DailyHalacha.com

Rabbi Mansour 2012
Shabbat Morning Class
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"????? ???? ?? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?? ?' ?? ????? ??? ???? ????"
"And Avram said to the king of Sedom I lift my hands to Hashem the high G-d. the possessor of heaven and earth"
In this Pasuk Avraham Avinu swears to the king of Sedom (whom he had just saved from a war) that he will not accept anything in return for saving his life and country.
The focus of this Shiur is to understand why it was necessary for Avraham to lift his hands when he declared to the king of Sedom that he will not accept anything from him.
Rashi explains that Avraham lifted his hands because this was a way of swearing. Avraham swore that he would not take any riches or spoils from Sedom.
Why was it necessary to swear?
Normally when it comes to money, people tend to rationalize and allow a lot of things that really should not be allowed. Therefore, one must be extra zealous and careful in his financial dealings, since the normal tendency is to justify things that should really not be done. Avraham wanted to protect himself from possibly justifying taking the "Unkosher" money of Sedom so he immediately fortified himself with a swear. In this way its "out of his hands", and he knows he can’t take anything from Sedom.
The Targum Unkelos translates the Pasuk and says; "????? ??? ????"
"I lift my hands in prayer". Unkelos understands that the lifting of Avraham’s hands was done in prayer. Upon further analysis, we find several examples of lifting of one’s hands in prayer.
It is written regarding Yishak Avinu that when Rivkah was on the way to meet Yishak for the first time she saw him from afar with his hands lifted in prayer.
When Moshe Rabeinu was in Misrayim, he left the city to pray, and the Pasuk says " "????? ?? ??? "I spread out my hands in prayer".
In addition, the Pasuk in Tehilim says; "??? ????? ??? ????? ?? ?'" "lift your hands in holiness and bless Hashem.
When the Jews were at war with Amalek, Moshe went to the top of a mountain and lifted his hands in prayer. When Moshe’s hands were raised in prayer, the Jews would be winning the war, when his hands went down, the enemy would start to win.
How did "raising their hands" help these Sadikim in their prayers?
It is because when they raised their hands they would lift the right hand slightly higher than the left hand. This represented Hashem’s ???
(corresponding to the right side), being stronger and higher than Hashem’s ??? (corresponding to the left side).
This is hinted in the Pasuk when Moshe Rabeinu ascended the mountain when the Jews went to war with Amalek. The Pasuk says; "???
???? ??? ?? ??? ????? ???? ?????? ????" -"tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill and the rod of Hashem in my hand". The words "???? ?????? ????"
can also mean I will tilt (??? can also mean ????? "to tilt") ????? with my hand. Meaning, I will cause my hands to be on a tilt- with the right hand slightly above the left hand, and this will cause ????? to be "under" the ???
of ?' . The ??? of Hashem is represented by the name ???? which equals 26. The word ???? also equals 26. The Pasuk is now understood ???? - since I will tilt my hands (right above left), ??????-???? . This will put ????? )???(
under the kindness of ?' )????( .
The question is, if you look at the Shulhan Aruch as to what the practical Halacha is of praying the Amidah today, it says that one should place his right on top of his left hand (with his thumbs inside his palms),
and place them on top of his heart, like a slave before a master. It does not say one should raise his hands above his head! Today we pray with our hands right above left and against our chest, and we are told not to lift our hands high.
Why is this so?? Why is it that our forefathers and leaders used to pray like this and we are told not to? Aren’t we supposed to emulate them?!
In today’s class we offer several answers to this problem.
One way to explain is that really we should lift our hands in prayer, it’s just that over time, this has become a custom of the Goyim. They had started to lift their hands in praying to their false gods. Once they started to do this, the Rabbis instructed us to stop lifting our hands in order not to resemble the ways of the Goyim.
Another way to explain is that it is written in the holy books that there are holy angels that are summoned when one lifts his hands in prayer. These angels bring up the persons prayer up to Hashem. When a person in on a high level and is confident that his prayer is holy and pure, he may lift his hands; thereby summoning the angels to take his prayer up. However if a person’s prayer is not worthy of being brought up to the highest levels, then when he calls the angels, he will be summoning them in vain! They will come to him only to find that his prayer is inadequate and unworthy to be brought up by them. Therefore unless the person is absolutely sure that his prayer is worthy, he should not lift his hands in prayer thereby summoning angels. In this way, he will avoid what it is written; "??? ???? ???
????" -"let me not see your hands in vain", he will not have summoned the angels in vain.
Therefore the Avot and Moshe Rabeinu, whose prayers were obviously more than worthy to be delivered by the angels, were able to lift their hands in prayer. Who today can be confidant that their prayers are totally pure and fitting to be delivered by angels?? Therefore today we are advised to leave our hands down and respectfully against our chest.
Another explanation is that the raising of the hands represents holiness in not benefiting from the luxuries of this world. When Rabeinu Hakadosh was about to pass away he lifted his ten fingers up to Hashem and declared "I have not benefited from this world not even a fingers worth!" Even though Rabeinu Hakadosh was exceedingly wealthy he did not benefit personally from anything! We see from this story, that lifting of the hands represents ????? , holiness in abstaining from the pleasures of this world. "??? ????? ??? ????? ?? ?'" -"raise your hands in holiness and bless Hashem". When one lifts his hands it represents holiness and a high level of honesty, and integrity that goes along with his prayer.
