So I just commented briefly on a famous Midrash at the beginning of this week's Sedra. We're all familiar with the Midrash of a Mashal to a person who was walking by a palace, a mansion, and he sees lights burning. And he says to himself that all the lights couldn't have kindled themselves. The house can't take care of itself. There must be a Ba'al HaBayit. So even though I can't see the Ba'al HaBayit, even though I don't see the house owner, even though I don't see the master of the house, he must be there. And then הציץ עליו בעל הבירה and said, You're right, here I am. Even though until now I was invisible, here I am. And that's what Chazal tell us. הנמשל הוא אברהם אבינו. That Avraham Avinu realized and recognized that the world, that there must be a Borei Olam who governs the world, who runs the world. And הציץ עליו בעל הבירה. Hakadosh Baruch Hu revealed Himself to him. Question is: how or perhaps not? How do you reconcile this Midrash with the other Midrashim as to how old Avraham Avinu was when he recognized Hakadosh Baruch Hu? Whether he was three, whether he was forty. But either way, Parshas Lech Lecha is when he's seventy-five. Parshas Lech Lecha is much later. So maybe the Midrashim Chalukim? Wouldn't be the first time. Maybe there was an earlier Gilluy Shechina which the Torah doesn't tell us about? Maybe there was an earlier Gilluy Shechina which the Torah doesn't tell us about thirty-five years earlier? Maybe there was—maybe Avraham Avinu was Zocheh. But maybe the Midrash means something else. Maybe the first actual Nevuah which Avraham Avinu received, which Avraham Avinu had, he was seventy-five. אברהם בן חמש שבעים שנה בצאתו מחרן. When he was seventy-five. So what's the הציץ עליו בעל הבירה? That Avraham Avinu's deduction, his recognition of the Ba'al HaBira was seventy-two years old, thirty-five years earlier—the Rambam has a different girsa—thirty years, thirty-five years. It's a long time ago. Pshat is like this. The most dramatic, the most substantive, the richest form of Gilluy Shechina is Taka when a person is Zocheh to Nevuah. Is Taka when a person is Zocheh to Nevuah. But nevertheless, it's a terrible, terrible mistake for a person to think that the rest, that the 99.99% of all the rest of us, so it means that we're not Zocheh to any form of Gilluy Shechina. There's a Gilluy Shechina of Nevuah where there's a conversation, where there's a dialogue between the Navi and Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's a Nevuah. But then there's a Gilluy Shechina where the usually invisible presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu is experienced very vividly. But there's no dialogue, there's no conversation. But you see the Yad Hashem. You feel the yad Hashem, you feel His presence, you feel enveloped by His presence. So that's also a giluy Shechina. It's not called nevuah. It's not nevuah. There's no dialogue, there's nothing you can record in Sefer Yechezkel, in Sefer Yeshayahu. But that's also a giluy Shechina. It's also a giluy Shechina. הציץ עליו בעל הבירה. הציץ עליו בעל הבירה when Avraham Avinu reasoned or, if you say he was three years old, intuited metzius Hashem and the presence of Hashem, the involvement of Hashem in this world, so then perhaps his first actual nevuah, the הציץ עליו בעל הבירה didn't culminate in a nevuah for many years, but the confirmation that he had for his reasoning, for his intuition, was immediate. Because even without a nevuah, even without a nevuah, all of a sudden Avraham Avinu began to see in his life the hashgacha pratis. All of a sudden Avraham Avinu felt, he sensed, he knew he was in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That Hakadosh Baruch Hu, in that sense, even short of actual nevuah, revealed Himself. And this is very, very important. Important for two reasons. Reason number one, it makes the inyan, the experience of giluy Shechina much less esoteric and much less elitist. This bechina, הציץ עליו בעל הבירה, you know how people have experience sometimes, you're sitting with your back to someone, someone comes in quietly, they don't make not a sound, the door doesn't creak, the floor doesn't creak, there's not a sound, and you know someone's watching you. You know someone's watching you. And you turn around and sure enough someone's whatever, he's reading the newspaper or he's reading the funnies, long-distance he's also reading the comics together with you. You know someone's standing behind you. You know someone's standing behind you. You don't see, you don't see the person, but you sense a presence. You sense a presence. Mistama that experience is given to us to sort of concretize and make more tangible the fact that a person even if he's not, even if Hakadosh Baruch Hu, even if he's not chacham, ashir, etcetera to merit nevuah, but that experience of sensing or being in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu is one that's open to ordinary mortals as well, even those who don't attain the madreiga of