So we spoke two weeks ago of Avraham taking to Shacharit שנאמר וישכם אברהם בבקר אל המקום אשר עמד שם ואין עמידה אלא תפילה שנאמר ויעמד פינחס ויפלל.
We suggested then that just as the pesukim which teach us about the takkanos of Yitzchak and Yaakov Avinu tell us not only about the fact that they were mistakein the tefillah, but also about the substance of the tefillah, the tziuras ha-tefillah, that Yitzchak Avinu engaged in sicha, Yaakov Avinu engaged in pegia, so clearly amida isn't only telling us the posture which Avraham Avinu adopted. So we suggested then al pi what the Mechaber basically Shulchan Aruch following the Tur, התפילה היא במקום קרבן ולכך צריך ליזהר שתהא דוגמת הקרבן,
and one of the things the Mechaber mentions is me'umad dumya de-avoda. So that tefillah as amida represents tefillah bemakom korban. That's what we suggested then. Vechol haraya to that understanding that when אל המקום אשר עמד שם means that the tefillah of Avraham Avinu was a tefillah betoras korban. A raya to that understanding, the Gemara in Berachos in vav amud beis says שכל הקובע מקום לתפלתו אלוהי אברהם בעזרו. If a person has a makom kavua for davening, it says a segulah that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should answer his tefillos. ואברהם אבינו מנלן דקבע מקום? How do we know that Avraham Avinu himself had a makom kavua for davening? דכתיב וישכם אברהם בבקר אל המקום אשר עמד שם. Meaning vayashkem Avraham baboker, he got up that morning and he went to the same place where he had stood the previous day. So Avraham Avinu had a makom kavua for tefillah. Fine. So if someone asks us what's the makom, what's the inyan to have a makom kavua, the answer is Avraham Avinu, a makom kavua. Take a look in Shulchan Aruch and you ask the Mechaber what's the inyan of having a makom kavua for tefillah? So the same sif here in Shulchan Aruch ninety-eight again התפילה היא במקום קרבן ולכך צריך ליזהר שתהא דוגמת הקרבן בכוונה ולא יערב בה מחשבה אחרת כמו מחשבה שפוסל בקדשים ומעומד דומיא דעבודה וקביעת מקום כמו הקרבן שכל אחד קבוע מקומו לשחיטתו ומתן דמו.
So in Shulchan Aruch it says that the inyan of a makom kavua, kvi'as makom, is that also is a reflection of the fact that tefillah bemakom korban, the same way there were mekomos kavua assigned for the shechita and for the matan dam of the korban, so too when a person engages in tefillah. The Gemara says that the source for kvi'as makom is Avraham Avinu. אלא מאי הם הם הדברים that Avraham Avinu's tefillah was takeh betoras korban, because Avraham Avinu's tefillah was אל המקום אשר עמד שם, that's exactly the way we understood Avraham Avinu's tefillah, and mimela since Avraham Avinu's tefillah was, again, he was emphasizing, he was underscoring this element of betoras korban, betoras avoda, so mimela Avraham Avinu also is the one who established the precedent for kvi'as makom and that's what the Mechaber says, that kvi'as makom has to do with the fact that tefillah bemakom korban. What does it mean that the tefillah is bemakom korban? So I think the way we understood this was based on the Ramban in Vayikra aleph-tes where the Ramban says that when a person is makriv a korban, he's supposed to feel and see as though it's his dam which is being nizrak on the mizbe'ach, as though whatever is muktar gabai mizbe'ach, you should feel as though it's his chelbo which is being muktar gabai mizbe'ach. Tefillah on the other hand is supposed to express a sense of hisbatlus before Hakadosh Baruch Hu. and reinforces his awareness of his absolute dependence upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that his very existence is through Hakadosh Baruch Hu and that hisbatlus is the equivalent of korban. Okay. So let's proceed from there and try to maybe get a little bit more understanding into this equation of tefilla bimkom korban, into the significance of the fact that Avraham Avinu is the one who instituted and introduced this to the world. First of all, just in terms of what we discussed until now about tefilla representing hisbatlus and that being especially the bechina of Amida. So I saw that Rav Pinkus in his sefer She'arim B'tefilla on Amida so he says the lashon he says is as follows: שכל עצמו ומציאותו בטלים הם להקדוש ברוך הוא. And that Amida is hora'ah, let's say if you imagine a soldier standing at attention before the commanding officer, so what does it mean when they stand perfectly still at attention before the commanding officer, so it's הוראה על ביטול עצמו וכל ענייניו כלפי העומד לפניו. That's what it means, that he's standing at attention ready to take orders, meaning that he's totally kafuf, batel, mevutal to him before whom he stands and that's what the very posture of Amida also bespeaks this inyan of hisbatlus. Let's begin again sort of