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The Big Bang and Judaism

What’s the Purpose of Davening?

56 min

Class Summary:

This text-based class, the third of a series on the Maamar Sheishes Yamim, in the Siddur of the Baal HaTanya, the Alter Rebbe was presented by Rabbi YY Jacobson on Thursday, Parshas Vayikra, 5 Nisan, 5781, March 18, 2021, live from Rabbi Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY.

Please leave your comment below!

  • Anonymous -3 years ago

    Regarding daily tefilah, the typical minyan -- even "slower" minyanim -- often feel like a race to the finish line.  Combined with the natural (and perhaps not so natural)wanderings of the mind, combined with davening in a language that is at best a distant second or third language -- is it really accurate that for the average Jew that daily tefilah keeps the Jew connected to being a spiritual being?

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  • SG

    Sarah Goldberg -3 years ago

    The job of a refrigerator is to cool the food inside

    That is its only purpose, the only reason for its existence.  Otherwise it's a huge useless box.

    The refrigerator can do its job so long as the flow of electricity continues.  Should the electricity stop the whole "raison d'etre" of the frig is gone.

    So should the frig praise the daily flow of electricity that allows it to fulfill its purpose? You bet! 

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  • SG

    Sarah Goldberg -3 years ago

    Why praise Hadhem daily?

    Why do we eat daily? We eat, are satiated and use the energy from the food consumed to power and energize our daily tasks. 

    Hashem also needs "food". His food is the praise and the gratitude from his people and the mitzvos we do.  That "satiates" Him but only for a time and He uses the  energy from His food to power and energize and even motivate His daily tasks, namely to continue creation.  

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  • SG

    Sarah Goldberg -3 years ago

    Scientists are right about the big bang

    But...they're just missing the 2 cosmological steps before that, i.e. when Hashem's light filled the world  and the tzimtzum. Big bang is consonant with the beginning of creation the first words of  the  10 utterances. 

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  • SG

    Sarah Goldberg -3 years ago

    The Jewish point of view is that Hashem began creation

    With the tzimtzum, Ohr Ein Sof, 10 utterances, etc.  [Notice all creation was "yesh m'ayin" something from nothing by means of the 10 utterances but ONLY man was made "yesh m'yesh" something from something, i.e. man made from the dust that had already been created but then a diametrically opposite component, the neshoma was blown in]  but ALL scientists are trying to "reverse engineer " i.e. figure out how this world and all its components were put together and function. 

    Yiddishkeit starts from the cause and then studies the results, but science starts with the results and is working towards the cause. They're getting closer every day...

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Chassidus: Siddur Shaar Chag Hamatzos #3

Rabbi YY Jacobson

  • March 18, 2021
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  • 5 Nisan 5781
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  • 673 views

Dedicated by Mordechai Miller in memory of אברהם בן שמואל ז"ל

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