Rabbi Yeshiah Halevi Horowitz, The Shelah HaKaddosh (השל"ה הקדוש‎ ) & the Timeless Tefillas HaShelah

0:00 parents around the world will be picking up their tefilasis, their anenis and their machzorim or sidurim to find the page of the holy tefilas hashla, and, with lips on fire, with hearts wide open and with big hopes that their tefilas will be heard by HaKadosh Baruch Hu, they will utter the tefillahs Hashalah and the hope that Hashem will hear their tefillahs and bless their children With Hatzlacha, with prosperity and with the flowering of their potential In the physical world and in the spiritual world.

0:45 The Holy Rabbi Yeshayah HaLevi Horowitz, or, as you know of him, the Shaloh HaKadosh. He put together a tefillah that parents say to daven for the hatzlacha of their children and he marked that the day before the month of Sivan begins, before the holy month of Sivan, upon which Hashem chose that that should be the month of the giving of the Torah, before Sivan is inaugurated and the Jewish people are to become the children of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it would seem fit that parents on Erev Sivan, the day before the month of Sivan, should also pray for their children, daven for their hatzlacha.

1:43 It's a big what to do? A big hack In today's generation the Tfilas Hashalah. New books, new content and new excitement every year about the Tfilas Hashalah. Reminders, to say it, free downloads to say it. Well, because why not? And how could one miss out on such an incredible opportunity to get a little acquainted with the holy words of the Shalah and find the time to daven for the Hatzlacha of your children, something that is so near and dear to parents' hearts?

2:29 And today I want to endeavor with you to wander through the woods and see a little bit about who the Shalah was, what he stood for, what his legacy is, what he has left behind, before we delve into the actual tefillah's hashla and pick up on some of its themes. Hopefully, like this, the tefillah will be that much more moving, the words be more emotive and it will provoke more heartfelt tefillos to Hashem for the hatzlacha of parents' children.

3:13 And so we begin in 1558, when the holy Rabbi Isaiah Halevi Horowitz, the great Rabbi Yeshayah Halevi Horowitz, or, as you know of him, the Shaloh HaKadosh, the Holy Shaloh, or, as you know of him, the holy shloh, was born in the well-known city of Prague. His father, a praised genius, author of many Torah works, an accomplished scholar. His father, a disciple of the holy Ramah, and his father was actually the first melame, the first teacher, the child prodigy, the shlach kadosh, later the father and his whole family.

4:00 They left Prague, they went to Krakow in Poland. They eventually ended up in Lublin when the holy Rabbi Yeshaya learned in the celebrated yeshiva of the Maharani. He started underneath the great tutelage of Rabbi Meir Lublin, and the Shalah grew up drinking from the wisdom and the Torah of Rabbi Yehoshua Falk, or probably, as you know of him, the author of the Drisha and the Prisha and the Sema on Shulchan Aruch. So he has incredible teachers and incredible background, the holy Shalah HaKadosh.

4:46 He married Chaya or Chayi unclear how to pronounce the name the daughter of Abraham Maul of Vienna, a wealthy and active philanthropist, somebody well known in the supporting of Torah endeavors and specifically in supporting causes in Yerushalayim. And at a very early age he was already recognized as a great ga'in, a genius and a massive Talmud Chacham. He was appointed to take part in the meetings of the rabbis of the Vad Arba Ha'aretzos, the great council of the four countries, an incredible platform and assembly, a group of rabbis that would meet together to deal with the most complex issues in the holy shloh.

5:37 At his tender young age, sitting with the great rabbis, he held rabbinical positions in Dubno and Ostraha and in Posen, in Krakow, vienna and Frankfurt. He headed great yeshivos and many, many holy students, and in 1602, the great Rabbi Yeshaya Horowitz became the Avbezin in Austria and in 1606, became the rabbi of Frankfurt. In 1614, after serving as a ma'ara da'asra holy rabbi in the prominent cities in Europe, there was the notorious Feltzmilch uprising.

6:21 Exiled from the town, he left with fellow citizens and he eventually was chosen and settled down to become the chief rabbinic officer in his native town of Prague. The child made it back home. A great story of the child prodigy who made it. He was the rabbi in Prague for seven years. A great story of the child prodigy who made it. He was the rabbi in Prague for seven years. At first, he shared the office with the great Rabbi Ephraim Luntjens. Upon Rabbi Ephraim's death, he took over the position solely by himself, a position which he held until he left for a holy land and when, in 1621, when he chose to go a different way with his life and realize a desire that he had wanted so badly since the very beginning of his life the holy shalah.

