Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the prayer podcast.

Welcome back everybody. Good morning. Good beautiful morning to everyone. We are today going to resume our journey through Pesuki De Zimra through the verses of song. The special part of our morning prayer where we sing the praises of Hashem. Now we are going to talk about Baruch Sha'amar. It's going to take at least one or two classes to go through the entire Baruch Sha'amar.
But first let's read it, we'll translate it, and then we're going to go through to hopefully explain what Baruch Sha'amar is, what is the deeper meaning behind these prayers. So firstly we need to know that there are really two parts to the prayer. Right there in the middle is the breaking point. If you look at these sheets and Nancy you have the sheets online. So right at the breaking point in the middle you have the breaking point. You have the first is the
10 aspects of Hashem's name and then you have the blessing. Now we discussed previously and we gave a handout for this which just which gave an outline to the Pesuki De Zimra. There is an opening blessing which is the Baruch Sha'amar and we have the closing blessing which is Yishtabach. Right before Baruch Hu. That in between those two one is not supposed to talk. Now when we recite the halacha says that when we recite this this prayer of Baruch Sha'amar we're
supposed to recite it with song and we're supposed to recite it standing and men are supposed to hold their two front tzitzit while they are reciting this special prayer. Why? Holding the two front tzitzit as our sages tell us would be the five knots the eight strings times two because you're holding two of them would be a total of 26. The five plus eight is 13 times two is 26. What is 26? The name of Hashem. What are we doing in our prayer here? We're praising Hashem.
We're supposed to look at our tzitzit. We're supposed to concentrate on the name of Hashem that Hashem was Hashem is and Hashem will be as we will see in this prayer. Why are we standing when we recite this prayer? Because these 10 praises that we are going to recite represent the 10 commandments. So every morning when we recite the Baruch Sha'amar what we're in essence doing we stand up we're reciting the 10 commandments. Essentially in each one our
sages tell us correspond to one of the 10 commandments. Each one of these praises in a totality there are really 13 different times that we say Baruch in this prayer. We say Baruch Sha'amar, Baruch Hu, Baruch Oseh B'Rishiz, Baruch Omer V'Oseh, Baruch Gozer M'Kaim, Baruch M'Rachim Ala'aretz, Baruch M'Rachim Ala'Briyot, Baruch M'shalim Socha Tov L'Riev, Baruch Chai La'ad V'Kaim L'Netzach, Baruch Poder Matzil, that's 10 already, Baruch Shemo, Baruch Hatah, we say the blessing and then at the end we say again Baruch. That's 13 times we
say Baruch. Our sages tell us that this 13 is representing the 13 attributes of Hashem. Not only that we have 13 parts of the entire Pesach de Zimra. From the first blessing to the last blessing there are 13 parts to it. What are they? The Hodu, the Mizmur L'tzoda, the Yehi Chavod, the Asheri, then we have the five chapters of chapter 146, 47, 48, 49, and 50, 150 of Psalms. Then we have Baruch Hashem L'Olam, we have Vayi Baruch Tovid, we have
Vicharos Ima Abris, and then we say Az Yashir. Those 13 different parts of our Pesach de Zimra, of our verses of praise, are representing each of the 13 attributes of Hashem's mercy. So it's not random that we have, we mentioned this dozens of times already in our prayer series, that numbers matter in Judaism. And there's a specific number of words in this prayer. If you just want to, you want an understanding, what's the origin of this prayer? And there's much
discussion about where is this prayer from? Who wrote it? Where is it from? So there's many different discussions as to whether it was the men of the Great Assembly, whether it was during the time of the Go'onim, whether it was, it preceded that, you know, the Talmud already says that one of the great sages, we brought this previously, that he said he wants to be part of those who recite the Hallel every day. What is that referring to? It's referring to the Pesach