nevuah. Sensing the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, seeing the yad Hashem, the effects of yad Hashem, are all forms of הציץ עליו בעל הבירה. To be given that understanding, to have that sensitivity, is also a bechina of הציץ עליו בעל הבירה. But it's also important to understand that even this silent form of giluy Shechina, in contrast to the much higher level of nevuah, only resulted when Avraham Avinu was looking for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. As long as the Rambam describes it, Avraham Avinu originally was brought up in Terach's house, he said Avraham Avinu used to be an oveid avoda zara along with the rest of the people, רמב"ם פרק א הלכות עכו"ם. So the same objective reality, the same metzius Hashem of ein od milvado. of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So that same Metzius didn't change. And yet there was one moment, be it when he was three, be it when he was forty, at which Avraham Avinu saw things differently, but the Metzius didn't change. So the teretz is, and this is such a, such an important, important lesson, the teretz is that the way Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world is that to see Him, again, not in, we're not talking about nevuah now, we're talking about a lower level, something which we can all aspire to. In order to see Him, a person has to be looking for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. A person can't wait for Torah, Kedushah, Dveikus to overcome him. A person has to be questing, a person has to be looking, he has to be searching for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. If a person is always looking and searching, if a person is looking at the birah and he's looking for the Baal Habirah, so then you see the Baal Habirah. You see the Baal Habirah. If a person is not looking, if a person is not looking, so then he remains totally ignorant and insensitive to משל למה הדבר דומה. Someone who's, someone who's an artist, so they see, oh here, this kind of shading and that kind of shading, and they see all kinds of nuances that are really there, they're not imagining it. The nuances are there, but if you're not sensitive to it, if you're not looking for it, if you don't have the capacity to recognize it, you miss it. It's there, it's objectively there. And then maybe they can sensitize you and they can point it out to you, but on your own you don't find it unless you're looking for it, unless you're sensitive for it. So the same is true, the same is true, the same is true when a person wants to come closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he has to always be looking for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And this is true not only that a person therefore should be living a life of Torah mitzvos, of course it's true, that's the most fundamental truth, but beyond that it means that even within Torah and mitzvos, a person always has to be looking for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. A person can never forget, Torah and mitzvos isn't supposed to become a routine. If Torah and mitzvos becomes a routine, you get up in the morning and you run to shul, and then you run and you eat breakfast, and then you run to Seder, and then you run through your whole day, and there's not a minute taken out in which a person reminds himself that through Torah and mitzvos, through his davening, through his learning, through all his experiences, he's looking for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He's looking to come closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, then so much is going to be lost. Avraham Avinu saw the Baal Habirah, not the nevuah, not when Hakadosh Baruch Hu actually spoke to him. Avraham Avinu saw the giluy Shechinah that had been there all along only when he sensitized himself to it. When he sensitized himself to it, so then Avraham Avinu saw the Baal Habirah. Then he saw the Baal Habirah. Too often, even in davening, even in learning, you know, it's more prevalent amongst Chassidim than it is amongst Misnagdim to say Hineni muchan u'mezuman before you, before you do mitzvah. Or in the siddur, there's a Yehi Ratzon that's printed before you're misatef b'tallis in the morning, before you put on tefillin in the morning. So if you're holding on a madreigah where without the Yehi Ratzon you're mechaven to the Yehi Ratzon, it's okay. But for many of us, for many of us, so I can tell you that if you'll say the Yehi Ratzon, the hanachas tefillin will be a different hanachas tefillin. The hanachas tefillin will be a hanachas tefillin where you're looking, not just putting. It's a different hanachas tefillin. If you say Birkas HaTorah with proper kavanah in the morning, if you say the beracha of Ahava Raba, Ahavas Olam in the morning with proper kavanah, so your learning during the day is also different. Not chas v'shalom if you didn't say with the proper kavanah that your learning isn't important and isn't valuable, but your learning will be even more valuable and even more important if you said that beracha. If we learn the same Torah, perform the same mitzvos, but with a sense of looking for HaKadosh Baruch Hu, a sense that we're constantly looking, so then you see, so then you see the Yad Hashem, you recognize the Yad Hashem, you see the nuances, you see the subtleties. The very first שפת אמת על התורה, he begins by quoting his zeide, the Chiddushei HaRim, and he says it as something which is so basic, as though everyone knows this and everyone should know this and without this you can't begin to understand or live. That the word olam, world, is מלשון העלם והעלם מעלמו. Means hidden, hidden. