I would have loved to have Aharon haKohen serve as my Kohen in the Beit Hamikdash. I would have felt safe even bringing a sin-offering, knowing that I was being guided by one of the most beloved and loving personalities. I would approach Aharon with confidence that he would guide me through the Teshuva process as he spoke with me and led me step by step through the Offering and its consumption.

I don’t picture myself feeling quite so safe with Pinchas as my Kohen; he killed a man. I would be more reticent describing my sin to someone who publicly killed a sinner. I would imagine him thinking, “What’s one less Weinberg? I should just kill him, but, now I have to do my job.” It’s difficult to win people’s trust after they’ve seen you lose your temper, no matter how justified.

“Therefore, say: Behold! I give him My covenant of peace (Numbers 25:12).” God does not inform Moshe that He gave Pinchas His covenant of peace, but that Moshe should publicly declare the gift. He received the covenant of eternal priesthood, but the declaration is not about Pinchas becoming a Kohen, but his being awarded God’s covenant of peace.

What is the covenant of peace? Rashi explains that it should be seen as the greeting one sends to a person to whom one is indebted. It’s a picture of God waving to Pinchas and saying, “Shalom!”

Imagine bringing a sin-offering and as the Kohen meets with you to discuss your sin and Teshuva process, God pops His head into the room, waves to the Kohen and says, “Hi!”  That is exactly what people felt when they met with Pinchas. Yes, they were intimidated by the man who killed Kozbi and Zimri, but as soon as they sat with him, they experienced a sense of peace with God. A perfect experience for bringing any offering, especially after sinning: Fear and awe, intimidated by being in the Beit Hamikdash, and then, a sense of peace, Pinchas healing from the experience of having killed, the person healing from the spiritual illness of his sin.

Pinchas is a reminder that the Teshuva process should end with a sense of peace. His story is a lesson that the person who takes three steps forward into God’s Presence, filled with awe as he beings his prayer, should conclude with, “Sim Shalom,” a sense of peace, as if God is waving farewell as he takes his three steps back as he leaves his prayer.

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Posted in honor of Hadas aka Hudis:

In honor of the Yahrtzeit of the Rambam:

“Hear our Voices,” we say, referring to all the voices inside; the voice of joy, and the voice that pleads. The Voice that sings, and the voice of pain. The voice of striving and the voice of frustration. We ask that God pay attention to not only the words, but all the voices as well.

The Talmud teaches that God prays; so, we ask God to join His voice to ours, so that just as He listens to His perfect voice of perfect prayer, He listen to our voices joined with His, so that all, pierce the highest heavens. (The Torah of God is Perfect)

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Transcribed and prepared by Chava Janovsky:

Megillas Esther and Davening for Everything

We can see something amazing in Megillas Esther

Esther goes into part and Achashvarus asks her – “what is it that you are asking for (Shiala) and it will be given to you?” This is an unequivocal statement – whatever it is shall be given to you.

Then he say: “And what is your bekasha? – until half of the kingdom it will be given to you…” This statement is equivocal

So he is differentiating between shiala and bekasha:

shiala is: what do you want right now? If you would ask me what do you want right now  it would be that Hashem should make a nays as big as splitting of red sea that my car will last a few more months – that’s my shiala

Bekasha is: the dream – so in this case, no question, in this example -a Lamborghini

In other words- there is the immediate need (shiala) but there is also the dream (bekasha)

So when asking what is immediate shiala he says: Your immediate need it will be given

But what is your vision for yourself – that already only“until the half the kingdom and it will be done”– it is reasonable, correct?

Your immediate need –whatever you need will get it

Your big dream – until half it will be done

What does Esther answer?

“Shialiasi u’vakashasi” – my shiaila and my bekasha are one and the same

Why would I hesitate, if I am davening to Hashem-, I am going to ask for a revealed miracle for my car to last a few months? Once He is already doing a nays nigla I would go right for Lamborghini. Why should there be a difference between shiala and bekasha

If davening to Hashem- who loves me, cares, has all the power in the world… does it really matter is shiala or bekasha – only difference is because of who? Hashem? No! In whose mind is the difference? Only in ours

Esther says they are one in the same

Achasheverus doesn’t believe her because at the second party he says the same thing to her . He can’t conceive that there is a person that there is no separation at all between the two , between shiala and bekashsa

When we begin bracha of ata chonane l’adam daas for what are we asking?