de Zimra. Those who recite the Pesach de Zimra, it's like saying Hallel. So that would indicate that there was a beginning and an end to it. The end, Yishtabach, is part of the prayer already for millennia. The beginning had to have been there as well. But where does it actually come from? And our sages go back and deliberate whether or not it was there. The Kabbalists say it was the men of the Great Assembly. But our sages tell us something very interesting. One of the commentaries
says that the men of the Great Assembly went in to author this prayer and a paper from heaven descended with exactly these words, with 87 words in this prayer. And it was adopted as the exact prayer that we have today. And if you count the words, there's 87 words. But something else that's very important for us to know. And that is that although, you see, I was thinking to say like, come on, a paper fell down from heaven? A paper fell down from heaven? Like today we still think
like it's an Amazon package with a drone that's coming down. But back then there was no such thing as papers falling from heaven. So I was thinking to say that perhaps it wasn't a physical paper that fell from heaven, but rather it was a revelation from heaven that came to our sages that told them exactly the words that need to be placed there. But, you know, we say this all the time in our classes. We can't just come up with ideas without backing them up. And sure enough,
this morning I heard from the Maharal, the Maharal brings this down, that indeed it wasn't a necessarily a physical paper, but rather a revelation to the men of the Great Assembly of exactly the words. It was clear to them, like ink written on paper, exactly the words that should be added to this prayer. We said how many words are in this prayer? 87. Pei Zayin, Paz. It says, V'rosho Kesem Paz. This is from Song of Songs. Shir Hashim, written by King Solomon. On his head is a crown of the
finest gold. What is the head of the prayer? The beginning of the prayer? Baruch Sheamar. Baruch Sheamar has Paz. Paz is Pei Zayin. 87 words. And that is the finest gold. The same word in Hebrew is the finest gold. But Pei Zayin is also the Rashi Tevos, the first letters of the word Psuke and Zimra. Psuke, Zimra, Pei, Zayin. These 87 words aren't just in actuality that we have 87 words in this prayer, but it's also the abbreviation to this word, to these prayers.
Now, we mentioned that there are two parts of Baruch Sheamar. There's the introduction and the actual blessing. What is the introduction? We talk about creation, maintaining the world, every moment of life, Hashem's mercy. We talk about reward and punishment. We talk about Hashem being eternal. And then we talk about the blessing, that just as Hashem is constantly praised by the pious and the righteous, so too we will in our Psuke de Zimra sing his praise from David's words in Psalms.
And that's what we do every single day in our prayers. Now, we know that the world was created with 10 utterances. The world was created with 10 utterances. This is a Mishnah in Avot, in Ethics of Our Fathers, chapter five, the first Mishnah. It says that with 10 utterances, God created the world. The world came into being. In the prayer of Baruch Sheamar, we say, we'll see soon, we'll say, we shall praise you never-ending praise and song,
Zmiros' songs. We sing Hashem's songs. In the end, in Yishtabach, we also say, Zimra, twice we say that because we should be drawn with our praise to Hashem to sing those praise. It's not just that we're praising Hashem, it's that we're so excited and so moved by the praise, by all the goodness that Hashem bestows upon us that we can't just stand. We have, we jump out of our, out of, out of our skin. We're so excited and we want to sing the songs to Hashem. All blessings, very
interestingly, are in the present tense. As we'll see, Hashem is actively present. Hashem is known through his actions, but hidden in form. How do we know that Hashem is here? How do we know that Hashem is here? I was once standing, I've been saying this, but then I heard my rabbi say this, I know for sure that it's true. Someone asked my rabbi, he says, how do we talk to people today and prove to them that God exists? People ask, prove to me. He says, today you don't need proofs.
