The Gracious 1 – Who forgives Abundantly

We say: Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned unintentionally. Pardon us, our King, for we have purposely sinned, for You pardon and forgive. Blessed are You, G-d, the gracious one who forgives abundantly.

Before we go any further, it is important to define the words that we are using here (in English) – for there is and can be quite a difference in understanding of exactly what they mean… and what they mean to us.

Here’s a slightly different translation - and this has a whole different ‘coloration’ in meaning:
Pardon us, our Father, for we have done wrong; forgive us our King, for we have sinned, because forgiving and pardoning are You. Blessed are You, HaShem, Generous One, Who abundantly forgives.

We say: “…we have sinned unintentionally.” or “…we have done wrong…” So which is it? If we talk about ‘sin’, the usual Hebraic term means something like “missing the mark”… so how do we miss the mark unintentionally? Can we intentionally miss the mark? So would not every ‘sin’ be unintentional? Is the “we have done wrong” phrase better express what we feel and mean to say? But then the prayer becomes redundant when we say that “we have purposely sinned”. So, again, perhaps the second translation better expresses our prayer and our hopes for it first says that we did wrong and then says that we have “missed the mark” by sin.

S’lakh lanu avenue che khataun… for us, here in America, it is important that we derive a true understanding of what we are trying to say in the language that we best know and understand. So (as with all of the prayers and blessings in the Silent Amidah) we do need to have a grasp of what our forefathers said when they used the Lashon haKodesh – the Holy Hebrew words.

And so again, we look at the historical aspects of this prayer as well as the theme of the prayer. Here we find Judah (the fourth son of Jacob) who was married to Shua and had three sons [Er, Onan, & Shelah]. Er married Tamar, but he sinned and was taken from the world. Onan then married Tamar, with whom he was supposed to have children in order to perpetuate Er’s name. However, Onan was punished for not wanting to have children that would be ‘credited’ to his brother’s name and he too died. The obligation then, according to levirate laws, fell to Shelah.

Judah, having seen two of his sons married to Tamar and both having died, he was naturally concerned for his remaining son, Shelah. And so he had no intention in allowing Shelah to marry her and used a delaying tactic by telling Tamar that Shelah was still (too) young and she should wait… After waiting some years, Tamar realized that Judah had no intention in allowing the marriage. However, in the meantime, Judah’s wife died. After mourning her, Judah journeyed and on his way he found Tamar, whom he did not recognize as she had disguised herself as a prostitute. She then seduced him and became pregnant by him.

[This becomes a lengthy story and needs to be read in full from pp 113 to 116
to see the relationship between Ruben and his life-long repentance and that of Judah which shows the difference between (Reven’s) association with the prayer for Repentance and (Judah’s) association with the prayer for forgiveness!]

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Let us now look at the meaning of “Blessed Are You, G-d, the Gracious One Who forgive abundantly.” Gracious (chanun) and abundantly are both attributes of HaShem. In Exodus 22:26 we see: “He will cry to me and I will hear, for I am gracious.” As for “abundantly” we can view this on (at least) two different levels: G-d is marbeh lisloach [G-d has many ‘forgivenesses’ available in a quantitative as well as in a qualitative sense], and when we desire to make teshuvah He grants in abundance.

Next time, the Gracious 1 is also the Redeemer of Israel. Who is Israel?

