Tfilos Shabbes -Ein Keerkecha-kel odon

Shiur 16 – Ein Keerkecha–kel odon

הַמֶּלֶךְ הַמְרוֹמָם לְבַדּוֹ מֵאָז

The elevated King, alone

How is it possible to be ‘meromem,’ ‘higher than,’ whilst talking about Hashem being alone and not relative to anyone else?

Since He has a romemus beetzem, therefore He is meromem even alone.

הַמְשֻׁבָּח וְהַמְפֹאָר וְהַמִּתְנַשֵּׁא מִימוֹת עוֹלָם

The one Who is praised and glorified since the days of old

We now begin to speak about Hashem being meshubach and above the world (and not alone, as before). We are saying that Hashem is more meshubach than the history of the world. 

אֱלֹקי עוֹלָם

G-d of eternity

We are not saying that Hashem is above the world but that Hashem is even in the world.

בְּרַחֲמֶיךָ הָרַבִּים רַחֵם עָלֵינוּ

In Your abundance of compassion, have compassion for us

We ask Hashem to have rachmanus on us by being connected to us.

אֲדוֹן עֻזֵּנוּ

The Master of our might

Hashem is the Boss.

צוּר מִשְׂגַּבֵּנוּ

The rock of our attainments

We are elevated and, so to speak, in mid-air, but Hashem, so to speak, is our rock to stand on.

מָגֵן יִשְׁעֵנוּ

The shield of our salvation

He helps us by guarding us that the help should remain with us.

מִשְׂגָּב בַּעֲדֵנוּ

Be a stronghold for us

Hashem is so elevated, and this elevation is for us.

Up until this point, we say also during the week.

Now, we begin to speak about what is unique to Shabbos. The main idea is that we enter with our penimius into Hashem’s realm.

In our tangible world, the actualization of the world of Shabbos will be leosid lovo. It is a chiddush that every Shabbos, we live in this different realm without our world actually changing.

On Shabbos, we speak about four different worlds.

1)The world of Olam Hazeh, which is the world we live in.

2)The world of Olam Habo, which is a different world; when the neshamah departs from the body, it goes there.

3)The world of yemos hamoshiach, which is the preparation for the world of techiyas hamesim.

4)The world of techiyas hamesim.

Each of these four worlds has a unique connection to Hashem that is not found in any of the other worlds.

On Shabbos, we relate to these different worlds because the world of Shabbos is a penimius world that is entirely ruchniyus. We enter Hashem’s realm. From this world, we are fitting to enter these other worlds.

אֵין כְּעֶרְכֶּךָ וְאֵין זוּלָתֶךָ, אֶפֶס בִּלְתֶּךָ וּמִי דוֹמֶה לָּךְ. אֵין כְּעֶרְכְּךָ יְ-יָ אֱלֹקינוּ בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה

There is no one like Your value and there is no one besides for You. Besides for You, everything is zero. Who is similar to You? 

Elokeinu doesn’t mean that we possess Hashem. Instead, it means that He is especially connected to us and judges us in a very specific way. This is what olam hazeh is about.

Ein keerchecha is realizing that there is nothing more valuable than Hashem. Our value system is a penimius thing. If money or social status is our uppermost value, then this disturbs the connection between us and Hashem. Until we realize that there is nothing as valuable as Hashem, there is a lack of connection with Him.

I know somebody who values and collects empty Coca-Cola bottles. The bottles have no intrinsic value. They only serve a purpose if they enable you to drink, which they do not if they are empty. Nevertheless, this person does give them value.

Saying that Hashem is Hashem Elokeinu means that Hashem is connected to us. This can only occur when we don’t value anything like Him.

Olam Habo

וְאֵין זוּלָתְךָ מַלְכֵּנוּ לְחַיֵּי הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא

There is no one besides You, our King, for the world to come

When the neshamah leaves the body, it meets the malchus. For this reason, just before a person leaves this world, they say kriyas shema in preparation for their meeting with ol malchus shomayim.

Malchus

If there is a certain place in a country that is independent of the malchus, this makes a pegam in the malchus. Ein zuloscha is the malchus without this pegam.

Yemos hamoshiach

אֶפֶס בִּלְתְּךָ גֹּאֲלֵנוּ לִימוֹת הַמָּשִׁיחַ

Besides for You everything is zero; our redeemer for the days of Mashiach

In the geulah of yemos hamoshiach, as with all geulahs, retroactively, we see how everything was part of the geulah. For example, the aveirah of Doson and Aviram, regarding the mon, brought the worms to eat from the mon. This, in turn, is what revealed the kedushah of Shabbos, where the worms didn’t eat the mon.

We say ein zuloscha. This connotes ‘ayin’; it has no place, like if somebody is looking for his wallet and cannot find it. It is ayin-it has no place. Whereas ‘efes’ is stronger than this. It means that the thing is nonexistent. Retroactively, in geulah we see the efes of everything else besides Hashem.

Techiyas hamesim

וְאֵין דוֹמֶה לְּךְ מוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ לִתְחִיַּת הַמֵּתִים

There is no one similar to You, our salvation, for techiyas hamesim

The expression of ein domeh seems less powerful than the previous expressions of ayin and efes. This is bizarre; until now, there has been an increase in the strength of expression (ayin followed by efes).

The truth is that this is more powerful. Domeh is like ‘lechoh dumiyah tehillah’-to You, Hashem, the praise is silent, meaning we cannot express His praise. So, too, there are no similarities to Hashem in techiyas hamesim.

The mind typically works things out based on similarities to what it already knows. For example, when you are learning Eiruvin and about a lechi, you think it is like a mechitzah, but not exactly. However, we will have no similarities to what techiyas hamesim will be like due to how overwhelming the giluy will be.

On Shabbos we speak about the four stages of the world since on this day our penimius world reaches until the world of Hashem. We enter His world. Since He rested, we rest.

We will now begin kel odon.

 First, let us be makdim by comparing the penimius world during the rest of the week to that of Shabbos. During the rest of the week, there is a penimius world, but it is the penimius of the world in which we exist. On Shabbos however, we enter into a world which reaches Him.

The Rishonim point out that the first two verses are five words each, the last two are six each, and all those in between are four verses each.

I will attempt to explain this. The five worded verses are like the aseres hadibros-five from one side and five from the other. Just like the aseres hadibros are the source of kol hatorah kulah, the opening two verses are also the source. They, therefore, refer to the Borei Olam, Who is the source for everything.

The last two verses are six and six, which equals twelve. This is like the twelve tribes. Twelve always connotes the reaching of the destination. If so, in kel odon, we begin with the source and end with everything being actualized. This means that in the penimius world of Shabbos, everything arrives to us from the source, Hashem.

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Written by Rabbi Rapport