{"id":7408,"date":"2023-09-08T14:54:05","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T14:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/?p=7408"},"modified":"2025-02-07T16:37:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T16:37:41","slug":"elul-and-the-humble-servant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/elul-and-the-humble-servant\/","title":{"rendered":"Elul and the Humble Servant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In <em>Mizmor Lisoda<\/em>, a part of our daily morning prayers, we say a passage from Tehillim (psalms): \u201c<em>Ivdu es Hashem bisimcha, bo\u2019u lifanav birnana<\/em> \u2013 serve Hashem with joy, come before Him in song.\u201d What is the difference between these two ways of wording our service before Hashem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is He Greater Than You?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>Gemara<\/em> (Talmud) (<em>Berachos<\/em> 34b) tells us of an incident that happened when <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hanina_ben_Dosa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa<\/a> went to study under Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai. At that time, the son of Rabbi Yochanan became extremely ill. Being that Rabbi Chanina\u2019s <em>tefillos<\/em> (prayers) were widely known to be answered, Rabbi Yochanan asked him to daven for his son. Rabbi Chanina placed his head between his knees, and davened until his <em>tefillos<\/em> were in fact answered. Upon seeing what had happened, Rabbi Yochanan commented, \u201cEven if I had placed my head between my knees in prayer the entire day, my <em>tefillos<\/em> would not be answered.\u201d&nbsp;His wife then turned to him and asked, \u201cIs Chanina greater than you?!\u201d Rabbi Yochanan replied, \u201cNo. But he is considered like a servant before the king, while I am comparable to a diplomat who comes in front of the king.\u201d Rashi explains: A servant is a part of the King&#8217;s residence, coming and going as he pleases. Conversely, a diplomat is not at all commonly found before the King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Jew: Both an Ambassador and a Humble Servant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps we can explain, that every Jew can be comparable to these same two roles. On the one hand, at times, he acts with the humility of the servant who is constantly before Hashem, serving Him with <em>Torah<\/em> and <em>tefillah<\/em> (prayer) at every possible moment. Yet, at other times, he goes out to the world at large, while taking up the position of a diplomat who represents Hashem, only coming more infrequently before Him than does the servant. Thus, we say in the above passage, \u201c<em>Ivdu es Hashem b\u2019simcha<\/em>\u201d \u2013 serve Hashem with joy, in the capacity of a humble servant who is always found before his King. But also, \u201c<em>bo\u2019u lifanav birnana<\/em>\u201d \u2013 come before Him at different intervals in song, like the distinguished ambassador who continuously represents the King, but comes more infrequently into His direct presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout the year, we fulfill the role of being His ambassadors, a kingdom of <em>kohanim<\/em> (priests) and a holy nation. We are busy in the world of accomplishment, whether it be through working at our jobs, taking care of our families, or any other of our routine activities. Although we come before Hashem three times a day in <em>tefillah<\/em> and set times for studying <em>Torah<\/em>, our \u2018busy\u2019 lives often take us away from the ideal situation of coming before the King more frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Elul and The Humble Servant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>However, during the days of <em>Elul<\/em>, and continuing into the Y<em>amim Nora\u2019im<\/em> (high holidays), <em>Klal Yisroel<\/em> (the Jews) place a special emphasis on our other role. Indeed, the Chidushei Harim tells us, that our desire during the month of Elul is to be a people that are bound to Hashem out of our great love for Him. However, this can only happen if we first work on our humility, recognizing that we are nothing at all without Him. Thus, it is during this time of year that we stress our role as being the humble servants who are always found before our King. It is through this service of humility and submissiveness during <em>Elul<\/em> that we can build a much closer connection to Hashem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button tm-cta\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/sign-up.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Learn more about the high holidays by phone, with a personal study partner. Join TorahMates today!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Now Available: The Book, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.feldheim.com\/to-return-and-rekindle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">To Return and Rekindle<\/a>\u201d \u2013 A small, pocket companion for the months of Elul and Tishrei. Written by, Rabbi Usher Smith, the author of the above article, and published by Feldheim.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Sefer \u201cPassion for Perfection\u201d by this author is now available on<\/em> <em>Amazon<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/a.co\/d\/ectlblM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/a.co\/d\/ectlblM<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Mizmor Lisoda, a part of our daily morning prayers, we say a passage from Tehillim (psalms): \u201cIvdu es Hashem bisimcha, bo\u2019u lifanav birnana \u2013 serve Hashem with joy, come [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[551,5,2,695,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prayers","category-rosh-hashanah","category-shabbat-and-holidays","category-torah-study","category-yom-kippur"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Elul and the Humble Servant - Jewish Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Throughout the busy year, we fulfill the role of ambassadors. 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