FIRST we discuss the INfluences on English

We American Jews have had our appreciation of Judaism deeply informed by the English language and one of the core texts of that language is what I call the Malakh Yankel Bible – or as you probably know it: the King James Bible. The KJB (not to be confused with the KGB although both use a form of Mr. Spock’s “Mind Meld”) used a variety of words that were commonly used in ‘English’, but have different meanings in Christian and Jewish contexts. The KJB (or MYB) took our Hebrew Holy Writings and re-interpreted them in English with a Christian slant. Now, in a recent talk given at an “ecumenical meeting" in Scotland, the speaker (a Jewish Rabbi) said that science recently was able to attach sensors to the brain of a bat and so come to an understanding of what a bat “saw” – BUT, he continued the scientists only came to understand – from a humans point of view what the bat was encountering and in no way were the human scientists able to comprehend the world as a bat! So, it’s not surprising that many of our understandings of the words that we use in English are colored by this Christian overlay. Though it bothers me, I can’t stop the Christians from misinterpreting our holy writings, but, it’s a shame for us Jews to accept the Christian view of the world and to misconstrue them the way that they do… rather than understand them the way we Jews have accepted them for millennia.
For example, the story of the Garden of Eden is used in Christianity to explain the existence and the meaning of “original sin”. But, no word (like) “sin” appears in the story! Adam and Eve misbehaved. So, what’s going on here? Why should we be tarnished by their actions if we “Ain’t Misbehavin’”
The point is that Christians do not know and cannot know what the Jewish experience is and when we Jews use the English language, which is infused with Christian thought, we are misunderstanding our own Hebrew prayers that have been “translated” into a foreign tongue.
Here is another example: “Do any of you have a doctor?” No you don’t. You do not own a doctor. And yet the English language is about possessing. The Hebrew language, on the other hand is not. The understanding of this phrase in Hebrew is something like: There is a doctor toward me which helps me with my medical needs.

With this in mind let us consider the prayers we have been discussing for the past several blogs... and try to think of them, if not in Hebrew, in a way that has meaning to the Jews because of our Jewish experience for some 5770 years.

We continue our journey into the Silent Amidah:

Last week we asked for knowledge and the wisdom to “make use of” that knowledge. Oh that mankind would one day have the true wisdom to do just that! Binah and Daat; knowledge and wisdom… and the heart to unite the two. But now we turn to (appropriately enough as we ask for help in making t’shuvah) to the prayer for One Who Desires Repentance.

RETURN us, our Father, to Your Torah, and bring us close, our King, to Your service, and return us with complete repentance before You, G-d, who desires repentance.

Here is a prayer blessed on what happened to Reuven, the firstborn son of Jacob (Israel). After the death of this stepmother, Reuben stressed to Jacob, his father, in what was an inappropriate manner; the he (his father) should be more ‘involved’ with his (Reuven’s) mother. Because of these remarks and actions he lost various spiritual benefits that (should have) accrued to him as firstborn son. Once he realized his error is addressing his father in that way, he repented for the rest of his life!

Later Moses blessed the tribes of Israel with words of G-d and he told the tribe of Reuven that; “Reuven will live in this world and not die in the world to come.” [Yechi Reuven v’al yamot:] This was an announcement that Reuven’s repentance was finally accepted by G-d. To which angels cried out; “Blessed are You, G-d, who desires repentance.”

The lesson to learn here are on several different and interlocking levels! So before we consider the relationship between this prayer and the one that precedes it, let’s consider some of the levels of understanding and meaning that we find here. First of all there is the plain meaning that we find in understanding the written word(s) alone.


We ask for help in returning to the path of study of Torah because we recognize that that is the way that G-d would have us travel, and we ask for His help because we (a) know that we cannot accomplish this on our own and (b) we believe that this is truly something that G-d desires.

Now on what other level of understanding can we consider this prayer? Is there a mystical aspect to this? Consider for a moment a rabbi of many years ago – one who arrives at least a half-hour early for minyan just so he can ‘prepare’ himself for the avodah shebelev [the (holy) work of the heart]. He then seriously and with deep emotion prayers the morning prayers, reads the words of Torah and concludes his prayers with another half-hour of meditation. He then goes home and studies Talmud for several hours before returning to the Beit Midrash to take part in collective studies. In the evening before going to bed he recites his prayers. The next morning, he arises early to recite Psalms before going to shul for minyan. If he feels the need to ask G-d for aid in making teshuvah… on what level of understanding does that take him?

