A Thought on Parshas Shmini

"...V'his'kadish'tem v'heyisem kedoshim..." (11:44) "...and you should be sanctified and you will be holy..." ibn Shu'aib cites a midrash which we do not have in our sources, that the above verse refers to two familiar practices. "Make yourselves sanctified" refers to reciting the Sh'ma; "and you will become holy" refers to praying. He infers from this interpretation that Sh'ma and prayer must be very great commandments, and great concepts, to be singled out as the "means" for sanctifying ourselves. He then goes back to his analysis of the avodas ha'korbanos - the sacrificial rites, which he has addressed these past few parshios. He quotes our sages (Brachos 32b) who teach that prayers are even greater than sacrificial offerings. How so? ibn Shu'aib is convinced that prayer has to be more holy than an offering: "it is a G-dly matter when a person spills his soul before his Creator, confessing in His Presence that He is the Lord of all creation, which means serving Him with his purest spirit. That is the choicest of all services! The mind engages with deep inner focus, the faculty of speech is employed, the swaying of the physical self. Who would disagree: even someone lacking in Torah will agree and praise the person so immersed in serving HaShem through prayer. And although prayer can be said anywhere, anytime, from the fact that we schedule it in a designated holy place such as a House of Worship or a House of Study, it is clear that HaShem regards those places as His House (Bais Elokim) when we are there praying." This is ibn Shu'aib's first illustration of how prayer exceeds sacrifices, in that we employ our very selves in the service of prayer, as animate, conversant and transcendent human beings. His second illustration of prayer's primacy is that sacrifices must have exactitude and precision of place, of time, of species, of circumstance. Prayer, in contrast, is a universal remedy: regardless of place, time, person, situation, our prayers are acceptable as long as they are sincere. How do we know that sincerity is essential? ibn Shu'aib suggests that we begin our tefilla with "HaShem sefasai Tiftach u'pi yagid Tehilasecha" - Oh G-d, open my lips that my mouth may praise You." We close our tefilla with "yi'hi'yu l'ratzon imrei pi v'hegyon libi..." - May my words and internal efforts be acceptable. We can only expect our internal efforts to be acceptable if they are sincere and focused; if we are thinking about mundane matters, we cannot expect HaShem to credit us with having prayed. Hence, internal sincerity is essential for prayer. If sincerity is there, nothing much else matters. Tefilla is the "avodas ha'neshama sh'misbo'dedis im Elokeha" - the service of the soul as it bonds in solitude with its Lord. What do we get from engaging in that fusing of the soul, when we pray? "Prayer is the food of the soul - mazon ha'neshama.- writes ibn Shu'aib. We offer up our prayers, but as we fuse with the Higher realm, our souls imbibe that highest sanctity, which is how (per our verse and the midrash), we too will become holy. Good Shabbos. D Fox