leaving aside for the moment the equation of tefilla and korban but just to understand a little bit avodas hakorbanos. Avodas hakorbanos is something which we have great difficulty relating to. And the difficulty is probably the result of A, sometimes even if we don't understand a mitzvah but from having practiced the mitzvah, from having been mekayeim the mitzvah, so we've felt and experienced a certain ta'am in the mitzvah. So even if we can't explain, can't really explain the mitzvah but the mitzvah has a ta'am. So obviously we don't have the benefit of that ta'am when it comes to korbanos. And then it's compounded by the fact that intellectually it's hard to understand why shachting a shor say and then shpritzing the dam on the mizbe'ach is such a davar העומד ברומו של עולם, it's something that we have difficulty understanding. So let's begin as follows. The Ramban in Vayikra alef tes just comments on the etymology of the word korban, korbanos and says וכל קרבן לשון קריבה ואחדות. Means to come close and be unified. That's what the lashon korban means. So what does that mean? Again, how do we generate, how do we create this keriva v'achdus by shachting a shor say? So lichora the pshat is as follows. Everything stems from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Everything, everything issued forth from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Everything is totally absolutely dependent upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Everything belongs to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Everything was created lichvodo, likvod shamayim. Whatever a person takes for himself, for himself, for his own without redeeming or elevating, whatever a person takes for himself, so by definition he distances the world and himself from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The source of everything is in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. If I take something just for myself, just for my own selfish interests, so by definition I'm distancing that, distancing that from Hakadosh Baruch Hu and distancing myself from Hakadosh Baruch Hu as well. The inyan of korbanos is that we reconnect and as it were we return things to their source. Again one is mekasher and one is machazir devarim limkoram and that's what the inyan of korbanos is. The mishna says in Zvachim, the mishna has a rule, so first the mishnayos first give a rule if you have a line of which korbanos should be makriv first. So the first rule the mishna tells us is the rule of tadir veshe'eino tadir. And then after that the mishna in Zvachim has a rule about כל המקודש מחברו קודם לחברו. That if if one korban has a greater kedusha than the other one, so when you're waiting on line, the one with the higher kedusha takes precedence. So the mishna says, so let's say you have evarei olah and imurei chatas. So the mishna says that since the evarei olah are part of something which is kalil, or something which is totally burnt al gabei mizbeach, whereas the imurei chatas, so the basar is being ne'echal lekohanim, so it's only part of the animal is being קרב על גבי מזבח, so the mishna says that evarei olah are mekudash versus imurei chatas. So if you're waiting on line to either maktir evarei olah on the mizbeach or to maktir imurei chatas on the mizbeach, you're going to be maktir the evarei olah first. Why? Because that's exactly the idea we're talking about that the whole inyan of a korban is again that we connect things back to the source, that as it were we return things back to their source, back to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Everything belongs to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, everything is from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, everything is lichvodo nivra. A person takes that korban and and that's how the hakravas hakorbanos creates this kiruv ve'achdus that the Ramban talks about because what other expression or what fuller expression can there be of connecting things to their source than to take a korban, to take an olah and give it totally to Hakadosh Baruch Hu? Lechora, this idea that we're developing is maybe the superficial meaning, the nigleh of the nistar that the Ramban has. The Ramban, the same Ramban in Vayikra quotes, he says ובתחלת תורת כהנים רבי יוסי אומר כל מקום שנאמר קרבן אמור ביהוד קיי
meaning אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן לה'. Throughout the parsha of korbanos the Torah employs davka the name י-ה-ו-ה. The Torah doesn't employ Elokim, doesn't employ Keil, doesn't employ any of the other shemos of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, davka the name of י-ה-ו-ה. ובתחלת תורת כהנים רבי יוסי אומר כל מקום שנאמר קרבן אמור ביהוד קיי.
