Description: Kriah 02
She’arim BiTefillah
Kriah 02
The nature of kriah is that we call out to Hashem and address Him by name. Kriah itself doesn’t include the bakashah – the request, rather it’s the preamble, we call out to Hashem asking Him to listen to us, and then we put in our request. Since the kriah is for the purpose of asking Hashem to listen to our request, we address Hashem with a name and in a manner, which is appropriate for the request we are asking for.
The names of people which we are familiar with are not applicable to this, whether someone’s name is Reuven, Avraham or Dovid, won’t be affected with what you want from them, regardless you will use their name. The best mashal one can draw would be how we call certain people, Rav, and others, Rebbi, and others, Father or Tatty. Those names define the kind of question we are posing to the person.
When we call out to Hashem and use a name of mercy, we are identifying Hashem as one who will reply to us with mercy – that is the concept of kriah, which precedes a request.
Kriah contains an enormous power of tefillah. The Shelah brings from Chazal who say, why is it that someone can call out to Hashem and not get answered (at times the reason is because,) they don’t know how to address Hashem by His proper name as it says, אשגבהו כי ידע שמי יקראני ואענהו. Hashem says, I will elevate (and save him) because he knew My name, when he calls to Me I shall answer him. Think of how a poor person might address a wealthy man, Adoni Ha’Ashir, HaTov Laiv! When the poor man refers to him this way, calls to him this way, the fact alone he is calling him this name already contains a demand, that this wealthy man live up to his name! If the rich man feels that the poor man is truly and honestly referring to him that way, and truly believes that he is good-hearted, this will be a powerful motivation not to disappoint him! Likewise, when we call out to Hashem and use His name of being merciful, if we have that kind of clarity with the use of the name, Hashem will answer us, so as to live up to the name you have identified Him with.
If someone is in a dark alley at night, and he is surrounded by dangerous looking people, and he notices at the mouth of the alley a police car is cruising by, he won’t just yell ‘HELP!’ he will yell, ‘POLICE! HELP!’ It’s a whole different kind of cry – and much more powerful and likely to be answered. If a policeman hears, ‘POLICE!’ he knows he’s been summoned.
Moshe Rabbeinu was davening for Klal Yisrael after the Egel. Everything they had, everything they had achieved was about to be lost. Hashem passed close to him, ויעבור ה' על פניו ויקרא, Hashem came close, the Shechinah approached Moshe, and demonstrated what needs to be done at that moment: Vayikrah! Call out! What? Hashem! Say Hashem’s name, the name which communicates that Hashem is infinitely merciful!
All the more so, when we call out to Hashem and say, ‘Elokai!’ My Hashem! It’s as if a person has a personal bodyguard, he pays to watch him. When he calls out to that bodyguard – the man comes running! That’s the power of addressing Hashem as ‘Elokai!’
She’arim BiTefillah
Kriah 02
The nature of kriah is that we call out to Hashem and address Him by name. Kriah itself doesn’t include the bakashah – the request, rather it’s the preamble, we call out to Hashem asking Him to listen to us, and then we put in our request. Since the kriah is for the purpose of asking Hashem to listen to our request, we address Hashem with a name and in a manner, which is appropriate for the request we are asking for.
The names of people which we are familiar with are not applicable to this, whether someone’s name is Reuven, Avraham or Dovid, won’t be affected with what you want from them, regardless you will use their name. The best mashal one can draw would be how we call certain people, Rav, and others, Rebbi, and others, Father or Tatty. Those names define the kind of question we are posing to the person.
When we call out to Hashem and use a name of mercy, we are identifying Hashem as one who will reply to us with mercy – that is the concept of kriah, which precedes a request.
Kriah contains an enormous power of tefillah. The Shelah brings from Chazal who say, why is it that someone can call out to Hashem and not get answered (at times the reason is because,) they don’t know how to address Hashem by His proper name as it says, אשגבהו כי ידע שמי יקראני ואענהו. Hashem says, I will elevate (and save him) because he knew My name, when he calls to Me I shall answer him. Think of how a poor person might address a wealthy man, Adoni Ha’Ashir, HaTov Laiv! When the poor man refers to him this way, calls to him this way, the fact alone he is calling him this name already contains a demand, that this wealthy man live up to his name! If the rich man feels that the poor man is truly and honestly referring to him that way, and truly believes that he is good-hearted, this will be a powerful motivation not to disappoint him! Likewise, when we call out to Hashem and use His name of being merciful, if we have that kind of clarity with the use of the name, Hashem will answer us, so as to live up to the name you have identified Him with.
If someone is in a dark alley at night, and he is surrounded by dangerous looking people, and he notices at the mouth of the alley a police car is cruising by, he won’t just yell ‘HELP!’ he will yell, ‘POLICE! HELP!’ It’s a whole different kind of cry – and much more powerful and likely to be answered. If a policeman hears, ‘POLICE!’ he knows he’s been summoned.
Moshe Rabbeinu was davening for Klal Yisrael after the Egel. Everything they had, everything they had achieved was about to be lost. Hashem passed close to him, ויעבור ה' על פניו ויקרא, Hashem came close, the Shechinah approached Moshe, and demonstrated what needs to be done at that moment: Vayikrah! Call out! What? Hashem! Say Hashem’s name, the name which communicates that Hashem is infinitely merciful!
All the more so, when we call out to Hashem and say, ‘Elokai!’ My Hashem! It’s as if a person has a personal bodyguard, he pays to watch him. When he calls out to that bodyguard – the man comes running! That’s the power of addressing Hashem as ‘Elokai!’