Tag Archive for Tefila/ Prayer

Parshat Eikev

July 31, 2013 Highlights on the Weekly Parsha No comments
First Portion
*COMMANDMENTS! COMMANDMENTS! COMMANDMENTS! We, the Jews, have plenty of those. In fact, it’s quite confusing to keep up with them, whether it be daily, weekly, and yearly. Which one is of more importance? Well, one of the lessons in this week’s Torah reading is that one should not stomp with his feet, or more accurately, heel – alike the ones in which he deems not so important. Because, the commentaries say, those which you think are not so important can very well be significantly crucial in your life. This will be apparently disclosed to us in the olam ha-emet – the world of truth – after 120 years. So a simple washing of the hands with a bracha can earn you a significant amount of brownie points. Another interpretation, if one handles with care the ones which are deemed “insignificant commandments”, then G-d will reward him the same as the difficult commandments.
* A very interesting observation has been brought up by a good friend, David Isaacoff, who quotes Rabbi Dovid Cohen on the topic of Aikev – heel. In terms of the generations, society, we are on the heel, the last stop, before the Mashiach arrives. It’s called Pirud at ikvessi hamashiach – which is intended to prevent the final Jewish souls from being born. This is the reason, in today’s times, there’s a tremendous difficulty to get married and for that matter, stay married. It’s astonishing that we have a large community of singles and a high rate of divorce.Second Portion
* We continue with a topic which we began at the end of the first portion. It says that after one eats and gets satisfied, he should bless G-d right away. Human nature is such that after being satisfied, he tends to feel more confident in himself; that it was his own expertise that led to his success without divine intervention. That’s what a good pastrami sandwich can do to a person. Man tends to rebel against G-d only when he is satisfied and prosperous. If we bless G-d soon after we eat, it would infiltrate the psyche and instill a sense of awareness of G-d’s significance. According to Jewish law, one is not allowed to eat before praying because of this reason. When a person is a little hungry, he is more humbled; this is the ideal frame of mind one should have when praying.Third Portion
* Moshe tells the Israelites, “Don’t think it’s because of your merit that you inherited the land, but rather the promise G-d made to your ancestors Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaacov. We learn from here the significance of our ancestors. When we pray, we can ask G-d to grant us our request through their merits. It’s a powerful tool to use in order to get our requests granted. One should think of the incidences in which our forefathers persevered, and with that find favor in the eyes of G-d and mention to Him proudly that these are my ancestors. It wouldn’t hurt to throw in a few of your recently deceased relatives who were righteous and what they have done. Using our ancestors is a powerful method of prayer.

Fourth Portion 
* The Jews were instructed to create a temporary temple that is portable. Symbolically, that’s life; we’re here on a temporary basis.  In fact, that’s one of the lessons of Succot. We build our huts which lasts us for eight days. In some sense, that’s how we should feel about life, our property, and our physical body. We’re not here that long, therefore we should make the best of this existence.

Fifth Portion
* The basic components of believing in G-d is love and fear. Each one, love and fear, has different levels. One of the basic questions one can ask, how one can love or fear G-d? Well, this is discussed among the commentaries throughout the Torah.

Sixth Portion
* Vehaya im shamoah, “and it will come to pass” is the second paragraph of the Shema, the most famous of our prayers. It is connected to the first paragraph of Ve-ahavta because they both have the commandment of “reading it in the morning and night”. Unlike the first paragraph of Shema, ve-ahavta, though, specifies the duty to perform my commandments and teaches when the nation is righteous it will be rewarded with success and prosperity. When they sin, however, they must expect poverty and exile. Another connection between the two paragraphs is that it both talks about the acceptance of G-d’s sovereignty.

Seventh Portion
* The Parsha concludes with a warning to be careful to keep the commandments. It also repeats that the Israelites should expel all the nations from their midst. The current inhabitants will not make good neighbors.

