לקוטי שיחות חלק ל״ה - ויצא ב

Parshas Vayeitzei

1. We learned in the Mishnah: "The morning prayer until midday… the afternoon prayer until evening… the evening prayer has no fixed time." The commentators have already noted the reason for the change: regarding the Shema the Tanna began with the evening Shema ("From when may one recite the Shema in the evening?"), whereas here, regarding prayer, the prayers are taught in the order Shacharis, Minchah and Maariv.

The difficulty is greater according to the opinion in the Gemara that the reason he began with the evening Shema is like "the order of the creation of the world, as it is written, 'And it was evening and it was morning, one day'" [and not because he relies on the verse "when you lie down and when you rise," for "if so, the verse is particular only about the Shema"]; if so, he should have taught the order of the prayers this way too.

They explained that prayer differs from the Shema: from the standpoint of the very institution of prayer, the order of the prayers is Shacharis, Minchah, Maariv — both according to the opinion that "the Avos instituted the prayers," for Avraham instituted the morning prayer, Yitzchak the afternoon prayer and Yaakov the evening prayer; and according to the opinion that "they instituted the prayers corresponding to the daily offerings," for Shacharis and Minchah correspond to the two daily offerings, and Maariv corresponds to "the limbs and fats that were not consumed from the evening, which are offered throughout the night." It emerges that the evening prayer is the last prayer, just as the offering of the limbs and fats at night is the completion of the offerings brought during the day.

Seemingly this needs examination from what is said in the Gemara: "If he erred and did not pray Maariv, he prays Shacharis twice; Shacharis — he prays Minchah twice… They asked: if he erred and did not pray Minchah, may he pray Maariv twice? Do we say: if you say that if he erred and did not pray Maariv he prays Shacharis twice, it is because it is one day, as it is written, 'And it was evening and it was morning, one day'; but here, prayer is in place of an offering, and since its day has passed, its offering is void; or perhaps, since prayer is a plea for mercy, whenever he wishes he may go on praying?"

It is explicit that the order of the three prayers is Maariv, Shacharis, Minchah, following the order of "the creation of the world" (like the Shema), "one day… 'And it was evening and it was morning, one day'"; and therefore it entered the mind to say that one cannot make up Minchah in the Maariv after it, since its day has already passed (and even according to the conclusion, that we do not say "its day has passed, its offering is void," this is only because "prayer is a plea for mercy; whenever he wishes he may go on praying").

And so we find in the Gemara: "Could one pray the whole day long? It has already been made explicit by Daniel: 'three times…' Could one include them all at once? It has already been made explicit by David, as it is written, 'Evening and morning and noon…'" — so the order of the prayers is "evening and morning and noon."

2. One may say the explanation:

The rule in halachah is known, that "regarding the work of Creation, the day follows the night," and "regarding holy offerings, the night follows the day."

Accordingly one may say that the two orders of the three prayers — whether Maariv is the end of the three prayers (night follows day) or the beginning of the three prayers (day follows night) — depend on whether prayer is in the category of "holy offerings" or in the category of "the work of Creation."

One may say that both are present in it: in prayer there is the category of "holy offerings," from which standpoint "night follows day" and the order of the prayers is Shacharis, Minchah, Maariv; and also the category of "the work of Creation," in which "day follows night," and accordingly the order of the prayers is Maariv, Shacharis, Minchah.

For in the essence of prayer we find two matters:

On the one hand, prayer is "the service of the heart," as our Sages say that the obligation of prayer is learned from "and to serve Him with all your heart" — "What is the service that is in the heart? You must say, this is prayer." On the other hand, the plain meaning of "tefillah" is request — a person asking the Holy One, blessed be He, for his needs.

These two matters — the service of the heart and asking for one's needs — are utterly different from each other. "The service of the heart" means (in its plain sense) to serve G‑d, whose content is accepting the yoke of the kingship of Heaven and cleaving to G‑d, as the Mishnah says that "the early pious ones would wait an hour and then pray, in order to direct their hearts to their Father in Heaven," and the Tur explains that "they would seclude themselves and concentrate in their prayer until they reached a divestment of physicality and a strengthening of the intellectual spirit, until they came close to the level of prophecy." It is plainly understood that while in such a state of connection "to the Master of all, blessed be He, with awe and strong love and true cleaving," they do not think about their own needs.

