הלפתל םסוחיו ןטקיו גלפ רבע ינב ינש
Why is this galus longer than all the other galuyos? The answer of Aliyahu Hanavi is that כולנו most of us ןיבוסמ are in the סביב category when it comes to tefillah. The passuk (Bereishis 10 25) tells us that Aiver had two sons פלג and יקטן. The name of פלג was given to him because וימיב יכ הגלפנ הארץ, the population of the earth was divided and dispersed after Hashem mixed up all the languages. Everyone went סביב. The gematriah of מסובין equals נפלגה. The second son was named יקטן, which is the gematriah of one more over נפלגה. Rashi writes on ןטקי that he was an עניו, humble. He produced 13 mispachos because of his humility. The Radak writes that he was called יקטן because life span was shortened because of the Dor Haflagah.
The fact that יקטן is one more above הגלפנ conveys that the superior and righteous path is his madraiga. Man is a medabair. The purpose of the medabeir is to learn Torah and to daven to Hashem. The Dor Haflagah did not feel a need for this as their goal was to become totally independent of Hashem. Hashem stopped their attempt by creating 70 languages. Rav Hutner ztl described this as tearing the tzuras Haadam the Medabair into seventy fragments. To live without tefillah is tantamount to be disconnected from the source of life Hashem כי עמך מקור החיים. The Medabair's dimensions become dwarfed and separated from himself. Chazal say כל המאריך בתפלתו מאריכין ימיו ושנותיו. Anyone who davens a lengthy tefilla merits longer life. יקטן was named after the shortening of life in his generation, a product of the Medabair not davening to Hashem. On this generation it could be said .סביב רשעים יתהלכון. That is why that Hashem divided the languages into 70 parts which is gematriah סובב.
But יקטן, who was humble, realized that one must daven to Hashem because everything in the universe is dependent upon Him ואתה מחיה את כולם. Yaktan takes his davening seriously not only for himself but as Rashi says for his mishpacha. If you want your son to daven with meaning and devotion then you have to set the example. Trying to give mussar with the added clause Do as I say not as I do is castrating your fatherhood from yourself. You will be looked upon as a hypocrite not to be listened to, not only for davening but with everything religious that might still be sacred to you. If you cannot control your mouth during davening and be the appreciative and thankful Medabair you are supposed to be, then your child will be in the driver's seat for all your requests of having a relationship with Hashem. Better not bring him to shul at all until you are ready to control yourself.
If one asks why is this galus so long, the answer of Aliyahu is ןיבוסמ ונלוכ, our davening is not in the Mikdash Me'at but rather in the shuk!
