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Aug. 28th, 2012 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretSo I partially wrote up a rant about something that frustrated me with regards to the daf from Saturday, but as I kept reading I got past the frustrating part and into a really interesting discussion of the meaning of prayer. So you don't get the rant about Kol Ishah, you get the musings on the Shemoneh Esrei.
The Shemoneh Esrei is one of Torah Judaism's most fantastically dry jokes- The name means "Eighteen", but it consists of nineteen benedictions. It's the centerpiece of every Jewish prayer service, a concentrated period of time in which one is to recite a carefully devised, wide-ranging set of prayer formulas quietly. Though it is regimented and formalized, it is also one of the best opportunities in the prayer service for personalized supplicatory prayer.
There is a lot going on in the Shemoneh Esrei and I'm really excited to see the Talmud's approach to discussing the prayer. The part I have studied this far has only broached one major philosophical question and a few technical details that relate to the major philosophical question. The major philosophical question is framed thus: Was the prayer Shemoneh Esrei devised by the Patriarchs or was it devised as a substitute for Temple sacrifice?
The argument for the Patriarchs is based on a trio of Bible verses that show that Abraham engaged in a prayer in the morning, Isaac engaged in a prayer 'toward evening', and Jacob engaged in a prayer at night. Thus, Abraham introduced the morning prayer service, Isaac introduced the afternoon prayer service, and Jacob introduced the evening prayer service.
The argument for Temple sacrifice is based on a few technical details of the way we implement the prayer services. The timings of the prayers, when they can be performed, are argued in a Mishna in the exact same terms that the timing of Temple sacrifice were argued- a dispute between the unnamed Tanna Kamma and Rabbi Yehuda, with Rabbi Yehuda holding for stricter end times. Also, on holidays we say an additional "Musaf" Shemoneh Esrei which has no patriarchal derivation, but is based on the additional sacrifices offered on festivals.
But it's not really a technical argument, it's a philosophical argument. It's about what you think prayer is for and what you think prayer accomplishes. The Temple sacrifices had several purposes, but quite often those purposes were specific. You offer a guilt offering when you have accidentally sinned, to seek atonement. You offer a thanksgiving offering when your harvest goes well. Prayer as substitute for Sacrifice envisions prayer as a procedural rite, to be performed thrice daily like putting a coin in a vending machine and getting a candy bar out. That's unnecessarily dismissive, because there is a lot of powerful intention and symbolism in both sacrifice and prayer. You aren't putting a coin in, you're putting your desires and your commitment and your faith into the machine and letting the machine transform you. But it's still procedural and mechanistic.
But prayer as derived from the Patriarchal model is prayer as a conversation with God. Guided mechanistically by an ancient Hebrew formula that can sometimes knock the life out of the prayer, but giving us an opportunity three times a day to engage with God the way the Patriarchs did, as partners in God's plan for the World.
Those are the terms of the debate. And while I think most people today gravitate toward the Patriarchal justification when I frame it that way, the Rabbis mostly come down on the side of the Temple sacrifice approach, and it's worth thinking about that.
The most obvious reason is because the Beis Mikdash, the Temple in Jerusalem, had been recently destroyed. These Rabbis were hunting for a new Judaism in a post-Temple era and replacing sacrifice with prayer filled a hole in the spiritual lives of their flock, in much the same way that faith in Jesus as Messiah filled that hole for many early Christians. Yet my dad's Koren edition of the Talmud points out in a footnote that prayer had already begun to be introduced as a parallel to Temple sacrifice well before the destruction of the Temple, and synagogues had been established across Israel. Perhaps one can seize this as evidence of the Patriarchal schema- that even before the destruction, people searching for more meaning in their lives had drifted toward an older and more personal kind of worship.
But I think it's about the value of ritual as ritual. The Rabbis value ritual even when we don't understand its every nuance. I believe that we learn in the doing, that the greatest way to learn why God commanded the Sabbath is not to study Heschel but to set aside a day to rest, honor God's creation of the World, and actually feel the architecture in time that Heschel describes. That the greatest way to study the Exodus is to dedicate a week to reliving it, as theatrically and physically as possible. That the greatest way to experience the Giving of the Law at Mount Sinai is to stay up all night experiencing Torah in its most intimate glories. Because when you do those things, it's an endless string of tiny "Ah-ha moments." The Sabbath makes sense as a commemoration of creation when you're doing it in a way that it doesn't when it's a thing you're only contemplating.
