Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Part of a service in the temple was bowing down.
[00:00:04] Now, we today bow down. Like, we just nod our head. That's called bow down. In a temple, to bow down during service is meant to actually go all the way to the floor on your hands and knees. That was bowed down. It was done in the temple. Now, the question that rabbis discuss, if a person just bows down for just one second, is it called bowing down?
[00:00:27] Or he needs to stay like this for a period of time?
[00:00:32] And it seems like a totally logistical nuance.
[00:00:36] It seems like splitting hairs. But we will now see why it's important.
[00:00:41] Specifically, this law is discussed in a situation where somebody became inadvertently unpure.
[00:00:49] When you are impure, you're not allowed to serve in the temple.
[00:00:53] But what if a person, while he was walking out, actually facing the other way, not facing the front of the temple, he still bowed down? Did he violate anything or not?
[00:01:04] So what I'll tell you now will seem like a very minute detail. And you'll think that rabbis are splitting hairs. But you'll see afterwards how it actually impacts our understanding of ourselves and our relationship with God. So here it is.
[00:01:22] In order for a bow to be considered a real bow, it says it has to be long enough to say a verse from Jivei Amim. It's one of the books of Tanakh.
[00:01:35] And this verse says, and Jews saw the fire coming from above and the glory of God descending, and they bowed down, fell on the floor, and they were praising God. Thank you, God. Praise God for your everlasting kindness. This is the phrase. So it says that a bow is called a complete bow if it's long enough, however long it takes to say this phrase now. But then there are different opinions, as if you need to actually calculate it, the time of the entire phrase or just a part of it. And believe it or not, there are three opinions. One says you're supposed to say just the first two parts of the phrase. The phrase, if you'll notice, it has three parts. The first part says, and Jews saw fire coming from heaven and glory of God descending upon the temple.
[00:02:31] So this is the first part. It tells you why people got so emotional. Why did they start bowing down? Right, that's the first part. The second part says, the Jews started bowing down.
[00:02:42] The third part says that while they're bowing down, they praised God.
[00:02:48] So there are three opinions. One opinion says that you need to be bowing down for as long as it takes to say two. First, the Jews saw the glory of God, and they actually. Wrong. First opinion says that you need to be bowing down for as long as it takes to say the entire phrase.
[00:03:09] Second opinion says just the middle part, because just the middle part is talking about bowing down. The first part is speaking about why they were bowing down. The last part is speaking about what they were doing while they were buying down. But the phrase that is the part of the phrase that's talking about buying down. Just the middle few words. And then there's a third opinion that says, no, no, only the second part, which is them bowing down. And the last part, the third part that says that they were praising God while they were bowing down.
[00:03:39] Why is it even being discussed? Why is it so important? Why does it matter? So here it is.
[00:03:45] There are different people, and people have different reactions to what they see happening around them.
[00:03:52] I spoke recently to a couple, the husband and wife, and they were in a terrible car crash.
[00:03:59] Their car was totaled.
[00:04:01] They ran into, like, a pole or tree. I forgot already. And their car was total, completely.
[00:04:09] They walked off with barely any bruise.
[00:04:13] They completely were totally safe and sound. Not even a cut.
[00:04:20] So when the firefighters and medics arrived, they couldn't believe that they were the drivers of this car, because they just couldn't believe that people are walking and talking after surviving this.
[00:04:30] So the wife right away calls me and says, rabbi, you won't believe what just happened. Such a miracle happened. We survived. It's unbelievable. I want to come to shul. I want to come to synagogue. That's what the wife says. The husband's like, huh, happens. I have a friend who also had a big car accident, also walked off without any scratches. Big deal.
[00:04:52] They all live through the same experience.
[00:04:55] Their reaction is completely different.
[00:04:58] So different people have different reaction.
[00:05:01] And this is what this discussion is specifically talking about. There are three types of people.
[00:05:09] First, there are people who perceive the godliness, who see the spiritual world, and somebody who does it. He is obviously going to be excited about it. He's going to get emotional. He's going to want to thank God. He's going to bow down and start thanking God because he's in a constant state of awe in front of God.
[00:05:32] This is one category of people.
[00:05:34] And the first opinion that says that you need to bow down for as long as it takes to read the whole verse is talking about these very people.
[00:05:44] People who perceive godliness and they bow down and they thank God and everything works together.
[00:05:50] It's great to be on such a level. But unfortunately, I am not on such a level.
[00:05:56] I don't see godliness. I see physical things.
[00:05:59] And I don't live in the spiritual world. I live in the physical world. And when I'm hungry, I'm hungry. And when somebody says something not nice to me, I'm being hurt.
[00:06:09] I'm human.
[00:06:10] So this is one category of people. Then there's the opposite end of spectrum.
[00:06:15] People who they say thank God or they somehow acknowledge God's existence only as a lip service just because it's cultural norm to do it.
[00:06:28] You know, I have a cousin who has a bar mitzvah, so I'll go to a synagogue for his bar mitzvah. I'm just doing it because he invited me. It'll be nice not to come.
[00:06:37] All right. But myself, I wouldn't go to a synagogue. Why? Okay, that's the other extreme. But most of people are in a third category which is in the middle of this.
[00:06:45] They don't see godliness. They don't perceive spirituality. They're physical people of flesh and blood like everybody else. And they come to synagogue. Why? Because they know they have to.
[00:06:56] But once they come, they can evoke in themselves all the right emotions and start thanking God.
[00:07:04] And this is the middle category. This is the opinion that says you need to read the second part of the verse. And the third part of the verse, the improper bow is when the time that it takes to read the middle part that says that Jews would bow down and they will start thanking God. The first part that says about seeing the greatness of God, we don't need to count in because we don't perceive godliness. But the second and the third part we need. And this is the third opinion about this middle category. And believe it or not, the law is ruled according to this third opinion about the middle category. Why? Because most of people are like that. Most of people don't perceive godliness.
[00:07:51] They come to synagogue. Why? Because I know as a Jew I have to come.
[00:07:56] Most of the time when I go to Snigga, it's not because I feel such a passionate desire to express my thanks to God. I mean, if I do, it's great, but it doesn't happen every day.
[00:08:05] But once I come there, I read the words or I hear the rabbi or I hear some other people talking, and that evokes in me proper emotions and I start thanking God. In Judaism, we insist that emotions cannot be taken for granted. They have to be guided by us. They we have to be in charge of our emotions. We have to create proper emotions and we have to channel our emotions.
[00:08:31] In most of the world around us, people say, well, I just love this and this or I just don't like this and this. What? What am I supposed to do? I don't like it. The Torah says, well, I know you don't like it, but do you want to like it? Maybe if you want to like it, maybe you'll start working on yourself that you will start liking it.
[00:08:47] I know you might not have a burning desire to thank God right now. The second, okay, but do you want to work on it? If you'll read proper texts, think about things, listen to proper material, you might start want to thank God.
[00:09:00] So that's what we do in synagogues, and that's what Judaism is all about, to find the spirituality. And the key question is not whether you want to go to a synagogue. What are the emotions with which you come to a synagogue? The key question is what emotions are you walking out of a synagogue with?
[00:09:17] Have you achieved any change in your emotions while you were there? This is the key question that we are asking.
