Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Living Jewishly podcast.

00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody to the Everyday Judaism podcast, where we study practical halacha, where we're going in order of the teachings of the Kitzel Shulchan Aruch, the abbreviated Shulchan Aruch, the code of Jewish law. And today we're going to talk about the next part of prayer, which is the final section of prayer. Until now, we discussed the Amidah, we discussed Tachanun, the supplications, we talked about the reading of the Torah, we talked about an invalidation that arises in a Torah scroll, and now we're going to talk about what happens at the end of prayer, which is ashray uvaletzion and the end of shachas. Now, just so that we have as a point of introduction, we need to know that there are several parts, most of which were discussed in this series in prayer, and that is we started off with the first part of prayer, which is Berchot Hashachar, the morning blessings. Then we have Karbanos, which is the offerings. Then we have Psuket Dezimra, which is the verses of song. Then we have the Berchot Shema and the Shema, which is the blessings of the Shema and the actual Shema. We have the Shemoneh Eser, which is the Amida, the 18 blessings. We have Tachnun supplications. We have Kriyas HaTorah, the reading of the Torah.

01:35
On the special days that we read the Torah, which are Monday, thursday and Rosh Chodesh, and then now we are going to discuss the end, the final part of prayer, which is Asherah and Uvalitzion. So after Tachnon supplications, or after Torah reading on Mondays, thursdays and Rosh Chodesh, asherah is recited. Asherah is the 145th Psalm in the amazing authorship of King David. It is proper number two, it is proper to have special concentration when reciting Asherah, and particularly by the verse of. We know that the entire Psalm is written with the letters of the Aleph Bet, and the letter Pei is Potach et Yodecha, which is you open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. That is a very, very powerful verse and it is increasingly important for one to have special concentration when we recite and to have kavana focus concentration when we recite that verse.

02:53
After asherah, we recite l'manatzach, which is a special psalm, psalm number 20, for the conductor. L'manatzach is omitted on the following days on Rosh Chodesh, on Hanukkah, on Purim, on Purim Katan, which is, if you have a leap year, it'll be the 14th and 15th day of Adar 1, the first Adar. On Erev Pesach, the day before Pesach, kol Hamoed Pesach and Sukkot, erev Yom Kippur and Peshabav L'mnitzach is omitted on those days. Laman Hitzach is not recited in the house of a mourner either. When L'mnatsach is not recited, el Erech Ha'paim is not either recited in the. When this is part of the prayer which is said upon taking out the Torah from the Ark, it's not recited if L'mnatsach is not recited, so it's the same rule applies to both of them. After L'mnatsach, the Kedusha of Uvalitzion a redeemer shall come to Zion is recited with its Aramaic translation.

03:59
Now we have to understand. There's many deep Kabbalistic reasons to why each and every prayer is part of our prayer. We're going to get into this when we talk about the prayer in our prayer podcast. We're going to get into the deeper meanings. We're going to get into the understanding of why our sages, the men of the Great Assembly, instituted our prayers to have these parts of prayer included in our daily prayer regimen. But now we're talking about the halacha of what is said, when it is said and how it is said, not into the depths of understanding. I invite you all, all of our listeners, I invite you all to listen to our prayer podcast. You get that depth, you get that understanding as to the reasons why certain prayers were added to our daily liturgy.

04:55
Okay, so number seven After Lom Natsach, the Kedushah. Kedushah, we know, is the special prayers that were intercepted by Moses when he ascended Mount Sinai, went up to the heavens and received the Torah. He heard the angels singing certain praises to Hashem. He recorded them mentally, obviously, wrote them down for us to include in our prayers, very, very powerful prayers, like when we say Kaddosh Kaddosh, kaddosh, kaddush is a very essential part of our prayer. So after Lom Nitzach, we recite the Uval Tzion, which has this Kaddush, and we say it's Aramaic translation. Number eight it is proper to have special concentration when reciting the Kedusha of Uvaletzion and to recite the translation in an undertone. So you say the Hebrew part out loud and the Aramaic translation in undertone. Number nine it is prohibited to leave the synagogue before the completion of the Kedushah of Uvaletzion. It is not appropriate for one to leave the synagogue before we have this Kedushah recited. One should take special care to recite the Kedushah of Uvaletzion with the congregation and, of course, with concentration. The Kedusha of Uvalitzion is so important that even if one arrived late to synagogue and the congregation was already up to the Kedusha of Uvalitzion, it is proper to recite it with the congregation even before one's own prayers begin and even saying the introductory two verses, or even skipping the asherah and lam natzach, and later catching up in order to recite the Kedushah of Ovalot Zion with the congregation.

