[Avodah] Some thoughts on Blessings and Thanksgiving- Reflections on the Siddur and Synagogue

[Rich, Joel]

Blessings and Thanksgiving- Reflections on the Siddur and Synagogue
Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik
The editors have drawn from a number of The Rav's presentations to provide us with insights regarding prayer and the synagogue. These are two areas where we could all probably use a little chizuk(strengthening.) The use of the word reflections in the title is indicative of what seems to me to be the best use of the book. It’s not meant to be a prayer or synagogue companion but rather a text to provide us with an opportunity to reflect on the deeper meaning of our prayer and synagogue participation which will hopefully inform on our experiences in those venues. The summary below is but a pale reflection of The Rav’s brilliant intellect and communication skills.
Chapter 1 The Morning Blessings
In this chapter, The Rav demonstrates in practice that a true scholar must never lose his childlike curiosity. He begins with some simple questions concerning the morning blessings which lead to an analysis of Chazal's phrasing and an understanding of their main elements. We see that the essence of prayer is our relationship with God who is beyond our ability to praise appropriately. Our prayers also establish ethical norms for us. The morning blessings deal with both our aesthetic and ethical experiences and remind us of our total dependence, on God from both a practical and legal standpoint. Because of this dependence, we are insecure and the antidote is our relationship with HKB"H. The Rav then analyzes the individual blessings and shows how the opening and closing morning blessings reflect our physical and spiritual creation by HKB"H which is the basis of all Jewish philosophy.
Chapter 2 - Psukei Dzimra and Kaddish
In this chapter, the Rav compares our praise of HKB"H through Psukei Dzimra to that through Hallel. While not explicitly mentioned here, The Rav‘s opinion that prayer requires a matir (permission) leads him to an analysis of these two forms of praise. He concludes that the praise of Psukei Dzimra is grounded in our inability to praise God appropriately and thus we can only use the specific Tanach texts already established by those much greater than us. Hallel however is praise directly commanded by HKB"H (indicated by the mitzvah blessing it starts with) and thus God's commandment itself is the matir. Psukei Dzimra concludes with yishtabach which is a reflexive term indicating that only God himself would be able to praise himself appropriately. We thus use yishtabach to reflect on the fact that all the praises we’ve said up until that point are still insufficient.
The Rav then compares the kaddish we say prior to barchu with barchu and kedusha. He concludes that kaddish is grounded in our inability to appropriately praise God whereas barchu and kedusha are grounded in the command obligation to praise him. The Rav sees the role of kaddish before barchu as taking a disparate group of individuals and forming them into a cohesive kahal (congregation). In our age of radical focus on the individual, this message of community focus becomes all the more important.
Chapter 3- Keriat Shma and the Blessings of Torah
In this chapter The Rav develops the role of Keriat Shma as the acceptance of the heavenly yoke, mitzvot and remembering leaving Egypt. He notes a parallel between each of the blessings recited around Keriat Shma and the themes of the three paragraphs of Keriat Shma.
The learning of Torah includes both intellectual and emotional components but the blessings refer to the emotional one which require a total commitment to Torah as our highest priority. The Rav describes his own mesora experience in the most poignant manner. The purpose of the blessings includes a quest for truth and chesed as a person moves from object to subject and seeks to relieve his existential loneliness.
Chapter 4 - Birkat Hamazon , The Grace After Meals
Grace after meals demonstrates both the need to do chesed (loving kindness) every day [e.g. inviting those who are hungry] and to be kadosh (holy) [e.g. the ability to withdraw from the from forbidden]
Birkat Hamazon is not primarily a blessing on thanksgiving but rather of recognizing and remembering God’s mastery over the world and our ability to benefit from it. From the requirement for a zimmun(group of 3 or more) we see the importance of group recognition of God's mastery. The themes of the specific blessings are God as caretaker for all of creation, the great gift of the land of Israel and thanks to God whether we are are in times of good or adversity.
Chapter 5 - Grant us Understanding to Know Your Ways
