Description: Rinah 17
She’arim BiTefillah
Rinah 17
We have explained that Shirah is when we express praise of Hashem with words, and Zimrah is when it transcends words – it’s a pure expression of emotion through song. When we find in Tehillim Mizmor Shir, it means that Dovid Hamelech began with an outburst of emotion, too great and powerful to limit with words, and then slowly developed into words and phrases, which is Shir. It begins with Mizmor and ends with Shir. But the question is, Zimrah seems to be a much higher level than Shir, the ultimate expression of pure praise of Hashem Why then, does Shir follow Zimrah? After Zimrah, one would imagine we are done! We’ve reached the highest level of praise. Why downgrade it to Shirah afterwards?
But this is a very important point in Yiddishkeit. It’s true, Zimrah is a very high and powerful level of connection to Hashem. But precisely because of the great emotion and power inherent in it, it can’t be sustained as is. If we were to stop by Zimrah, it would fizzle out and we would be left with nothing. The powerful emotion wasn’t able to depart from its place in the pnimiyos haleiv, the depths of the heart, to be translated into a practical connection to Hashem. It’s a theoretical connection, with no actual approach that can be acted upon. That’s why it’s so important that the Zimrah should turn into Shirah. When we get a handle on that emotion, we begin to be able to break it down into its components and understand every aspect of it, and then we can verbalize it. Once we verbalize it and understand what we are feeling and saying, we can turn that into a positive action or character trait, a real way to connect to Hashem.
As a rule, great ‘hislahavus,’ when a person is tremendously inspired and passionate, it’s because they have experienced a ‘klal’. For example, if someone becomes overwhelmed with inspiration on experiencing Shabbos, it’s because they have felt the power of Shabbos, in its entirety, with its super powerful holiness. It can touch us and we will be ignited. But Shabbos as a whole has so many different aspects to it, it can be broken down into hundreds of individual details – there’s tefillos Shabbos, Seudos Shabbos, Kiddush, Lechem Mishneh, Melachos, Learning on Shabbos, and so on and so forth. Only when we begin to flesh out what Shabbos truly is, we relate to each of its aspects individually, it begins to become real practical Avodas Hashem, not merely inspiration and emotion. We make Kiddush, we speak words of kedushah and holiness, we relate to different concepts of Shabbos, and we then have something we can take with us all week, and apply to everything we do.
Likewise, we begin Shemah and say, Hashem Elokainu Hashem Echad. When we say that, we are supposed to think and create an image of Hashem ruling over the world, all directions, up and down, all seven heavens, in totality, Echad, and we are ready to give up our lives for Him. After saying that, what more is there to say? What’s the need for spelling out, vi’Ahavtah ais, we love Hashem with our money, our souls, our hearts, and talk about learning and mezuzos and so on? But Hashem Elokainu Hashem is just a klal. It’s the rule which contains all the details within it. Without fleshing out and verbalizing the details, we don’t know what to do exactly and how to apply our powerful passion of Hashem Elokainu Hashem Echad. But we start to speak and explain each ‘prat,’ each detail. Love of Hashem, through what we own, with our lives, with our hearts. Mitzvos, learning Torah, remembering Yetzias Mitzrayim, these are all ways to come back and appreciate the overarching rule – Hashem Echad.
In Shemonah Esray as well, we begin saying ‘koneh hakol’, Hashem created and owns everything, but nevertheless we go through a whole Shemoah Esray detailing each concept, wisdom, forgiveness, parnassah, yeshuah and so on.
The pure emotion is like a seed. Seeds are powerful potential energy. They have everything in them to enable a tree to grow and produce fruit. They have all that power in them. But eating a seed doesn’t give much nutrition! Only after it is planted and all that energy gets realized and actualized, does the power have the ability to help us. That’s why Shirah follows Zimrah.
She’arim BiTefillah
Rinah 17
We have explained that Shirah is when we express praise of Hashem with words, and Zimrah is when it transcends words – it’s a pure expression of emotion through song. When we find in Tehillim Mizmor Shir, it means that Dovid Hamelech began with an outburst of emotion, too great and powerful to limit with words, and then slowly developed into words and phrases, which is Shir. It begins with Mizmor and ends with Shir. But the question is, Zimrah seems to be a much higher level than Shir, the ultimate expression of pure praise of Hashem Why then, does Shir follow Zimrah? After Zimrah, one would imagine we are done! We’ve reached the highest level of praise. Why downgrade it to Shirah afterwards?
But this is a very important point in Yiddishkeit. It’s true, Zimrah is a very high and powerful level of connection to Hashem. But precisely because of the great emotion and power inherent in it, it can’t be sustained as is. If we were to stop by Zimrah, it would fizzle out and we would be left with nothing. The powerful emotion wasn’t able to depart from its place in the pnimiyos haleiv, the depths of the heart, to be translated into a practical connection to Hashem. It’s a theoretical connection, with no actual approach that can be acted upon. That’s why it’s so important that the Zimrah should turn into Shirah. When we get a handle on that emotion, we begin to be able to break it down into its components and understand every aspect of it, and then we can verbalize it. Once we verbalize it and understand what we are feeling and saying, we can turn that into a positive action or character trait, a real way to connect to Hashem.
As a rule, great ‘hislahavus,’ when a person is tremendously inspired and passionate, it’s because they have experienced a ‘klal’. For example, if someone becomes overwhelmed with inspiration on experiencing Shabbos, it’s because they have felt the power of Shabbos, in its entirety, with its super powerful holiness. It can touch us and we will be ignited. But Shabbos as a whole has so many different aspects to it, it can be broken down into hundreds of individual details – there’s tefillos Shabbos, Seudos Shabbos, Kiddush, Lechem Mishneh, Melachos, Learning on Shabbos, and so on and so forth. Only when we begin to flesh out what Shabbos truly is, we relate to each of its aspects individually, it begins to become real practical Avodas Hashem, not merely inspiration and emotion. We make Kiddush, we speak words of kedushah and holiness, we relate to different concepts of Shabbos, and we then have something we can take with us all week, and apply to everything we do.
Likewise, we begin Shemah and say, Hashem Elokainu Hashem Echad. When we say that, we are supposed to think and create an image of Hashem ruling over the world, all directions, up and down, all seven heavens, in totality, Echad, and we are ready to give up our lives for Him. After saying that, what more is there to say? What’s the need for spelling out, vi’Ahavtah ais, we love Hashem with our money, our souls, our hearts, and talk about learning and mezuzos and so on? But Hashem Elokainu Hashem is just a klal. It’s the rule which contains all the details within it. Without fleshing out and verbalizing the details, we don’t know what to do exactly and how to apply our powerful passion of Hashem Elokainu Hashem Echad. But we start to speak and explain each ‘prat,’ each detail. Love of Hashem, through what we own, with our lives, with our hearts. Mitzvos, learning Torah, remembering Yetzias Mitzrayim, these are all ways to come back and appreciate the overarching rule – Hashem Echad.
In Shemonah Esray as well, we begin saying ‘koneh hakol’, Hashem created and owns everything, but nevertheless we go through a whole Shemoah Esray detailing each concept, wisdom, forgiveness, parnassah, yeshuah and so on.
The pure emotion is like a seed. Seeds are powerful potential energy. They have everything in them to enable a tree to grow and produce fruit. They have all that power in them. But eating a seed doesn’t give much nutrition! Only after it is planted and all that energy gets realized and actualized, does the power have the ability to help us. That’s why Shirah follows Zimrah.