06:46
After Ovalot Zion, the Aleinu is recited, aleinu l'shabach, which is the final, really essentially the final prayer of our morning services, which is it is our duty to praise the Almighty that was composed by Joshua the prophet, after the Jewish people conquered Jericho. One must recite this prayer with awe and reverence After Aleinu. So we have now. This is our fourth part. We said Ashrei, lam Natsach, uvaletzion, and now Aleinu. So, after Aleinu, we conclude the morning prayer with the Shir Shel Yom, which is the psalm of the day that were sung by the Levites. Every day, including on each festival, a different psalm of the day that were sung by the Levites. Every day, including on each festival, a different psalm was sung. We recite those same psalms to commemorate those services that were in the temple. So this is the last licks, the last little drop, as we sing the song that was sung by the Levites in the temple.

07:56
Every day, the order of the final prayers vary based on location and custom. Each community should follow their appropriate custom, so you have to understand that in different synagogues they will have a different order in how they conclude the prayers. In one synagogue they'll say certain things, certain parts of what we just discussed first, and then Aleinu at the end Some will have. They have different, varying orders, all based on their own custom. Each person should follow the custom of their congregation. The order that is brought here in the Kitzah Shulchan Aruch is the order of the Ashkenaz community and the Ashkenaz community does it in this order. Where you have the reading the Torah, you have Ashrei L'mnatser, uvaletzion, aleinu and Shir Shalyom. In other congregations they have it in a different order. They'll say the Shir Shalyom first. They'll say Ashrei Uvaletzion before returning the Torah to the Ark. So again, everyone, I don't want to confuse you, but I just want you to know that there are varying customs to the order in which these final prayers are recited. We all say the same thing. We all say the same thing, but the order in which it's done varies based on custom, location, background and and each person should follow their own custom Upon leaving the synagogue. I will tell you also that even if you have your own custom as an individual, you should follow the custom of the synagogue. So the whole congregation recites it together and not oh, this one has his custom, he does it like this, this one has that custom. And then it becomes chaos in the synagogue by everyone doing their own custom.

09:34
You follow the custom of the synagogue when you're there. For example, when I prayed very frequently in a Sephardic synagogue, I remember I asked my rabbi what should I do? Because Ashkenazic custom is that during Kaddish we stand. Sephardic custom is to sit. I'm Ashkenaz. When I'm in a Sephardic synagogue, what do I do? Should I be the only one standing or should I sit? The halacha is that you follow the custom of the place that you're in, and because I was in a Sephardic synagogue, I remained seated, even though my personal custom as an Ashkenazic Jew would be to stand. And vice versa, a Sephardic in an Ashkenazic synagogue should stand for Kaddish when he's praying there. Right, that's the way it works, okay.

10:21
So now number 17. Upon leaving the synagogue. This is a very important section of decorum. It's common sense. But again, we have to. Halacha doesn't leave anything unwritten. We have to know. We have to. Halacha doesn't leave anything unwritten. We have to know. We have to know how to conduct ourselves upon leaving the synagogue, it is proper to recite a special verse from Psalms, chapter five, verse number nine, which is Hashem, guide me in your righteousness because of my watchful enemies. Make your way straight before me. What's the enemies? The Yetzirah. The Yetzirah that's always clawing at us, always trying to distract us. So when we leave synagogue, we have to make sure we say special prayer Hashem, protect me. I'm going out into the wilderness. Protect me to continue to follow your ways, as your ways are the straight ways.

11:18
Number 18, one should bow before departing from the synagogue, like a student departing from their master, right? You imagine you've probably seen this when people do the namaste, when they leave their master in yoga, they bow right. Where do they get that from? That's the way we leave synagogue. When we leave the master of the universe in our prayer, we bow and walk backwards. You never turn your back to the ark, you never turn your back to the synagogue. Therefore, by the way this happens, you can see this when you go to the Western Wall. I had the privilege of being at the Western Wall multiple times last week and it's amazing what you see that people actually follow this halacha properly, in that when you leave the temple area. You walk backwards. You see people walking backwards. You don't turn your back to a holy place.

12:14
The holiest place we have in our synagogue is the ark, where the Torah resides, and therefore you never turn your back to the ark or to the synagogue when you leave. The same should be done upon descending from the ark and or leaving the bima. One should not exit with his back towards the holy ark. One should not run upon leaving the synagogue, so as not to give an impression that synagogue is a burden. And finally, if one was leaving synagogue and heading to the Torah study hall, running would be warranted, as it is towards a mitzvah. When you run, the only time you should run is is towards a mitzvah. When you run, the only time you should run is running towards a mitzvah. So if you're running to study Torah, that's a mitzvah and that's fine, but otherwise it would give an impression that you're not satisfied, you're not pleased with your burdensome experience at synagogue and that's why you're running away. No, you're running to a mitzvah, that's fine, but otherwise we don't run upon leaving the synagogue.

13:21
So, my dear friends, this concludes Semen 25. If you have any questions, I look forward to hearing it in our upcoming segment of Ask Away, number four. So, my dear friends, this concludes our study of Simeon 25, the final prayers of the morning service. Next week, god willing, we're going to do Simeon 26, which is about the mourner's hadesh. And for now, my dear friends, we will sign off and we thank you. We're going to have our next segment of Ask Away, which will be a separate segment that will be released later in the week. God willing, thank you around the globe.

13:58 - Intro (Announcement)
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.