The Shemoneh Esrei is invaluable as a personal connection to God, but the real hidden power lies in reciting its formulas and growing into the formulas as you grow in your faith. When you can recognize that like Temple sacrifices, it's the mechanistic and procedural becoming a vehicle for spiritual uplift that really drives Jewish prayer.
The Shemoneh Esrei is one of Torah Judaism's most fantastically dry jokes- The name means "Eighteen", but it consists of nineteen benedictions. It's the centerpiece of every Jewish prayer service, a concentrated period of time in which one is to recite a carefully devised, wide-ranging set of prayer formulas quietly. Though it is regimented and formalized, it is also one of the best opportunities in the prayer service for personalized supplicatory prayer.
There is a lot going on in the Shemoneh Esrei and I'm really excited to see the Talmud's approach to discussing the prayer. The part I have studied this far has only broached one major philosophical question and a few technical details that relate to the major philosophical question. The major philosophical question is framed thus: Was the prayer Shemoneh Esrei devised by the Patriarchs or was it devised as a substitute for Temple sacrifice?
The argument for the Patriarchs is based on a trio of Bible verses that show that Abraham engaged in a prayer in the morning, Isaac engaged in a prayer 'toward evening', and Jacob engaged in a prayer at night. Thus, Abraham introduced the morning prayer service, Isaac introduced the afternoon prayer service, and Jacob introduced the evening prayer service.
The argument for Temple sacrifice is based on a few technical details of the way we implement the prayer services. The timings of the prayers, when they can be performed, are argued in a Mishna in the exact same terms that the timing of Temple sacrifice were argued- a dispute between the unnamed Tanna Kamma and Rabbi Yehuda, with Rabbi Yehuda holding for stricter end times. Also, on holidays we say an additional "Musaf" Shemoneh Esrei which has no patriarchal derivation, but is based on the additional sacrifices offered on festivals.
But it's not really a technical argument, it's a philosophical argument. It's about what you think prayer is for and what you think prayer accomplishes. The Temple sacrifices had several purposes, but quite often those purposes were specific. You offer a guilt offering when you have accidentally sinned, to seek atonement. You offer a thanksgiving offering when your harvest goes well. Prayer as substitute for Sacrifice envisions prayer as a procedural rite, to be performed thrice daily like putting a coin in a vending machine and getting a candy bar out. That's unnecessarily dismissive, because there is a lot of powerful intention and symbolism in both sacrifice and prayer. You aren't putting a coin in, you're putting your desires and your commitment and your faith into the machine and letting the machine transform you. But it's still procedural and mechanistic.
But prayer as derived from the Patriarchal model is prayer as a conversation with God. Guided mechanistically by an ancient Hebrew formula that can sometimes knock the life out of the prayer, but giving us an opportunity three times a day to engage with God the way the Patriarchs did, as partners in God's plan for the World.
Those are the terms of the debate. And while I think most people today gravitate toward the Patriarchal justification when I frame it that way, the Rabbis mostly come down on the side of the Temple sacrifice approach, and it's worth thinking about that.
The most obvious reason is because the Beis Mikdash, the Temple in Jerusalem, had been recently destroyed. These Rabbis were hunting for a new Judaism in a post-Temple era and replacing sacrifice with prayer filled a hole in the spiritual lives of their flock, in much the same way that faith in Jesus as Messiah filled that hole for many early Christians. Yet my dad's Koren edition of the Talmud points out in a footnote that prayer had already begun to be introduced as a parallel to Temple sacrifice well before the destruction of the Temple, and synagogues had been established across Israel. Perhaps one can seize this as evidence of the Patriarchal schema- that even before the destruction, people searching for more meaning in their lives had drifted toward an older and more personal kind of worship.
But I think it's about the value of ritual as ritual. The Rabbis value ritual even when we don't understand its every nuance. I believe that we learn in the doing, that the greatest way to learn why God commanded the Sabbath is not to study Heschel but to set aside a day to rest, honor God's creation of the World, and actually feel the architecture in time that Heschel describes. That the greatest way to study the Exodus is to dedicate a week to reliving it, as theatrically and physically as possible. That the greatest way to experience the Giving of the Law at Mount Sinai is to stay up all night experiencing Torah in its most intimate glories. Because when you do those things, it's an endless string of tiny "Ah-ha moments." The Sabbath makes sense as a commemoration of creation when you're doing it in a way that it doesn't when it's a thing you're only contemplating.
The Shemoneh Esrei is invaluable as a personal connection to God, but the real hidden power lies in reciting its formulas and growing into the formulas as you grow in your faith. When you can recognize that like Temple sacrifices, it's the mechanistic and procedural becoming a vehicle for spiritual uplift that really drives Jewish prayer.