The Power to Praise

The first three benedictions of the amidah are described as praises for God. The next 16 are requests and the last 3 express are thanks. The Halacha teaches that the first 3 must be said with full understanding and concentration otherwise you have to go back to the beginning and start all over again. Let’s say you find your self in benediction 16 and you realize that while you were doing the first three brachot you were distracted and spaced out. I find this an amazing mystical experience because I ask myself who prayed if it wasn’t me? It was my mouth moving and yet if I was not concentrating, thinking about something else, then who was speaking? If I am not present in my words then how did my mouth know what words to say? My mind can wander so far that I don’t even know what benediction I am in. What an incredible experience to wake up in the middle of my amidah somewhere and say, “Wait! If I didn’t say these words then who did? This was quite a mystical experience of how within myself there could be a split between the higher and lower self. The lower level of self is speaking and yet the higher self is not conscious of what the lower self is doing. This state of fragmentation is a form of sleep. To be awake I have get myself together. I must unite my lower and higher self and speak with my whole soul with full intention.

This split self experience helped me appreciate the power of kavana. Kavana means concentration but also alignment. When we pray without kavana we are not only not focused and day dreaming but we are really asleep - we are not aligned within ourselves. This self split experience also helped me understand my relationship with God in a profound way. Within God there is also relationship going on between God who is the Supreme Self and us the individual souls who are sparks, aspects of God Himself. This concept brings additional meaning to our introduction “God You open up my lips and my mouth will speak Your praises.” We align our individual soul with the Universal Soul, our self with the Supreme Self, when we acknowledge that God is our partner and together we will pray. Imagine how alive and focused you are when your higher self and lower self are working together; when you are fully present in your words and actions. Now imagine how even more invigorated you will be when your lower and higher self are in unison with the Supreme Self and you experience God’s presence in your words and actions. If we are conscious that God is present in our motor skills and He is opening our lips then we will be completed connected and concentrated in speaking His praises. Achieving this inner connection and harmony we then sing God’s praises with our whole selves; praises for God and mysteriously praises from God because we now experience ourselves as His mouthpiece.

Although the halacha requires kavana when we say the first three benedictions otherwise we must begin again practically we do not do this today. Unfortunately people are so distracted and have such low concentration it is questionable that they will have kavanah if they try again. Why then continue to say God’s name in vain. However why are these three first benedictions so important? These three blessings are so fundamental to tefillah that unless you understand and feel what you are saying the rest of your tefillah could not have true meaning. They fulfilled the wise words of the psalmist “Know before whom you stand.” These three brachot clarify before whom it is that we stand. They set the stage for a meaningful relationship with God. If you don’t know before whom you are standing then you could not possibly accomplish anything in your tefillah. Therefore you would have to start again. These praises are not for God’s sake. I am praising God for my sake. I need to clarify, remind and realize for myself before whom it is that I stand so that I will psych myself up, truly m’tpaleland serve to manifest God’s will and presence through my tefillah.

With this in mind lets look at the first three benedictions and understand what they clarify about God and what mindset they establish for us. These first three benedictions succinctly lay out the Jewish perspective on who is God. Of course God is beyond all description. What ever we say about God is nothing compared to what we should have said and even what we should have said is nothing compared to who God truly is. But nonetheless we need words to at least give us some sense of before whom it is we stand. Although words are limiting as far as words go these are the best words that suggest the meaning of God.

God, The All-Loving

The key word in tefillah is the word baruch – blessed be. Bracha means blessing, abundance, bountifulness. Therefore “Baruch ata -- Blessed be You, YHVH our God ….,” means “let there be an abundance of You, God.” In other words, “May there be an increase in a manifestation of You, an increase in our awareness of Your presence in our lives.” To be more specific – Baruch ata YHVH – Blessed be You, YHVH -- means “Let there be an increase in the manifestation of YHVH as a You.” I want YHVH – the Timeless Transcendental Ultimate Reality, who is the source, ground and context of all being – to be abundantly manifest as one who is personal, present and close to me. And I want YHVH to be abundantly manifest as Elohanu – our creator and judge who cares about us and empowers us; judging our deeds, responding accordingly and giving us what we deserve.

