Thinking About What to Think About During Prayer

 

R. Yaakov Bieler

 

Prayer is surely the most challenging of all Commandments to properly fulfill. Assuming that unless one prays with full intention, minimally understanding the words and concepts that one is articulating, and recognizing that s/he is standing before God, the King of Kings, the prayer that has just been recited might be considered meaningless,[1] it is of great importance that we do our utmost to prepare for our prayer opportunities. The degree to which prayer will prove meaningful is a direct function of our readiness to  study and reflect upon the supplications that we recite throughout the year. One of the major obstacles to meaningful prayer is the general sense that the words are repetitive and devoid of personal meaning. Such a sensibility can be overcome, but it will require investment of time and thought. This article is the first of a series that will focus upon our Shabbat prayers, in the hope that the ideas presented will make our prayers more meaningful and spiritually fulfilling, as well as inspire the reader to undertake further studies of the prayers that he regularly recites.

 

The focus of each prayer service, weekday, Shabbat and holiday, is the “Amida” (lit. the standing).[2] Every form of the “Amida” begins with three blessings that praise various aspects of God and His Interactions with the Jewish people and the world, and concludes with three blessings that thank and acknowledge God for what He has Done for us in the past, and hopefully will continue to Do in the future. In each of these essays, one of the opening and concluding six blessings will be discussed, as well as the central portion of one of the “Amidot” specific to Shabbat and Yom Tov.

 

The first of the six standard blessings in the “Amida” is known as “Avot” (lit. fathers, so named because of the references to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov at the beginning of the blessing). An intriguing paradox regarding God’s Essence is the manner in which He simultaneously is both immanent, i.e., extremely close to each of us and involved in our particular lives, and transcendent, i.e., remote and impersonal. The language in the blessing can be divided into two groups reflecting these two Divine Characteristics:

 

                        Transcendent                                      Immanent                                              

 

                        HaKeil (the powerful God)                   Ata (You)

                        HaGadol (the great)                              Tetragrammaton (the personal                           HaGibor (the mighty)                                                 Name) 

                        VeHaNora (and the awesome) Elokeinu (our God)

                        Keil Elyon (the exalted God)                 Gomeil Chasadim Tovim (Who                                     VeKoneh HaKol (Who is the Master                    Performs Good Kindnesses)

                                    of all)                                        VeZocheir Chasdei Avot (Who                                     Melech (King)                                                  Remembers the Kindnesses                                                                                                      of the Forefathers)       

                                                                                    U’Meivi Go’eil LeVnai Venaihem                                                                                                         LeMa’an Shemo BeAhava

                                                                                                (And Who Brings a                                                                                                                   Redeemer to their offspring                                                                                                       for the sake of His Name, in                                                                                                      love)                            

                                                                                    Ozeir (Helper)

                                                                                    U’Moshia (Redeemer)

                                                                                    U’Magen   (and Protector)

 

Therefore the dual language of this blessing allows us to consider that while God, to Whom our prayers are exclusively directed, is the Creator and in control of all aspects of the Creation, He is at the same time also deeply concerned with every one of us, our needs, our problems, our potential, and therefore a proper address for our prayers. Were God only close to us, but “powerless”, so to speak, regarding the inexorable manner in which the universe appears to operate, He would be able to Do little more for us than “Hold our hands” during times of personal crisis.[3] What good would prayer then accomplish? On the other hand, if we assume that God is an all-powerful but distant Creator, concerned and preoccupied with the overall workings of His great Creation, why should He Take notice of any of us since we per force must play such a relatively insignificant role in the Master Plan of the universe? Again, it would seem that prayer would be nothing more than an exercise in futility. Therefore the words of the first blessing of the “Amida” call upon us to affirm that God is not only Able to Intervene in peoples’ dangerous situations, but that He is also Aware of what they are undergoing. While it is impossible for human beings to imagine let alone comprehend how both of these Divine Qualities can unceasingly be extent, believing in the validity of these two Divine Attributes is one of the cornerstones of Judaism, and therefore this idea is appropriately reflected in the “Amida”, the most important of our prayers.

