Tanya Last Essays Number 8
The Alter Rebbe says that he’s not happy to hear that they don’t allow the chazan that prays leisurely to lead the prayer service.
Praying leisurely creates life & long life. If the שליח ציבור prays leisurely he creates life & long life for the whole community. As the Talmud says that there are 3 things that create long life & one praying leisurely.
If your in a rush it’s better for the chazan to pray slowly to grant everyone a long life even though you will have to leave early & miss קדושה וברכו.
Since you need to leave early your considered a אונס and would exempt & the chazan can have you in mind in his prayers and it would be as if you fully participated in the service. As the Talmud tells us of the community out in the fields that cant make it synagogue that the big synagogue exempts them thru their prayers.
In the times of the Mishna & Talmud when the main avoda was learning Torah they still prayed leisurely. Now before Moshiach arrival Rabbi Chaim Vital says our main Avodah is Prayer how much more so do we need to pray leisurely.
Praying leisurely is actually a biblical obligation for those that know how to meditate each according to their abilities the time that it takes to create Awe & love in his or her heart for Hashem.
The meditation takes place during פסוקי דזמרה & the 2 blessing before Shema יוצר ואהבת עולם as we praise Hashem so that when we say the verse ואהבת in Shema the love that is concealed should be felt in a revealed way as that is the Mitzvah of ואהבת בכל לבבך as that is the source that inspires all the other 248 positive Mitzvot as the Rambam writes that in order to fulfill all Mitzvot with truth one needs to feel true Love for Hashem.
The biblical commandment of ואהבת that is the biblical commandment to pray leisurely & with meditation, to awaken & reveal the hidden love for Hashem.
As you can’t command to love so the Magid of Mezritch explains that the commandment is on the meditation. שמע ישראל we need to meditate that ה אלקינו ה אחד than we are assured that we will love Hashem.
On the inner love that we all have for Hashem there is no need for a commandment as we love Hashem in that level. The commandment is to reveal it in the G-Dly soul, as well to reveal it in the natural soul where there it did not even exist in a concealed way.
When we reveal the love for Hashem to the natural soul that operates our life we elevate the sparks as the purpose of prayer is to elevate the sparks thru the avodah of אתהפכא or אתכפי of the נפש החיונית to the נפש אלקית.
As the blood is the soul & the life of the person, the Blood gets renewed everyday by the food & drink that we consume, we are also effected by our clothing & house that we live in. So when we use it for the נפש אלקית וקדושה that is the בירור הניצוצות that happens when our love for Hashem is revealed during Prayer. Therefore it is important to pray leisurely & meditate to bring out the love for Hashem.
However in previous generations that had high level souls they were able to create that level of level of level by praying without the leisure pace & meditation.
Live Tanya Class at Chabad Thursday Evening at 6:30P.M.
A Project of Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida 5620 Winkler Road Fort Myers, FL 33919 239-433-7708 www.Chabadswf.org[email protected]
A Special thanks to Warren Kahminsky for Video Taping the Class