Further on the Ramban says כי הכוונה להשם לבדו תהיה רק לשם המיוחד and then he quotes another drasha of the Toras Kohanim: לה' למי ששמי שעשה את העולם. So ad kan devarav. So what does it mean? Lechora as follows: all the names of Hakadosh Baruch Hu express different midos that we perceive in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's interaction with the world. So Elokim as as Rashi tells us is a lashon din. Keil is a lashon either of chozek or chessed, חסד אל כל היום. So each each name expresses a mida of that we perceive not in Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself, but rather in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's interaction with the world. י-ה-ו-ה is different in that י-ה-ו-ה is the shem which the sefarim, Nefesh Hachaim and others tell us, ultimately it's it's a lashon chazal, is the shem through which Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world. So it's not only the other shemos express again midos that we perceive in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's interaction with the world, it's within the world, י-ה-ו-ה expresses it's it's the Nefesh Hachaim, I think we actually spoke about this once in שער א פרק ב talks about it, י-ה-ו-ה is the shem through which Hakadosh Baruch Hu actually created the world, the shem ובתורת כהנים לה' לשם מי ש. The pshat again, that the inyan of korbanos is, inyan of korbanos is that the world was created, that was a gradual hishtalshelus. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created, created worlds which increasingly became less spiritual and more physical. And our avoda is to try to go back up that ladder and and return things to their source and come close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's what a korban represents. So basically the korban, the korban speaks again to brias ha-olam. The korban is is is a testimony to brias ha-olam meaning that everything is from Ribbono Shel Olam and and and the korban is the ultimate expression of trying to return and reconnect everything to to its rightful source. Yitachen that that's why the first drasha that the Ramban quotes in the Toras Kohanim, Abba Yosei says כל מקום שנאמר קרבן אמר ביה and doesn't even spell out the entire shem ha-meforash, referring to the comment of chazal have on the pasuk of כי ביה ה' צור עולמים that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world with a yud and and with a hei. So that's again the inyan of korbanos. Now, Rosh Hashana time we we all we all review the very penetrating comment of Rav Yisroel Salanter. Rav Yisroel Salanter is is quoted as having said that on Rosh Hashana when we're ממליך הקדוש ברוך הוא over the entire bria, we shouldn't forget to be ממליך הקדוש ברוך הוא over ourselves. עד כאן דברי קדשו. To transpose that in our context, it's all fine and good to to take the shor, take the seh, return it to its source. And and that's again it's la-Hashem levado, לשם מי שעשה העולם. And and and a sense again of of recognizing and raising the world and connecting it to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Everything is from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so all that's fine and good but but what about ourselves? How where is the hiskashrus that a person has to Hakadosh Baruch Hu through avodas korbanos? So there is a very very fundamental comment of the Sforno beginning of Vayikra on the pasuk of אדם כי יקריב מכם. The Sforno writes, כי יקריב מכם כי יקריב מעצמכם that a person sacrifices from himself בוידוי דברים והכנעה על דרך ונשלמה פרים שפתינו וכאמרו זבחי אלהים רוח נשברה כי אין חפץ בכסילים המקריבים בלתי הכנעה קודמת.
