Tefilah-Our Clothes of Royalty

[1]

My Rebbe, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg shlit’a, teaches that the Mizbeach of the Third Beit HaMikdash — as described in Yechezkel[2] — is divided into two halves: the upper half called Oriel — the light of God, the heavenly realm, the next world — and the lower half called Har-El — the mountain of God, this physical world below.

An Ivri — a Hebrew — is named for ‘ever’, to cross over. We, as Jews (ivrim) are meant to bridge these two worlds: to bring the light of Oriel down into Har-El, and to carry the holiness of this world back upward.

That’s exactly what Esther did. When she ‘clothed herself in royalty[2]’ — va-tilbash Esther malchut — the Targum Onkelos reveals she was simultaneously enveloped, showered in Ruach HaKodesh. Her royal garments became a vessel for divine spirit. In that moment, Esther crossed over — standing in the inner court of the palace, facing the king’s throne, bridging physical danger below with heavenly courage above.

We do the same every morning!

We begin with the preparatory prayers — Modeh Ani, berachot, Pesukei d’Zimra — clothing ourselves in words of praise, and intention. Like Esther’s royal garb, these prayers envelop us in Ruach HaKodesh.

And woven into those morning prayers is ‘Shetargileni b’Toratecha’ — ‘Train me / accustom me in Your Torah.’

The word targileni comes from regel — foot/leg, step, the lower part — directly connected to Har-El, the earthly half where we walk and live.

When we say Shetargileni b’Toratecha, we are asking Hashem:

Train my feet — my lower half, my Har-El — in Your Torah, which is Oriel, the light of the upper world.

In other words: Give me the capacity, as an Ivri, to function with my feet firmly planted in this world while my soul is nurtured in the light of the next — so that when I rise for the Amidah, I can stand in the inner court of the King’s palace.

That, to me, is the power of our morning preparation: we dress in prayer, we ask to be trained in Torah as Ivrim, we cross the divide — and we stand before the King, not just as petitioners, but as bridges between worlds, bringing our tefillah into the light of Oriel.

[1] I used x.ai for editing assistance, to improve clarity and readibility. The final text was reviewed by me. X.ai suggested descriptive enhancements for my ideas. Every suggestion was manually reviewed and refined to reflect my original intent.

[2] Yechezkel 43:15-16

[3] Esther 5:1