The Power of Birkat Hamazon- Grace After Meal

July 31, 2013 Birkat Hamazon, G-d and Us No comments
One of the most famous and best-loved American authors, was one who has remained a national treasure and America’s most archetypal writer. He wrote two of the most important novels in American Literature; Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain’s writings have reportedly inspired more commentary than those of any other American author, and have been translated into at least 72 languages. His name has remained known despite being dead for a century

MARK TWAIN AND THE JEWS
Mark Twain replaced his earlier negative stereotype of the Jewish people with another, more positive one. In 1879, he wrote privately:
Sampson was a Jew – therefore not a fool. The Jews have the best average brain of any people in the world. The Jews are the only race who work wholly with their brains and never with their hands. There are no Jewish beggars, no Jewish tramps, no Jewish ditch diggers, hod-carriers, day laborers or followers of toilsome, mechanical trades. They are peculiarly and conspicuously the world’s intellectual aristocracy

“If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in the world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”
Mark Twain

Food has magical powers! One would be surprised what a plate of spaghetti or a plate of Osh-palov can do. Food could change a person’s attitude 180 degrees from pussycat to tiger within minutes. My mother mentions that when my father z’l would come home from work a bit agitated, she would quickly feed him dinner, and then and only then engage in conversation. ‘That’s how you tame the lion”, she says. It just so happens, my father z’l would say ‘always eat something light before coming home to your wife for dinner; it can avoid many unpleasant confrontations.’

             Dr. Goldman, a psychologist at Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim, says when a person is hungry, the body experiences a chemical imbalance and presumably, can be categorized as an illness. It’s a miracle that within minutes of eating, a person regains physical strength as well as being able to feel good emotionally.
JUST AS FOOD HAS THE ABILITY TO CHANGE ONE’S MOOD AND LEAD HIM TO ACHIEVE GREAT HIGHTS, SO DOES BIRCAT HAMAZONE, THE GRACE AFTER MEAL, IF SAID WITH INTENSITY.
             In this week’s Parasha it says, ‘you shall eat and be satiated and then bless G-d’ (Devarim 8:10), and later on ‘Lest you eat and be full and become haughty and forget G-d’ (8:12:14). The Torah understands how man’s mind works, in that being full, man forgets his Creator Who gives food to everyone and makes all full. As man must plow, sow, reap, stack, thresh, winnow, clean, grind, sift, knead and bake until he finally has some bread to eat, there is reason to fear that he may begin to believe that whatever he has, comes about from his own efforts. In order to remove such thoughts from man’s mind, we are commanded to bless G-d after we eat. This is the primary reason of birkat hamazon (the blessing after the meal).
       Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch also explains the need for brachot (blessings) as a means to elevate man spiritually. After enjoying a meal, we have acquired renewed power and strength to understand matters, and we must recognize this power is a gift from G-d, and whatever power we have acquired, must be used to serve Him.
   The idea that we should recite this prayer comes from a verse in the Torah. “You should eat and be satisfied and bless G-d for the good land He has given you” (Deuteronomy 8:10). The Sages comment that the literal meaning of this implies that we are commanded to bless G-d only if we have eaten enough to be “satisfied.” However, the Sages introduce the idea that we should say Grace after Meals even if we are not actually sated, as long as we have had a minimum amount of bread (an “olive-size,” regarded as one ounce).
This prayer has four paragraphs. The first, composed by Moshe, concerns the fact that G-d provides food for the whole world. The Jewish people wandering in the desert recited it after eating the mann which fell from heaven. The Israelites showed great appreciation reciting “Hazan”. G-d blessed them where there was no poor; everybody received food. There was no worry for Jews to scrounge around for nourishment.
After forty years they entered the Promised Land. Then Yehoshua wrote the second paragraph, which starts by thanking G-d for the sacred Land of Israel. This paragraph also thanks G-d for the Covenant of Circumcision, for the Exodus from Egypt, and for the Torah.
The third paragraph, composed by David and Shlomo, concerns the sacred city of Jerusalem. It also speaks of the Davidic line of kings and of the Temple. This paragraph ends with a plea to G-d to rebuild the holy city of Jerusalem with the coming of the Messiah.
The final paragraph of Grace after Meals was composed by the Sages some 1,870 years ago. It is a general expression of gratitude to G-d: He is “the King who is good and who does good to all.”
In fact, this last paragraph was written after the terrible tragedy of the Jewish revolt which got crushed by the Romans in 135 CE. Huge numbers of Jews were massacred. The praise to G-d could be seen as gratitude that we survived to bring living Judaism to the next generation.

It seems that the fourth blessing, which is a Rabbinical enactment, is out of sequence with the first three.