As I mentioned before, tefillah is a consciousness and faith building exercise. The more we believe and acknowledge that YHVH is manifest as personal and close, caring for us and guiding our growth - the more that truth about Hashem becomes evident and experienced in our lives.

“Baruch ata - blessed be You, YHVH” should knock us off our feet. How could we mortal infinitesimal earthlings dare to address the Infinite Ultimate One and assert that we meet and relate to Him as a ‘You’; in a direct, personal, comfortable and familiar way. Traditionally we are not even allowed to say ‘you’ to our rabbi. We are supposed to speak in the third person, “How does the Rabbi feel today? What does the Rabbi think?” And yet suddenly we expect to refer to God as “you” as if we are intimate friends. Blessed be You, YHVH reveals – the Timeless Transcendental Ultimate Reality is always right here for us, close and personal. And He is Elohanu our creator and judge; He identifies with us and He is involved in our lives. He relates to us, cares about us and seeks to empower us to grow and become actualized.

A Buddhist wouldn’t recite such a prayer. Buddhists do not believe that God is personal nor does he believe that we could have an intimate relationship with God. In Buddhism a person’s highest spiritual accomplishment is to achieve no self and merge with the non-personal ultimate reality. You don’t pray to God. You simply surrender your illusory self and aspire to become one with the ultimate. You don’t expect ultimate reality to be personable and care about you. However Judaism revealed to the world that we stand before an Ultimate Reality who is personal and can be addressed as You. Although the divine is the Timeless Transcendental Ultimate Reality He is close and present in our live and can be address as You. Blessed be you-- God, although You are YHVH, beyond the beyond, You are mysteriously close, personal and ever-present. And You, YHVH are Elohainu --our God— Who are we to say our God? You, YHVH—Ultimate Reality – are your God – who cares and personally identifies with us. It matters to You what happens to us and what we do.

Elohim is the name associated with the attribute of judgment. It suggests that God is like a judge. God judges me because He cares about me. God as Elohim means that what I do makes a divine difference. I am important and I matter to God therefore He judges me. The people we love the most we judge the most. We are the most critical of our loved ones because we so care that they achieve their utmost; and fulfill their potential. God wants us to get what we deserve -- the opportunity to actualize our selves created in the divine image. He responds to our choices and gives us what we need so that we can become who we are.

One day when I was a kid my mother upset me over something that today I do not even recall. In a rage of anger, I decided that I would take revenge. I took all her nylon stockings and tied them into little knots. I was very satisfied with my macramé. Then I heard someone at the door so I quickly hid them in the china cabinet. I was proud but I was also scared. The next day when my mother could not find any stockings she asked, “David, do you know where my stockings are?”

“Stocking? No, aren’t they in the drawer.”

“No.”

Well a number of hours later my mother found her stockings in the china cabinet. Dangling my work of art in front of me we asked, “Do you have any idea how this happened?”

“The washing machine?”

“No.”

My mother knew very well who did it. She punished me by canceling my birthday party. At the time I was really devastated by that but today I am happy about it because now I am a year younger.

Imagine if my mother would have come with those stockings and said did you do this? I am trembling – yes, mommy. She says that it doesn’t matter I will get more. Would that make me feel good? Like -- it doesn’t matter. Here I am trying to anger my mother and I cannot even get her to be angry. It doesn’t matter what I do.

I have seen kids self esteem destroyed because their parents never punish them. There were never any consequences to their choices. A child has to see that what she does makes a difference. Of course I am not talking about abuse. The fact that YHVH is Elohanu, that Ultimate Reality judges me means I have a relationship with God. Ultimate Reality is not a ‘what’ but a ‘who’. Ultimate reality --- the source, ground, essence and context of everything and everyone is alive and conscious. He cares about us and seeks to empower us to actualize our godlike selves.