So the Sforno says here a tremendous yesod. Sforno says, what is it or how is it again whether with the Ramban's understanding of korbanos, how is it that you take a shor or seh and that's some kind of vicarious way of being mivatel oneself to Hakadosh Baruch Hu? How is it that you take a shor or seh and that's a way of showing again that we recognize that hakol me'ito yisbarach and therefore everything in the world has to be lichvodo yisbarach? So how is it that that's a legitimate expression? Says the Sforno only if as a t'nai kodem lama'aseh when a person is bringing the korban there's this sense of hachna'a and this sense of זבחי אלהים רוח נשברה so when a person with a sense of hachna'a with a sense of his own hisbatlus with an אדם כי יקריב מכם so then what the avoda that he does on the shor or seh is takeh an expression of bringing everything close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu of using everything leshem shamayim. There's a fascinating medrash also at the beginning of Vayikra Rabba. The medrash says as follows. ובאיל הוא עומד צפונה לפני השם. התורה says that it's shechted in the tzafon. So the simple pshat in tzafon is north. בשעה שעקד אברהם אבינו את יצחק בנו, התקין הקדוש ברוך הוא שני כבשים, אחד של שחרית ואחד של ערבית.
Vechol kach lama? Beshaa sheyihyu Yisrael, o shehayu Yisrael, מקריבים תמיד על גבי המזבח, וקורא את המקרא הזה צפונה לפני השם, זוכר הקדוש ברוך הוא עקדת יצחק.
The meforshim in Vayikra Rabbah explain that Chazal are darshing tzafon as being not only a lashon of north, but also hatzofe, anochi hatzofe to see. And it says that whenever we're makriv the tmidim, so Hakodesh Baruch Hu as it were sees Akeidas Yitzchak. So what's the idea? The idea is exactly what we said. The avodas hakorbanos has to be rooted in a person's willingness and genuine sense of hisbatlus. The avodas hakorbanos is built on the foundation of the Akeida. Because of the Akeida, the ultimate expression of personal sacrifice, so it's that, it's that on that foundation, then you can go and you're makriv and then that's an expression of and creates kriva ve'achdus. Or in other words, the emes is that even avodas hakorbanos itself really rests on a foundation of tfila. Tfila in the lashon of Seforno, not Shmone Esrei necessarily, but vidui devarim. Or the Rambam says that the Rambam writes in Maaseh Hakorbanos that at the same time that if a person were being makriv a chatas, so yirae li that if he's being makriv a shelamim, so then a person says divrei halal vehodaa. Divrei halal vehodaa. So the emes is that unless the avodas hakorbanos rests on a foundation again of a tfila, be it in the form of vidui, be it in the form of divrei halal vehodaa, so the avodas hakorbanos isn't worth anything anyway. So devarim kitikunam, so the way Hakodesh Baruch Hu created the world, Hakodesh Baruch Hu wants that whatever we do in this olam hamaaseh, there should be some kind of physical concrete expression to what we're doing. So the best way to sort of glimpse this mida is all the nevuos in Sefer Yechezkel. All the nevuos in Sefer Yechezkel. So Hakodesh Baruch Hu is telling him kach etz echad and write ktov alav leYehuda and all these all these nevuos that Yechezkel has to act things out. So vas epis that he has to act things out? So teretz is that's how Hakodesh Baruch Hu created the world. This is a mida of the hanhaga of the bria. Hakodesh Baruch Hu created the world that there should be some concrete physical tangible expression for things. It's an olam hamaaseh that we inhabit and memila there has to be an asiya. There has to be again some concrete physical expression. So avodas hakorbanos there has to be a hachna'a, there has to be a vidui, but then Hakodesh Baruch Hu says you have the concrete expression. And the concrete expression is then you consecrate the animal and you give it כולו להקדוש ברוך הוא. The idea of tfila bimkom korban is when Hakodesh Baruch Hu says when that's impossible, when we don't have the not only when that's impossible, but the equivalent thereof after expressing not only when tfila bimkom korban is even even when the Beis Hamikdash stands, it has that dimension as well. That when a person again on the foundation of a hachna'ah, right, in the mishna in the fifth perek of Ein Omdin אלא מתוך כובד ראש, so Rashi says hachna'ah. The same, the same foundation which the Sforno says you need for avodas korbanos, Rashi says you need for tefilla. