Renewing the Ability to Experience and Express Oneself
Upon the Advent of the New Year
R. Yaakov Bieler
Yomim Noraim 5770
As another High Holyday period comes upon us, I believe that it is important to seek out new ways to think about ourselves, our prayers, our spiritual lives. With respect to the prayers and Niggunim[1] that constitute Selichot,[2] as well as the familiar and haunting Nussach[3] of the Yomim Noraim,[4] on the one hand, there is something comforting and inspiring when one harkens back to previous years and earlier experiences that these prayers invariably call to mind; yet in order for the prayers to truly effect us and serve as catalysts for us to redouble our efforts in striving to realize the good and holy life in the future, it is incumbent upon us to search for perspectives and dimensions that are novel and engaging. One means for realizing such an objective is to try to use new and unfamiliar editions of the prayer books designed for the season. Just as the Pesach Seder is enhanced by the never-ending stream of Haggadot that seem to be published annually, so too of late, there have been a number of new editions of Rosh HaShana and Yom HaKippurim Machzorim[5] that not only have utilized new typefaces and layouts, but have also attached to the prayers novel commentaries and readings. A particularly evocative recent edition of the Machzor is entitled Mimcha Eilecha: Machzor Tefilla, Hegut VeChavaya (From You, To You: A Machzor of prayer, thought and experience),[6] edited by the contemporary Israeli poet, Yonadav Kaploon. In addition to the standard prayers, this Machzor includes on the bottom of virtually every page a wide assortment of evocative sources, ranging from the medieval Machzor Vitri and the Ba’al HaTurim, to Chassidic masters, Rav Kook, diaries written by Jews in various situations during different periods of Jewish history and evocative poetry. In his introduction (p. 7), Kaploon describes the objective of the Machzor he edited as “to serve as a bridge, the first of its kind, between the secular Western mentality of present-day Jews and the ancient and holy world of prayer of the Days of Judgment in the synagogue.”[7] The dialectic created between the interpenetration of the new and the old jumpstarts our ruminations at this time of year, and the considerable food for thought that is offered, potentially powerfully invigorates the Yomim Noraim services.
A particular example of the manner in which Mimcha Eilecha attempts to bridge the gap between traditional and secular sensibilities, is the association of the prayer “Nishmat Kol Chai”[8] with the final portion of a poem by the revered Israeli poet Leah Goldberg, entitled, “Shirai Sof HaDerech” (Poems at the End of the Road). At one point, “Nishmat” claims that man is simply empirically unable to praise God adequately:
Were our mouth as full of song as the sea, and our tongue as full of joyous song as the sea’s multitude of waves, and our lips as full of song as the breadth of the heavens, and our eyes as brilliant (taking all in and noting it) as the sun and the moon, and our hands as outspread as eagles of the sky, and our feet as swift as antelopes,[9] we still could not thank You sufficiently, HaShem, our God and God of our Forefathers…
The underlying assumption of the above passage which is an ancient part of the standard liturgy[10] is that we would like to praise God, but realize that we are inadequate for the task. However, contemporary Jews, due, among other reasons, to our loss of a sense of wonder with regard to the world around us, our scientific and technological sophistication, the speed at which events seem to occur, the overload of access to information, a tendency towards self-absorption that results in failing to pay attention to the details of one’s environment, or simply our inability to comfortably articulate our deepest longings and feelings,[11] are often not moved to even wish to offer praise to the Divine. Goldberg’s poem speaks to today’s ubiquitous absence among the overwhelming majority of Jews of the requisite sensibility for prayer and offering Divine Praise, in effect the author composing a prayer that God Help one to be able to pray:[12]
