We continue with insights into the famous chapter that we say three times a day, Ashrei Yoshvei Betecha. The first part of Ashrei, אַ֭שְׁרֵי יוֹשְׁבֵ֣י בֵיתֶ֑ךָ ע֝֗וֹד יְֽהַלְל֥וּךָ סֶּֽלָה׃ is found in Tehilim chapter 84,5. The Chida, his commentary Yosef Tehilot, quotes from the Rama M’Pano, who asks the following question: The proper Hebrew for this verse אַ֭שְׁרֵי יוֹשְׁבֵ֣י בֵיתֶ֑ךָ Ashrei Yoshvei Betecha, which means, “ Fortunate are the ones who sit in Your house,” should be אשרי יושבי ב ביתך Ashrei Yoshvei B’ Betecha Fortunate are the ones who sit in your house. What does “ Fortunate are the ones that sit your house ,” mean? He explains that it really means is, “Fortunate are the people, who, they themselves, become the house..the chair, the dwelling place of God Himself.” So we read it as Ashrei Yoshvei Betecha, Those that sit and become Your house. They're Your hous e. They're God's house. That's the job of every Jew, as we say, “Zeh Eli V’Anvehu/This is God, and I will build a dwelling place for Him.” The dwelling place for Him isn’t just an external building like the Bet Hamikdash or the Mishkan, but rather the person himself . This concept shows up in the Alshech, who explains, the pasuk where Hashem says V’Asu Li Mikdash/Make for Me a Mikdash, and I’ll dwell in them . It doesn't say dwell in it ( meaning the Mishkan). “ I’ll dwell in them , means the Jewish people. Today, we don't have a Mishkan or Mikdash. But we have our prayer. And when we pray, God dwells in us . We talk to God when we pray, because He’s there. When we pray, He comes down, to the extent that there is a Halacha that one is not allowed to walk in front of someone while they're praying. The simple reason is because it's going to distract them. But the deeper reason is because when they're praying, the space around them becomes holy, like a Bet Mikdash, so you can't enter that holy zone that's surrounding a person when they're praying. And that explains, going back to we discussed yesterday, how the pious men of old, would contemplate for an hour before they prayed. As we said, the source was Ashrei Yoshvei Betecha/ Fortunate are those who (simply) sit and wait. But now we have a deeper explanation: Fortunate are those that become God's home . How do we become God's home? What brings the Shechina down? It comes down only through thought and contemplation. And the Shulchan Aruch brings down that these pious men of old would reach such high levels of connection that it was almost like a prophecy. God dwelled on them because they spent the time to contemplate and bring Him down. And we too must spend time contemplating, as we mentioned yesterday, because if one does not spend time before praying, then, while he's praying, he's not really present. Hacham BenSion gave a mashal for this: Imagine that you have a very important business meeting, and all the important buyers are sitting around the table. Then you walk into the meeting, put a picture of yourself down, say, “ Here’s my picture,” and walk out. You're not present. When a person prays and they're not focused, it's like they put their picture down, but they're not really there. The Rambam talks about this in Moreh Nevuchim , section three, chapter 51, where he says, “It's possible that a person can pray with the movement of his lips, with his face against the wall, but he's thinking about his own personal needs and what he has to do,” which is what most people do. When you close your eyes, suddenly your mind becomes flooded with all of the things that you need to do. And he says, on that person, we say a very, powerful or negative verse, קָר֤וֹב אַתָּה֙ בְּפִיהֶ֔ם וְרָח֖וֹק מִכִּלְיוֹתֵיהֶֽם You're close to God with your mouths and you’re far , (literally) from your kidne ys (which refers to your inner thoughts). Your inner thoughts are not really connected to Hashem. This is the difficulty of prayer. Prayer is called Avodah/ service. What is the service of God? I always thought the service of God is that while you're praying, you're serving God. But the Avudarham, in his commentary on prayer, quotes Rav Abraham, the son of Rabi Yitzhak, the Av Bet Din , and one of the Rishonim . He says that prayer is called service , and the work of that service is 1-to remove the thoughts from your mind that are causing you to become preoccupied in worldly matters, and 2-to subjugate your thoughts to your prayer. So the real job of prayer is not necessarily when you're praying, it's the pre-game show that you have to put your efforts into. And if you put the proper efforts in beforehand, then your prayer goes smoothly. To recap, we’ve discussed two explanations of Ashrei Yoshvei Betecha. 1- As we discussed yesterday, it means Fortunate are those that wait in God's home. 2- Fortunate are those that become God's home. AAnd they are accomplished the same way: by weighing, contemplating and thinking before you pray. Have a wonderful day.