Open your eyes, you see Hashem everywhere. You see the miracles in front of your eyes. It's present every single day. We're able to see the hand of Hashem. We're able to live in a world of the reality of Hashem's existence. Wherever we go, wherever we turn, whatever we do, the presence of Hashem is right there before our eyes. So these praises are the praises that define Hashem. There are millions of praises. We have these 10 praises that we say, 10 praises of Hashem
representing the 10 utterances, representing the 10 commandments. It's limited to these 10 that Hashem wants to be known to us by. There are millions of praises that we can praise Hashem with. These 10 praises that Hashem wants to be known by. Now, even though Hashem is greater than all of these praises, these are adequate. Okay, so now let's read and let's hopefully translate and understand each of these words. Baruch mirachem al ha'oretz. Baruch mirachem al ha'abriyos. Baruch mishalim socha toyv lireyav.
Baruch chai lo'ad v'kayam lo'netzach. Baruch poidei omatzil. Baruch sh'moi. Baruch atah Adonai Eliehenu melech ho'elam. Ho'el ho'ov ho'rachomon. Ha'mehulol b'fei amoi. Mishubach u'mefo'er roshan chasidov ha'avodov. U v'shirei david avdekho. Nehalelcho Adonai Eliehenu b'shvokhois u v'zmirois. Negadelcho unishabeichacho un'efo'ercho v'nazgir shimcho v'naamlichacho malkeinu Eliehenu yachid chai ho'elamim. Melech mishubach u'mefo'er adei ad sh'moi ha'gadol. Baruch atah Adonai melech mehulol b'tishbokhois. Blessed is the one who spoke the world into existence. Blessed is he. Blessed is he who
continually renews creation. Blessed is he who speaks and thereby does. Blessed is he who decrees and fulfills. Blessed is he who has compassion on the earth. Blessed is he who has compassion on all his creatures. Blessed is he who bestows good reward to those who revere him. Blessed is he who lives forever and exists eternally. Blessed is he who redeems and rescues. Blessed is his name. Blessed are you Hashem our God king of the universe. Almighty God merciful father
praised who was verbally extolled by his people praised and glorified in the speech of his people extolled and glorified in the words uttered by his devoted ones and his servants with the song of David your servant we will declare your praise Hashem our God with never-ending praise and songs we will proclaim your greatness praise you and glorify you we will proclaim your kingship and constantly mention your name our king our God unique one life of the worlds
oh king whose name will be praised and glorified forever blessed are you Hashem the king who is lauded with praise so my dear friends what a powerful incredible prayer that we are about to embark on hopefully Hashem should bless us today we're only going to do the first part which is the introductory part praising Hashem and then we're going to do the blessing part God willing in the coming week so Baruch Shomar v'hoyo ho'olam what does that mean blessed is he who spoke the
world into existence our sages teach us that Hashem makes all existing things exist everything that exists in this world everything came into being through the utterance of Hashem Hashem said and it was now we typically we have to think of a thought we talk about it and then we do it but that's not the process of Hashem's creation Hashem's process of creation Hashem speaks and it is you know we are it's a fascinating thing we're looking into science we're looking into the world
we're looking into medicine we're looking into the human body we're looking it's just it's fascinating it's absolutely fascinating it was just an utterance from Hashem all of creation all of the brilliance of how our body works all of the brilliance of how agriculture works all of the brilliance of how medicine works all of the brilliance of how our our you know solar system works all of it was an utterance from Hashem Hashem spoke and it was
Hashem said it will be and it was Baruch Shomar v'hoyo ho'olam v'hoyo our sages tell us when we say v'hoyo if you rework those words it's the name of Hashem the yod the hey and the vav and the hey Hashem created the world from what? something from nothing you see I can't make a table from nothing I need to have the raw material and then I can cut it and craft it and make it in a way that it can hold as a table
how does God create? something from nothing known in the scientific terms as ex nihilo from nothing it comes from nothing Hashem created the world Hashem didn't have to oh let me get my resources from Antarctica over no Hashem spoke and it was do you know how amazing it is that our lives are also yesh mi'ayin what do we come from? what does the Mishnah tell us? from a putrid drop a human being physically cannot create humanity it's only a miracle of Hashem that can create a human being
