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MA’ARIV - Evening Prayer

He encountered the place. (Bereishis 28:11)
Ya’akov instituted the evening prayer. (Rashi)
The evening prayer has no set time, rather its time is the whole night. 

Avraham Avinu brought the morning down into the world, and in the morning you see a great light shining. Do you know when you have a taste of the day? Just before the day is over, at sunset, you taste the day. Yitzchak was on the level of taste. When he wanted Esav to prepare him a meal, Yitzchak said, “Va’aseh li mat’amim ka’asher ahavati,” Prepare for me tastes of food which I like. But you know friends, the night is something else. Do you know what the night is about? Fragrance.

When you see a person in the morning, you see their light. When you take a walk with your friends at sunset you taste their souls. But at night you are connected to a higher consciousness. And here I need you to open your hearts. 

Fragrance has to do with the nose. Do you know what the nose is all about? The Zohar Hakadosh says that the nose is connected to the “life of life,” “chayei d’chayim.” The Gemara says (Yoma 85a) that a person is alive as long as his nose is breathing. Not his heart, but his nose. The heart is connected to life, but the nose is connected to “chayei d’chayim.” It’s connected to the roots of life, to the roots of my roots. It says that God breathed life into man, mamesh into man’s nose.

When you see someone at night, do you know what you see? When Ya’akov came in to get the blessings from his father, Yitzchak, it says, “Re’eh reyach bni” (Bereishis 27:27), Yitzchak saw the fragrance of his son. He saw the deepest depths of Ya’akov Avinu.
Ya’akov Avinu’s holiness was that he connected us to something deeper - to the level of the unconscious, the superconscious, serving of God.

It says about Ya’akov Avinu, “vayifga baMakom” (Bereishis 28:11) - so to speak “grabbed” God. Vayifga, he touched Him, he Mamash touched God. 

Good Shabbos!

R' Shlomo Carlecach Transcribed by Stuie Wax