[Avodah] Sholom Aleichem [was: Tinok Shenishba]

[T613K at aol.com]

In Avodah Digest, Vol 25, Issue 108 dated 3/25/2008 Arie Folger 
_afolger at aishdas.org_ (mailto:afolger at aishdas.org)  writes:

>>While I wholeheartedly endorse the idea of becoming an avid  student of 
nussa'h, I must stress that there are changes and there are  chnages. Many 
changes are based on theological positions that may or may  not be compatible 
with O belief. Hence, there is a world of a difference  between C changes and 
O changes.

Please do not use this as a  springboard to discuss shalom 'aleikhem or 
malakhei ra'hamim, as we have  beaten that horse to death - not all O is 
Rambam, but we do generally  recognize what is an O compatible theology and 
what is not. Sufficiently  to make my point.





>>>>>
I am sorry to beat this horse, but you have reminded me that in that long  
extended thread about Sholom Aleichem, I kept waiting for someone to say the  
obvious but (afaicr) no one ever did, so I would like to say it now, for the  
sake of my own closure:
 
When we say, "Borchuni lesholom, malachei hasholom" we are NOT davening to  
the angels!  The Medrash or the Gemara or something says that when a man  comes 
home from shul Friday night, he is accompanied by two angels, a good one  and 
a bad one.  If the house is not clean and there is no Shabbos food  prepared 
and everything is unShabbosdik, the bad angel says, "So may it always  be" and 
the good angel perforce says "Amen."  If the table is set and the  house is 
clean and everything is pretty and nice and Shabbosdik, then the good  angel 
says, "So may it always be" and the bad one says, "Amen."
 
When the man comes home from shul and his house looks nice and his wife and  
kids look nice and the table is set and the food smells good, he sings Sholom  
Aleichem and says to the malachim, "Borchuni lesholom" -- "do your part,  
fulfill the promise of a bracha that my home will always be this  way."
 
It is implicitly obvious in the medrash about the malachim that they are  
merely agents of G-d's will and that it is Hashem who is sending them to bless  
(or otherwise) the household each Shabbos.  No one is davening to them and  so 
the Rambam's principle of "don't daven to anyone else" is not violated by  
singing Sholom Aleichem.
 
I would also like to say that those individuals who mentioned that they  sing 
Sholom Aleichem but don't sing the third stanza are implicitly criticizing  
the behavior of thousands of rabbanom and roshei yeshiva who are gedolim  
meihem.  
 
I can see more grounds to skip Sholom Aleichem altogether (although I think  
this would be unwarranted, given its broad acceptance in Klal Yisrael) than to 
 pointedly skip just one stanza on such theological grounds -- implying that 
your  private understanding of theology, philosophy and halacha is superior to 
anyone  else's.   Even to R' Shlomo Alkabetz's understanding -- he who  
(foolishly?) wrote a song with three kosher stanzas and one stanza of  heresy.  I 
think you're sending your children a (subliminal?) message of  arrogance.  I 
don't remember who the person or ppl were who said they don't  sing the third 
stanza, so "you're" in the previous sentence is generic.
 
And here it is not only close to Shabbos but just a week before Pesach, and  
if I don't get moving right now who knows what the malachim will be saying in 
my  house tonight??


--Toby  Katz
=============





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