A couple years ago I was on the Larry King show with Dr. Deepak Chopra a Hindu teacher. Larry starts the show off asking Deepak who is God. He responds, “The infinite realm of possibilities… the one who was, the one who (must find transcript).” ) He described in a very esoteric and metaphysical way but there was nothing personal about God. Larry then turned to me and asked, “Rabbi, is God watching us, judging us?” Yes, Larry, He is watching us but He is not judging us, He is loving us.” I could see that Larry and Deepak were surprised by my answer. During the commercial Deepak warmly told me that he loved my answers. Larry agreed, “Yeah, Rabbi, you are doing great.” I wondered what had I said that was so impressive. But then I realized that for a rabbi to describe God as loving was an anomaly. I recently heard that the famous radio personality, Dr. Laura, renounced her practice of Judaism because she felt a lack of warmth. She said that she feels envious of her Christian friends who feel loved by God. How sad that the simple meaning of our tefillah reminding us every day that God is personal and caring, that He only judges us because He loves us, was not made known to her.

When my literary agent read my book Love is my Religion she said that this is revolutionary. Most people think that God is angry, mean, vengeful and punishing. How could you and why would you want to pray to such a nasty god. The first benediction of the amidah reminds us daily that God is all-loving.

God of our Fathers

You, YHVH are our God and the God of our forefathers.

I got a letter from a fellow who read my book Seeing God. He said that when he was fifteen he had a religious crisis. He realized that he believed in God because his parents believed. He realized that that was not a good enough reason so he stopped believing and became an atheist. It is not enough to say the God of our forefathers. You need to establish your own personal, individual and unique relationship with God. However, your unique individual experience of God must also be set within the context of a historic and traditional relationship. Judaism teaches that you cannot say our God without acknowledging how your personal connection is also part of a traditional ancestral relationship. You are not just our God. This relationship did not start with us. Our personal relationship with You, YHVH, Elohanu has a tradition. It goes way back and is longstanding. Some people have a personal relationship but it is not linked to history. Some people have a historic ancestral relationship but they don’t have a personal, unique and individual connection with God.

You are the God of our fathers. And even when I do not feel so close to You I know that you are still close to me because I am an offspring of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And even when I feel inadequate to stand in Your presence and ask your help nonetheless because You are the God of my great great grandparents I know that You are always here for me. Even if I feel I have no personal merits I know that I can approach you because I am a descendant of these spiritual giants. I can count of the merit of my ancestor. I am their offspring and the apple does not fall far from the tree.

God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob

Blessed be You, YHVH …. You are the God of Abraham and You are also the God of Isaac, and yet You are also the God of Jacob. Each one of these spiritual giants had an extremely different perspective of God and encounter with God. You, God, related to each of them differently. You give everyone individual attention.

You are personable. You, YHVH who is the Transcendental Ultimate Reality -- personally identifies with each of us as individuals.

And yet You are the great, mighty and awesome divine power.

Although God is manifest as close and personal we need to also remember that God is beyond personification. YHVH is the great, mighty and awesome divine power and force.

YHVH is the supreme divine power.

However even though You are so beyond and supreme You nonetheless personally care for us and -- -- nurture us with good kindness.

The prayer script highlights the mysterious contrast between the manifestation of YHVH as the supreme transcendental power -- -- and yet as the God who nurtures us with good kindness -- .

The ancient Greeks believed that because the gods were so great and mighty they had no interest in human beings. They could care less about us. Along the same lines of thinking we too may wonder why Ultimate Reality would take interest in us mortals. Why would the infinite care about the infinitesimal? However Judaism teaches that this is precisely the greatness of God that He wants to be present in our lives. He cares for us and nurtures us.

And You make everything Yours -- .

This is a phrase of endearment. Once we recognize that God nurtures us we must realize that He is therefore, invested in everyone. He takes ownership and interest in all. In Jewish law when a man marries a woman it is described as if he her. He makes her his and cherishes her. As in “I want you to be mine!” Or in the romantic sense when someone becomes lovingly possessive.

also expresses a divine paradox. How can I give and yet acquire and own everything? If everything I give you I end up owning then I didn’t give you anything. This is the divine mystery -- You God give and yet You continue to own everything. It is a paradox. This is what the Kabbalah refers to as the Tzimzum.

