Partners In Prayer - Siddur

The 21st of Shevat is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Yechiel Yehoshua (ben Yerachmiel Tzvi) Rabinowitz, the Bialer Rebbe (1901-1982). Born in Biala, Poland, he was a grandson of the Divrei Binah of Biala and a direct descendent   of the Yid Hakadosh. The Divrei Binah passed away when Yechiel Yehoshua was only 4, and tragically, Rav Yerachmiel Tzvi passed away shortly thereafter at the age of 26. In 1919, Rav Yechiel married Beila Chana Pesha, and in 1924, he was formally installed as Rebbe of Biala, and set up court in Sedlice with a population of 200,000 Jews. He was exiled to Siberia with his family in 1940. In 1947, he moved to Eretz Yisrael, living in Tel Aviv for 8 years before setting up his beis midrash and kollel in Zichron Moshe in Yerushalayim, where he remained for the next 27 years. He authored the sefer Chelkas Yehoshua.   “[You] Who causes grass to sprout for cattle, and vegetation for the labor of man, to bring forth bread from the earth (Psalms 104:14).” A person’s servi...

  בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה ' אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעולָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְותָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסוק בְּדִבְרֵי תורָה   The flaming swords in Gan Eden did not allow Adam HaRishon to access the Etz Hachaim (Gen 3:24) because he was mevatel the Etz HaChaim (The Tree of Life). The Tree of Knowledge was a doubletree, containing within it the Tree of Life. Adam only paid attention to its exterior and because he was unable to focus on the internal aspect (The Etz HaChaim) of the doubletree, he lost access to it completely. Similarly, any time a person keeps a mitzvah or studies Torah and is stuck on their exterior, he is mevatel the Etz HaChaim of that Torah or of that mitzvah; he/she is disconnecting that Torah idea/mitzvah from its spirit/life force. And he/she experiences the feeling of the flaming swords cutting off the eternal connection afforded to them by the Torah/mitzvah, God forbid. לַעֲסוק בְּדִבְרֵי תורָה empowers us to reach into our learning, into our mi...

O sweeter than the marriage-feast, 'Tis sweeter far to me, To walk together to the kirk With a goodly company!- To walk together to the kirk, And all together pray, While each to his great Father bends, Old men, and babes, and loving friends, And youths and maidens gay! Farewell, farewell! but this I tell To thee, thou Wedding-Guest! He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast. He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all."  (Samuel Taylor Coleridge; The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Part VII) "He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all." We are celebrating the powerful role of prayer in empowering us to thrive in exile: By providing us with prayer, the ability to speak to You and to know that You are listening, You have provided us with a means to address our every need. By: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg

Now, of course, we go to the blessings over Torah learning. During the beginning of the crisis of COVID and during the three weeks, the basic kavanah that I had about this blessing is not about the Torah that has been given to me. I don't begin with that intention. I begin with a quest, Torah as my quest, which is based on a teaching of the Talmud in Sanhedrin 97 A. The gemara explains that the 2000 years of Torah began with Abraham beginning his quest to find God. We are in a situation in which we're seeking answers, in which we're seeking to understand. What do we have to change? Are we doing anything wrong? In what way do we have to improve? How can I best guide my children through this crisis? How can I grow from it? That is a quest, and that quest is always guided by Torah, just as it was even after the walls of Jerusalem were breached because they still had Torah, and they still looked to Torah to guide them. By: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, neiro yair

  One of the first things we do when we wake up – even in the middle of the night   –   if we are going to learn – is to recite the Blessing that G-d sanctified us with His Mitzvot and gave us the Mitzvah to immerse ourselves in learning Divrei Torah . We do not want to, chas v’Shalom, say a Bracha l’batalah , a wasted Bracha , and so after making the blessings we immediately learn a Mishnah and then a portion from the Gemara Shabbat 127a:   Rabbi Yehudah bar Shila said in the name of Rabbi Asi said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: אֵלּוּ דְבָרִים שֶׁאָדָם אוכֵל פֵּרותֵיהֶם בָּעולָם הַזֶּה וְהַקֶּרֶן קַיֶּמֶת לו לָעולָם הַבָּא. וְאֵלּוּ הֵן. כִּבּוּד אָב וָאֵם. וּגְמִילוּת חֲסָדִים. וְהַשְׁכָּמַת בֵּית הַמִּדְרָשׁ. שַׁחֲרִית וְעַרְבִית. וְהַכְנָסַת אורְחִים. וּבִקּוּר חולִים. וְהַכְנָסַת כַּלָּה. וּלְוָיַת הַמֵּת. וְעִיּוּן תפילה. וַהֲבָאַת שָׁלום בֵּין אָדָם לַחֲבֵרו וּבֵין אִישׁ לְאִשְׁתּו. וְתַלְמוּד תּורָה כְּנֶגֶד כֻּלָּם : These are the things that...