 The first 3 brachot glorify Jewish history periods- receiving of the Mann, going into the Promised Land, and the building of the Temple. However the fourth, even though we see G-d’s miracle, is stemmed from a very dark period of time.  The Roman Emperor ordered after defeating the Jews that the bodies killed at Bettar, the last stronghold, may not be buried. In fact, it wasn’t until a new Emperor assumed command fourteen years later, that they were allowed to bury their dead.
 Yes, we thank G-d for the miracles that he performed. The bodies after many years did not decay. HOWEVER, COULD’T THE SAGES FIND A HAPPIER INCIDENT THAN THIS ONE!!!
One of the secrets of Birkat Hamazone is the realization of the wonderment that Mark Twain wrote about the Jewish people.
There is a guarantee which can be derived from the Grace after Meal which gives the Jews the ability to always look forward to tomorrow.

Besides our forefathers and the immediate generations that followed, there is a generalization that can be applied. Whether it be Matetyahu and the Maccabees, Samson or Bar Kochba, the prototype classic hero, which we are accustomed to imagine, never come out to fruition. The hero’s either succumbed to their weaknesses or their children destroyed their legacy.
Only through Hollywood does this fantasy play out.
Ever wonder why, the highest Hollywood  grossing box-office film series, the spaghetti western, starring Clint Eastwood, the hero, who kills out all of the most sinister evil bad guys, is never given a name.  Its either Blondie (the character has blonde hair) or “who are you”. Hollywood want us to fill in the blanks. Because they know we would like to put our name there.
 