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu's presence is hidden in the world. It's there, it's hidden in the world, so if you're sensitive and you're looking for the Yad Hashem, you see it. But if you're not looking for it, so even when you're living a life of Torah u'mitzvos, the Kotzker Rebbe's famous vort on Vayeira am vayano'u, says that they came and they shakelled and vaya'amdu meirachok and they stood very far from the Ribbono Shel Olam. So you can have the vayano'u, you can shakel, but if you're not looking, if you're not looking to break through the olam, if you're not looking to break through the facade of the teva, of olam k'minhago noheig, of coincidence, of things appearing arbitrary, so then you don't break through it. But if you're looking, so then the הציץ לו בעל הבירה, you don't have to wait for the nevuah. The הציץ לו בעל הבירה, it culminated in ויאמר ה' אל אברם. That was the culmination, but the beginning of the הציץ לו בעל הבירה was Avraham Avinu's recognizing the presence of Hashem and recognizing the Yad Hashem. And that was only because he was looking for it. When he was looking for it, he found it. Earlier with the Gemara Berachos and the Medrash Rabbah on the pasuk of ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה לפנות ערב, that אין שיחה אלא תפילה, and that Yitzchak Avinu was davening mincha at the time. So according to the pshat of the Medrash and the Gemara, so what emerges is, it was at that point that that pasuk says that ותשא רבקה את עיניה ותרא את יצחק. That the very first meeting or encounter between Yitzchak and Rivka was in the context of tefillah. Interestingly, again in the Medrash, Rashi quotes a slightly different version than we have in the Medrash Rabbah, but again we're all familiar with the Medrash at the beginning of Parshas Toldos, ויעתר יצחק לה' לנוכח אשתו, that the very first scene of Yitzchak and Rivka's marriage which the Torah gives us, ויהי יצחק בן ארבעים שנה בקחתו את רבקה בת בתואל הארמי אחות לבן הארמי לו לאשה,
then ויעתר יצחק לה' לנוכח אשתו. So the very first scene again, so Rashi quotes from the Medrash, that Yitzchak Avinu was b'zavis zu and he was davening, and Rivka was b'zavis acheres and she was davening. Again, it's a scene of tefillah. And ויעתר לו ה' ותהר רבקה אשתו, so not only was tefillah the We also know the Mishnah in Avos of על שלושה דברים העולם עומד: על התורה ועל העבודה ועל גמילות חסדים.
And we're told that there's a correlation between the Avos and those shlosha amudei ha'olam. That each one of the Avos, especially, doesn't mean to the exclusion of the other yesodos or the other pillars, but each one of the Avos especially embodied or represented one of those gimel amudim. So Avraham Avinu is תתן אמת ליעקב חסד לאברהם. Avraham Avinu is correlated with the amud of gemilus chasadim. That's what Avraham Avinu of the Avos most represented. This titen emet le'Yaakov is Toras emet. Torah is described as emet. Yaakov Avinu is associated with Torah. And Yitzchak is associated with avodah. What avodah? On that Mishnah in Pirkei Avos, the Rabbeinu Yonah explains that avodah refers both to the avodas hakorbanos in the Beis Hamikdash as well as to tefillah, which is ikarei avodah. And that's how the world hasn't toppled, because we've never lost that pillar of avodah because we retain tefillah, which is ikarei avodah. So here too you see that Yitzchak Avinu is associated again with avodah, with tefillah. So it's not only the context of his marriage to Rivka, it's not only the source of his family, of his children, but it seems to be the dominant theme of his life. Emess, you find another remez to this also. The Ramban says in the ויחפרו עבדי יצחק בנחל וימצאו שם באר מים חיים, and then ויריבו בו רועי גרר עם רועי יצחק לאמר לנו המים.