7:23 He always wanted to live in Eretz, yisrael, and after, now that his wife had just passed away, in 1620, he decided to leave everything behind and satisfy his craving to move to Eretz Yisrael to make aliyah, and he left his comfortable position. He bid he begged farewell to his children, his grandchildren, his Talmidim, his congregants. He bid farewell to the honor, to the glory. Altum moved to Eretz Yisrael and realized this dream. It's noted how painful it was to leave his precious son.

8:06 He had a son named Reb Sheftel, who had already become a remarkable genius, himself a great guy, and history tells of how this journey that the Shulah took after he left behind his rabbinic position and traveled to the holy Eretz Yisrael. History tells of the great stops that he made upon the way. The great Shalah HaKadosh stopped in Venice, where he had received incredible fanfare and honor. They bestowed tremendous covet and reverence upon the great Shalah HaKadadosh. And on the 6th of Sivan, in the end of the year 1621, the saintly Rabbi Isaiah, the saintly and revered Shalach HaKadosh, arrived Finally in the ear, in the holy city of Jerusalem, Yerushalayim.

9:03 Immediately he was appointed as the chief rabbi and it was there that the Shaloh would begin finally putting pen to paper, to author some great works and to lead the Jewish community of Yerushalayim. It was there, in the holy land, that he arranged his famous Shar HaShomayim Siddur. The name that he gave the Siddur, shar Hashomayim, he took from the fact that Hashomayim has the numerical value of 395, which is also the same numerical value of the word Yishaya, his name, as is the custom to weave your name into the Sefer's title and furthermore, because of the Pasek that was to be found in the forthcoming Parsha, because he arrived on Erev Shabbos of Parsha, svayetze, and in that Parsha the verse state, the Buzduk, says he put two and two together and titled his Siddur.

10:11 This great Siddur, the Siddur, was printed eventually by his great grandson in 1770, 1717, with incredible introductions and approvals, words of praise and Haskamos from the Bach, the Teis, viziantif and other great rabbis. It was interesting that the year that the Shulah arrived in Yerushalayim was a year of Shemitah, one of those sabbatical years where you cannot do any business and commerce with all of your land. But this year, because the previous year had been such a rough drought, such an insignificant amount of rain, the hunger was brutal.

11:00 People were seeking to sidestep the mitzvah, find loopholes, leniencies that weren't always exactly foolproof or with the letter of the law. But the shaloh ha'kadosh, he led the community in this tough time. Not looking for the hector. He showed tremendous halacha prowess. He showed tremendous yirashomai in fear of heaven and tremendous bitachon, tremendous trust in the Almighty and friends. Well, what happened next? It's honestly frightening. It was during the early part of his time in Yerushalayim that the mayor of Yerushalayim, the non-Jew in charge his name was Mahmoud Pasha, the city's governor and honest and very friendly citizen, friendly to the Jews type of ruler.

11:54 1625, a wealthy Arab from Yerushalayim named Ibn Farouk bribed the governor and bought the ruling powers over Yerushalayim. He was one of those people from the movies or not from the movies, from the books and it was just rotten, evil and out. A blind, one-eyed, wicked, cruel man is what people remember of him. During the last Shabbos of the month of Teves, he entered the city with 300 armed soldiers and took over the rule. He started to persecute the Jews.

12:36 He sought all means of price gouging, squeezing money out of them, abusing the Jewish people. And on the morning of the holy Shabbos, on the 11th of Elul, he sent his soldiers into the two shoals of the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim and he arrested 15 rabbinic figures, and amongst them the Shola. He placed a huge ransom on their heads and kept them incarcerated up until Rosh Hashanah. Imagine it Definitely could feel like the Shari Tshuva's muscle of Elul and being in a jail cell.

13:18 But Tshuva's like tunneling out and being able to go to freedom. So why not tunnel out? But either way, they remained in prison until Rosh Hashanah, when they were released after tremendous efforts from the community, people putting up the money to get the Rav out. But now, with the situation with the new ruler, no one really sure of what to make of their lives in Yerushalayim. The Holy Shalah and other Jews that escaped. They moved up to Tzvas. The Holy Shalah and other Jews that escaped. They moved up to Tzvas, the holy Safed. And here is where the Shalah would settle and actually conclude his magnum opus.

14:00 It was in Tiberio where he finally completed his gigantic and magnificent work, the Shnei Luchos Habris Hence the acronym Shnei Luchos Habris, s-l-h. Shin Lamed he, the Shalah. How Kaddish finds its name? It's two years after he had arrived in Eretz, yisrael. As magnum opus is complete and it's what we really remember from the Shalah. The Sefer, the Seferim are incredible with its pshat. Its Torah is Kabbalistic, the interpretations of the Gemara beautifully homiletical, mixed with Halacha.

