Amidah: Refaeinu 3/4/10 Part Three
Transcribed and prepared by Chava Janovsky:
- Because if I daven the bracha of teshuvah only thinking for myself and then thinking about the things I need to do teshuvah for, it is a long list but still only thinking about myself. Therefore it may not include levels of teshuvah that other people have to do
- Same idea with daas bracha – if I daven for level of daas that I need… Let’s say I am stuck on a Gemorrah and can’t sleep. So the next morning I will daven desperately for the daas to understand the gemorrah- if I am only focused on this understanding of this particular gemorrah I am certainly not taking into consideration the needs for the different levels of daas – the degrees of levels of– wisdom and understanding and awareness we spoke about that are necessary for other people
- Story: Used to sleep in grandparents house and used to be there to take care of their needs in middle of night if they needed something. One night in the middle of the night he heard his grandfather pacing around angry up and down and went out to look and his grandfather looked like he was in a frenzy . So Rabbi Weinberg looks at him and asks “what’s wrong” and his grandfather says “I have a kasha on a Tosefos – I have been learning this for 70 years and I never asked this kasha before? How is it possible that I never understood it before?” Rabbi Weinberg said “yeah, it’s a terrible things (not understanding); why doesn’t Zadi go to sleep and will get the answer in the morning” his grandfather looked at him like he was crazy and started pacing again and Rabbi Weinberg went to bed thinking “nebech… (sarcastic)”About an hour later he woke up and heard his grandparent’s voices in the kitchen. He gets up and saw his grandfather wearing a suit and tie and Shabbos shoes and sees his grandmother in high heels, a Shabbos dress, and a shaitel… and they were both drinking a l’chaim over orange juice – very romantic. So RW asked “what’s going on?” – his grandfather said he got an answer to the kasha – so when his grandfather went to bedroom, his grandmother said nu? and he told her he got the answer. So she didn’t just say “I am happy for you,” She got up and washed negilvasser and got all dressed up because he got the answer. So when his grandfather davened for daas it was probably a little different from the way most of us daven; he had a little deeper appreciation for the information he needed
- Therefore, now we have to understand that this applies to every bracha that is plural. The only reason we focus on the personal because that is the key to begin to relate to the power of the tefillah. But that’s it . But not hash vishalom to say this is definition of tefillah
- This means that every level we have spoken about-and we have done each one on at least 3 level, each one we need to take to a whole new level; have to take then each one and then reformulate into the plural