The mitzvah is based off of a Ramban for listing tefillah b'chol yom as a mitzvah assei de'oraysa. So he then has to relate to the drashas Chazal, the Gemara in Taanis, the Sifrei that the Rambam quotes. The Ramban suggests two approaches. One approach is that those but they're not intended as drashos. They're only intended as asmachtas. And the Ramban's other approach is no, that they taka are drashos, but not drashos which establish mitzvah tefillah as a daily mitzvah de'oraysa, but rather davka b'eis tzarah. That the Ramban according to this approach agrees that b'eis tzarah, tefillah is a mitzvah de'oraysa and his contention, his point of contention with the Rambam is but not b'chol yom. So margala befumei, the Rav used to say, k'midomei that he wrote it in at least one place also, that he thinks that once the Ramban conceded that tefillah b'eis tzarah is de'oraysa, so he gave away the store to the Rambam and because the Rambam would tell us that every day is an eis tzarah. Ad kan devarav. So at first glance one certainly could think that the Rav intended that sort of on the level of machshava, that perspective on the machlokes the Rambam and the Ramban. But k'midomei he didn't mean it only on that level. To the Rambam writes in פרק א' הלכה ב' of hilchos tefillah: וחיוב מצוה זו כך הוא שיהא אדם מתפלל ומתחנן בכל יום ומגיד שבחו של הקדוש ברוך הוא ואחר כך שואל צרכיו שהוא צריך להם בבקשה ובתחינה ואחר כך נותן שבח והודיה להשם על הטובה שהשפיע לו כל אחד ואחד כפי כוחו.
So the lashon haRambam is אחר כך שואל צרכיו or צרכיו שהוא צריך להם which obviously the arichus is glaring. אחר כך שואל צרכיו. It's a tautology. By definition, tzrachim are shehu tzarach lahem. Ela mai, what the Rambam is saying is אחר כך שואל צרכיו שהוא צריך להם. That a person has to feel the neediness, a person has to experience the neediness and the helplessness. That's the state of mind, the state of being that a person has when he's mispallel. And that's the lemaise, that's what the Rav was saying in his he'arah about the Ramban. I think this point will perhaps be deepened, our appreciation will be deepened if we try to understand a little bit more the leshonos haRambam here and perhaps our understanding of tefillah in general as well. So let's reread rabbosai: וחיוב מצוה זו כך הוא שיהא אדם מתפלל ומתחנן בכל יום ומגיד שבחו של הקדוש ברוך הוא ואחר כך שואל צרכיו שהוא צריך להם בבקשה ובתחינה ואחר כך נותן שבח והודיה להשם על הטובה שהשפיע לו כל אחד ואחד כפי כוחו.
What's so challenging here is that introductory phrase שיהא אדם מתפלל ומתחנן. It seems unnecessary because lemaise the mitzvas tefillah is shvach bakasha vehoda'ah, which the Rambam proceeds to describe, to specify. We wouldn't have noticed anything missing if the Rambam would have said וחיוב מצוה זו כך הוא שיהא אדם בכל יום מגיד שבחו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אחר כך שואל צרכיו
etc. What's that introductory מתפלל ומתחנן בכל יום? What it means to be mispallel umischanen is to be... Magid shvacho, sho’el tzrachav, and nosein shevach vehodaya. So why say it twice? Why say it twice? Let's begin by trying to understand what each of those two verbs of mispallel umischanen means. In the pasuk in Parshas Vayechi where Yaakov Avinu says to Yosef ראו פניך לא פללתי, so both Onkelos and Rashi explain that it's a lashon machshava. That the shoresh pey lamed lamed is a lashon machshava: לא מילאני לבי לחשוב. In light of that, the pashtus is that the lashon of lehispalel is a lashon lachshov ulehisbonen. That, that understanding of the again the semantics of the word and the essence of the mitzvah is reinforced by the fact that apparently the Rambam understands the phrase avoda shebalev to mean service of Hakadosh Baruch Hu which is accomplished al yedei machshava. Lev in this context as it often, by no means exclusively, but as it often means, not connoting the heart, but connoting moach and machshava. As the Rambam understands the pasuk of ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם, it means not to think recklessly, not to let one's mind wander in an undisciplined way. So חיוב מצוה זו כך הוא שיהא אדם מתפלל. So mispallel translates as chochev umisbonen, מתבונן בהקדוש ברוך הוא. What does mischanen mean? So the Rambam elsewhere indicates his agreement with what Rashi tells us in the beginning of Parshas Va'eschanan that lehischanen means to ask for matnas chinam. Rambam says that in lashon hakodesh chanina means when one gives to someone when that person has no claim. Yaakov Avinu says הילדים אשר חנן אלקים את עבדך. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave me, he gave me a gift. I have no claim. Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't didn't owe me anything, says Yaakov Avinu. So lehischanen means to davven in a way, to be mevakesh in a way that we're asking for matnas chinam. An awareness that, that whatever we're asking for is begeder matnas chinam. There's no entitlement, Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't doesn't owe us anything. Lichora, the a little bit of the omek hadavar is as follows rabosai: היכי הדרך לאהבתו ויראתו בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו ובברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים ויראה מהם חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ מיד הוא אוהב ומשבח ומפאר ומתאוה תאוה גדולה לידע השם הגדול כמה שאמר דוד צמאה נפשי לאלקים לקל חי וכשמחשב בדברים האלו עצמן מיד הוא נרתע לאחוריו ויירא ויפחד וידע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפילה עומדת בדעת קלה מעוטה לפני תמים דעות כמו שאמר דוד כי אראה שמיך וגומר מה אנוש כי תזכרנו וגומר.