14:49 The Shalaz Torah always is about stressing joy in your action, dominating and even converting the Yetzir Hora into the Yetzir Tov, harnessing it like a wild bull and using it to your advantage to serve Hashem. The Sefer is Shnei Luchas HaBris, incredibly exhaustive not exhausting but exhaustive. It's comprehensive, it's encyclopedic in its compilation of Musser, of Kabbalah, of Torah, and actually it was only meant to be an ethical will for his family, written as a compendium of Torah Judaism.

15:40 The title page in quotes is written the following is compiled from both Torahs the written and the oral Torah handed down from Harsinai and the Shnei Luchas Habris. Its impact cannot properly be measured because of its incredible influence on its studiers that continues to live to this day. The Shnei Luchos HaBris had a profound influence on Hasidus. The Seferim were loved and adored and studied by the Heilige Baal Shemtev and the Baal Atania.

16:21 Some even aspired to be called Shalah Yidin the Seferim. The work was first published in 1648 by his son. It's been reprinted thousands of times, hundreds of times, and even an abbreviated version appeared in the 1680s. Abbreviated version appeared in the 1680s. The Shalah's son, reb Shabsi, or known as Reb Sheftel, who had become the chief rabbi in Pozen and that vicinity. He first published the Shalah in Amsterdam 50 years later, in 1698, actually the year that the Baal Shem Tov was born, the Shalah's work was printed a second time in brilliant, clear letters.

17:10 Because of the love, the admiration and the great demand for the Shalah's work, it's beloved and incredibly respected. The Sepharim have beautiful explanations, commentaries about Torah, about Halacha, about mitzvos, all the different facets of Jewish life, and it really helps the reader to come to a sense of depth, of the soul, of holiness, of righteousness. The Shloh, actually, besides for authoring his Shloh HaKadosh, the Holy One plastered on the back of his birth name, the Holy Shalom HaKadosh passed away at the age of 70, on the 11th of Nisan.

18:17 Before his soul departed to Olam Haba, he ordered an announcement should be made in the halls and the shoals and in the synagogues that friends let it be that Rabi Shaya Halevi Horowitz has died and no eulogies should be said. Special prayers should be said, special prayers should be offered during the first seven days and on the yard site. Eventually he was buried near Rebbe Eichelon ben Zakkai and near the Rambam in Tavaria.

19:01 Incredible life, incredibly and extraordinarily lived. I found actually that, interestingly enough, the Chida writes in his that he found in the Seder Adairis, who himself found in the writings of Reb Leib Slutzk not sure who that is that the soul of the great Goyen of Reb Yeshaya, horowitz Alevi. He had the soul of Rus in him. He had the soul of Rus in him. Not sure what to make of that, but I don't believe they say that about you and me, the Shalas descendants, people like the great Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak of Lublin maybe you know of him as the Choyza of Lublin Rabbi Aaron Alevi, ben Ramosha Staroselye, who was a famous Talmud of Rabshner, zalmanal, of Liadi, great Balatania families of the Horowitz family, fruchter, langer families they continue to carry on the Shalah's legacy.

20:08 And definitely my holy brother-in-law, the great Rabavi Horowitz, a holy descendant of the Shloh HaKadosh. And now that it is Erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan the Shloh writes that now is the time that seems fitting to pray for our children, and he leaves us with this incredible prayer, the Tfilas Hashlah. As we now actually open it up and look inside and explore it, a lot of it that first thought comes to mind is easy to remember, because the Tfilah is so popular that now it's popular songs.

20:59 It's the lyrics to so many great Jewish hits, jewish music what a parent truly wants for his child. It takes a parent's thoughts and hopes and puts them onto paper. I first want to read through some of the big English lines and then touch on a couple of the Hebrew, then we'll conclude with some final thoughts. The tefillah begins Atahu Hashem Aleichenu. You are Hashem, our thoughts. The tefillah begins Atahu Hashem Elekenu. You are Hashem, our God, before you created the world. You are Hashem, our God, after you created the world.

21:41 You created the world Forever and ever. You are Hashem. You created your world so that your glory, your divinity, would be revealed through your divine Torah. Interesting right then. And there we get a clear definition of why it is that Hashem created the Torah. The Shulot tells us it's an order that Hashem's divinity should be revealed. The Shulot's prayer continues V'al kiyam ha'olam. V'al kiyam ha'torah bol anu mimcho. Hashem alo kenu shnei tzivuyim, because you want the world to continue.