But these are the two categories in prayer: "the service of the heart," which is cleaving to G‑d, is like the category of "holy offerings" [for just as the offerings in their plain sense are a drawing near to G‑d, in the House of G‑d, so is prayer — a person stands before G‑d, and the content of the service is cleaving to G‑d (like drawing near to G‑d)]; and asking for one's needs in prayer is like the matter of "the work of Creation," in which a person thinks about his own needs.

3. In practical halachah we hold (as explained) that the order of the prayers is Maariv, Shacharis and Minchah; that is why there is not even an initial supposition in the Gemara that the ability to make up Minchah in Maariv is because it is the end of the three prayers — proving that according to halachah the order of the prayers is Maariv, Shacharis, Minchah.

One may say the reason: according to halachah, the obligation and law of the mitzvah of prayer is asking for one's needs (which is the category of "the work of Creation" in prayer, as explained), and this is the very "object" of prayer; whereas "the service of the heart" is only a description of the state of the person who prays — for the "object" of asking for one's needs to be as it should be, the person must be in a state of "service of the heart," and without it something is lacking in the request itself; nevertheless it is not the essence of prayer.

Accordingly one may explain the words of the Rambam at the beginning of the laws of prayer: "It is a positive mitzvah to pray every day, as it says, 'And you shall serve G‑d your G‑d.' From the oral tradition they learned that this service is prayer, as it says, 'and to serve Him with all your heart' — the Sages said: What is the service that is in the heart? This is prayer."

The commentators have already asked why the Rambam cites the verse "And you shall serve G‑d your G‑d," since in any case he must cite the verse "and to serve Him with all your heart," from which alone we learn that it refers to prayer — "What is the service that is in the heart? This is prayer" (whereas in the verse "And you shall serve G‑d your G‑d," which does not mention "heart," there is no compulsion that it refers specifically to prayer). If so, he should have cited only the verse "and to serve Him with all your heart."

One may say, according to what is written in Kiryas Sefer, that from the verse "And you shall serve…" we learn that "it is a positive mitzvah to pray every day," because "it is joined to the end of the verse, where it is written, 'and He will bless your bread and your water…,' which is a daily need; so too prayer is every day" ("for what you ask in it are your needs").

Accordingly one may say that the difference between the two verses, "And you shall serve…" and "and to serve Him with all your heart," is this: the main emphasis in the verse "And you shall serve…" is on asking for one's needs (as it says afterwards, "and He will bless your bread…"), whereas in the verse "and to serve Him with all your heart" only the service of the heart is mentioned. And this is what the Rambam teaches by citing first the verse "And you shall serve…": the essence of the mitzvah of prayer is asking for one's needs, and the fact that prayer is "the service of the heart" is only so that this request be as it should be, "with supplication and entreaty" (in the Rambam's words), which is only when the words of prayer come from the feeling of the heart. Therefore a person must arouse his heart properly, so that his asking for his needs befits one who asks the King for his needs.

[As we find in prayer itself, that the order of prayer is that first "one recounts the praise of the Holy One, blessed be He, and afterwards asks for his needs, which he requires, with supplication and entreaty, and afterwards gives praise and thanks to G‑d for the good He has bestowed on him" — that is, for the asking for one's needs to be fitting, one must precede it with the arrangement of the praise of G‑d (and likewise conclude with praise…).]

4. The explanation of the above two orders of the three prayers in the service of G‑d will be understood by first giving the inner explanation of the above rule that "regarding the work of Creation, the day follows the night," and "regarding holy offerings, the night follows the day," which are two orders in the service of G‑d [for the rule that "regarding the work of Creation, the day follows the night" applies also to matters of mitzvah and service of G‑d connected with time, where the day follows the night].

The explanation:

"The work of Creation" indicates the avodah of drawing holiness down into the matters of the world, and "holy offerings" is the avodah in matters in which holiness is revealed. So too in the avodah of each person in particular, for a person is made up of a soul and a body: "holy offerings" indicates the avodah that brings about the revelation of the holiness of the soul, which is "truly a part of G‑d above"; and "the work of Creation" is the avodah of refining the body (and likewise the matters of the world).