Our holy forefathers and leaders were of course, all men of honesty and holiness who did not indulge in any pleasures of this world. So they were fitting to raise their hands in prayer. We on the other hand, are heavily involved with our worldly pleasures and pursuits, and who today can claim that they are absolutely honest and have no trace of any bit of falsehood?! Therefore today we are not worthy to lift our hands, since this is only an act of the true Sadikim, as the Pasuk in Tehilim says "??? ???? ??? ???" -"he who has clean hands and a pure heart", complete honesty is represented by "clean hands".
Another reason why only these Sadikim lifted their hands in prayer is understood by analyzing the story of Adam Harishon eating from the Eitz Hadaat.
The holy books say that when Adam ate from the tree, every part of his body benefited from the sin with the exception of his hands and wind pipe. His hands did not touch the fruit (it was fed to him by Chava) and his windpipe was obviously closed when he ate (when one eats his windpipe must be closed). Each member of the Jewish nation was found in the body of Adam Harishon and the Neshamot of the Avot were found in Adam Harishon. Avraham was in the right hand (since right stands for ??? and Avraham stood for ??? ), and Yishak was in the left hand (since left stands for ??? and Yishak stood for ??? ), Yaakob stood for ????? which is a combination of ??? & ??? , and therefore he was found in both hands. Who was in the windpipe? It was Moshe Rabeinu - the master of prayer which
emanates from the windpipe. He too did not participate in the sin of Adam Harishon.
These Sadikim who did not participate in the sin of Adam were able to use these windpipes in prayer, and lift their hands in prayer in order to connect to the merit of not being a part of the sin of Adam. Everyone else however cannot make the same claim, and therefore have no right to lift their hands for this reason.
There are several opinions as to what type of fruit the Eitz Hadaat was comprised of. There is an opinion that it was a grape vine, and Chava squeezed the grapes into the mouth of Adam. Adam should have waited until sunset (which was the onset of Shabbat) before he partook of this wine.
This drinking of wine brought death to the world (as a result of the sin of Adam, death was brought to the world), and this is why today we say in Kiddush ???? ???? and everyone answers ????? ! The one who makes Kiddush asks; ???? ???? "what do you all think about this wine? Is it like the wine of Adam which was drunk in an improper manner thereby causing death? Everyone responds; ????? -to life! This wine is the wine of life in that it is being drunk at the proper time after sunset on Friday night, and it causes a ????? for Adam Harishon and it brings life not death!
We take our two hands (alluding to the 2 hands that did not partake in the sin of Adam), and we lift the cup of wine of Kiddush and we use our voice (which also did not partake in the sin) to recite the Kiddush, and then we give our wives to drink from the wine to rectify Adam’s wife Chava giving him to drink from the wine. We do this while two loaves of bread are set on the table, this is because some say the species of the tree of Adam was wheat, and it was bread that Adam partook of and therefore we have bread on Shabbat.
We say ???? ???? and everyone responds ????? . This shows that this entire ceremony is to rectify the sin of Adam, and to reverse its effects, and to bring life to the world!
Another reason why only the Sadikim raised their hands in prayer is understood when we analyze a Gemarah in ????? (31a). The Gemarah says that during the wedding of the son of Ravina, the Rabbis asked Rav Hamnunah to sing a song (this song needed to be sung because there was too much levity going on). He began to sing "?? ?? ?????? ?? ?? ??????" -"woe to us for we will die". The Rabbis asked him, how are we to respond after this? Rav Hamnunah answered " ?? ???? ??? ???? ????? ???" -"where is the Torah and where is the Misvot to protect us?!
This story alludes to a deeper concept.
It is written that in this world, in exile, the two ?? ’s in the name of Hashem of ???? go up to ???? , and the letters ?- ? remain down here. The only way to reconnect the ?- ? to the two ?’s are through Torah and Misvot. This "completes" the name of Hashem and brings down his ??? .
This is why Rav Hamnunah said ?? ?? . The ?-? of Hashem’s name, ?? -are with us- but we need to bring down the two ?’s!
The Rabbis responded ?? ???? ??? ???? one ? will come down from learning Torah, and one ? will come down through the performance of Misvot.
In the human body, the head of a person corresponds to the ???
Hashem’s name of ???? . His spine and body correspond to the ? in ???? . His two hands are the two ?’s (the hand has five fingers- the same numerical value as ?' ), so his complete body represents the name of Hashem as it says "???? ????? ??? ?? ???? " -"in the image of G-d I created the man".
Lifting of the hands in prayer connotes a perfection of the two ?’s of the name of Hashem of which the hands represent. These two ?’s as mentioned, are only perfected and brought down from ???? through the study of Torah and performance of Misvot. Who today can be totally confident that he is fulfilling his duties in his study of Torah and performance of Misvot?! Who is totally utilizing every bit of his time and efforts in Torah and Misvot?!
There is no one that can make this claim, and therefore we are instructed not to lift our hands in prayer. We cannot claim to have perfect "?’s" and show that we are perfect in Torah and Misvot.
Our forefathers however, and Moshe Rabeinu were on this holy level. They did perfect their ?’s. They did utilize every possible moment in the study of Torah, and performance of Misvot. There were 15 years that Avraham, Yishak, and Yaakob were alive at the same time, and during these 15 years they studied Torah together 24 hours a day! They even studied in their sleep! Only they were suitable to lift their hands- the part of the body that stands for the ?’s in Hashem’s name, and put together all the letters of Hashem’s name to bring down his mercy and kindness.
Look how many lessons we can learn from just a few words in the Parasha; "????? ??? ??? ?????" !
Let us appreciate the holy gift of Limud Hatorah, and our being able to speak to Hashem in prayer and may we utilize these gifts with all our efforts Amen.