PARASHA BALAK
07/19/2024 10:58:57 AM
SHMONEH ESRE QUIETLY
"How good are your tents… your habitations O' Israel." (24,5)
We find a wonderful idea in Or Latzadik of the Maharam Paparish: " A person should not raise his voice in the Shmone Esrei prayer because there are angels called "G-d's Ears" who are appointed to receive our quiet prayers. And if that prayer is heard by ears of people (standing nearby) those angels do not receive the prayer and it is pushed out to outside negative impure sources.
Therefore, a person should pray the Shmone Esrei prayer quietly so that only he hears that what he says.
It has been explained that there are three realms of holiness corresponding to the three prayers founded by our forefathers – Avraham founded Shacharit, Yitzchak Mincha and Yakov Arvit. But correspondingly there are the three negative "peels" of impurity.
Rabbi Pinchas Friedman adds that if a person makes his eyes holy by not looking out on his three sides, he thereby cancels out the power of the three peels of impurity.
SHABBAT SHALOM!!