Tefila4Life Shiur 1123 Bow (Vayevarech Dovid)

The pasuk continues, "Ve'ata mechayes kulam," you're mechaya, you give existence and chiyus to everything, "utzvah hashamayim l'cha mishtachavim." And everything that exists in shamayim bows to you, to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

Now, really, you can ask a question.

You started off the pasuk saying, "Ve'ata mechayes kulam," that the Ribono shel Olam gives chiyus to everything.

So why is it only tzvah hashamayim l'cha mishtachavim? Why is it only that the hosts in shamayim, the creations in shamayim, bow to HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Why isn't it that everything bows to the Ribono shel Olam, even what's down here? So Rabbi DeMiller explains that really it means everything bows to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

But we're saying a chiddush.

Even the heavenly hosts, even the powerful existences in shamayim, the stars, the planets, the massive beings that are in shamayim, they also bow to the Ribono shel Olam, and for sure everything else bows to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

But perhaps we can add, we're not just saying that everything acknowledges the Ribono shel Olam, we're saying they bow to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

Bowing is a very high form of subservience.

When a person bows, basically he's putting himself as if he's nothing in front of the individual that he's bowing down to.

That's what hishtachavah is.

You bow down, you make it as if you're worthless in front of the individual that you're bowing to.

And therefore the pasuk stresses that it's mainly by the tzvah hashamayim that have the ability to do that.

And the reason is because down here we don't see with the same clarity HaKadosh Baruch Hu's hashgachah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu's existence.

There's much more hester panim down here.

And therefore the mishtachavim, the ability for the creations to bow to HaKadosh Baruch Hu is mainly in shamayim.

Of course, down here they praise the Ribono shel Olam.

Of course, down here they acknowledge HaKadosh Baruch Hu, but mishtachavim, which means total subservience, is something that's unique to the tzvah hashamayim, because they are privy, they see HaKadosh Baruch Hu's existence.

In shamayim it's very clear.

And this teaches us the power of when we bow down to HaKadosh Baruch Hu in Shemoneh Esrei, or in other times.

When a person bows, he's doing something that the tzvah hashamayim do.

He's demonstrating total subservience to the Ribono shel Olam.

That's what we should think about when we say this pasuk, "Utzvah hashamayim l'cha mishtachavim." Everything in shamayim bows to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, but we also have that ability.

We have a neshama, we have a chelek Eloka mima'al.

And therefore when we tune in, we also have the ability to emulate the tzvah hashamayim, to bow to the Ribono shel Olam.