In the beginning all of existence was just the endless presence of God. And yet God removed His presence and created a space for us within His endless presence and gave us place to be. He accommodates us, cares and nurtures us and yet His Endless presence paradoxically still fills the vacuum. It is a total mystery. On one hand You nurture us, give to us and yet You continue to own everything even after you gave it to us.

You, God, also remember the kindness of our forefathers and in appreciation of their kindness You will redeem even the children of their children. In other words God values and appreciates what we do for him. He not only nurtures, and acquires but he also receives from us. Love is not only giving but also receiving. You give Your beloved the opportunity to give to You. God so cherishes the goodness He has received from our forefathers that His gratitude lasts for generations and we, who are the descendents of these great people, can feel confident that God in appreciation will redeem us. Therefore even if we are feeling inadequate to be asking God for anything and feel unworthy to be answered, we should nonetheless pray. God’s love for our great great grandparents extends to us, their offspring.

What was the kindness of the forefathers? According to Chassidic thought the patriarchs and matriarchs are referred to as the fathers and mothers because they were like parents to God. They, so to speak, gave birth and fostered God’s presence on earth. Their commitment and self sacrifice for God equaled the love parents have for their child. The Midrash says that God loves us like a king who loves his daughter. He then loved her even more until he called her my sister. He loved her even more and called her my mother. This remarkable Midrash teaches us that God loves Israel so much that He will not settle for anything less than giving Israel the title of being His “mother.” In other words, God gives Israel the opportunity of experiencing identification and love for God to the same degree that a mother feels towards her very own child.

This awesome experience of motherly love for God was first offered to Abraham, when God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham’s eagerness to comply enabled him to demonstrate and experience his love for God on a level beyond his love for his very own son.

Why is this the greatest love? The greatest love is to give another person the opportunity to give to you, love you and feel one with you. It is one thing to give but it is another thing to be willing to receive. To receive love is a gift to your beloved because you become more connected to somebody by giving to them.

As we begin the amidah we must acknowledge that we stand before a God who gives love, receives love and expresses His gratitude for generations. We stand before the God of our great great great grandparents and even if feel we are not worthy, in their merit, God will redeem us.

What is redemption? Jewish mysticism explains that God seeks a relationship with us as His significant other. Redemption means that God will restore to us a sense of divine dignity, personal significance and self-worth so that we can call to Him and be in a loving relationship with Him. As it says in the Proverbs (8:21) “to inherit to my beloved – – substance.” In other words, God loves us and we matter to Him.

You do all of this - - for the sake of Your name with love.

This is an odd phrase. God cares, nurtures, receives and redeems for selfish reasons – for his name’s sake and yet with love. How can this be? The only reason that we have a name is so that others can call out to us. If there was no one else in existence to call you, you would not need a name. The fact that God has a name at all is the mystery of mysteries. Although we are taught that God is one and only, nothing else exists besides Him, He still has a name. In other words, God created us -- beings other than Him -- and He wants a loving relationship with us. He nurtures and redeems us from nothingness, He makes our existence matter and empowers us to become His significant other. As His significant other we can call to Him, evoke His presence in our lives and enjoy a personal intimate relationship with Him.

God, therefore, cares, nurtures and redeems us all for selfish reasons. If He wants to have a name He needs to have others who can call him. God needs us but He need us because He loves. Erich Fromm the psychologist explains that immature love is I need you therefore I love you. But mature love is I love you therefore I need you. God lovingly created us and therefore needs us.

For God to be manifest as a king He must have a kingdom that accepts Him as their King. Therefore YHVH-Ultimate reality – is manifest as a King who helps, saves and protects us because He needs us.

The Kabbalah teaches that there is no such thing as a king without a nation. Of course God does not need anyone. However If God wants to be manifest as a king then He needs a nation who acknowledges His as such. Therefore when we describe God as a king it reflects back upon us and indicates that we are divinely significant.