Is it a shiala or a bekahasa?

Class: both

RN: NO – they are the same thing! – what are you davening for ? You want to daven for all Clal Israel. What do we mean when we say chanenu me-eta deah bina v’haskel – what are you asking for?

Class: Total knowledge

Answer : Of what? Of Everything – absolutely everything. A limited davening pashnitz, a limited davening pashnitz to Hashem. It is not befitting to Hashem.

You have an opportunity to ask for the world – what you going to ask for? –

Are you going to say, sheepishly…

well, can you help me to do well on a test?

Can you help me to diagnose al patients correctly today?

You are davening for all Clal Israel – what you davening for?

Some people daven for clarity but that is just one thing…

For me, if I had a world filled with people like Moshe Rabbenu, then I would be happy.

Do you understand that to ask Hashem for anything less is my limitation, not Hashem’s?

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Transcribed and prepared by Chava Janovsky:

Exercise on How to Apply These Ideas to Different Brachas

1. Do you ever see someone who is hurting themselves because they are not thinking clearly? Before I would daven for myself self in “ata chonane” I would daven for this other person to be granted the necessary clarity to stop hurting themselves


2. Do you ever see someone who has good instincts but does not trust them enough to follow up and ends up getting hurt? I would daven for that person before daven for my own needs when asking for bina

Question: if you would take time to pause for people who are not clear about things it would take a half an hour if did this for everyone – how can you practically do this?

Answer: half hour? (laugh) maybe for you because you know the highest quality people. For someone like me it would really take days . I am not saying do for everyone for who you are davening, but need to expand your davening beyond yourself as a first step

How do you do this? By not focusing on you

If you say – grant everyone the daas they need – how much am I going to relate to that?

Heal everyone? How much am I going to relate to that?

Help everyone do teshuvah? Does that really resonate inside of you?

It all sounds like another religion that says love everyone

Class: But we do say in Torah:“Love everyone as yourself”

Answer: But we say “Camocha” – needs to be camocha, we  need to have a certain level where you are relating to;  but you can’t love everyone the same

So you need to practice and train yourself how to daven with empathy beyond yourself. Once you can reach beyond yourself then you can daven for the Clal: you can daven for a group of people, you can daven for individuals, etc.. But to just say “give everyone the daas they need…” what is that? How does that resonate with you? If does not resonate on a personal level with you then it is not real.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

Transcribed and prepared by Chava Janovsky:

1. There is a danger that when daven only from own personal perspective that there is the danger that we will limit the effectiveness of our tefillah in plural
   
   
   
   1. Because if I daven the bracha of teshuvah only thinking for myself and then thinking about the things I need to do teshuvah for, it is a long list but still only thinking about myself. Therefore it may not include levels of teshuvah that other people have to do
   
   
   2. Same idea with daas bracha – if I daven for level of daas that I need… Let’s say I am stuck on a Gemorrah and can’t sleep. So the next morning I will daven desperately for the daas to understand the gemorrah- if I am only focused on this understanding of this particular gemorrah I am certainly not taking into consideration the needs for the different levels of daas – the degrees of levels of– wisdom and understanding and awareness we spoke about that are necessary for other people
   