Certainly he knows, in his heart, the words that he recites. Certainly he understands what he is asking for. So why does he pray so fervently for G-d’s help in this prayer? What is in this prayer that we are missing… or not understanding?

Now. Let us look at the relationship between this prayer and the previous one. In order for us to return to the study of Torah (which we recognize as something that G-d wants) we realize that we need the discriminating knowledge and insight to learn. Only after G-d grants us the facility to do so can we then apply them to the study of the learning of Torah. We now have the vehicle for study and the method by which we can return (come closer) to G-d.

Let me read a little from the bottom of page 105 and part of 106 [at this point you need the book to follow along...]

Final thoughts on this prayer: the Implications! In this prayer we are asking G-d to give us tools to effect changes in ourselves. The concept, the idea here teaches that whenever a person (feels a need to) change or improve a relationship, he must accept the responsibility for modifying his behavior himself.
If someone mouths these words without understanding the words and the essential meaning or the implications… then what?

The Knowledge behind: The Art of Jewish Prayer

So far we have looked at “Standing in HaShems Presence” and asking that; “…my mouth be opened to tell (of) Your Praise.” And we have looked at the Shield of Abraham (Avraham) – the ‘Avot’. And we have looked at the Resurrection of the Dead. We have read the words, heard the words, and discussed the words. But have he learned? Have we assimilated the words? Have the words entered into our essence and become part of us? There is a difference between ‘DAAT’ and ‘BINAH’, and that is what we seek – to combine knowledge and wisdom! So let us continue.

We are still learning from the wonderful book “The Art of Jewish Prayer” by Yitzchok Kirzner with Lisa Aiken, and this week we ‘look at’ Chapter 6 which is concerned with The Holy G-d… “You are holy, and Your Name is holy, and holy ones praise You every day, forever. Blessed are You, G-d, the holy G-d”. And even before we look at the text, I want you to think for a period: “What does ‘HOLY’ mean?” Send a little time ruminating on what that word means – to you in particular. How do you understand that word? Perhaps you need to consider the Hebrew word. Does that make a difference to your data and binah? Kadosh.

There is a Midrash that tells us that this prayer’s concluding blessing was first uttered by the angels when Jacob had his first prophetic vision. He had come to the place on which the temple was later to be built, and he saw a ladder with angels ascending and descending on it. At the top of the ladder he saw the Gates of compassion open. This vision inspired him to sanctify G-d’s Name, at which time the angels declared, “Blessed are You, G-d, the holy G-d.”

You will, of course, find additional comments and information in the book beginning on page 83, through page 87. Let me just leave you with one idea; the word ‘holy’ (kadosh) carries with it the concept of separate, separateness, set aside, different…




Now is it not interesting that this blessing is followed by one that asks for knowledge and understanding? Now, especially at this time of the Hebrew calendar when we begin anew reading B’reshit, it is so important that we assimilate this concept of the Creation with a prayer for knowledge and understanding! Think of Adam and Chava eating from the tree of knowledge and even though that brought the expulsion it gave man the capacity to turn his knowledge into wisdom. Granted that has not all been for the good but that is the price we pay. Without knowledge man would not have ‘split the atom’ (IS there a relationship between: Adam and atom?) to generate power for electricity and other forms of ‘good’ – but it take great wisdom to keep that power from destructive uses.

“YOU graciously give man discerning knowledge, and teach people understanding. Graciously grant us from Yourself discerning knowledge, understanding and intellect. Blessed are You, G-d, who graciously grants discerning knowledge.”
Another understanding expresses it this way-
“YOU generously grand man perception and teach mankind understanding. Generously grant us, from You, perception, understanding and wisdom. Blessed are You, HaShem, Generous Granter of knowledge.”