The fantasy hero.
In the early part of the twentieth century, when going to the theater to see a silent film was a curious new fad, a Rabbi was asked what he thought of his experimental journey to the theater. He said it’s a lot like life. When the theater gets darker, the curtain comes up and the film starts and when the film ends the lights go back on. Life is the same; when life gets dark and depressing than one begins to fantasize. When the imagination ends, though, the lights go back on and man has a grip on life and reality again.
It seemed like the Jews had a savior; Bar Kochva. To be more accurate, his name was Shimon (or Simon) bar Kosiba.
What we do know about him is that he was a person of tremendous physical strength. He was able to uproot a tree while riding a horse. He was able to hold back a Roman catapult. His feats of personal valor were legendary, which all attributed to the superhuman aura about him.
The Talmud says that anyone who wanted to join his army had to be willing to cut off their little finger. However, the rabbis objected to such an act of self-mutilation, and therefore he resorted to the test of “simply” uprooting trees. In the writings of Dio Cassius it says that he had an army of 200,000, each soldier  was strong enough to uproot a tree. By any measure, it was a large and fearsome Jewish army.
Bar Kochva was a very charismatic, intelligent person, as well as a religiously observant and pious Jew. He had great and sincere faith. This, in combination with his charismatic personality produced a natural leader that captured the heart and soul of the Jewish people.
He said that the only way that the Jews would get anything from the Romans would be to take it by force. He, therefore, organized this very large army and began the rebellion against Rome, which lasted almost six years. During four of those years there was an independent Jewish state.
Bar Kochba followed the same strategy that the Jews had followed in the first rebellion against Rome. He first re-conquered the Galilee to cut the Romans off from the sea. Then he surrounded Jerusalem and forced them out.
He had active support from most of the rabbis – in contradiction to the first two revolts against Rome. In those instances the rabbis were at best neutral. In this war, Akiva ben Joseph, the most influential rabbi lent his name to the cause.
It was Rabi (Rabbi) Akiva who ascribed to Shimon bar Kochba the famous messianic verse: “A star will shoot forth from Jacob” (Numbers 24:17). That is how he got the name “Kochba,” which means “star.” In essence, Rabi Akiva crowned him the Messiah. Rabi Akiva was so widely respected among the people that if he saw in Shimon messianic qualities then the people immediately elevated him to the level of the Messiah. This helps us understand very well why the Christians would take no part in the war; it would have made one messiah too many.
Shimon bar Kochba’s reputation became so great that, according to the records of the times, many non-Jews came to fight in his army. They saw it as a real chance to bring down the Roman Empire. Many people were not very happy with the Romans and their ways.
All told, Bar Kochba eventually mustered an army of almost 350,000. In the ancient world that was an enormous army, greater in number than the entire Roman army.
The Romans were so hard pressed that Hadrian brought his best general and all of his troops from England, Gaul, Germany and all of the provinces scattered throughout the Roman world. The reason was simple: Rome felt itself threatened as no other time. It was total war.
Many details of the war are unclear to us. We know that at one point Bar Kochba took back Jerusalem and proclaimed that he was going to rebuild the Temple, which was one of the steps the Messiah was supposed to do according to prophecy and tradition. However, due to Roman pressure and internal dissention he apparently never got to actually rebuilding it. By the third year of his reign there were already signs of disenchantment.
I. A “Star” Fades and Burns Out
After a string of almost unbroken successes for four to five years he now began to suffer reverses. As the pressure of Rome bore down upon him he began to worry about betrayal and was on the lookout for spies. However, he looked in the wrong places. He felt that the rabbis had turned against him.
This happened while he commanded a very large force at the city Beitar, which was the key to Jerusalem. Today there are a number of archaeological sites that could be Beitar, which was the location of the last great battle of this war, but the exact site is not known conclusively.
In either event, the Jews were so well-fortified and supplied they could have held out at Beitar indefinitely. Had they done so, the Romans, who were constantly harassed by guerilla warfare and marauding Jewish soldiers, would have retreated.
 However, the pre-request of being the Mashiach as Bar Kochva proclaimed was that you cannot believe you’re the Mashiach. The minute one believes he’s the one, the honeymoon is over. Like many leaders and heros, power has the ability to corrupt and seduce the most pious.
 Everything started to fall apart.  Beitar was betrayed. Its secret fortifications and entrances were revealed to the Romans by insiders – but not the rabbis, as Bar Kochba feared. Yet, in a fit of almost insane paranoia Bar Kochba accused the great sage, Rabi Elazar, of being the spy and executed him. He then lost the support of the rabbis completely. It eroded all chance of reconciliation. Then they began calling him, “Bar Koziba,” meaning the son of a lie; a false messiah. Their hopes were dashed.
Beitar fell to the Romans on Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, in 135 CE, adding it to the calamitous national tragedies of the Jewish people. Bar Kochba was eventually killed in battle. According to Dio Cassius and Jewish sources, at least a half a million Jews were killed. It was a tremendous blood bath…..And they didn’t allow us to bury our dead.
The whole world thought the Jews were finished. No civilization has ever resurfaced after a devastating and decisive destruction. At best the nations of the world thought the Jews will emerge similarly like the Gypsies, in a small insignificant non-important amount. They will be thieves and the low-lives of the world; they will always be strutting from one caravan to another.
The fourth Bracha of Bircat Hamazone comes to show us if we follow the Torah we have the blessing of, not just survival, but even more so, emerging, in a short time to the top of the world again. This has occurred in our history countless times. The fourth blessing of “G-d is good and does good” is the reason why G-d didn’t allow the Jewish bodies to rot. Furthermore, 14 years later, a leader emerged from the same monsters that destroyed us, who had sympathy and allowed the burial of our brothers. Isn’t that strange!! In hindsight we have prospered and the Romans are gone. History repeats itself, in a short period after the Holocaust we have overcome and flourished!!
Through the darkest times, the greatest let downs, we’re still standing!!!
That is one of the important, powerful, and meaningful lessons of the Birkat Hamazon.
helping constructing the article-Rabbis Berril Wein, Baruch Dopelt, Issac Oilbaum,  Dr Robert Goldman

We Hope to Have Some Good Company on Our Side on Judgment Day

July 28, 2013 High Holidays, Jewish Values No comments
 

If someone wants to do something very wicked, but for some turn of events, it never came into fruition, will he get punished for the thought? In this week’s Parsha, we recall Lavan, the father in law of our fore-father Yaakov. We all heard some nasty stories about in-laws; however, Lavan is by far the front runner of the biggest nightmare an in-law can possibly be.

The pasuk recants how Lavan tried to kill Yaakov and his family. Rashi, the mainstream commentary on the Torah, oddly seems to write although the plan didn’t materialize, however it’s as if he did do it; that he actually caused harm. The thought translates to action. But wait! Contrary to popular teachings, haven’t we learned because of the mercy of G-d, that good thoughts equal to brownie points even though it doesn’t work out at the end. Consequently, if someone has the intention of sinning and last minute he misses his train and is unable to go through with it, the bad thought doesn’t count. So why is Lavan endeited for a crime that never happened?

