Pemikiran Yahudi Mazmur 89:8: Olat Reiyah

Prayer is from below to above. How so? From that very spring in our hearts, filled with natural holiness, behold we draw - actualizing its delicate feelings, aligned to elevate and exalt them, to purify and sanctify them in the holiness of transcendent purity which includes all sanctities and purities, all wisdoms and ways of knowing, all understandings and thoughts. Behold we are rising, and as much as our intellect grows, as much as our traits are clarified, as much as the manner of Divine cleaving⁶⁴Compare Shmonah Kvatzim 2:26 with section 4:13 is made stronger in life, in idea and will, in makeup and nature, in outcome and in aspect - so shine the lights that are revealed in us through our prayerful expressions. The further we descend into the depths of this lofty and august⁶⁵In the sense of awe-inspiring. See Tehillim 89:8 matter, into the chasm of the innerness of our soul and all its greatness and power, we can gauge with more exacting measure our elevation through the process of prayer. And when we rise, all the roots of our existence rise with us, all the branches of our neshama, all the lines of life which pour out from our essence and all the sources of life which are poured out upon us, until they bring us to our particular essentiality. Everything is blessed⁶⁶The fundamental meaning of the word bracha, blessing, is addition. In turning to the Holy One with the words ‘Blessed are You…’ it is a declaration that He is the source of all abundance, who allows creation to be something separate from Him with an independent, creative stance. The midrash tells the story that the letters presented themselves before the Creator, each asking that the world be created through it. The letter ‘bet’ was chosen because it begins the word bracha and therefore the Torah begins with the word bereshit- in the beginning. In truth these two words actually share two letters – ‘bet’ and ‘resh’ which together make the word bar, meaning ‘son’ or ‘outside.’ These words are a call to an independent existence, to be a son capable of shaping and creating, an offspring who experiences himself as other than Primary Existence. Among all the works of creation, only man has the power of choice and the therefore the ability to shape his own life. Only humanity develops ideas, invents and forges new paths which lead beyond the givens of nature. Adam is the creature who realizes the Divine intention in the most real way. In this light, all humanity can hear the command to Avram to ‘go’ as an encouragement to move, to be themselves, and thereby to drive creation forward. In the journey of the siddur to say the words ‘Blessed are You…’ to the Creator is to open a channel to the river of abundance which pours down upon us and says – grow! The experience of being blessed with life, the knowledge of the precious nature of my existence, does not contradict the experience of God’s good which is poured down upon me and continues to flow within me as an expression of His will that I develop my unique selfhood. R’ Daniel Kohn
For definitions of the meaning of ‘beracha’ see Sefer HaChinuch Mitzva 430, Mishne Torah Laws of Berachot 1:3, Chizkuni on Bereshit 24:27, Rashba Responsa I 423 at the end, Nefesh HaChaim Gate 2 ch. 2, everything rises, and everything is sanctified and uplifted, rejoicing the joy of the upright, exulting in holy elation. The nature of holiness itself rises up and is clarified, achieving a recognizable character, an active intellectual character which is no longer reactive - free and in command, ruling over all the expanses of life. This is the way⁶⁷See Kohelet 8:5-6 for this usage of משפט of prayer
In Torah we are occupied with the integration of life from above to below; from the lofty heights of the Divine intellect, from the source stone of which the Torah was cut, we take the portions of life and draw them down in their mighty greatness which fills all that is, which is greater than any end or limitation, and we root them in the depth of our naturalness, and our holy nature at the foundation of its strength overflows with the blessing of heaven through the outpouring of light which comes to us.