Due to some family and life commitments last week, I was unable to post a vort from Rabbi Frand's Thursday Night shiur. With apologies to you sports fans, I would like to summarize a few thoughts from last Thursday's pre-Rosh Hashanah shiur. Same rules as the usual Thursday post apply - I have attempted to reproduce the vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
One of the points discussed in the shiur dealt with the portion of the selichos entitled machnisei rachamim. R' Frand quoted the Halichos Shlomo (R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach) who asks - who is the tefillah said to? The tefillah gives an appearance of davening to the angels, yet it is prohibited to pray to angels.
R' Shlomo Zalman answered that people need to understand that they are not praying to the angel. Much like when a person goes to pray at the grave of a tzaddik -- we do not pray to the tzaddik, we pray that he goes before the kissei hakavod to ask for us. Similarly, in machnisei rachamim we ask the angels to do their jobs - each angel has a job designated by Hashem, some of which are to be the ones who carry our tefillos before Hashem. The purpose of the tefillah is to ask the angels to do their jobs and carry our prayers to Hashem.
R' Shlomo Zalman then quoted a Magen Avraham on Shulchan Aruch 61:7 that a person who is praying shmoneh esrei by himself - does he finish shmoneh esreh with "oseh shalom ..v'imru amen?" Who is there that should answer amen. The Magen Avraham answers that everyone has angels who watch over him and they are the ones that should answer amen. Thus you are saying to the angels - do your job and say amen.
Another example is the Shalom Aleichem prayer which is said Friday Night - how do we say Barchuni L'Shalom - do we ask the angels for berachos? R' Shlomo Zalman answers that we say to the angels - you who are appointed by Hashem to give berachos - do your job. This can also be seen from the language of the Shalom Aleichem - they are first malachei hashares and later malachei hashalom. The famous ma'amar chazal says - when the angels first come in they look to see if the house is in order, if it is, then the angels give a beracha. Here the angels have come in and are acting in the capacity of malachei hashares. We then say to the angels, now that you have come in and see that things are in order - do your job and give us the beracha Hashem asked you to give.
Rabbi Frand said a number of other vorts which I unfortunately don't have time to summarize here. I hope to detail some of them on other occasions. But I did want to repeat at least one other vort said about the end of the year. The gemara in Megillah notes that Ezra had set up that we always read the klallos in Bechukosai before Shavuous and those in Ki Savo before the end of the year. The gemara explains that this way the klallos will end with the year - the new year will not start with a mention of klallos.
R' Frand then menitoned that people now say to each other at the end of the year - tichleh shana v'kililoseha - let the year end with its curses. R' Shlomo Zalman was not happy with this since in saying this, the person is kafoi tov - rejecting the goodness, since there were certainly good things in the year. Furthermore, R' Shlomo Zalman had problems with the people who printed the phrase in calendars - since this is printed before the year is up and one could be deemed as opening their mouth to the Satan.
R' Frand then quoted the Tollner Rebbi (my b-i-l Doni would be proud) that the word tichlech is that the kilallos should have a tachlis - there should be a purpose in the klallos.
R' Frand then mentioned that the past year had more than its share of klallos starting with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and many other events which created the current economic crisis and with it quite a few chilluilei Hashem. R' Frand then said that to counter act this, one must go out of his way to make a kiddush hashem and that the opportunities to do this can be found in many places in one's daily life. R' Frand even gave the example of getting off a flight and giving up a thumbs up to the pilot and saying good flight. When R' Frand does this in his obvious Orthodox Jewish garb - he makes a kiddush Hashem, even though the person receiving the thanks does not even know him.
We too have many opportunities in our daily life to make a kiddush Hashem and it is up to us to do our best to make the klallos a tachlis and a purpose which can be corrected in the new year.
One of the points discussed in the shiur dealt with the portion of the selichos entitled machnisei rachamim. R' Frand quoted the Halichos Shlomo (R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach) who asks - who is the tefillah said to? The tefillah gives an appearance of davening to the angels, yet it is prohibited to pray to angels.
R' Shlomo Zalman answered that people need to understand that they are not praying to the angel. Much like when a person goes to pray at the grave of a tzaddik -- we do not pray to the tzaddik, we pray that he goes before the kissei hakavod to ask for us. Similarly, in machnisei rachamim we ask the angels to do their jobs - each angel has a job designated by Hashem, some of which are to be the ones who carry our tefillos before Hashem. The purpose of the tefillah is to ask the angels to do their jobs and carry our prayers to Hashem.
R' Shlomo Zalman then quoted a Magen Avraham on Shulchan Aruch 61:7 that a person who is praying shmoneh esrei by himself - does he finish shmoneh esreh with "oseh shalom ..v'imru amen?" Who is there that should answer amen. The Magen Avraham answers that everyone has angels who watch over him and they are the ones that should answer amen. Thus you are saying to the angels - do your job and say amen.
Another example is the Shalom Aleichem prayer which is said Friday Night - how do we say Barchuni L'Shalom - do we ask the angels for berachos? R' Shlomo Zalman answers that we say to the angels - you who are appointed by Hashem to give berachos - do your job. This can also be seen from the language of the Shalom Aleichem - they are first malachei hashares and later malachei hashalom. The famous ma'amar chazal says - when the angels first come in they look to see if the house is in order, if it is, then the angels give a beracha. Here the angels have come in and are acting in the capacity of malachei hashares. We then say to the angels, now that you have come in and see that things are in order - do your job and give us the beracha Hashem asked you to give.
Rabbi Frand said a number of other vorts which I unfortunately don't have time to summarize here. I hope to detail some of them on other occasions. But I did want to repeat at least one other vort said about the end of the year. The gemara in Megillah notes that Ezra had set up that we always read the klallos in Bechukosai before Shavuous and those in Ki Savo before the end of the year. The gemara explains that this way the klallos will end with the year - the new year will not start with a mention of klallos.
R' Frand then menitoned that people now say to each other at the end of the year - tichleh shana v'kililoseha - let the year end with its curses. R' Shlomo Zalman was not happy with this since in saying this, the person is kafoi tov - rejecting the goodness, since there were certainly good things in the year. Furthermore, R' Shlomo Zalman had problems with the people who printed the phrase in calendars - since this is printed before the year is up and one could be deemed as opening their mouth to the Satan.
R' Frand then quoted the Tollner Rebbi (my b-i-l Doni would be proud) that the word tichlech is that the kilallos should have a tachlis - there should be a purpose in the klallos.
R' Frand then mentioned that the past year had more than its share of klallos starting with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and many other events which created the current economic crisis and with it quite a few chilluilei Hashem. R' Frand then said that to counter act this, one must go out of his way to make a kiddush hashem and that the opportunities to do this can be found in many places in one's daily life. R' Frand even gave the example of getting off a flight and giving up a thumbs up to the pilot and saying good flight. When R' Frand does this in his obvious Orthodox Jewish garb - he makes a kiddush Hashem, even though the person receiving the thanks does not even know him.
We too have many opportunities in our daily life to make a kiddush Hashem and it is up to us to do our best to make the klallos a tachlis and a purpose which can be corrected in the new year.
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