our very existence is an existence where everything around us exists because Hashem decided it should be there because Hashem decided Hashem spoke and it was after creation nothing else was added nothing else was added to this world Hashem created it exactly the way it is today 5,786 years since the creation of Adam and Eve nothing changed exactly how Hashem created the world back then now the reason why I say 5,786 well science says that it's 15 billion years old
there's we have many classes that we talked about this you can listen to the this Jewish life or Torah 101 from Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe he discusses this in great length as well but the world was created something from nothing Hashem said to Moshe in this week's parasha in parasha's v'era the beginning the first portion the first verse in this week's parasha it says ani Hashem I am Hashem the midrash says Hashem said I created the world with an utterance
hu omar vayehi our speech is momentary our life is momentary Hashem is eternal Hashem is forever no toil or hard work in Hashem's creation just an utterance hu omar vayehi Hashem says I am Hashem I've done it I've created it all I'm right here in fact the commentaries talk about Hashem saying I love you I love you Hashem is saying I am Hashem your God Hashem is reminding us don't forget I love you I'm right here that even when you're going to be in
Egypt and you're going to be suffering all of these challenges Ani Hashem I'm right here and we'll see in a minute how this connects so beautifully to the prayer that we're talking about how the parasha that we're reading this week on Shabbos and how the prayer that we're learning about here today it's no coincidence that they meet up our sages teach us that when you learn two different things and they meet up it's a sign from Hashem that he loves your study
he loves what it is that you're doing so thank you Hashem we love what we're doing as well we love learning your Torah your sweet beautiful words of your Torah so while Hashem Hashem's creation and handiwork are visible he himself are still hidden how do we know that Hashem is here we mentioned you look at the world and you see Hashem you don't need proofs today you don't need proofs people today can open their eyes and they can see the hand of Hashem when Iran and this
is to me the most modern day splitting of the sea when Iran sends over 500 ballistic missiles and nothing happens to Israel you know what that means Hashem split the sea for us it's a modern baruch sh'omar v'hoyah olam this is Hashem who created the world Hashem has the power over everything the next part we say baruch hu blessed is he since this is so beyond our comprehension omar v'hoyah we have Hashem said and it was this is we don't understand what that
really means we say baruch hu all we know is Hashem is blessed Hashem is blessed and it's way beyond what we're capable of understanding but now let's look at part number three baruch oise b'reishis blessed is he who continually renews creation oise which is a present tense Hashem constantly creates the creation doesn't just exist from back then back then Hashem created the world and it's still hanging around no today it's a renewed world today it is a new existence today we have the form of Hashem's creation
we were able to experience what Hashem formed for us Hashem gave us a magnificent world which if you think about it for a second do you know the random likelihood that the planet that civilization is on is the only planet where human beings can exist it's the exact distance that it needs to be from the sun so that we don't burn or freeze it's absolute perfection that's exactly where Hashem placed us baruch shomar v'hoyo haolam the world this world that we live in
planet earth this existence that we have is a perfect existence baruch omer v'ose Hashem makes his word into reality what he says he does this is a very praiseworthy thing for a person to always know always know Hashem's word he keeps 100% of the time if Hashem promises something he will keep it we our sages teach us we need to learn to be god-like that when we give a word we keep our word we're in omer v'ose when we say we promise something we deliver on it we don't just
make commitments that we don't fulfill we need to be a god-like creation where when we make a commitment we fulfill it we make our words a reality which also by the way is an interesting thing sometimes your words make the reality a reality when you make a commitment our sages tell us you're giving existence to it which is both to the good and the bad to the good that you're giving it life so now it can come into being you can you can manifest it you can manifest it you
have a power to bring it into existence but also the negative which is why a person should be very careful with the words they use in a negative way because you're giving life to it as well the words we use bring life to something although Hashem created the world with the original utterance still today it is omer v'ose you think about the sky you think about the water what did God do God separated the waters God placed the the the heavens God