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu says that the act of tefilla is the equivalent of the act of hakravas korbanos. That Avraham Avinu is misakein Shachris, that Avraham Avinu is misakein tefilla which emphasizes this aspect of bimkom korban. So the pshat is the same way it was Avraham Avinu's willingness to be makriv Yitzchak which empowers our avodas hakorbanos, so the emes is it's that same willingness to be makriv Yitzchak which empowers our avodas hatefilla. Because again, the tefilla, the avodas hakorbanos ultimately is there's a certain symbolism to the hisbatlus. It's not an actual hisbatlus. By the Akeida, so Avraham Avinu was on the verge of an actual hisbatlus, an actual hisbatlus. So it's that koach the same way the Midrash says Sefuna lifnei Hashem, that why are the korbanos tamid miskabel? Because they're miskabel again as a gesture, as an expression of hisbatlus because Avraham Avinu was actually misbatel. So too אברהם אבינו תיקן שחרית. The tefilla again which underscores bimkom korban, the tefilla of amida because Avraham Avinu again actually was misbatel. So mimmela, it's that which empowers the tefilla. Lichora, lichora, that which would certainly be an understanding in the minhag quoted in siman aleph of Shulchan Aruch of saying the parsha of the Akeida. That the emes is that the whole parsha of the Akeida provides the basis for our tefilla. That it's that again, the willingness, the willingness to actually go through with an Akeida which is really the foundation and what underlies tefilla. And finally, one last comment. Avraham Avinu introduced this as tefillas Shachris. The Radak has a comment. There are some other elements to this, to his comment that we're not focusing on now. רבותינו סמכו לזה כי אברהם תיקן תפילת שחרית דכתיב וישכם ואין עמידה אלא תפילה שנאמר ויעמוד פינחס ויפלל, ו
u'peireish, this is the Radak commenting on the ma'amar Chazal שלימד לבני אדם שראוי להתפלל בשחרית ולהודות לקל על האור ולהתפלל קודם שיצא לעסוקיו.
Before a person does anything else, he has to daven, right? The Gemara in Berachos about שתהא תפילתי סמוכה למיטתי. A person should daven first thing. What's the pshat? The pshat is as follows. Let's say a person is in business for himself. Okay, fine. So whatever, whatever profits accrue based on his work, he's entitled to. He's entitled to. Let's say after, after being freelancing and being self-employed for a while he accepts, he accepts a position. So now it's understood that whatever profit he generates while during business hours, while he's salaried, so now those profits no longer accrue to him, but they accrue to his boss. They accrue to the company. And what happens if he not only becomes an employee of a company, what happens if he becomes an eved? So then everything he does twenty-four seven accrues to the adon. So the pshat is like this. A person gets up in the morning, again שתהא תפילתי סמוכה למיטתי, and he davens first thing in the morning. So again, it's an act of hisbatlus. That's what it should be. Act of hisbatlus. And an act of recognizing that everything is from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, everything exists through Hakadosh Baruch Hu, everything belongs to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, everything should be consecrated to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's what a korban is, especially a korban olah, and that's what the hisbatlus of tefilla is supposed to be. If a person really experiences that in tefilla, if a person really succeeds in making that statement in his tefilla, so then mimmela it provides context for everything he does throughout the course of the day. So then the pshat is, the same way, the same way the eved by virtue of the fact that he was nikna, or by virtue of the fact let's say that on a daily basis he's a sechir yom, by virtue of the fact that this morning he signed on to work for the day, so by virtue of that, so that provides a context and it directs everything he does. And that's the inyan of Vayashkem Avraham Baboker, that Avraham Avinu again to provide this context for his entire avoda, so that the act of korban, the act of hisbatlus was baboker, so that everything, his entire, his entire day subsequently would all be in that context and against that background.