We read in the most important prayer in our three daily services, the Amida, “The G-d of Avraham, G-d of Isaac and the G-d of Yaakov.” It’s in their merit that will help us, G-d willing, in putting us in the book of life. However, it’s not just their merit that will get us in. Perhaps, it’s the character traits that we inherited from them. We are from the genealogy of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and a lot of their fine characters in which put them over the top is passed down through the generations to us. So presumably, the bad thoughts which some of us have will not amount to anything because our forefathers would never do those things. A mitzvah which we intended to do but didn’t happen, we will get credit for because its safely assumed that our ancestors would have done it, so therefore, our character will, most likely, perform the good deed; its ingrained in us. Lavan had some cruel blood in him; so its assumed he would sin. In his situation, a bad thought will go against him.

I remember, many years ago when I was in the jewelry business, a business that relies heavily on trust, someone called asking for an expensive stone. We never did business with him before, so I was a bit hesitant. My father z’l said to give it to him. I said to my father “Pop, don’t you want to do a credit check first?” He said to me, “I don’t need to do a credit check, I know his father; he was an honest good man.” He said, “If you want to know a person, you look at his family roots.” Our family roots goes through some fine characters leading to the nucleus, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. This is the reason G-d gives us, the Jews, the benefit of the doubt.

When we pray, we have to emphasize the greatness of our Jewish people, the greatness of our ancestors. We should reiterate in our prayers that we will live up to the standards of our forefathers because we have it in us; it’s in our genes. G-d should give us the benefit of the doubt even more than He usually does and we hope to get written in the book of life. Our nation has to live up to a different standard, a standard of excellence.

Essence of High Holiday Prayers

July 28, 2013 High Holidays No comments

The High Holidays are fast approaching. During the High Holidays two years ago, we had a special event called “Understand the Essence of High Holiday Prayers”, featuring chazanim Avi Perets, Ishai ben Haim, and Ruben Ibragimov. Please take a look at the event:www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA0zDwlzaqA

 

Yom Kippur

July 25, 2013 High Holidays No comments
 

Throughout many of our prayers, the style that our great sages evoked is to have a poem, a piyut before we start. The reason is to warm the hearts of the one praying. We are not robots, we need something to get us in the mood, to get the emotions going. So we begin with a piyut. Here we begin with LECHA ELI written by the Even Ezra.

 

How appropriate to start off Yom Kippur with Kol Nidrai. Man was given special powers over the other living creatures of the world. He was given a gift; the power of speech. Unfortunately, it’s hard not to abuse it even though our tongue is wrapped with teeth and a second layer of lips. It still manages to escape and put its foot in its mouth. Kol Nidrai tries to annul our careless misuse of our mouth.

 

* Introduction to Slichot
Betzalel, the builder of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, knew how to combine the letters (the Hebrew letters) with which heaven and earth were created. This is how he configured to build the temple. It is written in the mystic sefarim, “If the letters were to remove themselves for an instant and return to their source, the entire heaven will be an obsolete vacuum.” The Hebrew letters are the building blocks, the foundation of the world. One can understand the essence of a person through his name which consists of a combination of the alef bet. So it wasn’t the physical strength which enabled Betzalel to succeed in enacting the temple; it was the knowledge and expertise on configuration the letters.
Chas v’shalom – if we sin, these spiritual letters are erased or damaged. These are the same letters that enlighten the neshama, that the spiritual and physical world depend on. How do we fix it? How do we correct the letters?

If one notices many of the peyutim, paragraphs- poems, are in alphabetical order Alef till taf, taf till alef (A-Z, Z-A) The philosophy is to fix the damage by reciting the letters in KEDUSHA form and in a proper state of mind, therefore, creating a positive force. Then one will re-organize, re-configure, re-structure the letters properly and fix the damage. So we find throughout the Slichot, actual in our everyday Tefillot – prayer as well, this format. A few examples: ASHRAI, ANSHAI EMUNA AVADU, ADON HASELICHOT. So it’s important to realize what the chachamim are trying to accomplish. By reinventing the letters again, it will give us a fighting chance.