did put the waters where they are what what's what's with 5,786 years later it's still the same place God keeps his word God only made that utterance and maintains that utterance Hashem decrees and fulfills the generation of the flood learned that lesson Hashem made a decree and he fulfilled it same thing with Sodom and Gomorrah the same thing with Mitsrayim even today we see Hashem tells us in his Torah exactly what's going to happen those who do good will get good those
who do evil will get evil and all of what we're talking about seems very very positive but then we see over here Baruch Gozira and Wekayim this decree sometimes is not so good one of a great Hasidic masters was once thrown into a dungeon in a jail and he was reciting this he says look everything is positive and then we have Gozira Wekayim Hashem decrees sometimes the decrees are not good he says but what's the next word Mekayim Hashem gives you the ability to sustain and to
overcome it Hashem gives us the ability to be Mekayim to not to not fall in those situations Hashem will bring us out of it Hashem brings us to it Hashem will bring us out of it we're right now in an exile my dear friends I don't know if you noticed this look around the world look at the news anti-semitism here anti-semitism there you go to Brooklyn you have anti-semitism pro Hamas free Palestine everything you go to England you go here you go there everywhere
like what's going on Hashem is reminding us we are not a free people we are in exile we have to remember that Hashem is Gozira Hashem makes a decree but he's also Mekayim he also fulfills and sustains us and gives us the ability to see the light beyond that God willing should be soon in our days it says that Hashem punishes the evil and Hashem rewards the righteous Baruch Mirachim has compassion on the earth all creation
Hashem has compassion on all of his creatures from the smallest lice to the largest creatures Hashem has mercy on his creations Hashem made the world just perfect only civilized universe the only one is earth Hashem has mercy on the earth on those who are residing in it Hashem created Hashem gave the land to humanity for what so we should have civilization so that we should conduct our lives with kindness with one another that we should elevate our experience and bring godliness into this world
Baruch Mirachim Alebrios blessed is he who has compassion on all of his creatures each individual creation we said and specifically humanity Hashem gave us all free will our sages tell us that the greatest gift Hashem gave us is the ability to choose you can choose exactly how you want to live your life you can choose exactly what you want to do you can choose what you want to eat you can choose what you want to be we have free will that's the greatest gift Hashem gave us you can choose
but Hashem outlines exactly the results of your choices it's like when you go to the carnival and you decide which hand you which hole you put your hand in and what's going to be the the result of the result of putting your hand in each one you don't know but Hashem tells us what's on the other side Hashem says you can have free will you can put your hand in any of those holes I'm going to
show you I'm going to give you a mirror so you can see what's behind it you can know what's good and what's not and that's the Torah the Torah reflects light on the choices we make and if we choose the good we get the good we choose the no good we get the no good what comes after we choose Baruch Mishaleim Sochot Tov L'Reyov and this is Hashem is talking about the positive reward that Hashem pays blessed is he who bestows good reward to those
who revere him and what's about those who don't that's left out of this blessing because it's obvious we don't need to say that so Hashem gives good reward even to the wicked Hashem gives their good reward the wicked do good sometime in their life they may have done good God gives them reward where does God give them reward God gives them reward in this world in this world only because this world is temporary but where does God give the righteous reward the righteous get
their reward in the world to come because the world to come is eternal the Jewish people if they're righteous will get the reward or the reward in for for eternity Mishaleim Sochot Tov L'Reyov the world of all good when Hashem says I am Hashem in this week's Torah portion he's saying I am Hashem I have a great reward for you it's worthwhile to pay attention Baruch Hai L'ad V'kayim L'Netzach we go to the eighth praise and that is
blessed is he who lives forever and exists eternally Hashem is in no rush to exact reward and punishment Hashem is forever we think we have this concept that there is cause and effect and we think that it needs to be immediate you do you get you do you get doesn't work like that Hashem says there's a big picture here I'm forever Hashem is for all eternity there's no rush you can get that reward whenever Hashem decides