And one's Esek, one well was called Esek, and one was called Sitnah, and then the third one was called Rechovos. So the Ramban asks, why is this important enough to be recorded in the Torah? And he says that the be'er is a remez to the Beis Hamikdash. And the fact that the first two he encountered opposition and ultimately had to go to the third is a remez to the first and second Batei Mikdash, which will be destroyed, and the third one is Rechovos, which will be the בניין בית שלישי לעתיד לבוא. So there too, again, Yitzchak Avinu's preoccupation with avodah, again the association between Yitzchak and between avodah, and between avodah. To understand this a little bit more is as follows: we know מעשה אבות סימן לבנים. We know that what the lives of the Avos weren't self-contained, but rather מעשה אבות סימן לבנים, through their actions they charted the history of. They through their avodah, through the avodah of each of the avos, certain character traits became embedded within Klal Yisrael, perhaps to some extent within the world, but certainly within Klal Yisrael that Jews, that every Jew throughout the generation can then tap into. So they created certain kochot hanefesh which then became a part of Klal Yisrael. Certain spiritual capacities. So Hava nisbonen a little bit about one element, one dimension of Yitzchak Avinu's contribution to that siman labanim, to those kochot hanefesh which he unleashed within Klal Yisrael, within Klal Yisrael. So here too, if you can if you go back to the example in Parshas Toldos of the digging of the wells, so the Torah says וישב יצחק ויחפר את בארת המים אשר—what's the exact lashon hapasuk?—אשר חפר אברהם אביו and then ויסתמום פלשתים אחרי מות אברהם. So Yitzchak went back and he dug those very same wells which Avraham Avinu before him had dug, the same wells that Avraham Avinu had dug. And lechora the pshat is as follows: Avraham Avinu had no masora, right? We all know the Rambam's description in perek aleph of Hilchos Avodas Kochavim where the Rambam tells us that Avraham Avinu himself was originally an oveid avoda zara. Terach brought him up according to the prevalent beliefs in society and that Avraham Avinu initially was also an oveid avoda zara. Then the Rambam says he began to contemplate until he finally recognized Hakadosh Baruch Hu and then he began to be oveid Hashem. So Avraham Avinu was the one who discovered yichud Hashem, monotheism, and who also discovered derech Hashem of avodas Hashem. That was Avraham Avinu's, that's what Avraham Avinu did bein hayeter. Yitzchak Avinu is וישב יצחק ויחפר את בארת המים which had been dug in the days of Avraham Avinu. And the pshat is as follows: In terms of מעשה אבות סימן לבנים, in terms of the kochot hanefesh which Klal Yisrael collectively and individually would need b'meshech hadoros, so it isn't enough merely to be able to receive a masora. It's not enough just for Yitzchak to have maintained the wells—again, אותי עזבו מקור מים חיים—so mayim clearly the association Ramban says with the Beis Hamikdash, but also clearly with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. אותי עזבו מקור מים חיים—a well is mayim chayim, it's metayher b'zochalin, and mikvah. So it wasn't enough for Yitzchak Avinu merely to have maintained those same wells which Avraham Avinu had dug. If a person only receives his emunah from the previous generation, from his parents, from his rebeim, from ziknei hador, from whom, whomever it is, but basically it's a second-hand emunah. It's a second-hand emunah. So Yitzchak followed, but it was a second-hand type of emunah. It was because he had a trust and respect in his father. So mimeila his father told him such and such, and his father told him, "Here's a derech and avodas Hashem, such and such," and mimeila Yitzchak continued. That wouldn't have been enough. First of all, it's only second-hand. And second of all, eventually, eventually, the original momentum is lost and the emunah gets lost. Yitzchak Avinu had to create to continue what Avraham Avinu had done, so Yitzchak Avinu had to create and cultivate kochos hanefesh that the second generation, that each new generation should have a koach, should have a capacity to rediscover what the first generation did. And that Yitzchak Avinu's relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu had to be a direct one, an immediate one, not just through Avraham Avinu. Not just that he should receive Avraham Avinu's messorah and again, it's, it would be just elokei avoseinu, it would be that he had no immediate, personal relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu's yichus is that He's elokei avoseinu. Who's a משל למה הדבר דומה? Your parents have a friend. You don't really know the guy, you don't really know the guy. So who is he? So who is your friend? So he's your parent's friend, he's not really your friend. So you see him in the street, so you'll be courteous and you'll say hello to him, but it's certainly not the same relationship as if he were your friend. Ah, so maybe you'll invite him to your son's bar mitzvah, maybe you won't. But certainly by the time your son is making a simcha, he's not going to invite the guy, your zeide's friend already, it's too remote, it's too... as long as it's only second-hand and then third-hand and then fourth-hand, so with every generation it becomes weaker and weaker and weaker and eventually it gets lost, eventually it gets lost. Eventually it's סתמום פלשתים וימלאום עפר. But it doesn't mean, it doesn't mean chas veshalom, rachmana litzlan, that in every generation you