22:22 We have two commandments Kosavta b'tayra, secha, you authored. You wrote in your Torah peru a revu be fruitful and multiply. V'kosavta b't Be fruitful and multiply. And furthermore, you wrote the meaning behind these two psukkim are one God. You want the world to have people, and you want the world to have people and you want the people to be that. You want the people to be a manifestation of your glory, god, you created, you fashioned and you formed so that we and our children and the offspring of our people, the house of Israel, that we fulfill our one goal, which is to know your name and to study your Torah.

23:36 Clearly paraphrasing the words of the Birch HaSatorah in the morning should be moving because of the clarity that our job in this world, all of Amcha Beis Yisrael, is simple. It's Yo Dei Shem Echa, ve'loin Dei Serasecha Know Hashem and to learn His Torah. And then next comes the great, famous song U'B'chein Ava Yelecha Hashem Melech Malchei Amlochem. I think it's the first time I sung into this, mike.

24:16 And so too, o Hashem King who reigns over kings, I come to you and cast down my tefillah before you. My eyes are fixed upon you. Until you are gracious to me and hear my prayer to present me, please, hashem, sons and daughters. Bon hem uvanos, v'gam hem yifru v'yirbu heim uveneim uveneim uveneim Matsov kol adoros. Please give me children and my me children and my children, children, letachles, all for the purpose, so that we can be involved, we can be Arangaton, we can have our lives be fully saturated with the quest of understanding Hashem's divine Torah, to learn, to teach, to protect and to do and fulfill all of the words of your Torah's teaching with love.

25:35 Hashem, enlighten our eyes and make our hearts connect to your mitzvos. Give us a sense of feeling and contentness in being an Orthodox Jew Avvinu v'varachamon tein lekulon, u'chayim aruchin and being an Orthodox Jew, please give life that is long and blessed. Give us an eternal life, just like Avraham Avinu prayed, who perished.

26:16 Rabbi Husinu and our rabbis explained give us a life as our forefather Abraham prayed, that's filled in awe of you. And the final paragraph of this extraordinary Tfilas Hashla and the final paragraph of this extraordinary tefillah hashlo. Please, hashem, I ask of you, give me healthy, happy, clean and kosher healthy children, pure children. Clean and kosher, healthy children, pure children, please.

27:02 No disqualification or filth should get into my children. Just peace and truth and good and straightness. Be'enei Elohimu, ve'enei Odom Should be straight and proper, even in the ways of people the Shalah tells us. View Ba'alei Torah, they should be masters of Torah. Ma'orei Mikra, they should be masters of the written law. Ma'orei Mishnah, masters of the Mishnah. Masters of the Talmud. Masters of the written law. Ma'ayri mishnah, masters of the mishnah. Masters of the talmud. Masters of kabbalah. Bali mitzvot, bali chesed. Masters of midos. Serve you, hashem, with love and with authenticity, with genuineness, not with false fear.

27:47 Please, hashem, grant my children all of their needs with honor, give them wealth satisfaction, give them strength. Children, all of their needs with honor, give them wealth satisfaction, give them strength, give them upperclassness, give them distinction, beauty, grace and kindness. You, hashem, you know all mysteries. You know what I'm thinking in my heart, that you that you know that my intention here is in the sake, for your great name and for the sake of your Torah.

28:30 Therefore, hashem, please, taking a page out of El Yoan of his playbook, hashem, please listen to me, answer my tefillah. Heed my call For the sake of the and hopefully it will be the ultimate bracha, that the branches should look similar to their root, that my children should look like Avram, yitzchak and Yaakov, and for the sake of David HaMelech, your holy servant, the fourth leg, the regal revi, the fourth leg, the fourth leg of your holy chariot, the author of the Tehillim, please answer me, a incredible tefillah.

29:29 Afterwards we say Tehillim 128. The song of ascents, before saying exclamation mark. Hear my prayer and may the expressions of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart we conclude, find favor before you. O Hashem, my enduring rock and my redeemer, my salvation, my enduring rock and my redeemer, my salvation.

30:16 I hope that the words of the shalah touch your heart. I hope that the holy prayer, the neshama, the life legacy and the history of everything that the shalah ha-kadosh stands for should inspire you to pray fervently to Hashem. And I hope that Hashem hears your tefillos and that, in this crazy world we live in, he gives us all beautiful, healthy, happy, successful Jewish children that will give birth to more happy, beautiful Jewish families to build bayis, ne'eman, b'yisrael homes that are filled with belief in Hashem, with fear of heaven, and all that you pray for for your children should be completely and entirely fulfilled in hereby amenu.