Transcript
Siddur snippets, series of snippets sponsored by the Sacker family and sponsored as well by Ayala and Avraham Forman. The final snippet for the tenth bracha of the Amidah. תקע בשופר גדול לחרותנו, the bracha of Kibbutz Galuyos. Last night we spoke about the four corners, Arba Kanfot Ha'aretz, they're being gathered from those four corners to Eretz Yisrael, to Israel. That means Israel is the center of the universe. It's not one of the corners, it is the center of the universe. The bracha concludes with the words ברוך אתה ה' מקבץ נדחי עמו ישראל. Mekabetz, what tense is that in? Mekabetz is lashon hoveh. It's not past, not future, it's present tense. Mekabetz, God is gathering in those dispersed among the nations. הרב שמעון שוואב זצ"ל points out that it's in the present tense because Geulah's not binary. Geulah doesn't go, you don't go from exile to being redeemed. It happens incrementally, it happens in stages, there is progress towards it and it's happening all the time. It's unfolding all the time. Hashem's divine master plan is constantly unfolding. So Hashem is mekabetz, He's not in the future going to, He is in the present very much being mekabetz in real time. The daled leshonos of Geulah that we read about last week, the Netziv points out are not four synonyms of Geulah, they're four languages. They represent four stages, incremental. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is Geulah, redemption is constantly in progress, it's constantly unfolding, it's constantly happening in real time. Nidchei, the term nidchei, מקבץ נדחי עמו ישראל. We mentioned why last night was why amo Yisrael as opposed to Re'eina b'onyenu that simply ends goel Yisrael. Why amo? But what about the word nidchei? What does the word nidchei mean? Anyone? Nidchei means, so I'll give you a hint, it comes from a pasuk in ישעיה פרק כז קפיטל כז. ובאו האובדים בארץ אשור והנידחים בארץ מצרים. Those who are lost in Ashur and those who are dispersed, those who are scattered, those who are in Mitzrayim will return to Yerushalayim. Hanidachim means those who have previously been lost. Been lost can mean a lot of things and here is a fifth or sixth understanding or kavana for this bracha of Tka beshofar. It can mean lost in their Yiddishkeit. According to Rav Chaim Friedlander, Mashgiach of Ponevezh, the Sifsei Chaim, it can mean nidchei doesn't just mean physically or geographically dispersed or scattered, it means the Jews are scattered all over America. Think about where we live, one of the most densely Jewishly populated areas outside of Israel in the world, more than fifty percent of the residents of Boca Raton are Jewish. We're talking what's the number, Boca? 175,000 Jews are dispersed around Boca, but more than ninety percent are unaffiliated, more than ninety percent are not connected to their Judaism, their Yiddishkeit in a meaningful way. They are, they are nidchei, they are the nidchei. They are lost in their Judaism and they are scattered and they are spread out and we daven to Hashem but we also have to take our hishtadlus and do our part to ingather, to bring together. So this bracha, Tka beshofar, the bracha of Kibbutz Galuyos is not only a hope, a wish, a dream, a request and an ask for a physical gathering from the four corners of the earth to Eretz Yisrael, to Yerushalayim, to Makom haMikdash, to Kodesh Hakodashim, but it's also spiritually those souls who are lost, those who spiritually are scattered, that we're brought together. But I'll give you one final kavana, our closing snippet for this bracha. And it comes from Rav Yonasan Eibeshutz, the Ya'aros Devash. He says the following: Hashem brings together not only separate individuals, disparate peoples who are spread out, but part of Galus is when we ourselves are fragmented. When we feel we have multiple personalities, when we feel we're pulled apart, there's the me in shul, there's the me at work, there's the me with these friends, there's the me with those friends, there's who I want to be and who I really am. We're dispersed, we're broken apart, we're in pieces. And there's a Kibbutz Galuyos that not only is about individuals, but it's our, our ask of Hashem to bring together the separate parts of who we are, to consolidate the sparks within us, to consolidate the energies within us, to consolidate the many personalities within us, to be unified. How are we unified? So the Gemara in Pesachim tells us that רב יוסף ביומא דעצרתא, Rav Yosef on the day of Shavuos, he would say עבדו לי עגלא תלתא, make for me a third-born calf, a delicacy, because אי לאו האי יומא דקא גרים כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא. If not for this day of Shavuos of Kabbalat haTorah, of Matan Torah, if I didn't have a Torah to unify my personality, then כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא. The simple pshat is what? The simple understanding of this Gemara is if I didn't have Torah, I'd be like any other Yosef, I'd be like any other Joe in town center, I'd be like any other Joe in the market. Torah elevates me, Torah enriches me, Torah empowers me, Torah transforms me, Torah changes me. So he would indulge in a delicacy on Shavuos to thank Hashem because if not for Torah, for Shavuos, for Matan Torah, כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא, I'd be just any Joe in the shuk. But the Ba'alei Mussar understand this Gemara, they taitch this phrase differently. And they say if not for Torah, כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא, how many Yosefs would there be in the shuk? There'd be so many versions of me with these friends and those friends, in public, in private, at work, with my family. I'd be splintered into so many personalities. What unifies us? What is the set of principles? What gives us a life and a lifestyle? Torah HaKedosha, Toras Chaim, Toras Moshe, Toras Emes. It is the Torah that unifies our personalities and brings us together. So that's the final kavana I'll offer, I don't know, someone should go back and listen to all these and figure out how many we had, but the final kavana I'll offer for Teka B'shofar, this tenth bracha, middle bracha of the Amidah, is that there should be a kibbutz galuyos of the personalities within us. That not only collectively and nationally should we go from golus to geulah, should we be brought together scattered from the four corners of the earth, but individually we should go from golus to geulah. We should go individually from a state of exile where I'm made up of so many parts and so many personalities and I feel so broken in such conflict, we should go to a state of geulah that Torah can unify, Torah can bring together all those energies and all those sparks, that there could be a kibbutz galuyos for within each and every one of our own nishamas.