is the perfect time for it to be maximized Hashem exists forever Hashem is always living that's the Yud Kei Vav Kei that we mentioned earlier the Hayah HaOlam the name of Hashem of the Yud and and the Vav and the Hey this represents that Hashem was Hashem is and Hashem will be forever and ever Hashem was Hashem is Hashem will be this this should be such a calming effect I think that we should we should make a mindfulness class a a a yoga
whatever you want to call it okay just focusing on Hayah HaOlam Hashem was Hashem is and Hashem will be there should be no stress or anxiety in the world when we focus on that because we know what was the whole world that was before us Hashem was there every step of the way right now Hashem is Hashem is sustaining me and what will be I have nothing to worry about because Hashem was there all along Hashem will continue to be there it reminds me of the idea
we mentioned so many times of Moshe asking God he says show me your glory I want to see your your face Hashem says you can't see my face you can only see the back of my head and it says that Hashem showed Moshe the back of his head he saw the tefillin the back of his tefillin Hashem doesn't have a head Hashem doesn't have a form we know that Hashem doesn't have a form so what is Moshe seeing and what's that back of the tefillin what is that not
sages explain metaphorically this means that Moshe was asking I want to understand the future Hashem says you'll never understand the future you can't see my face you can't see the front the future you can see the back you can see the history look back look back and you'll see that everything worked out perfectly and now you can understand you don't need to worry about the future you don't need to see my face and why the kesher of the tefillin the kesher of the tefillin
the knot is where everything interjoins you see this coming from this direction from this direction from that direction from all directions it all comes together Hashem's got it all under control look at your history look at your life look at how many things you had that you were worried about and then you like didn't really have what to worry about everything worked out Hashem took care of it in the best possible way yeah now you're worried about the future
he's got to take him care of he will take care of next week and the week after and next year and in 10 years and in 20 years Hashem will take care of it for all eternity baruch podeh u'matzil blessed is he who redeems and rescues Hashem redeems and saves in the first of the 10 commandments what does it say I am Hashem your God who took you out of Egypt what is Hashem baruch podeh u'matzil Hashem put us into a place of challenge what did he do
he pulled us out of it how do you know that Hashem is God creator of heaven and earth because he puts us into a challenge and pulls us out of it you look at how Hashem conducts his world there's a severe situation sometimes you look but you're freezing it in time look at the big picture look at the whole picture and you see it comes together perfectly it comes together perfectly I am Hashem who took you from Egypt part of Hashem's role in
being creator is being the redeemer making sure that every situation we're stuck in Hashem can help us out of and then finally we end the introductory part of this prayer with baruch blessed is his name notwithstanding everything we praised Hashem with notwithstanding everything that we say Hashem is so great Hashem is still hidden we see his actions but inform Hashem is hidden we need to constantly reaffirm this every single morning when we recite the Baruch Shema
we are recognized with joy wow this is an amazing life that I'm able to live this is an amazing world that Hashem put us into that Hashem gave us life for and what's really remarkable is that if you look in the Siddur there are two introductory prayers to this introductory prayer and that is many people say this from Qabbalistic teachings I now prepare my mouth to thank Lord praise my creator for the sake of the unification of the holy one blessed is he and his presence through him
who is hidden and inscrutable I pray in the name of all Israel this is the introduction to the introduction my dear friends we have such opportunity to be and feel close to Hashem to feel that closeness in this introductory prayer to Pesach de Zimra the introductory blessing God willing next week we'll continue with the blessing part of this prayer but it gives us the ability it gives us the the power to connect that even though Hashem is not
visible to our eyes as a physical form that we're used to seeing we can see through all of creation how Hashem is right there in front of us we can see through every tree that we analyze we look at the magnificence of a tree we look at the miracle of a tree I'm just taking a tree as an example look at an animal look at a single cell a single atom and you see all of Hashem's creation
and its magnificence Hashem should bless us all that every single day we should live inspired through his word amen.

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