Watch What You Say

Each day, 3 times a day, we say the Amidah Tefilah, or the Standing Prayer, generally called the Shemona Esrei. At the end of this prayer the Rabbis added a small additional prayer. It starts off saying "Elokai netzor leshoni meira u'sefosai midaber mirma". My G-d, guard my tongue from (speaking) evil and my lips from speaking falsehoods. The prayer then goes on to make an additional plea to G-d, "P'sach libi l'sorosecho". Open my heart to your Torah. What is the significance of this segue from asking G-d to guard our mouth and then to open our hearts?

When we ask G-d to open our hearts to Torah, what we are really requesting is that we have the intellectual capacity to learn Torah properly. In other words, our mind and our mouth should be able to engage in Torah learning together in a way that will allow us to both grow spiritually and act accordingly. In order for our mouth to engage in proper Torah learning, we must first make sure that we have a spiritually pure mouth. How can we make sure and how do we accomplish this goal? By not talking Loshon Hora, malicious gossip about anybody. By being honest and not indulging in any type of falsehoods, whether in our personal lives or in our business endeavors. And therefore we ask of G-d, please guard and protect us from these actions of our mouth and then we ask open our hearts to Your Torah.

Yet another question begs for an answer. Since the responsibility of all our actions are our own, how can we ask G-d to protect our mouths from speaking evil? We are supposed to guard our own selves from doing any sins. I think we can answer this in the following manner. Although we are commanded by G-d to learn Torah and live according to its dictates, the real basis for our capacity to learn and understand Torah comes as a gift from G-d. We can look at this "gift" as the initial seed or catalyst needed in order to learn and understand Torah with a pure heart and mind. Therefore we express a plea to G-d, in order to properly engage ourselves with your gift to us, please also start us off by guarding our tongue and lips from speaking evil. This will allow us to have a spiritually pure mouth that we can now use to learn Torah properly.

Teshuva and Technology

Technology can open up our eyes to the spiritual aspects of our lives. All you have to do is switch your outlook from corporeal to spiritual and use your mind's eyes instead of your optical eyes. Chazal tell us that G-d created the universe with equal and opposing concepts, "zeh l'umas zeh boroh Elokim." What this means is that the spiritual aspects of the universe mimic the corporeal. For whatever hidden reason G-d had at Creation, He wanted a certain sense of balance. If all of Creation were to be perfectly spiritual, there could not be a concept of award since an award is given for accomplishing something and if there were no corporeal temptations, you aren't accomplishing anything if you do only good.

And if you do "bad", what then? G-d in His Mercy pre-ordained to Creation the concept of Teshuva, Repentance, in order to give us a second chance. Chazal say that a Heavenly Voice is projected each day that says, "Return errant sons"; return to the correct path that we are commanded to walk along in our lives. Have you ever actually heard this Voice? Well your corporeal ears don't hear the Heavenly Voice but your soul's spiritual "ears" sure do. And here's where technology comes in.

I think the majority of my readers have either heard of GPS devices or either own one or have seen them working. GPS devices are quite prevalent in newer car models and are used extensively in driving. How do they work? The device receives constant signals from a Global Positioning Satellite which gives the device its relative position. The device has a detailed map of the area and calculates where you are and where you should be and where you want to go. The GPS shows you a clear route to take based on the goal you entered. What happens if you accidently veer off its predetermined route? It immediately senses this relative to your new position and the signals from the satellite and its original route and immediately recalculates and provides a new route to the original goal. Interesting isn't it?

And G-d created a spiritual GPS system which does the same thing. You start off your day with clear intentions of living a Torah life, davening with concentration and devotion, learning Torah, and doing deeds of chesed; Torah, Avodah and Gemilas Chasodim. And then woops you make a mistake. You veer off the straight path and do something wrong. And your soul's spiritual GPS kicks in and senses the Heavenly Voice signal telling you to do teshuva and starts to recalculate. Just like the corporeal GPS device's voice that says "recalulating a new route", it's OK, here's a new chance at driving on a correct route, so too does your spiritual GPS tell you that you have a second chance. Do teshuva, start all over, don't worry about it, just forge ahead with your Torah path in life. Isn't technology wonderful? Isn't Hashem's spiritual technology wonderful?

Thoughts on Life

Spiritual Salvation
In the verses of Tehilim that we say during Shacharis we find a verse that says "In the evening I lay down to sleep crying but in the morning I sing of salvation". This verse is hard to understand. The term "darkness or evening" connotes a period during which the person is experiencing troubles in his or her life. It would seem that a Jew would have emunah, faith, that G-d would alsways be there to help him through this trying period. Why then go to sleep with tears as if saying that he or she can't be helped and is therefore crying? The answer is that sometimes because of the severeness of a person's trials and tribulations in life, that person's faith in G-d drops to a very low point The person feels buffeted by wave after wave of oceans of woes and feels that nothing can help. The person is in complete dispair and cries, not cried of prayer to G-d but cries of helplessness. Even so, G-d the Merciful, our G-d who is full of Chesed, Loving Kindness, will help this person through their troubles and give them salvation as a pure gift, even though they had no faith in G-d. And when the person "wakes" up from this troubling "evening" period and sees clearly the hand of G-d in the salvation, as if the day started to shine again, he or she will acknowledge this and sing G-d's praises, recognizing that G-d was there all along. Even when it's raing and dark and forbidding, the sun is still shining in back of all those clouds.

Heavenly Guidance
Technology is wonderful. We can learn so many lessons in Yiddishkeit from technology. Everyone by now is familiar with GSP instruments. What does it do? You enter a destination and the GSP attunes your position and determines a path to take. If you make a mistake and veer off that track, it recalulates and gives you a new path to your destination. Chazal say that every day a Heavenly Voice rings out and pleads with us, return your hearts to G-d. We start the day with a goal in life of serving G-d in all our actions, even the mundane daily things we do such as earning a living. And along the way we might stumble and do something wrong. Our Heavenly spiritual inner voice, constantly connecting us to G-d and to His Torah, says to us, OK you made a mistake, don't worry about it. You can go ahead and you can return to your right path and goal, don't give up. And our inner spark of G-dliness re-calculates and sets us straight and back on the true path. All we have to do is listen.