Dear Dr. Berger:
I would like to respond to Rabbi Nachbar’s posting in which he solicits suggestions as to how “to facilitate experiences which could help students appreciate prayer.†I admire Rabbi Nachbar for thinking that we can artificially create experiences that can help students appreciate prayer but I am skeptical that such a goal can be reached.
As adults we all recognize that it is usually only in the face of tragedy or challenge that our prayers reach a higher level of spirituality. Can we artificially create those types of moments for our students and do we really want to? Chazal were very cognizant that by requiring the recital of a fixed text they were creating a scenario whereby prayer would become a rote activity for many. What remedy did Chazal suggest? They offered that we add something of our own into our prayers. One offshoot of that suggestion became the development of Piyut. So my first recommendation to Rabbi Nachbar is that he encourage his students to add their own words to Shemona Esrei, preferably in Hebrew but if not, then in their native language, as a first step leading to students appreciating prayer.
But perhaps a more powerful lesson can be taught by teaching the students the history of Jewish prayer. The Haggadah provides a road map of what needs to be taught. The author of the Haggadah demands that each of us feel as if we too were rescued from Egypt. That rule can and should be applied to Jewish Prayer. When you hear Kriyas Ha’Torah, you need to feel as if you are standing at Har Sinai and you are accepting the Torah anew. When you say Yihei Shmai Rabbah in Kaddish, you need to know that G-d cries about the destruction of His home and the circumstances that led Him to exile the Jewish People. When you answer to Kedushah, you need to know that you are responding to the Christians who misinterpreted the verse of Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, etc. When you say Ba’Meh Madlikin, you need to know that you are answering the Karaites who advocated sitting in the dark on Shabbos. When you say or hear Kaddish Yasom, you need to remember the children who were left as orphans as a result of the Crusades. When you recite Kabbolos Shabbos, you must echo the Messianic hopes of the Mekubalim of Tzfat whose immediate ancestors were expelled from Spain in 1492. When women say Baruch . . . Sh’Asani Kirtzono, they need to remember the first Jewish women to die Al Kiddush Hashem which occurred during the Crusades.
And there are other tragic sides to our prayers. We should be reciting the Aseres Ha’Dibros each morning just before Kriyas Shema and Ashkenazim should be performing Birkas Kohanim each day in the Diaspora. It is clear to me that both those practices came to halt due to the threat of Christianity. That Chazal felt the need to resort to self-censorship needs to be bemoaned. And if you think that self-censorship stopped with political emancipation, think again. Political emancipation in Europe in the 1800’s brought another example of self-censorship; i.e. the rewording of the Bracha of Sh’Lo Asani Goy. Check the Orthodox Siddurim of the 1800’s particularly those published in Germany for variations of that Bracha.
May I suggest, therefore, that students can gain a higher level of appreciation for our prayers simply by knowing when certain prayers entered the Siddur and why they became part of our prayers.
Abe Katz
Founding Director
The Beurei Hatefila Institute
www.beureihatefila.com
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2015 05:40PM by mlb.
