Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We Jews are known to be the people of the book.
[00:00:05] And people of the book is often referred to the Torah that we read.
[00:00:11] And when Jews study, they learn Torah.
[00:00:15] And when Jews come to a synagogue, the main activity that they do there is reading the prayers.
[00:00:23] But there are different prayers. There are different types of prayers.
[00:00:27] And we will try to figure out now what is prayer in Judaism, what is in the first place. So first of all, there is a difference between a prayer and a blessing. Many people don't realize the difference. People, for example, ask me, what prayer do we say on eating an apple? Well, there's no prayer for an apple, they say. They ask a boy, do you say a prayer before you eat your lunch? The boy says, no, thank you. My mother is a good cook. If your mother is not a good cook, you need to say a prayer. But otherwise, we don't say a prayer, we say a blessing.
[00:01:03] What is the difference between a prayer and a blessing? What does the word blessing mean in English? In English, we use the word blessing all the time. Bless you. Bless you. I got a blessing. What does blessing mean?
[00:01:14] In many languages, including English, words are used very often without clear definitions. If you will ask any person on the street, what is a blessing, even though they use this word in their common speech, probably they won't be able to tell you. In Hebrew, and in Jewish tradition, every word has to have a very precise definition. So a blessing in Hebrew is bracha, as you probably know. And the word bracha in Hebrew comes from the word lehavrich, which is an agricultural term in Hebrew, which is to draw down, or in Hebrew are knees, because that's how you lower yourself down. Or they were the brecha in modern Hebrew, which also means a pool, like a body of water.
[00:02:01] What is the meaning of all of these words? What is the idea that connects all of these words? In Hebrew word, bracha comes from, or to draw down.
[00:02:11] A pool is a place that water is drawn down to.
[00:02:16] Berkayim means to draw yourself down when you lower yourself on your knees. Lehavrikh means to draw down another vine.
[00:02:23] So bracha comes from the word to draw down from above.
[00:02:29] So when I make a bracha on food, I draw down the divine energy which is in this food. When I give a bracha, a blessing to you means I'm giving you, I'm drawing down to you things from above.
[00:02:48] Why is it needed in the first place?
[00:02:51] When we are born, most of the time, God prepares for us everything we need for our lives.
[00:02:57] We have a prepared amount of health, prepared amount of money, prepared amount of happiness, prepared amount of everything, whatever we would possibly need, it's there stored for us.
[00:03:08] The problem is that even though it is there stored for us, it doesn't always get to us automatically because of some misdeeds on our part or because of some other reasons, things could get stuck.
[00:03:20] You could be a very wealthy person, you could have millions in your bank. But when you walk down the street and you need to buy a bottle of water because you are thirsty and you don't have your checkbook or your credit card on you, you'll be stuck without this money. So, so you come to a storytelling. I have millions in my bank. And they are telling you, we don't care about millions in your bank. We need $1 now.
[00:03:41] So you come to this world and you say, God, you prepared so much for me up there in my bank. But I don't have my checkbook on me, I don't my credit card on me. That's what you need a bracha for. To push things down the stream that should arrive to you from the place where it's already stored for you there. And that's what bracha is.
[00:03:59] Bracha is delivering to you things which God has already prepared for you. Because very often people don't even utilize all of the things that they have prepared for them. Do you know how much of our brain capacity we use?
[00:04:12] Scientists determine that people use less than 10% of their brain capacity. They have their brain, they just never end up using it.
[00:04:19] We have so much prepared for us, it doesn't always get to us. That's a blessing. Now then, there's a separate concept in Judaism which is called a prayer.
[00:04:27] Prayer very often starts with the word may it be God's will, which in Hebrew sounds like may it be God's will. That and then fill in the blank. What does mean may it be God's will? Right now, God is not willing it.
[00:04:44] I want God to start willing it, which means that God has not prepared it for me. God did not think that I deserve X, Y and Z. And because of my prayer, I am changing God's will. So that's a completely different story than a blessing.
[00:05:02] Blessing is drawing down to you what has been already stored for you up above.
[00:05:09] A prayer is adding new things up above that have not been stored for you until now.
[00:05:17] So in other words, to get things to you in your practical life, it's a two step process.
[00:05:23] First, it has to be delivered to the warehouse. And from the warehouse it needs to be delivered to your retail location.
[00:05:30] So sometimes things are sitting in a warehouse without being touched.
[00:05:35] Why? Because some Shlimazel worker forgot to put it on a truck?
[00:05:41] Or because somebody mixed up their tickets?
[00:05:44] Or because somebody's forklift broke.
[00:05:47] So first, prayer gives you new things.
[00:05:51] Bracha gives you things which have been already stored for you. Now, so here's the crucial part. People will listen to me. People will say, one second, Rabbi. So that means that I can change God's mind.
[00:06:02] So that's actually true. I can affect.
[00:06:06] God is telling me that he is going to be ready to change his will based on my behavior, based on my requests.
[00:06:16] This is how much God cares about what I have to say.
[00:06:20] God has a plan for the whole universe. And you'll say, well, if God will give me something that's going to affect the rest of the plan and how is he going to rectify it with the rest of the plan? Well, that's his problem. Let him take care of it.