But there is something else that is bothering me and perhaps you can help me to understand this. We are taught that in Gan Eden that, as the midrash says; “…if you eat from the tree of knowledge… you will surely die.” Here is the problem as I see it: Adam and Chava were the first persons to live. What would be their concept of death? They had never seen death. They have never lost a parent (or a child- yet!). If someone – even HaShem – were to tell you something that is beyond your experience, what would it mean to you? So, if HaShem tell you (Adam) that; “if you do this, you will die”, does it have any meaning to you? Has G-d already granted Adam and Chava data and binah? Where does it tell us that?

Let’s stop to ponder where this Torah is leading us vis-à-vis our learning of the Silent Amidah….

What are you Learning?

Nu? What are you learning?

This is taken from an essay, by Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, found in a recent edition of
The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

Nine years ago while attending the United Jewish Communities’ General Assembly [GA] in Chicago, I had the privilege and pleasure of hearing Pulitzer Prize-winning author Herman Wouk (now residing in the Palm Springs area, jp) known for bestsellers like “The Cain Mutiny” and “The Winds of War” address the opening plenary. What many do not know is that Wouk is a yeshiva-trained Orthodox Jew who studies Talmud daily.

In his address to the GA, Wouk described the way people who haven’t seen one another for a long time typically greet each other, “How’s the family, how’s your health, how’s your business?” – these are some of the typical greetings, Wouk told us.

“Let me tell you about the world that I come from,” Wouk said. “I come from the yeshiva world, where people bond though the study of Torah texts, and friendships are shaped based on learning together. Therefore, if one bumps into an old friend or rabbi from yeshiva and they haven’t seen each other for many years; the greeting we typically exchange is ‘What are you learning?’”

….

Maimonides teaches: “Moses established a system for the Jewish people, that they should read from the Torah in public on Shabbat, plus every Monday and Thursday morning, so that they should never go for three days without hearing words of Torah” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Prayer, 12:1).


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Talmud Torah Lishmah: Study of Torah for Its own Sake…
or: “Nu! Lomir lernen a shtikl Torah."


There is a story that I recently learned about a great Polish rabbi from Gur. He saw many of his colleagues and family members perish in the Shoah. He survived that horrible page in 20th Century (CE) history and made his way to Eretz Israel where he continued his life as a scholar. He did learn that of all of his family, only one nephew had survived the fiery furnaces of Nazi Germany. Even so it was many years later before this nephew, now a rabbi himself, was able to journey to Israel to meet his famous uncle and Talmud Scholar.

As his nephew approached the door of his uncle, he took a few moments reflecting on this event and finally knocked on the door. His uncle opened the door and they stood there looking at each other for several long moments and finally this scholarly elderly man said to his only living relative, “It has been so long… you have suffered much and now you have traveled far. You must go at once to the Beit Midrash and learn. Go! There is much to study. Go, and do not waste time. Go and learn, my beloved nephew; go.”


You are interpreters; you are poets; you are mad. Only gradually will you learn to know it, only gradually, because your lifetime is to be a preparation for interpreting. Every lifetime well spent is a life of study – wherever that study may be applied: in the streets, in the household, in the law courts, in the laboratory, in the labor unions, in the prisons, in the parliaments, in the marketplace, in the house of prayer, in the solitude of oneself. But all of this is dangerous.
…from the Second Jewish Catalog


Go.
Learn.

A Nother New Beginning

A(nother) New Beginning


This Shabbos which leads us into our Jewish High Holy Days will be our last Shabbos Torah Study Group – UNTIL Succot begins on October Third. And, this Shabbos is another new beginning in our learning. This week will only be an introduction into our studies and learning on Jewish Prayer. And what we will be learning is The Art of Jewish Prayer [Yitzchok Kirzner with Lisa Aikens].

We shall be learning about the central Prayer(s) in our liturgy: The Shemoneh Esrai. There are Jews who have been fortunate enough to have been raised with a solid Jewish education, and there are Jews who are either new to the world of Jewish prayer, or who have rarely studied prayer in any way that was/is meaningful. Our greatest link to our religion is through our prayer services. There are Jews who disavow any link to the religion of our forefather, but for our new line of learning, we will not consider what it is that they know or do not know. Certainly what they do not know is very meaningful and a great loss to them – and an even greater loss to the Jewish people. But we are here to learn and they are not. Our ‘Social Action’ and our ‘Our Outreach’ must be confined to a different aspect of our lives… unless you personally know someone who may benefit by becoming part of this group.