 

On Friday evening, between the introductory and concluding six blessings, of which “Avot” is the first, we find three paragraphs, comprising a single blessing referred to as “Kedushat HaYom” (the holiness of the day). The first paragraph, beginning with the words “Ata Kidashta…” (You have Sanctified…) discusses the four ways in which God has made Shabbat a special day:

 

            a) It is a day dedicated to God’s Name,

            b) It is the climax of the Creation of the universe,

            c) It is the most blessed of all days of the year,

            d) It is the holiest of all times.

 

The second paragraph is a proof text from Beraishit 2:1-3 demonstrating the four postulates of the previous paragraph.

 

a)   “And God ‘Rested’[4] on the seventh day from all of the creative activity that He Did”; “…Because He ‘Rested’ in it from all of the creative activity that God Created to do.”[5]

b)   “And there were completed the heavens and the earth and all of their hosts”; “And God Completed on the seventh day the creative activity that He Did.”

c)   “And God Blessed the seventh day…”

d)   “…And He Sanctified it.”

 

The third paragraph consists of requests on our part that HaShem Help us to appreciate the spiritual and material gifts that He has Bestowed upon us, particularly the Shabbat.

 

The third paragraph raises the very real issue that whatever God May Do to set aside a finite amount of time on a regular basis during which holiness and blessing descend from Above, ultimately, whether or not Shabbat will prove meaningful to us is directly dependent upon the efforts that we make to open ourselves to the spirit of the day. A classical theological question that can be associated with the text of this middle blessing of the Shabbat evening “Amida” is: if, Heaven Forbid, no Halachically observant Jews were left in the world, would Shabbat still continue to exist? Clearly, if the holiness and blessing of this day emanate from HaShem, Shabbat is an independent, spiritual entity, untied to human behaviors. But would there be any point to Shabbat, given that God due to His Incorporeality, Exists eternally in a dimension in which time is irrelevant? Whichever position one takes with regard to such a question, the “Amida’s” text clearly reminds us that the Creation of Shabbat and the bestowal of its observance on the Jewish people affords us an extraordinary opportunity to “tap into” Divine Holiness and Blessing. However, it is up to us to open ourselves to this special day, and we beg for every and any Heavenly Assistance that will help us become properly “Shomer Shabbat”.  Hopefully recognizing such an idea can add to our “Kavana” (intention/concentration) when praying on Friday evening welcoming Shabbat into our lives once again. 

 

 


[1] See the draft of my paper, “The Fear of God and Prayer”, prepared for the upcoming Orthodox Forum conference at http://www.kmsynagogue.org/FearofGod.html

[2] This prayer is also known as the “Tefilla BeLachash” (the prayer to be whispered in contrast to the rest of the prayer services, in keeping with the example set by Chana in I Shmuel 1:13) and the “Shmoneh Esreh” (lit. 18, a reference to the number of blessings reputedly contained in the weekday prayers of “Shacharit”, “Mincha” and “Ma’ariv”, but in actuality there are 19.)

[3] This is Harold Kushner’s thesis in “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People”, an approach which I would contend is contrary to basic Jewish belief. While such a view may provide an answer to the question that this author poses in the title of his book, the answer curtails God’s Omnipotence to the point of rendering Him ineffectual. Another view would maintain that while God Can do whatever He Wishes, He not always Wants to. Obviously, such a position engenders its own difficulties.

[4] The statement that God “Rested” is an example of anthropomorphism. Whereas man might need to rest after intense exertions, this is not true by definition with respect to the Divine. An entity that has no body also has neither the capacity to neither tire nor need to recuperate. Therefore, the turn of phrase describing God as “Resting” is supplying man with a description of what he should aspire to in his personal life, i.e., dedicating one day each week to refrain from our creative physical activities in order to contemplate and relate to God who Initiated the idea of Shabbat for the sake of those who are dedicated to worshipping Him.

[5] I believe that the association between Dedicating Shabbat to God’s Name, and God “Resting” on that day of Creation reflects the concept of “Imitateo Dei” or the need to “walk in God’s Ways”. Since God “Rested”, we are expected to do the same, thereby freeing us from our work-related responsibilities in order to exercise our spiritual capacities.