And this is the passage in Parshat Vayetzeh when Jacob just had the experience of the ladder,
Jacob's ladder,
And he leaves that place after that experience.
And it says,
Jacob lifted his feet,
And he went to the land of the Easterners.
And in this next passage are the images that Svat Emet then works with to explain something prayer and prayerfulness and also with the subject of what Shavuot is all about,
Which is connecting with the Torah that comes through us.
Relationship between prayer and not just Torah in general,
But particularly the Torah that is within us.
So it says,
And behold there,
There were shloshah edrezon,
Three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it,
For the flocks were watered from that well.
The stone in the mouth of the well was very large.
" And the story goes on to say how Jacob,
He was this strong guy,
And he rolls the stone off the well when Rachel,
His soon-to-be wife,
Shows up.
Not that soon,
Actually.
Right,
There's a has to has to work for seven years for Leah and then another period and so on,
But the spot Emmett.
Sfat Emet says some interesting things.
He says,
Be'er HaSadeh,
The well in the field.
What does this represent?
Hu b'chinat,
It is the essence of,
Or it is referring to,
Torah Sheba'pei,
The oral Torah.
Now the oral Torah,
Or the Torah of the mouth literally,
Generally means things like the Mishnah and the Talmud,
The understanding of the written Torah that comes to us from the rabbis.
But in this sense,
He's talking not just about that,
But the oral Torah that continues through history and manifests through us.
So it's the oral Torah that Hashem planted within us.
And although it exists in all of Bnei Yisrael,
One must merit to access the mouth to give it expression.
Okay,
So the well is the symbol for the place within us from which wisdom,
Creative wisdom,
Emerges.
But we have to merit it.
And so that necessity to gain that inner access is expressed in the prayer before the Amidah,
Hashem open my lips.
So that's that little phrase that's said before the main prayer three times a day.
It's a prayer so that you're able to pray.
It's a prayer that we can do prayer.
This is achieved by removing the stone that covers the well,
Symbolizing the Yetzir Hara,
The evil inclination.
So there's a force of separation within us.
We could call it a force of distraction or temptation or confusion or inner darkness or depression.
However,
It can manifest in many different ways,
But it covers up our inner access to the creative wisdom that we call the inner Torah the Oral Torah.
Our sages instituted three daily prayers to provide us with the tools to uncover the well,
Hinted at by the three flocks of sheep.
You see,
So he's taking that image of the three flocks of sheep and saying that that's actually a hint to the three traditional prayer times.
By gathering the prayers of Bnei Yisrael,
The source of the oral or inner Torah is uncovered.
As the Pasuk states,
Tehillim 65.
3,
You who hear prayer,
All human beings come to you,
Indicating that while each of us has the power of prayer,
A person can pray any time.
Nevertheless,
Connecting with the collective,
That is praying with other people,
Enables one to open and remove the stone.
Overcoming the blockages of the Yetzir Hara.
Okay,
So in a way,
This is what we're doing now,
Even though this is,
We don't,
This is not the formal prayer of mincha or mariv as it might be for some folks,
Depending on where you are.
We are coming together to invoke the power of prayerfulness,
Which is malchut in this week of malchut and to meditate together.
Meditation is really part of prayer.
It's not something other than prayer,
Really.
In fact,
The word tefilah,
The word for prayer,
Does not refer only to speaking out to God.
It also refers to the process of becoming present and receptive and still in order for the words that come up for us in prayer to be authentic,
For them to emerge.
Shalom.
I hope you've enjoyed this Torah of Awakening.
I'm Rabbi Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks.
Until next time,
All blessings.
