The dirty shoe and the poke in the eye

We go up to the regel because bra kra de'avuha. We are Hashem's children and a child is the 'leg' of the father.

The whole body rests on the legs, which shows how the leg is rooted in the essence. That is why the son is compared to a leg specifically and not any other body part, as the son comes from the essence of the father.
 

When a person is awake they will get upset even for a small thing, like their shoe getting dirty, in the same way they would get upset for a big thing.. When they are asleep they will only notice something big, like a poke in the eye.

When we had theMikdash Hashem was 'awake', thefore it says that Yochanan Cohen Gadol was mevatel ha'meorerin - stopped the people who 'awakened' and said 'ura lama tishan Hashem' - 'wake up, why are you sleeping Hashem. He was correcting them since Hashem was in a waking state.

During exile, Hashem is, so to speak 'sleeping', therefore he does not show he is upset if someone dirties  his shoe. We are compared to Hashem's 'shoe' like it says, "ma yafu pa'amayich ba'ne'alim." The temple is destroyed and Jews are killed and exiled, like a shoe that is dirtied while someone is sleeping, and Hashem does not seem to notice. Whereas beforehand it says, "hanoge'a bacham ke'noge'a bevavat eyno' - someone who touches you is like touching the center of his eye.

There are two types of kol -voice. One is when your heart is already aroused and you call out with full emotion. The other, is when you do not feel any emotion yet, but because of the out loud praise and supplication, you awaken your heart to feel the emotion as well. During the time of the Mikdash they said Shma without pesukei dezimra, they were already in a state of emotional arousal and did not need to be aroused before they said shma.

Now, we need to first arouse our hearts through song before we say Shma.

To understand the difference now between shma, that is outloud, and shmona esre.

There are two kinds of supplication, out-loud and in whisper.

When someone supplicates outloud, it has a big effect, it can change a harsh decree to mercy in an instant, just by saying words of supplication out loud. This is like Va'yigash Eylav Yehuda - when Yehuda entreated Yosef and awakened his mercy. (It is known that this meeting represents smichut ge'ula le'tfila, connecting the berachot of Shma to Shmona esre).

Whispering also can do this. When a person is so emotionally charged that they can not even entreat, they whisper it. This causes the one they are entreating to say, "please speak, don't be afraid". Every thing they say afterwards is only with the strength of encouragement from the one they are supplicating. Thus we say, 'Ad-nai, sefatai tiftach' - Hashem open my lips.

The word yagid means to reveal something that is already there. Like Paroh's dream that he forgot the interpretation of he says, "ve'in magid li" - no one can 'reveal' it to me. We therefore say before shemona esre 'U'fi yagid tehilatecha' - my mouth will reveal the tefilot that are already there but was not able to say on my own, without your help. (or more precisely , 'that are hidden in you and are being revealed through me.')

Mittler Rebbe -Ma Yafu