Hevei omeir that hisbonenus engenders within a person a profound sense of hachna'a and shiflus. So how the lashon haRambam is nifla, yispallel and then mimaila if a person is first mispallel, he's first chochev umisbonen. from Aleph through Tav is be'geder matnas chinam. Yitachen that what the Rambam means is as follows: that שיהיה אדם מתפלל ומתחנן means that's the essence of the mitzvah. The essence of the mitzvah is that hisbonenus, a hisbonenus which then translates into bakasha for matnas chinam. The format, that's what the core of the mitzvah is. That's what the essence of the mitzvah is. That expression and acknowledgment and reinforcement of the awareness of shiflus, of afsus, by asking, by asking as a matnas chinam. Right, Chazal say that when a person is nitzrach labriyos, so panav mishtanos. There's nothing which is which lowers a person more than to have to ask. ואל תצריכנו לא לידי מתנת בשר ודם ולא לידי הלוואתם,
we we implore Hakadosh Baruch Hu that we shouldn't have to have that experience vis-à-vis bnei adam, but we're supposed to have that experience vis-à-vis Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Oh, so the pshat is like this: שיהיה אדם מתפלל ומתחנן, that's the mitzvah. Ela mai? Darash Rav Simlai, לעולם יסדר אדם שבחו של מקום ואחר כך יתפלל. To yispalel in that context means the bakasha o techina. It's used variably. A person can't even, even when the the mindset of bakasha is techina, is a recognition and acknowledgment that anything and everything we ask for is a matnas chinam, but even then, a person can't just begin with Ribbono shel Olam, choneinu, hashivenu. A person has to begin, לעולם יסדר אדם שבחו של מקום. And then as Rabbeinu Manoach shtels tzu here on on on this mishna, excuse me, on this halacha from the mishna and the and the braisa in the last perek in Brachos, that a person should always be צועק על העתיד ונותן הודיה לשעבר. When a person asks, when there's bakasha le'haba, so that's mechayev in hoda'ah lashavar. So lich'ora, that that's that's the pshat the Rambam: שיהיה אדם מתפלל ומתחנן, that's the mitzvah. The form and format in which that mitzvah is carried out and executed is מגיד שבחו של הקדוש ברוך הוא ואחר כך שואל צרכיו ואחר כך נותן שבח והודיה.
And lich'ora a little bit more also: the mispallel u'mischanen is not limited, the mispallel and mischanen, the avodah shebalev isn't constricted to again the shevach, bakasha, and hoda'ah of the Amida. Integral to tefillah is the אשרי יושבי ביתך עוד יהללוך סלה, the hachana, the yeshev me'at, and the machshava beforehand. And we know Chazal tell us אם רגיל לומר תחנונים אחר תפלתו, that the tachanunim also can spill over. So the fact that the tachanunim spill over, the fact that that that the yachshov kodem... Again also reflect and this also also expressed by the Rambam אם יהא אדם מתפלל ומתחנן. At some point the mispallel umischanen also has to translate into that structure of shevach bakasha vehodaah, but it's not exhausted by that, it's not limited to that. The mispallel, the machshavos beforehand as well and the mischanen, the ragil lomar tachanunim continues afterwards as well. Lemaise what emerges if if we would davven properly each of the three tefillos and again obviously to davven properly entails devoting the adequate time for the yeishev meat and adequate time to davven at a pace that allows the words to be said meaningfully. Every tefillah mispallel umischanen should be inspiring and humbling. The experience of davvening should be one that's inspiring, mispallel, a person is thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu and humbling, umischanen. Every tefillah, again tefillah in the broader sense including the the hachanah and the actual tefillah, every tefillah would be a reinforcement in terms of tikkun hamiddos, the crucial key mida being one one of anavah. Not simply a a sort of self-contained compartmentalized mitzvah because if if only we would be successful in being mispallel umischanen it it reinforces, helps engender, helps reinforce an orientation, a mindset that that we should always be looking to sustain.