God as a King helps us and even saves us when we don’t deserve it.

God also protects. But if God protects then why would I ever need to be helped or saved? What does God protect me from? I need to be protected from God because with all that God does for me I could lose my sense of self; my feeling of adequacy. Therefore God protects us from Himself. He shields us from His overwhelming presence so that our self is maintained and we can continue to enjoy a meaningful relationship with God.

Blessed be You, YHVH, Shield of Avraham.

Who did YHVH shield Avraham from? God.

Avraham is the first person who was able to stand in the presence of God, relate to God and enter into a covenant with Him. Until Abraham people either thought they were too insignificant to be in a relationship with God or they thought they too were gods. Abraham revealed the secret of covenant; although there is nothing but God and His presence is all pervading (the light fills the vacuum), the light still surrounds the vacuum and we exist within the loving embrace of God. This is the miracle of tzimtzum. God concealed His endless light and presence so that we can have presence, so that our light could shine and we could be in a relationship with God. This is the meaning of the verse in proverbs (84:12): Lord God is a sun and a shield. God is both the sun and a shield. He shields us from His overwhelming radiance and presence so that we too can have presence and confidently stand in His presence. This is the goal of the amidah which means to stand.

I once heard a guru tell his students that his goal is to teach them how to sit. Judaism, however, teaches us how to stand, humbly but confidently with stature and self worth, in the presence of God. God’s gift to us is that we have presence even in His presence so that we can stand before Him and pray.

You might think “Who am I to stand before G-d? Who am I to request anything from G-d?” The first benediction of the Amidah establishes the first thing you need to know in order to prayer: You can stand before God and request His help.

It affirms our belief that God is all-loving. He is close and personal. He cares and relates to us individually. And although He is great, almighty, awesome; even supreme and transcendent, we are nonetheless significant in His eyes. He nurtures us and makes us His very own. He not only gives love but also receives and remembers the kindness of our ancestors. His gratitude is long standing and He will redeem us and empower us to be in a loving relationship with Him. Because He loves us, he needs us. He is like a King (and we are His kingdom), He helps us and even saves us. He also protects our self esteem; shielding us from His overwhelming presence so that we can stand before Him, so that we have presence in His presence and can be in loving relationship with Him.

These praises for God are not for God’s sake. They are for our sake. We need to hear ourselves praise God. We need to put ourselves into the right mindset essential for our prayers to be effective. If we approach God feeling that we have no right to pray and, besides, God is so great He has no interest in us puny earthlings anyways then how can we even open our mouths. This first benediction is absolutely critical to know and acknowledge. You must boldly affirm, “I am standing before an all loving God, who loves me and cares about me. He even has as a vested interest in me because He is a King and I am part of His kingdom. And even if I am unworthy I can ask and He will respond.”

To Bow or not to Bow

According to Jewish we bow at the beginning of the first benediction and at the end. There are only two more times in the entire amidah at the beginning and end of the benediction before the last one. The Talmud teaches that if you see a person bowing more than the four required times then teach him not to do it. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook explains in his commentary on the Siddur why the Talmud says “teach him not to do it” rather than “tell him not to do it; tell him it is the law.” Rabbi Kook explains that we bow before Hashem only as a preparation to stand before Hashem. The bowing is only a preparation to accomplish the goal which is to stand before Hashem. Bowing is only necessary so that we will stand before Hashem with the proper humility but still nonetheless confidently stand.

The first person who we see pray in the Torah is Avraham. The Torah depicts how his prayer experience was dialectical. First he boldly approaches Hashem and asserts himself. “Will the Judge of the entire earth not act justly?” But then he humbly retreats saying “What am I? I am but dust and ashes.” But that does prevent him from His continued attempt to challenge Hashem and petition Him to change His decision to destroy Sodom. Abraham struggles in his prayer. He oscillates between powerful assertiveness and total surrender. He exudes tremendous power and confidence in affirming and asserting himself and also humbleness.

