| לרפואת דוד בן טובה גיטל | ||
| אסתר מינדל בת גיטל מרים | ||
| ברוך מרדכי בן תולצה הינדה משה בן מרים רות |
אלקים באו גויים נחלתך טמאו את היכל קדשך שמו את ירושלים לעיים וכו' שפכו דמם כמים סביבות ירושלים
Hashem, the goyim have entered your portion, defiled your holy sanctuary, made Yerushalayim into ruins etc. they spilled blood like water around Yerushalayim.[Tehillim 79]
Torah and Tefillah are Hashem's domain, so to speak. באו גויים נחלתך - The goyim have entered your domain.
טמאו את היכל קדשך - and contaminated your holy sanctuary. Our Torah and Tefilla are not effective because they have been hijacked by the forces of evil.
שמו את ירושלים לעיים - They destroyed our holiness as represented by Yerushalyim.
Why? How? What gave them this power? שפכו את דמם - Tefillah is likened to spilling blood as the pasuk says ולפני ה' ישפוך שיחו - We "spill" ourselves before Hashem. ואשפוך את נפשי - I "spilled" my soul. The gemara says that when we daven, we are praying for our blood - אל תאכrלו אל הדם - אל תאכלו קודם שתתפללו על דמכם [Brachos 10]. So when we daven it can be referred to as "spilling our blood". We spilled our blood like water....
סביבות ירושלים - The sefarim teach that Yerushalyim represents the heart of the Jew. הנקודה הפנימית שבלב. Just as the heart is at the center of the body, so is Yerushalyim the center of the world [as Chazal teach]. Without a heart one can't live and without Yerushalayim we couldn't live. The problem is that our tefillos are only סביב ירושלים - AROUND but not in the heart. We daven but we don't really mean it. THAT is what gave the goyim the power to defile us.
והחי יתן אל לבו!
[Heard at last night's Chumash Rashi shiur from Mori Vi-rabi Shlita in the name of the Baal Shem Tov as quoted by the Maor Einayim Va-eschanan]