 

 

* BEN ADAM

This prayer is referring to Yona, the prophet, who did not want to perform his task out of fear that the Jews will not repent. So he basically tried to phase himself out of the picture, thinking that G-d does not reveal, talk to His prophets at sea. Yona fled and took refuge on a ship. As the ship sailed, though, G-d brought upon a bad storm. People on board were terrified. The passengers and crew figured it must be someone on board that’s the cause of their misfortunes. So each one prayed to their G-d. However, none of their prayers were answered. “Someone didn’t pray.” So they searched the entire ship and they found Yona asleep. This is the basis of the prayer. “Hey man! Why are you asleep? Go call, pray to your G-d!” Before one knows it, time, life marches on. So go call your G-d before it’s too late.

 

 

* THE THIRTEEN ATTRIBUTES OF MERCY

This is the main part of slichot. The Rosh Hashanah method was malchiot, shofrot, and zichronot. Here we are shifting methods. It’s a great strategy of “Doing it for the merit of our fathers.” However, that doesn’t always work. Its limited.

VA YA AVOR HASHEM AL PANAV – G-d passed before him and proclaimed. He taught Moshe something essential, vital for survival. When Moshe was on Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, G-d showed Moshe the method and the text of the special prayer that will always invoke his mercy, unlimited RACHAMIM. G-d said “When Israel sins, let them perform the order of this prayer and I shall forgive them.” An important note, it says perform, besides recitation; one also has to perform acts of mercy with others in order to receive mercy. Only then will G-d respond.

When someone loses a close loved one, one goes through tremendous hardship in the beginning. The mere thought of the one who had passed on evokes a sharp, stinging, uncomfortable pain. As time goes on, though, the memory of the loved one is there; however, the traumatic experience has softened quite a bit. Our forefather, Yaakov, made a promise to G-d after he got up from his dream, “If G-d takes care of his servant, Yaakov, then the stone will be a covenant to you.” Apparently, Yaakov got tangled some twenty years plus in the house of his crooked father-in-law, Lavan. G-d then approached Yaakov and asked “Why did you forget your promise?” He answered, “I didn’t forget.” What did G-d mean when He said “Why did you forget?” Yaakov forgot the feeling. You don’t feel now as when you felt then. REMEMBER – ZACHOR – memory has different levels. If one wants to remember a deceased loved one with the same intensity, then he has to work, meditate to bring back that feeling. Measure for measure, G-d remembers us the same way we remember Him. Appropriately, ZACHOR LANU is sung by the chazan with intensity to jar up feelings and memories.

 

THE AVODA
The Avoda re-enacts the entire crucial ceremony of the high priest entering the holy of holies where he will find out the fate of the nation for the upcoming year. If the prayers were accepted, then the high priest departs from the holy of holies alive and everybody is happy. We also go into detail of the sacrifices that occurred on this holy day. Interesting to note that one she-goat is sacrificed and the other is thrown off a cliff apparently given to azzazel – the devil. Why do we practice this? Do we really have to give something to the devil? As a result of Adam’s sin, nothing in this world is 100% good; there is always a negativity attached. An example, when we eat food, no matter how much nourishment it provides, a person will always have to relieve himself. Again, it’s the result of the punishment. So, too with the she-goat. It’s a reminder to us of the negativity that was brought upon the world.
NE’ILA
Ne’ila is the most important prayer of the year. It has to be said BEN HASHMASHOT which is between sunset and nightfall. This is the time when Adam and Chava sinned and brought death onto the world. We are trying to prevent death. The in-between time is always a crucial and intense time of life and we are often tested. When traveling and one is in between destinations, it is often dangerous, so one should say special prayers to prevent harm. There is tremendous rewards if one passes the test “in-between”. For this reason, NE’ILA is a very important tefila. Even when one departs from this world and is in between life and death, a person is tested one last time. The Mystics say it’s the ultimate test; in fact, all the marbles are being placed on the poker table. When one dies, he first goes through this momentary scary nothingness. The Satan approaches the individual and tries to convince him, “You see, there’s nothing here, it was all a farce. There is no heaven and there is no hell and there is certainly no G-d.” If at that point the individual is convinced, he loses everything. All the good he did in this world is wiped out. The crucial in-between time has to be approached very carefully and prudently.