look for a new Torah, rachmana litzlan. So it's Vayoshav Yitzchak, Yitzchak Avinu was the one who gave us the capacity to rediscover. Avraham Avinu had discovered Hakadosh Baruch Hu and had discovered the proper way to be oved Hashem. Yitzchak Avinu then gave the capacity that even if you have that beyerushah and even if you have that bimessorah, so he demonstrated the capacity to not only receive the messorah but to relive the messorah himself, to make the messorah first-hand rather than second-hand. Which be'emes is just what we say in shemoneh esrei every day, right? It's elokeinu veilokei avoseinu. It's not supposed to be, our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu isn't supposed to be only because of messorah. It's not supposed to be only because... because my father heard from his father heard from his father that they encountered Hakadosh Baruch Hu on yam suf or that they encountered Hakadosh Baruch Hu on ma'amad har Sinai. No, it's supposed to be, it's supposed to be that also, but it's also supposed to be elokeinu, that we experience Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We first-hand, we rediscover for ourselves what avoseinu and ultimately Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov discovered. But we're supposed to rediscover that. It's not supposed to be a second-hand type of emunah where it's only based on receiving a messorah, but rather within Torah, within Torah, we're supposed to, every one of us is supposed to experience Hakadosh Baruch Hu immediately, personally, and not just be relying on a. on an emunah which comes as a bequest from earlier generations. And l'chora that's the pshat in Vayashov Yitzchak Vayachpor. It doesn't mean that you have to create a new religion. It doesn't mean that you have to create, you have to change masorah, but it means you can't just receive masorah, but you have to relive the masorah. You have to experience it for yourself. You have to experience it for yourself, כאילו הוא יצא ממצרים. You have to experience it for yourself. The rediscovery doesn't mean change, but it just means to personalize it, that it should become first-hand rather than second-hand. And l'chora that's the pshat Vayitzchak. That's the pshat Vayitzchak. So now l'chora we can have some additional insight into the central role and position of tefillah within Yitzchak Avinu's life. Within Yitzchak Avinu's life. The pshat is as follows, what the Torah is telling us is the following message. That if a person is going to live a life, again, where he not only receives the masorah, but he relives it as well. It's not a second-hand emunah, but a first-hand emunah, which is so much more powerful and real and vivid and meaningful. So if he's going to live such a life, so then that life has to revolve around the axis of tefillah. Because tefillah is when a person, al pi din it's like that. Al pi din we know that tefillah is defined as lifnei Hashem. The famous Reb Chaim, that that's the maaseh mitzvah of tefillah. And if you don't have the kavanah of omeid lifnei Hashem, Reb Chaim says it's me'akev in all of tefillah, because that's what tefillah consists of, that a person is talking to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that a person is encountering Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When you take a lulav, you don't have to have a kavanah of lifnei Hashem. You don't have to have a kavanah of lifnei Hashem, as though you're standing in the palace and you've been granted a royal audience. You don't have to have that kavanah l'ikuva by lulav, by matzah. You don't have to have that kavanah l'ikuva by other mitzvos. But by tefillah you do. So tefillah more than anything else, avodah more than anything else, is where a person initially encounters Hakadosh Baruch Hu, where he meets Hakadosh Baruch Hu again, first-hand. You're all familiar with, the Rav used to say, it's written also, that the only difference between tefillah and nevuah is that nevuah is at the initiative, not the only difference, but the nevuah is at the initiative of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, tefillah is at the initiative of man. But either way it means that there's a conversation, lasuach, between us and Ribono Shel Olam. So that's the pshat Yitzchak Avinu whose avodah was to rediscover, whose avodah was to not only receive Avraham Avinu's masorah and live based on a second-hand knowledge and a second-hand experience, but to personalize that and make it a first-hand knowledge and first-hand experience. That's what the Torah tells us, his life revolved around tefillah. His life revolved around tefillah. And it was because of that axis of tefillah that he was able to create those kochos hanefesh for Klal Yisrael b'meshech kol hadoros for this capacity of וישב יצחק ויחפר את בארת המים אשר חפרו בימי אברהם אביו.