   
   3. Story: Used to sleep in grandparents house and used to be there to take care of their needs in middle of night if they needed something. One night in the middle of the night he heard his grandfather pacing around angry up and down and went out to look and his grandfather looked like he was in a frenzy . So Rabbi Weinberg looks at him and asks “what’s wrong” and his grandfather says “I have a kasha on a Tosefos – I have been learning this for 70 years and I never asked this kasha before? How is it possible that I never understood it before?” Rabbi Weinberg said “yeah, it’s a terrible things (not understanding); why doesn’t Zadi go to sleep and will get the answer in the morning” his grandfather looked at him like he was crazy and started pacing again and Rabbi Weinberg went to bed thinking “nebech… (sarcastic)”About an hour later he woke up and heard his grandparent’s voices in the kitchen. He gets up and saw his grandfather wearing a suit and tie and Shabbos shoes and sees his grandmother in high heels, a Shabbos dress, and a shaitel… and they were both drinking a l’chaim over orange juice – very romantic. So RW asked “what’s going on?” – his grandfather said he got an answer to the kasha – so when his grandfather went to bedroom, his grandmother said nu? and he told her he got the answer. So she didn’t just say “I am happy for you,” She got up and washed negilvasser and got all dressed up because he got the answer. So when his grandfather davened for daas it was probably a little different from the way most of us daven; he had a little deeper appreciation for the information he needed
   
   
   4. Therefore, now we have to understand that this applies to every bracha that is plural. The only reason we focus on the personal because that is the key to begin to relate to the power of the tefillah. But that’s it . But not hash vishalom to say this is definition of tefillah
   
   
   5. This means that every level we have spoken about-and we have done each one on at least 3 level, each one we need to take to a whole new level; have to take then each one and then reformulate into the plural.
   
   
   
   

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

Transcribed and prepared by Chava Janovsky:

1. Also this is the first bracha where it is possible for an individual to say this one doesn’t apply to me personally – a person could say: “I am not ill today baruch Hashem”
   
   
   
   1. This is First time when a person understands that this is for others and not for me
   
   
   2. Therefore the Gemorrah says that if I reach a point where I say “I am not sick” then I am not davening; Because if there is someone else who is ill the Gemorrah says – “we have to make ourselves sick over the fact that someone else is sick” – it has to hurt us
   
   
   3. Story – when Uncle Noach was going for radiation treatment, he was sitting next to another Rosh Yeshiva  (and he couldn’t even sit – had bed sore all over, couldn’t breath, terrible pain, wasn’t sleeping anymore); the he sees them roll out an elder yid from radiation. Rav Noach uncle jumps up and goes to the yid and starts talking to him – “what happened, what are you doing?”, he talks to him, makes him laugh, tells him how he is going to daven for him- all of the old Uncle Noach technique. So he makes the guy happy, et. Then he sits down. He is now in100X more pain than before then he turns to the other Rosh Yeshiva and says “that’s it – I am not going to sleep tonight – how can I sleep tonight when see that guy suffering like that?” the Rosh Yeshiva turns to him and says ‘I think you are an idiot -  you are already sick and suffering and can barely move and you jump up and make make yourself sicker because of someone else?’, Uncle Noach says ‘if you can see someone who is sick and just say Oh vey and then start talking about the super bowl you are just one step away from being a murderer”
   
   
   4. Because if really hurts you to see someone else in pain, how can you just turn away and forget about it? You can’t do it
   
   
   5. It is very hard for us – in New York and New York area we see beggars , people suffering, and it breaks your heart when see it hopefully but want to go on with life; There is a whole skill of tzedeka and to learning the degrees of empathy. While davening refaiainu, it has to be that as long as know there are people are you sick can’t just say “send a refua  to this one and that one” – There has to be a degree of empathy
   
   
   
   


2. Level about davening so that you access the refua that already exists

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Transcribed and prepared by Chava Janovsky:

Explanation of why waited until this bracha to address why we daven in plural

The Baruch She’Amar transformed  my davening and he doesn’t discuss why we daven in the plural until Refainau. Therefore out of respect for a person who changed my davening, I wanted to wait for Refainu to discuss why we daven in plural..But in truth it is what he teaches about refua and the plural sense of refainu that gives us a chance to understand why we are davening in the plural.

And because now we understand why we davened in the plural can now go back through to previous 7-8 steps of Shemonei Esrei in order to now take all learned into other brachas to take each one to a higher level.

