We have previously learned in a baraita that one doesn’t fulfill his obligation by reading the Megillah and the Shema out of order. The Amidah is the next example of what must be recited in the correct order to fulfill the person’s obligation. Starting on yesterday’s daf TB Megillah 17b and continuing on today’s daf TB Megillah 18, the Gemara explains the logical and necessary order of each of the 19 blessings of the Amidah and who arranged them. The rabbis deemed that adding any more blessings to the Amidah would be the height of hutzpah on the part of the prayer leader. “The Gemara comments: These nineteen blessings are a fixed number, and beyond this it is prohibited for one to declare the praises of the Holy One, Blessed be He, by adding additional blessings to the Amida. As Rabbi Elazar said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can declare all His praise?” (Psalms 106:2)? It means: For whom is it fitting to utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Only for one who can declare all His praise. And since no one is capable of declaring all of God’s praises, we must suffice with the set formula established by the Sages.” (Sefaria.org translation)
If we think that our words are adequately able to praise God, you would be mistaken. The best way praising God is with silence. “The Gemara relates: Rabbi Yehuda, a man of Kefar Gibboraya, and some say he was a man of Kefar Gibbor Ĥayil, taught: What is the meaning of that which is written: “For You silence is praise” (Psalms 65:2)? The best remedy of all is silence, i.e., the optimum form of praising God is silence. The Gemara relates: When Rav Dimi came from Eretz Israel to Babylonia, he said: In the West, Eretz Yisrael, they say an adage: If a word is worth one sela, silence is worth two.” (Sefaria.org translation)
One of the goals of meditation is to silence our minds. Rabbi Lawrence Kushner writes, “We humans are far better at making noise than silence. But silence is better than noise. Indeed, attaining silence they just be the reason for prayer. I don’t mean just not talking; I mean also stealing the inner dialogue.” (Silencing the Inner Voice (s) in Meditation from the Heart of Judaism edited by Avram Davis, page 36)
Why is this silence golden? What is the ultimate goal of silencing those inner voices or dialogue? “In the words of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, ‘the core of a human being is his consciousness. Where one’s consciousness is, there is the whole person. Thus one who knows and reaches an understanding of the divine is really in the divine. The greater one’s knowing, more fully is he included in his root in God.’
“I am convinced that devekut is more than being one with God. Devekut is a theological metaphor for stopping the dialogue between the two invoices. Devekut is a metaphor for self -unification. Devekut is a time when the outer person is revealed to be illusory, a fragment of the language, and iron barrier separating us from God. Not only in unselfconscious awareness remains, and awareness that bears a wonderful similarity to the Divine…
“Devekut is when the one who asks and the one who hears become the same. We realize to our embarrassment that we have been who we were all along and that it was only linguistic convention that tricked us into thinking that we were someone else. We cannot make God do what we want, but thinking, doing, and praying what God wants, we become one with God and with ourselves.” (Ibid., Page 41-42)
Now you understand that there’s no
better praise than silence just as Rabbi
Yehuda, a man of Kefar Gibboraya, and some say he was a man of Kefar Gibbor Ĥayil and Rav Dimi taught.
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