How can the world exist without its Heart? - Vaetchanan 5785

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Yitzchak Botton’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

The Beit HaMikdash is called the heart of the world. How could Rabbi Akiva even imagine a world without a heart? What is binyan malchut [building Hashem’s Kingship]? But the Jewish people — we can rebuild malchut. The theme of this week's parasha, famously, is prayer. Moshe tells us that he prayed to Hashem in order to be allowed to go into Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel], because he had been punished and told he couldn't go after hitting the rock. Famously, he prayed 515 times — the gematria of “Vaetchanan” — and Hashem said, before the 516th time, “Rav lach” — enough. You can't pray one more time, because if you do, I'm going to have to grant your request, and that's not the plan. So the parasha’s theme really is two themes intertwined: one is the power of prayer, and two is its connection to the darkness and the sufferings of life. So let's understand how this is all connected. Chacham Hillel illustrates the power of prayer in his book Faith and Folly. He says that it's a force of nature — similar to rain, wind, the seasons, even gravity — a totally necessary force of sustenance and growth in the world. Why is prayer so important and vital? The truth is, our tefillah [prayer] service is the epitome of service — avodah [Divine service] — of Hashem. As we said recently, Hashem wants our hearts, and it is through our tefillah that we give our hearts to Hashem. Indeed, we give our heart, soul, and might to Hashem. And this corresponds to

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1. 0:00The Beit HaMikdash is called the heart of the world. How could Rabbi Akiva even imagine…
2. 1:07the seasons, even gravity — a totally necessary force of sustenance and growth in the world.…
3. 2:09The entire world is created from His Ohr Ein Sof — from the highest heavens to…
4. 3:15Now it’s important to know that His desire is that He has us through our own…
5. 4:16They lost hope in the geulah [redemption]. However, Rabbi Akiva famously laughed. Now, to understand what's…
6. 5:19Rabbi Akiva then said: “See, I was right. The redemption is coming. And the reward of…
7. 6:23That’s what the fox represents. Rashi says that the fox always looks backward — to the…
8. 7:24The true and final redemption had started — even as the Shechinah [Divine Presence] was now…
9. 8:27just as a mechanism, but as a throne for the Ohr Ein Sof [Infinite Light]. Hashem…
10. 9:28This is binyan — the building — through the elevation of mayin nukvin [our arousal from…

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