Visions of Prayer Leadership JTS - May 2023

Avodat Yisrael (Koznitz), Likutim

All ten people have to be in one space including the shaliah tzibbur. (Shulhan Aruch, Orah Hayyim, 55:13)

If ten people gather in Beit HaKenesset to pray, and they all pray for individual needs, they are dispersed, despite the fact that they are all in one house. This is because each person’s thoughts are directed towards their own interests. One is thinking about her vineyards or olive trees, another is praying for his health and yet another is praying for her children or other such matters. This is not what prayer is about. Rather – all ten people have to be in One place (makom). They should orient their thoughts towards the Unity of the world, pray that “YHVH be one and the Name one”, that God’s kingdom be revealed and seen by us soon.

And the shaliah tzibbur should be with them. Then they will realize what king Solomon alluded to in relation to the shaliah tzibbur – “You will hear in (literally- the) heaven (hashamayim)” (1^st Kings, 8:32). Shamayim has the same numerical value as Shatz. It is through the messenger that the prayers pass to the ruler of the universe, for prayer is about the wholeness of God’s kingdom.

Shulchan Aruch HaAri, Hilchot Beit Hakeneset, 1

When entering Beit HaKenesset, first take to heart the commandment to actively “love your neighbor as yourself” and only then enter. Your intention should be to love every person of Israel as you love yourself. This way your prayer will be part/inclusive of the prayers of all Israel, and as such it can be elevated and be effective. Specifically regarding the love of our companions – each individual should include himself [in the whole] thinking of himself as one limb in [the body of the] companions, may God protect them. My teacher of blessed memory warned us often regarding this matter. And if there is a friend who is in trouble Heaven forbid, if there is sickness in his home or among his children, you should partake in that trouble and pray for him. So in all your practices, you should include all those you know.

Ma’or VaShemesh, Shemini

This is for a tzaddik who is invested in elevating the souls of Israel and connecting them to their roots. One who attempts this both when preaching to awaken hearts to teshuvah and when approaching the service of prayer before the Amud, to be a shaliah tzibbur. Being a shaliah tzibbur means connecting to all the souls of those who are praying with you, elevating them and rousing their hearts in a great awakening of teshuvah.

When you awaken the hearts of Israel to teshuva you will experience their distractions (literally: their strange thoughts will come to you). The connection that awakens their hearts also allows all their thoughts to enter you. The community’s thoughts can be very distracting for your own service as every aware person knows.

The midrash teaches (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 2:2) when ten people are praying and one of them approaches to lead before the teivah, of this person it is said – “like a lily among the thorns”(Shir HaShirim 2:2). The midrash means that just like the thorns prick the lily that grows between them, so also is the shaliah tzibbur pricked by the thoughts of people.

Or HaMeir – Parashat Tetzaveh

Pay attention how much effort must be invested by the community and the shaliah-tzibbur in order to go about prayer in an appropriate way, and particularly by the shaliah tzibbur. There are many things the shaliah tzibbur must take to heart and be attentive to. I have written about this in Parashat No’ah regarding the verse – “Take to you from all [kinds of] food that can be eaten… so that you and they [the animals] can eat”. (Bereshit 6:21)

The conclusion there is that a person should use every thing in the world mineral, plant, animal or human as a wake-up call to serve the blessed, holy One.

The supernal lights spread throughout creation so that the aware person can find these hints of wisdom and use them to access higher worlds… All the details of creation, they were all put into this world in order to instruct the aware person – this is what you should do, this is how you should serve the Creator. The practice is as follows: if you see an expression of love or fear in another person, even if it is a lesser person who is interested only in material things, cultivate the feeling that there is a reason you were shown this, that it is not for nothing. Rather this [witnessing] is to make you pay attention, to benefit your service of God. It is a positive way of instructing you to love and fear the blessed Name…

Observe and understand the ways an aware person can detect hints of wisdom and hear wake-up calls from every aspect and detail of creation. This is the meaning of “the whole world was created only to instruct this person” (Bavli, Berachot 6b) in the ways of God’s service. When you do this you bring Divine flow and blessing into them [those particular details of creation] for you are re-connecting them to their root, your pure thought draws flow and blessing to them. This is the meaning of the verse “so that you and they can eat”.

[When you are] the shaliah tzibbur you have to connect to all the people in the Bet Midrash and know their particular combinations. This means that you have to understand what sorts of combinations each individual (at his or her own level) want to make in Torah and tefilah. What is the orientation of their soul in serving God. And you have to take from each person their particular prayer or combination [and use them in your own prayer] and elevate these combinations.

And if when you look around you see a person who is unable to transform combinations she has created in external superficial contexts, it is your responsibility to elevate those particular combinations. You are the shaliah, and as a rule the shaliah accomplishes the mission. It is up to you to elevate all the combinations through careful examination of the ways you can use the community as a wake-up call for prayer.