Description: Introduction to She'arim BiTefillah 04
She’arim BiTefillah
Introduction 04
The path to growth in tefillah needs to be one of ‘gadlus’, seeking greatness. Meaning, the same way a person approaches learning Torah, or keeping one of the mitzvos of the Torah, we understand that the way a child keeps Shabbos, or the way a first grader learns Chumash, can’t be the way a bachur of 13 learns Torah and keeps Shabbos. The way a bachur learns Gemarah, can’t resemble the way a bachur in Beis Medrash learns Gemarah – who already has his own insights, questions and answers, and perceives things on a much deeper level. A person who kept Shabbos since childhood, when he gets married, should have a whole different approach to the beauty and holiness of Shabbos, and these should grow year by year, the more a person immerses himself in Torah study, or keeps mitzvos and learns about them.
But does this happen with tefillah? Not always. Not naturally. Only if we make the effort to learn how to daven, and to apply those lessons and grow in davening! Then year after year, we will see an improvement in our davening, the same way it’s easily apparent the difference between the explanation someone with a few years of experience in Torah will give to a pasuk, and the explanation someone with many years of experience will give to a pasuk. They aren’t comparable both in depth, in clarity, in the breadth of knowledge the person has and can apply, and the general understanding of how hashkafah concepts work. Likewise, in davening, there are all these aspects – and more!
This concept is expressed in a Gemarah. The pasuk says that when Nevuchadnezzar invaded Yerushalayim, ‘kol bayis gadol saraf ba’aish,’ he burnt every ‘great’ house in fire. The Gemarah asks, what house is being referred to? The Gemarah quotes two opinions, one says, ‘bayis shemigadlin bo Torah,’ a house where we ‘raise’ Torah, and the other says, ‘bayis shemigadlin bo Tefillah,’ a house where we ‘raise’ Tefillah. We see that the two things are comparable – the same way we understand we need a Beis Medrash to cultivate talmidei chachamim and train people in learning Torah, so too, we need a house where we can teach people how to daven, and raise a generation of daveners!
The Gemarah in Brachos famously says, that tefillah is something which is ‘omaid b’romo shel olam,’ it stands on high in the world – meaning it’s from the most important and powerful things in the world, ‘uvnei adam mezalzelin bah,’ but people belittle its importance! Now if something is at the top of the world, it takes some climbing to get there! The nature of a ladder is – there’s absolutely no way to ‘jump’ to the top. You can skip up steps, but you can’t skip up a ladder. What do we do on a ladder? We keep our eyes on the top, and keep pulling ourselves up, rung after rung. That’s the job ahead of us, Avodas Hatefillah!
When we talk about growth in tefillah, this generally makes people think of high levels of kedushah, purity of heart, closeness to Hashem, and so on. There’s no question that these contribute to a person’s ability to daven. But we are discussing the ‘umnus’, the skill of davening, something which is only acquired through learning, just as the skill of navigating a Gemarah is only acquired through learning and learning, and trying to understand, and applying the skills.
She’arim BiTefillah
Introduction 04
The path to growth in tefillah needs to be one of ‘gadlus’, seeking greatness. Meaning, the same way a person approaches learning Torah, or keeping one of the mitzvos of the Torah, we understand that the way a child keeps Shabbos, or the way a first grader learns Chumash, can’t be the way a bachur of 13 learns Torah and keeps Shabbos. The way a bachur learns Gemarah, can’t resemble the way a bachur in Beis Medrash learns Gemarah – who already has his own insights, questions and answers, and perceives things on a much deeper level. A person who kept Shabbos since childhood, when he gets married, should have a whole different approach to the beauty and holiness of Shabbos, and these should grow year by year, the more a person immerses himself in Torah study, or keeps mitzvos and learns about them.
But does this happen with tefillah? Not always. Not naturally. Only if we make the effort to learn how to daven, and to apply those lessons and grow in davening! Then year after year, we will see an improvement in our davening, the same way it’s easily apparent the difference between the explanation someone with a few years of experience in Torah will give to a pasuk, and the explanation someone with many years of experience will give to a pasuk. They aren’t comparable both in depth, in clarity, in the breadth of knowledge the person has and can apply, and the general understanding of how hashkafah concepts work. Likewise, in davening, there are all these aspects – and more!
This concept is expressed in a Gemarah. The pasuk says that when Nevuchadnezzar invaded Yerushalayim, ‘kol bayis gadol saraf ba’aish,’ he burnt every ‘great’ house in fire. The Gemarah asks, what house is being referred to? The Gemarah quotes two opinions, one says, ‘bayis shemigadlin bo Torah,’ a house where we ‘raise’ Torah, and the other says, ‘bayis shemigadlin bo Tefillah,’ a house where we ‘raise’ Tefillah. We see that the two things are comparable – the same way we understand we need a Beis Medrash to cultivate talmidei chachamim and train people in learning Torah, so too, we need a house where we can teach people how to daven, and raise a generation of daveners!
The Gemarah in Brachos famously says, that tefillah is something which is ‘omaid b’romo shel olam,’ it stands on high in the world – meaning it’s from the most important and powerful things in the world, ‘uvnei adam mezalzelin bah,’ but people belittle its importance! Now if something is at the top of the world, it takes some climbing to get there! The nature of a ladder is – there’s absolutely no way to ‘jump’ to the top. You can skip up steps, but you can’t skip up a ladder. What do we do on a ladder? We keep our eyes on the top, and keep pulling ourselves up, rung after rung. That’s the job ahead of us, Avodas Hatefillah!
When we talk about growth in tefillah, this generally makes people think of high levels of kedushah, purity of heart, closeness to Hashem, and so on. There’s no question that these contribute to a person’s ability to daven. But we are discussing the ‘umnus’, the skill of davening, something which is only acquired through learning, just as the skill of navigating a Gemarah is only acquired through learning and learning, and trying to understand, and applying the skills.