Review of Previous Aspects of Refua Bracha

1. Refua:
   
   
   
   1. Definitions:
      
      
      
      1. means not only healing
      
      
      2. Also means to soften
      
      
      3. Also means to rebuild – as in posuk in Malachim  – when Eliyahu rebuilds the mizbayach– “vyirapei et ha mizbayach”
      
      
      
      
   
   
   2. Explanation: for example – even if someone recovers from a long illness their lives still need to be rebuilt. Both their lives, and also the lives of their spouses and their children; illness just spreads out and affects everyone and it is destructive  so the refua of rebuilding is necessary
   
   
   3. Story: Rabbi Weinberg once went to a surgeon right before went to Germany. The surgeon said he can’t do the surgery that was necessary but gave him great advice: he said go to family therapy because you have had 12 surgeries (that’s how many it was at that time)and it is too much for your children to go through so go through family therapy otherwise they will all carry this the rest of their lives. This was great advice and this is refua aspect of the situation.
   
   
   
   

1. Refua’s placement after geula in Shemonei Esrei shows it is it is greater than redemption
   
   
   
   1. If I am sick one day and I wake up and am perfectly fine the next day – that is not refua-  that is geula – that is redemption – I am free; Refua is beyond this
   
   
   2. Geula is the b’anyanu – the inside of our struggles/the inside of our suffering – “riva rivvanu” Hashem is helping us fight the deepest internal things and face and be able to taste eternal redemption
   
   
   3. And refua is greater than this? We said Yes; Because even after redemption from galus we still carry deep scars  from being in galus. This is  the same way family still carries deep scars after someone has been ill even after person has healed/recovered
   
   
   4. Story: One of his children didn’t want to relate to him because he said”one day is he better, one day sick, one day is he better, one day sick” and so on…“I don’t want to get accustomed to you being well because if you get sick again I will just get disappointed again” – so this child needed refua after geula, he needed the rebuilding
   
   
   5. This is part of what we daven for in this bracha of refaianu
   
   
   
   

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

We began with the Intellect’s statement on the bottom of pages 18 -19 in The Knowing Heart:

1) A person achieves Dveikut – Attachment as he or she achieves greater self-mastery.

2) Dveikut – Attachment is to God’s Kedusha – Sanctity.

3) Dveikut allows one to enjoy his or her perceptions of God’s Glory.

4) That enjoyment will not be limited by any of the three major barriers: 1. Hindrance – Someone or something holding you back from moving forward, 2. Barrier, and 3. Impediment.

5) The Ramchal quotes three verses to explain and define each of the three limitations to enjoyment.

6) Whenever the Ramchal quotes more than one proof-text, he intends to prove more than one point.

7) The three limitations are discussed in prayer: Amidah: Avot: “Melech ozer, u’Moshia, U’magain – The King Who Helps, saves and shields.

Hindrance refers to ego interfering with attachment: Jacob holding on to Esau’s heel (where the Serpent of Eden attacks) is holding Esau back from asserting power – a positive hindrance. Serving God without integrity – with self-serving motivation – is ego. The attacks of others in word and deed create barriers. Our inability to accept that God uses His abundant blessings to guide us toward the fulfillment of our purpose in life is the impediment.

9) This too is in the Amidah: Gevurot: Mechakail Chaim – God sustains us in order to help us achieve Techiat Hameitim – World to Come – which is our ultimate purpose.

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“Ha’tov ki lo kalu rachamecha, v’ha’merachem ki lo tamu chasadecha”

“The Good One because Your compassion never finishes, and The Compassionate One because Your goodness never stops”

God is called Good, because of His Compassion, and Compassionate because of His Goodness- shouldn’t it be the opposite? You are compassionate because your compassion never stops. And you are good because your goodness never stops!

The way we explain it is as follows. It is so easy to give to someone else- to give and give, and give, without thinking whether it is good for that person. The tov (good) that you do for another has to be m’rachem. It has to be empathic. (m’rachem comes from the root of the word Rechem, womb; it means empathy because it implies shared existence). You must understand what is good for that specific person, in that specific situation.

In being empathic, you have to know if it is good for the recipient of your empathy.

There are two things that are going on. We tend to separate the two. We are saying that God does not. When He gives, every act of goodness is empathic, and every act of empathy is good.

Author Info:

Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.