So it's a very important mussar haskel. One of the things, very, very important thing to be aware of while you're in yeshiva. There are many things in yeshiva which are not difficult, but once you leave yeshiva can become increasingly difficult. And sometimes because they're not difficult. It comes easy. Kevias itim l'Torah comes more or less easy. Okay. Maybe it's a nisayon not to cut an hour here, not to cut an hour there, but not to go a day without learning is easy. It's built into the schedule. It's built into the schedule, all the college classes are scheduled for the afternoon. It's easy. Tfilla, especially tfilla b'tzibbur is very easy here. It's very easy. There's no commuting. You're not pressed for time. You don't have to leave before the local minyan begins. The minyanim are available right in the building where you live and sleep. So it's not so difficult. It's not so difficult. It's not so difficult. And it's good, it should be that way. There's no reason a yeshiva's not supposed to make it difficult. However, one shouldn't be distracted from the fact that later, and puk chazi, unfortunately, people who go to yeshivas and then later they work long days and either they go to bed late so it's easier to take the extra ten minutes of sleep, or the extra ten minutes which tfilla b'tzibbur takes because of chazaras hashatz and such, becomes a big nisayon. It becomes a big nisayon. So the time to reinforce, tfilla is one of those ארבעה דברים שהם צריכים חיזוק, the Rambam says, which are tzricha chizuk, the time to reinforce the central place which tfilla has in our avodas Hashem and if tfilla has such a central place, so certainly, without getting into the question of whether tfilla b'tzibbur is a chiyuv or a hiddur, but certainly if tfilla is so central, so certainly zol zein that it's a hiddur, but certainly it's something which we want to do in the most perfect fashion possible. And it's very important to spend some time thinking and reflecting and training oneself that a day should begin with tfilla b'tzibbur because later on in life it becomes much more difficult. It does become much more difficult. And mistama there is a limud zchus on those who don't, but rather than in twenty years having to look back and trying to find a limud zchus, better now to try to be mischazek and the more one learns and understands about ma'alas hatfilla and koach hatfilla and the importance of tfilla, the more you just... the bottom line is: What does a person have time for? Let's say a person is a lawyer with a successful law firm. He works twelve hours a day, or he's an accountant and it's April 14th, or whatever field a person enters. So what does he have time for? What is there time for? So the answer is that there's always time for what's vital. For any life force, there's always time. And for what's a luxury, and for what isn't really vital, so then when things get very busy, there isn't enough time. And that's a fact. No matter how much work you have to do, people don't work around the clock for five consecutive days. They can't do it. It's impossible. Sleep is a vital need. So no matter how busy a person is, and no matter how much work he has and no matter how weighty his responsibilities, a person always makes a concession to vital needs. He doesn't go without eating. He may eat supper late and he may eat a sandwich in the office, but a person doesn't go without eating at all because eating is a vital need and no matter how busy you are and no matter how many demands there are on your time, you can't forgo something which is absolutely vital. So whatever a person... the Chafetz Chaim's hakdama to Mishna Berura, the comparison of mezon haguf and mezon hanefesh... whatever a person... objectively how crowded or busy his schedule is. A person who can't function on less than six hours sleep always finds time for six hours sleep. It doesn't matter how much work he has. The person who can function on four hours sleep but prefers six hours sleep sometimes will forgo those extra two hours because it's not vital for him. Aye, but they're both equally pressed, why does one guy find time for more sleep? The answer is because whatever is a vital need you just can't forgo, you don't forgo. So it's very important that especially in these years in yeshiva when you lay the groundwork and you lay the foundation that when you daven to stop for a minute and to reflect I'm not just davening because I have the chance, I'm davening because I absolutely need to because it's vital for my ruchnius, because it's vital for my ruchnius. The Baal Shem Tov is quoted as saying that everything he achieved in Torah, in Torah, was bizchus his avodas hatfilla, was bizchus his avodas hatfilla. So what we're saying now is not, there shouldn't be any misunderstanding, it's not against תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם, not against תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם. Notwithstanding what he was able to achieve in Torah was because of the person who he was, the beis kibul that he was, the receptacle and ultimately reservoir of Torah of yedias Hashem which he had.