָשׁוֹן.

You have chosen us from all the nations

We are the chosen nation.

וְקֵרַבְתָּנוּ לְשִׁמְךָ הַגָּדוֹל סֶלָה בֶּאֱמֶת

This refers to Matan Torah. 

We received the Torah from Hashem because we are Klal Yisroel, who were created from the Avos. Therefore, we should be able to work with the Torah in order to bring down life.

In summary, we have seen one development. First, we spoke about the briyah, which is aimed at us. We then spoke about the rules of life, which are also aimed at us, how we can bring life. This life that we bring is not just a life for the Jewish nation. Rather, it is also a life that will bring to the geulah.

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Written by Rabbi Rapport