[Avodah] Sobering Thoughts as Israel's Independence Day Approaches

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 11:03:11AM -0400, Rich, Joel wrote:
: Which is a separate issue - I used to be one of those who looked for
: excuses not to say tachanun, but if we look at prayer as an intimate
: conversation with HKB"H, Tachanun is as intimate as I get (IIRC R'YBS
: had something on it being a continuation of amidah)

Not that I consider myself a bar pelugta or anything, but I'm not
entirely disagreeing so...

LAD, there are three basic mitzvos that make their way into the siddur:
1- Qeri'as Shema
2- Tefillah
3- Tachanunim

The first two are more obvious, but tachanunim may require some
introduction.

http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2008/01/prayers-and-requests.shtml

In *PART* (if you're interested, you really need to see the whole post):
	Also, I gave you one portion (or perhaps, "one thing, [the city
	of] Shechem") beyond that of your brothers, which I took from
	the control of the Emori -- becharbi uvqashti -- with my sword
	and with my bow.
					- Bereishis 48:22
    The Targum Yonasan renders "becharbi uvqashti" as "betzelosi uva'us-hi
    -- with my prayers and my requests". This is also in Bava Basra 123,
    "'Charbi' -- this is tefillah, 'qashti' -- this is baqashah [request]."
    ...
    The Vilna Gaon characterizes two kinds of prayer: tefillah and
    tachanunim. As RYBS himself notes, as does Rav Hirsch, lehit-pallel is
    in the reflective; something we do to ourselves. Teaching ourselves
    to turn to Hashem, and what things ought to be our priorities. Our
    primary tefillah was therefore organized by Anshei Keneses haGdolah
    in the sunset of the prophetic period, as a means of impressing us
    with the art of dialogue with the A-lmighty.

    Turning to our Father with the needs actually on our mind is
    called tachanunim. An ideal time for tachanunim is immediately
    after tefillah, as we find in the above-mentioned list of tannaim's
    requests. As well as tachanun. Tefillah is always in the plural,
    placing ourselves in the context of the community. Tachanunim, like
    E-lokai Netzor, can also be in the singular. Because E-lokai Netzor
    exists as a framework for what should essentially be spontaneous,
    we have a long tradition of adding various requests to it, rather
    than preserving the tanna's coinage untouched.

    Just as the tachanunim we say as part of regular davening has this
    element of a pre-written framework, of tefillah, we allso do not call
    for pure tefillah with no element of personal outpouring. We ask
    for the health of a sick friend with an insertion in "Refa'einu",
    or Hashem's help showing our children how to embrace the Torah's
    wisdom in "Atah Chonein", etc... "Whomever makes their tefillos
    fixed has not made their tefillos into tachanunim."

    This inseparability of these two types of worship might be an
    implication of the opening words of Mesilas Yesharim....

What may justify the minhag of treating tachanun so flippantly is that
any text found in the siddur is inherently only the trellis about which
we grow our prayers.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 24th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        3 weeks and 3 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Tifferes sheb'Netzach: When does domination or
Fax: (270) 514-1507        taking control result in balance and harmony?