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Teach me, my God, to bless and to pray. Regarding the secret of the shriveled leaf, the radiance of the ripened fruit With respect to this freedom: to see, to feel, to inhale, to know, to hope, to fail. Teach my lips blessings and songs of praise When You Renew Your Seasons, with each morning and with each evening So that my day today will not be like yesterday and the day before So that my day will not be for me yet another meaningless repetition. |
למדני
אלקי, ברך
והתפלל על סוד
עלה קמל, על
נגה פרי בשל על
החרות הזאת:
לראות, לחוש,
לנשם, לדעת,
ליחל, להכשל. למד את
שפתותי ברכה
ושיר הלל בהתחדש
זמנך עם בקר
ועם ליל, לבל
יהי' יומי
היום כתמול
שלשום. לבל
יהי' עלי יומי
הרגל |
Leah Goldberg associates the ability to pray with appreciating the small wonders of Nature that so many of us are usually too busy to notice. Furthermore, anyone who does not utilize his senses to the best of his/her ability in order to apprehend the natural universe is metaphorically enslaved and limited in his experience.[13] It would also appear to Goldberg that we need to be taught how to articulate blessings and expressions of thanksgiving, suggesting that the ability to formulate and articulate such expressions does not come naturally to a person. The author succinctly states that there is an abundance of innovation and change to be observed and marveled at each and every day, but that man is usually insensitive to it. Ultimately, Goldberg insists, we will need Siyata D’Shmaya (the Help of Heaven) to not only resist giving in to improper temptations, but even to properly observe and respond to the world in which we find ourselves.
We can see how “Nishmat” and “Shirei BeSof HaDerech” can work hand-in-hand to provide new insights into our traditional religious experience by helping us associate the old with the new. What better time of year than the High Holidays for a sense of renewal not only with respect to our personal lifestyles, but also how we look at, process and express our perceptions of the wonderful world in which God has Placed us.
LeShana Tova Tikateivu VeTeichateimu LeAlter U’LeChaim U’LeShalom!
[1] Melodies specific to different times of year and services associated with those times.
[2] Prayers of supplication that are recited not only on Fast days, but also during the days leading up to Rosh HaShana as well as the Ten Days of Repentance.
[3] Liturgical text and melody.
[4] The Days of Awe.
[5] A Machzor, in contrast to prayer books containing the standard weekday and Shabbat services, are dedicated to specific Yomim Tovim throughout the Jewish year.
[6] Sifriyat Elinar, HaSachnut HaYehudit LeEretz Yisrael, Yediot Acharonot, Sifrei Chemed, Tel Aviv, 2004.
[7] Suggested in Kaploon’s sentence is that ancient Jewish ritual is neither Western nor contemporary. Not only is this true historically, but when one reflects upon the fact that Judaism has its origins in the Middle East, and therefore is to be considered an Eastern religion, the basis for the “disconnects” that many feel between their general cultural assumptions acquired by study in Western Universities of the Western Intellectual tradition, and their Judaism is easy to understand.
[8] This prayer not only appears in the Yomim Noraim Machzor, but is part of every Shabbat and Yom Tov Shacharit service, and can be found in e.g., The Complete ArtScroll Siddur on pp. 400-02.
[9] Not only does one praise God verbally, but by means of the things that one does with one’s hands as well as the alacrity with which he carries out God’s Will with his feet, are also forms of praising the Divine.
[10] The prayer is already mentioned in the Talmud Pesachim 118a as “Birchat HaShir” (the blessing of the poem/song.)
[11] RaMBaM,
Mishneh Tora, Hilchot Tefilla 1:4 notes that those who had been exiled to
[12] It would seem that the insertion of the verse Tehillim 51:17 “God, Open my lips and Cause my mouth to relate Your Praises” could be understood not only in the spirit of the supplication cited above from “Nishmat,” but also in terms of Leah Goldberg’s poem as well.
[13] Goldberg’s utilization of the term “freedom” in the context of accessing reality via one’s senses calls to mind Socrates allegory of the cave, wherein most people are chained within the cave’s dark resources to be able to see only the two dimensional shadows of things as they flit by on a wall, whereas the philosopher breaks out of the cave to be able to see the world in its’ three-dimensional, colorful best.