WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?
It is the custom in many shuls to engrave on the chazzan’s shtender the words “Da lifnei Mi atah omed,” Know before Whom you stand. Why do chassidishe shuls not post this reminder?
The Rebbe Rashab explained that chassidim would have this message engraved in their minds and hearts.
The Rebbe reminded that realizing that we are speaking to HaShem is the basis of what davening is:
The basic concept of davening is to bear in mind that one stands before HaShem. This precedes other kavanos such as pirush hamilos and surely before contemplating seder histalshelus. This is not a chassidic practice reserved for a great chossid or any chossid for that matter – this is a clear halacha in Shulchan Aruch!...
You entered shul to daven? Don’t forget why you came: to daven to HaShem!
A certain unlettered chossid of the Alter Rebbe did not even know the plain meaning of much of the davening, yet he davened with intense chayus every day – Shacharis, Mincha and Maariv. It was obvious that his davening was genuine, and so earnest that it was as if he were wringing out his neshama. The other chassidim were puzzled.
When they questioned him he replied: "I only know that I heard a vort from the Rebbe on the statement, ‘shamor vezachor bedibbur echad.’ (The plain meaning of this phrase is that the two expressions regarding Shabbos—zachor and shamor—were both said by HaShem in the same utterance.) The Rebbe explained, “You should remember and watch over the echad, the oneness of HaShem, in every word.”
Just imagine: For forty years he davened with this vort, day and night, weekdays, Shabbos, and Yom-Tov. He didn’t just hear the vort: he felt it. That’s a chossid.
From this story, the Rebbe drew a lesson: Every individual, regardless of his knowledge of Chassidus, can daven at length, by contemplating the Elokus that enlivens every physical being.
HIS TORAH
HaShem told the Yidden through Yirmeyahu HaNavi that Eretz Yisroel and the First Beis HaMikdash were destroyed "because they forsook my Torah.” What exactly did they do?
Chazal explain that the people of that time did not introduce their learning sessions by first saying Birkas HaTorah. But why should this omission cost us the Beis HaMikdash and Eretz Yisroel?
The Bach elaborates: Those great scholars studied Torah as a profound academic exercise, without intending to connect with the kedusha of the Torah and thereby to draw down the Shechina. That is why the land remained desolate, without the holiness of the Shechina.
In this spirit, the Rebbe reminds us that while Torah study of course requires a person to delve into its reasoning, he must first connect to the Giver of the Torah, and then he will be approaching his studies as he should.
One day, between Yom Kippur and Sukkos, the Mitteler Rebbe and his son Reb Nochum went for a walk. Outside their home, they beheld around two hundred chassidim listening intently as a yungerman chazer’d the maamorim from Shabbos Selichos and Rosh HaShana, through the day after Yom Kippur. The chassidim were so absorbed in the maamar that they did not notice the Rebbe and his son.
The Mitteler Rebbe hid behind some trees, and asked Reb Nochum to see who was chazering and which maamar it was. When Reb Nochum returned, saying that the speaker was Avrohom Sosnitzer, the Mitteler Rebbe said, “My father once instructed me to tell Avrohom Sosnitzer, ‘When one repeats profound Chassidus it is indeed sweet, but one must not forget about Whom one is speaking – Ein Sof Boruch Hu.’”
IN THE HEAD
When during his arrest the Alter Rebbe was brought to the interrogator's office, he was wearing his tefillin. As he positioned them on his head, a sudden fear fell upon all those present.
The Alter Rebbe later explained: This is what the Gemara means when it says that the possuk, “the nations of the word will see that the name of HaShem is declared upon you and they will fear you” refers to the tefillin shel rosh.
Someone then asked why this didn’t happen when so-and-so wore tefillin.
The Alter Rebbe replied, “The expression in the Gemara is not tefillin she’al harosh ('tefillin on the head') but rather tefillin shebarosh ('tefillin in the head'). When one wears tefillin in such a manner, they arouse a fear of Him."
CONSIDER
Why can’t Da lifnei Mi atah omed be both on the shtender and in our minds and hearts?