And this is also the reason for the difference that "regarding the work of Creation, the day follows the night," and "regarding holy offerings, the night follows the day":

In "holy offerings," (even) the beginning is in "day" and light, since one's whole occupation is with things in which holiness is revealed (light and revelation); and afterwards one ascends from strength to strength, adding and rising in the light of holiness (according to the principle "one ascends in holiness"). From this it is understood that not only is the "night" that comes after the "day" (in holy offerings) also a matter of light and holiness, but moreover, this "night" is higher than the light of the day before it —

for in "light" itself there are two modes: the light of day, that is, a G‑dly revelation that a person can receive while remaining an existence; and a higher light, a hidden light, called "darkness" because it is above the grasp of a person, and when this level is revealed it brings about in a person that he be nullified of his existence;

and this is why "regarding holy offerings, the night follows the day": the beginning is in revealed light, and afterwards one reaches a loftier light, a hidden light that is above the bounds of created beings.

But "regarding the work of Creation, the day follows the night," following the order of "the creation of the world… 'And it was evening (and afterwards) and it was morning,'" "first darkness and then light" — because the aim of this avodah is the effect on the world; therefore the avodah begins from "night," for at the beginning of the avodah the world is in a state of "darkness" — olam (world), related to helem (concealment) — in which holiness is not seen or revealed; and through a person's avodah one comes from "night" to "day," illuminating the darkness, to the point of transforming the darkness itself into light.

5. From this it will be understood also regarding prayer, in which there are these two orders:

In the avodah of prayer there is the effort to reveal the light of one's soul by arousing love and awe of G‑d in one's heart (and this is the "service of the heart" in prayer); and then there is the speech of prayer, for the intention of the heart is not enough; one must articulate the words of prayer with physical lips. As explained at length in Tanya, this is because the purpose of prayer is to refine the body and the animal soul in a person, for which (also) the speech of prayer is needed.

And these are the two orders in the three prayers:

In the cleaving of the soul to G‑dliness, the beginning of the day's avodah is in the morning prayer, day and light; and the conclusion and completeness of this cleaving is in the evening prayer, when a person reaches the hidden light that is above the bounds of created beings, which brings about in him a state of complete bittul to the Holy One, blessed be He.

[It emerges that from the standpoint of this category in prayer, the evening prayer is higher than the morning and afternoon prayers; and this fits with the fact that it was specifically Yaakov Avinu who instituted the evening prayer, for Yaakov is the choicest of the Avos.]

But in halachah we hold (as explained) that the order of the three prayers is Maariv, Shacharis and Minchah, because the ultimate intent of the creation of the world and the descent of the soul below is specifically to make a dwelling for G‑d in the lower realms, as explained at length in Tanya — that is, in this physical world, which is "the lowest… there is none lower in terms of the concealment of His light, and doubled and redoubled darkness" —

and this comes about by transforming the darkness of the world into light;

so too in prayer: the main thing in prayer is the speech of prayer, through which the refinement of the body and the animal soul is accomplished — avodah specifically in the place of darkness. Therefore the order of the prayers is Maariv, Shacharis, Minchah: the avodah is in the place of darkness, and in this one rises from level to level, drawing holiness into the darkness, until the darkness is transformed into light.

According to this order, the evening prayer is the beginning of the avodah, and the conclusion and completeness of the three prayers is in the afternoon prayer. And this fits with what is explained in many places, that the main quality of the afternoon prayer is that its time is in the middle of the day, when a person is busy with his livelihood, etc., and nevertheless he interrupts and stands to pray — the quality of avodah as it is connected specifically with the matters of the world.

[These two orders are alluded to also in the text of the blessings of the evening Shema — "He rolls away light before darkness and darkness before light": "He rolls away light before darkness" emphasizes that darkness (night) comes after light (day), which is according to the order in which the evening prayer is the end of the day's avodah; "and darkness before light" means that the darkness of night is a preface to the light of the day after it, according to the order Maariv, Shacharis and Minchah.]

One may say that this is also the reason the afternoon prayer is connected with Eliyahu the Prophet, the herald of the Redemption — "A person should always be careful with the afternoon prayer, for Eliyahu was answered only in the afternoon prayer" — because this is the elevation of the days of Moshiach, when "the physicality of the body and the world will be refined, and they will be able to receive the revelation of G‑d's light that will shine for Israel," and in a manner that "it will illuminate the darkness of the nations as well," so that the whole world becomes a dwelling for G‑d.

(From the talk of the night of 6 Tishrei 5745)