A thought on Parshas Vayera
"...va'yashkem Avraham baboker...""...and Avraham arose in the morning..." (19:27)
If you have ever watched someone smoke a fine cigar, you may have marveled at how they blew smoke rings. With the atmosphere still and the correct positioning of the mouth and lips, a person can exhale the tobacco fumes so that they form perfect circles, slowly gliding apart until they dissipate into the air.
"Why must we pray?", one might ask, since HaShem knows all that we think, and can grasp whatever we mean for Him to know about our wishes and needs. Why have our sages stressed that we must put our yearnings into words and articulate them as our means of praying? They have even linked our verse above with the principle that Avraham initiated the shacharis prayer, hinted at in the image of him arising in the morning.
The Recanati mentions that some people ask the above question. As to what it has to do with my cigar imagery, you will soon increase your Havana... Read on:
All of our deeds in this Lower World require a discernible action or event. Intention or kavana does not suffice for our deeds to leave an imprint in the Higher Realm. An action leaves a mark, converting abstract thought or dormant emotion into an actual event.
In the name of Rabbeinu Sa'adia Gaon, the Recanati illustrates this. We use our breath, our voice, as a medium for prayer. However, it is the words we express which contain the content or the essence of those prayers. When we express the words, what are we doing? Words are made up of letters, which form syllables, which have a precise sound and which connote specific meanings. We build our words with our mouths, lips, throat, tongue and teeth, then we cast them outwards and upwards.
The word emerges as a sound, yet the sound is just the casing or the container of those letters and their meaning. Those letters continue to exist! The word continues to exist within the sound of the voice which has emerged from within our body and mind. (In English, we see this too, for the word "vocabulary" includes the word "vocal" or voice. The voice is the container of that which is vocalized, including that which gets verbalized.)
Now, the word exists because it is audible. But: is it tangible? Is it visible? The Recanati suggests that you try saying something on a chilly morning. Watch the steamy vapor which emerges from your mouth. When the atmosphere is just right, you will see the steamy air approximate the shape of your verbalization. An "A" will look like one. An "O" will look like one (hence my cigar smoke imagery).
What are those vapor forms doing there? That condensation is... a condensed replica of the words which have emerged and arisen. Each letter endures, presenting its own koach or feature. As the words rise in vocalized fashion, they too ascend like the smoke rings blown, making their mark in that zone between material Earth and numinous Heaven, which is the air, the sky and the space beyond. In this way, a prayer has made its mark, and leaves its impression on this earth and onward. When directed correctly amidst proper kavana and when accompanied by the strivings of the heart, the yearnings of the soul and the wishful hoping of the mind, that prayer will continue to travel far past the place where other words vanish into thin air.
Our words of prayer continue to fly onward and upward, breaking through each plane and layer of the cosmos until they soar over the highest places Above and form a crown of praise fit for the One who dwells on the Throne of Majesty.
This is what Avraham knew as he arose in the morning and sent his words of prayer Heavenward. And this is why we too must take care to put our koach ha'tefilla into the form of words which have a koach of their own. Our words of prayer are the result of our act of prayer. Every deed on this material world requires a formal act, and with the prayer act, we enable our lowly strivings to work for us down here and up there.
Don't inhale. Good Shabbos. D Fox
If you have ever watched someone smoke a fine cigar, you may have marveled at how they blew smoke rings. With the atmosphere still and the correct positioning of the mouth and lips, a person can exhale the tobacco fumes so that they form perfect circles, slowly gliding apart until they dissipate into the air.
"Why must we pray?", one might ask, since HaShem knows all that we think, and can grasp whatever we mean for Him to know about our wishes and needs. Why have our sages stressed that we must put our yearnings into words and articulate them as our means of praying? They have even linked our verse above with the principle that Avraham initiated the shacharis prayer, hinted at in the image of him arising in the morning.
The Recanati mentions that some people ask the above question. As to what it has to do with my cigar imagery, you will soon increase your Havana... Read on:
All of our deeds in this Lower World require a discernible action or event. Intention or kavana does not suffice for our deeds to leave an imprint in the Higher Realm. An action leaves a mark, converting abstract thought or dormant emotion into an actual event.
In the name of Rabbeinu Sa'adia Gaon, the Recanati illustrates this. We use our breath, our voice, as a medium for prayer. However, it is the words we express which contain the content or the essence of those prayers. When we express the words, what are we doing? Words are made up of letters, which form syllables, which have a precise sound and which connote specific meanings. We build our words with our mouths, lips, throat, tongue and teeth, then we cast them outwards and upwards.
The word emerges as a sound, yet the sound is just the casing or the container of those letters and their meaning. Those letters continue to exist! The word continues to exist within the sound of the voice which has emerged from within our body and mind. (In English, we see this too, for the word "vocabulary" includes the word "vocal" or voice. The voice is the container of that which is vocalized, including that which gets verbalized.)
Now, the word exists because it is audible. But: is it tangible? Is it visible? The Recanati suggests that you try saying something on a chilly morning. Watch the steamy vapor which emerges from your mouth. When the atmosphere is just right, you will see the steamy air approximate the shape of your verbalization. An "A" will look like one. An "O" will look like one (hence my cigar smoke imagery).
What are those vapor forms doing there? That condensation is... a condensed replica of the words which have emerged and arisen. Each letter endures, presenting its own koach or feature. As the words rise in vocalized fashion, they too ascend like the smoke rings blown, making their mark in that zone between material Earth and numinous Heaven, which is the air, the sky and the space beyond. In this way, a prayer has made its mark, and leaves its impression on this earth and onward. When directed correctly amidst proper kavana and when accompanied by the strivings of the heart, the yearnings of the soul and the wishful hoping of the mind, that prayer will continue to travel far past the place where other words vanish into thin air.
Our words of prayer continue to fly onward and upward, breaking through each plane and layer of the cosmos until they soar over the highest places Above and form a crown of praise fit for the One who dwells on the Throne of Majesty.
This is what Avraham knew as he arose in the morning and sent his words of prayer Heavenward. And this is why we too must take care to put our koach ha'tefilla into the form of words which have a koach of their own. Our words of prayer are the result of our act of prayer. Every deed on this material world requires a formal act, and with the prayer act, we enable our lowly strivings to work for us down here and up there.
Don't inhale. Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 9:35 PM
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