The amora Shmuel wrote the prayer of havineunu which summarizes the middle blessings of the shmoneh esrai in order to be used if time were short. Although we do not say this blessing today, the text reveals a number of insights into the meaning of the blessings of the shmoneh esrai.
They include: human intelligence is the source of our bliss and suffering, recognition of our mortality and acceptance of our burden, prayer is a result of distress, our purpose is to know God‘s ways (which will also form our personality), we need to expose our heart to the word of God, we choose the ethical over the social norm, there is a requirement not just to seek God but to find him , there are three forms of mesora - lomdus(intellectual), practical and haleiv (experiential) and the last is the most difficult to transmit, individual redemption can come through Torah and prayer which transport us to another reality, we pray for the community redemption, the righteous will be for fulfilled with the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple, prayer is needed for redemption but we must ask for that redemption, prayer is both intellectual and emotional, zeaka (anguished cry) is not regular prayer but a wordless prayer/cry.
Chapter 6 Praying for the defeat of evil
The first two chapters of Psalms reflect the destruction of evil and the triumph of good, one on a communal level and one on individual level. Psalm 104 is the first hallelujah which reflects the destruction of sin rather than of sinners. The lesson is that God dwells in each of us and each of us is capable of repentance.
Chapter 7 Berakhot in Judaism
Blessings are not primarily about praise but about self-actualization and increasing goodness, renewal and expansion in the world. Kabbalists see the role of blessings as discovering God in this world. The formulation of the brachot is about asking God to reveal the glory of his dominion. Using Adona-i is about lordship meaning that everything (including our material and mental elements) belong to him. Use of Malchut allows us not to commit sacrilege when using his belongings. So what does God asks of us? We must contract (mtazmtzeim) and defer to his rules (halacha as a hedge of lilies), we must act with humility and anonymity and we must be silent and accept suffering with love.
Chapter 8 - Communal Prayer and the Structure of the Synagogue
The prayer leader stands in the middle of the synagogue in front of the Torah because the minyan is a miniature assembly representing the entire congregation of Israel.
Voluntary prayer is compared to both personal pleading and the communal sacrificial service. Individual prayer is important but communal prayer bonds us all together in a communal sacrifice. The Torah amalgamates all our prayers into a single prayer and that’s why the prayer leader stands in front of the Torah as we bond together into a single community of sacrifice.
Chapter 9 - The Synagogue as an Institution and an Idea
The Rav reflects on the laity’s view of the synagogue in his day, it’s certainly worth thinking about whether times have changed or not.
The main issues a with the synagogue across all branches of Judaism in his day was that there was a general anti-establishment mood, the commitment to Israel outweighed the commitment to the synagogue and Rabbis did not always meet the peoples’ needs, especially the younger folks who wanted more religion. Because of these and other issues, people tended to wander from synagogue to synagogue and tfila btzibbur was not considered a priority.
The Rav explains that man is in exile and must pray in order to redeem himself. The exile is both historic and existential. The beit knesset is not a house of prayer but a home of prayer. It is really not God’s home but the home where God comes for his appointment to meet man. The shaliach tzibbur is an existential agent for the tzibbur (community) and the tzibbur in turn represents all of knesset yisrael- now and throughout history, thus the beit knesset becomes the home for all of knesset israel
Chapter 10- Old Prayer and New Jews
Jewish prayer is not ceremonial in that it is not superstitious, illusory or requiring of an officiant. True prayer has both an act (maaseh) and a completion (kiyum). The completion of prayer is the heartfelt emotion, the actions are the words of prayer. We really don’t understand how prayer works and why God should care what we say, but we know he does because we know our great forefathers prayed. Because of the need to follow in the footsteps of our forefathers, The Rav was very against any changes in that prayer text or adding additional prayers. What we have managed to do is infuse fixed prayer with feeling(me-halevai)



KT
Joel Rich



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