The women of GYE, in their small corner, are churning out the most beautiful posts ever, and they are shaking up the heavens in an all so powerful way!
In the Women’s Forum, Habib writes about prayer - a post so pure, deep, powerful, and moving!
well, i'm trying to work on my tefilla, so here goes... (trying u gotta get the siddur i use...)
tefilla=amida...
Hashem sefatai tiftach- Hashem i'm so incredibly afraid, in awe, and ashamed before you that i can't even open my mouth to speak to you. please, Hashem, help me to be able to speak before you.... i know i've done horrible things that no bas yisroel should do... and i have distanced myself from you to the point where i can't even have kavana when i pray because if i do i'll burst into tears... so please, Hashem, help me.
Avot- we should direct our thoughts to the avos, because it is in their zchut that Hashem does chassadim for us, and it is in their zchut that He is bringing the geula. Avraham avinu excelled at chessed, yitchak in gvurah (din), and yaakov in emet (tiferet).
we say "elokei avraham, elokei yitzchak, elokei yaakov." elokei each time because not only did each accept Hashem himself (not just doing what his father did), but also because each served Hashem with his own special specific mida.
when we say "hagadol, hagibor, vehanora," gadol is keneged midat avraham, or chessed. but we are saying Hashem is great in his midda of chessed, which is the ikkar way that He reveals Himself to us
gibor- keneged yitzchok, and the midda of gvurah.
norah- keneged yaakov and the midda of tiferet. we should subjugate ourselves with fear of the eminence of hakadosh baruch hu, before the emet. and why is norah keneged emet? because when a person sees the truth, with all it's sharpness and bonyness, he recognizes his own smallness, and then a great fear will fall upon him.
Letakian comments and adds another beautiful insight:
i totally started crying by the first paragraph that you wrote. it's like you read out of my deepest heart.
please keep posting about this!
I heard from Rav Dovid Sapirman that it says "אלקנו ואלקי אבותנו "
but shouldn't "אלקי אבותנו" come before "אלקנו "?
it seems to be out of order. The avos should come before us cronologically.
The answer is, NO!
When it comes to believing that Hashem is our G-d and trusting in him it first has to be from our own belief- Elokainu! Not just copying our fathers and mothers. From INSIDE OURSELVES. Only then can we look back and say "ahh, this is the beauty that my parents, teachers were showing me. This is what i believe and feel"