Dr. Berger-I want to commend you for devoting a full issue of the Lookjed digest to a well thought out essay by Ariel Tal on teaching Tefila. It is a subject that is well deserving of discussion.
I am not looking to disagree with Tal. School administrators should study Tal’s suggestions and implement them if they decide that those steps can increase interest in Tefila. Instead, I want to reveal why Day Schools do not offer a course of study in Tefila.
Tal mentions that one of the impediments to appreciating Tefila is the difficult language of Tefila. He is correct in that Tefila is composed of Perakim and Psukim of Tanach or the words are inspired from Psukim from Tanach. Given that fact, the following questions come to mind: why do schools spend a significant portion of their Jewish Studies curriculum teaching Tanach but not the Siddur? Why is the Siddur not treated as a Sefer like the other Sifrei Kodesh?
Many of you recognize my name as that of a student of Rabbi Isaiah Wohlgemuth, zâ€l, who taught Beurei Hatefila for many years at Maimonides School, Brookline, MA, the school established by Rabbi Joseph Soloveichik, zâ€l. What you may not know is how it came to be that the course was taught at Maimonides.
Rabbi Wohlgemuth in his introduction to his book, A Guide To Jewish Prayer (recently reissued by Maimonides School with extensive footnotes) tells us that it was Rabbi Moses Cohn, zâ€l, principal of Maimonides, who approached Rabbi Wohlgemuth and suggested that Rabbi Wohlgemuth teach a course in Beurei Hatefila. The two of them met with Rabbi Soloveitchik to obtain his consent and he wholeheartedly endorsed the teaching of the course. That these three men came together to create the course in Beurei Hatefila was not coincidental. It was because the three shared a common link. They were all influenced by the course of study followed at the Rabbiner Seminary in Berlin, the seminary established by Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer, zâ€l. Rabbi Wohlgemuth obtained his ordination and PHD from that school. Rabbi Soloveitchik audited classes at the Seminary while he was a student at the University in Berlin. Rabbi Cohn obtained his semicha from the Realshule in Hamburg, Germany, whose dean was Rabbi Joseph Carlebach, z’l, who studied at the Rabbiner Seminary, and one of Rabbi Cohn’s teachers was Rabbi Yissoschor Jacobsen, zâ€l, author of the multi-volume treatise on Tefila known as Netiv Binah. Rabbi Jacobsen had been a student at the Rabbiner Seminary, as well.
To me it is tragic that the model of Rabbinic Seminary fashioned by Rabbi Hildesheimer at the Rabbiner Seminary died on Kristallnacht and has not been resurrected. What was the model? To train Rabbis not only using classic Yeshiva methods but also by introducing them to the methods taught at universities. Think of it as the merging of Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan with the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. In that model, becoming ordained was contingent on obtaining a PHD in Jewish Studies. It was in that educational environment that the study of Tefila could be given its proper due.
Having laid out that background, I can answer why Day Schools do not teach Tefila. To properly understand Tefila, you have to study it using academic methods of study. That means revealing that what is found in the Siddur today is not exactly what can be found in Siddurim over the last two thousand years. Apparently, that is a truth that many in the Orthodox Jewish community are fearful to reveal.
That Rabbi Soloveitchik, Rabbi Cohn and Rabbi Wohlghemuth came together to create the Beurei Hatefila course at Maimonides demonstrates that they did not share that fear. That many alumni of Maimonides still remember much of what they learned in the Beurei Hatefila course (and they are still Orthodox) is a testament that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance (FDR First Inaugural Speech). â€
Abe Katz
Founding Director
The Beurei Hatefila Institute
www.beureihatefila.com
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2016 04:07PM by mlb.