Rav Kook explains why you teach a person rather than just tell him because obviously if you see a person bowing too much he is confused about who he is and the nature of his relationship to Hashem. It is not enough to just tell him the law you must help him understand that the goal of Judaism is to confidently and comfortably stand before Hashem and not be stooped over with low self esteem in His presence. Hashem empowers us to stand confidently in His presence. He doesn’t want us to be a nebeshes saying oh yes, yes, yes.

This basic truth is also expressed in the laws of washing our hands. The law requires that when we wash our hands in the morning or in preparation for eating bread it has to be bekouach gavrah—with human strength. Therefore we must wash with a cup rather than simply putting our hands under the running water of a faucet. Opening a facet is not the ideal expression of human strength. In other words, when we wash our hands for the sake of spiritual purification in preparation for doing divine service it must be accomplished through human strength. Most religions teach that spiritual purification can only be achieved through surrendering our human strength and realizing that in God’s presence we are nothing.

But Jewish law insists that spiritual purification can only be through our power and assertion. Jewish law also requires that the cup have a flat bottom so that it can stand on its own without tipping over. It must also not have any cracks. These laws hint to us that to be pure we too must be able to stand on your own; we too must be whole. Spiritual purification is an act of power and assertion not an act of weakness and surrender. We don’t serve God because we are weak and afraid that He will step on us. We serve God because we are strong and we recognize that He has empowered us to play a significant role in serving to make Him manifest in the world.

If a person is bowing too much in his tefillah he has it all wrong. He thinks Judaism is about bowing. He thinks the goal of life is to be subordinate to Hashem. But that is incorrect the goal is to stand before God. The goal is Amidah. The means, however, is to first bow so that when you stand confidently in your relationship with Hashem you will still stand humbly with appropriate reverence.

Many other religious philosophies teach that the goal in life is to nullify yourself completely in the presence of G-d -- achieve a status of nothingness. The goal of Judaism, however, is to stand, humbly yet confidently and powerfully, in the presence of God. We bow only to ensure that when we stand it is with a healthy sense of self and not with an unhealthy sense of ego. We bow only to diminish our ego, get it out of the way, and thereby empower ourselves as souls to stand before Hashem. Torah teaches us that we are sparks of God; aspects of God. We bow before Hashem only enough times to overcome egotistical illusions that we are more than we are but we do not want to diminish ourselves to the point that we feel less than what we are—godly beings.

There was once a Hassidic Rabbi who would advise his student to always carry in on pocket a precious gem but in the other pocket a piece of dirt. If you are ever feeling low self-esteem you should reach in to your pocket with the gem and realize you too are a rare gem. But at times when you feel self-inflated you should reach into the pocket with the dirt and realize you are also a piece of dirt.

Along these same line we are taught: Don’t bow too much before God! Judaism is not about self-effacement. Judaism empowers us to diminish our ego and become radiant powerful souls standing in the loving presence and radiance of Hashem. Unlike Buddhism, Judaism does not strive for no self. Just the opposite. We strive to establish our sacred self and stand erect, with full stature, in the presence of the Ultimate Self --God.

The goal of Judaism is to fulfill the covenantal relationship of unconditional love between us and God. But for there to be any relationship at all, for there to be a ‘we’ there has to be a ‘me’. If I am not present in the relationship then there can not be a relationship. Therefore in our attempt to diminish our ego, as we bow in presence of God, we must take care not to over do it and lose our self. We must be careful not to obliterate our ego because there is something holy about the ego. It helps protect us from being too drawn into Hashem and losing our self.

The Torah teaches that Nadav and Avihu, the two sons of Aaron, died when they drew near to God. The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that they died because they tried to come too close to God. They nullified themselves completely before God. They craved to completely give themselves over to Him and died.

The Midrash tells us that when Hashem reveals Himself to the Jewish People at Mount Sinai their souls left their bodies. In other words, they were so excited they were literally jumping out of their skins. Hashem, however, sent angels and pushed them back into their bodies. This is parallels the idea that God shielded Abraham. God is both the sun and the shield. God shielded Abraham from Himself.