As I mentioned, our greatest link to our religion is through our (Communal) Prayer sessions. Still, you may leave our Shul raised to a higher level – or you may leave feeling no moore inspired or spiritually aware, or awake, than you were before davenning. The purpose, then, of this undertaking is to make our Jewish prayer more comprehensible and more relevant to all of us, whether we come from traditional frumm families, we are Baal Teshuvah, or we have little or no Jewish education.


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This last session of STSG then is an introduction (and a teaser) to our new series of learning. So this is our last session – as I said – until after the H”H. And so we begin by looking at the Purpose of Prayer.

What let me ask you, do you perceive the task of prayer to be? Is it, as many think, to get HaShem to change? Is it, as many pray, to get HaShem to give us what they want [or what they think they want]? Or is it to help ourselves to become better people through reaching out in order to be closer to HaShem?

If we ask HaShem for something and we actually receive it, we are reinforcing ourselves into thinking that we deserve it and HaShem gave it to us because we were ‘entitled’!!! And that word “entitled” is very important to our understanding to what our relationship to HaShem is and on what it is based!!! This word that we hear everywhere on the street today [“But, I’m entitled!”], is so dangerous and stupid that the concept should be banned to mankind. And what has this to do with our study of the Shemoneh Esrei?

Well, perhaps when we receive a gift from HaShem we might consider it as: HaShem intended it so that we would elevate ourselves spiritually; instead of seeing it as a satisfaction and a justification of our physical and material – our hedonistic - desires.

The purpose, then, of prayer is not to get HaShem to change simply because He does not change. Ever. The purpose and the task then is for us to become better through our encounters with HaShem.

We are supposed to pray three times a day – as ordained by Chazal for these reasons: When we awaken we need to recognize that this new day is, indeed, another gift and we should therefore include HaShem in our lives. That awareness helps us to be better more ethical and loving people because we appreciate this gift. By the middle of the day we have been busy at work or doing the daily routine and chores and we tend to forget our relationship with HaShem, so we pause and insert our second prayer session making a statement that we see our success and our abilities as blessings from HaShem. Finally, in the evening hours we learn from our evening prayer that, although we have not accomplished everything that we wanted to, that He will grant us new opportunities for accomplishments in the morning.

If we only prayed when we felt like it, we would soon be far removed from prayer and the source of our being. All of this is a preview of, and introduction to, the Shemoneh Eshrei which the Great Assembly redacted for us – and for Jews at all times and places – with both prophetic knowledge and with divine wisdom.

If you will take the High Holy Day season as a time to reflect upon these prayers remember that the Hebrew word lihiparrel, which is usually translated as: “to pray” also means: “to judge oneself”. Think, at this time: “What am I doing with my life and how can I adapt it to improve my spiritual growth?” “Avodah shebelev”, or the work of the heart, calls for prayer to transform us. The traditional Jewish understanding of the heart is that it is the center of da’at – of knowledge and of understanding. The head does not rule our true understanding – it is centered in the heart, with love.

If we continue to ask HaShem for ‘things’ because: “I want it. I need it. I am entitled to it!” we are only feeding our narcissism and that, my friends, is not prayer.

When we return to our learning we are going to first consider why we need to vocalize – to verbalize – our prayers. Until then, may you be written in the Book of Life, may you have a meaningful Fast, may you accept my apology for anything that I may have done, knowingly or not, to anger you or cause you anguish.

b’Shalom,
James

Fear of HaShem - What does it mean?

We Have Nothing to Fear
Except…

To Fear G-d. And just what does that mean? Why should we fear HaShem? We are taught from a young age that G-d is Loving and Kind, full of compassion and all those wonderful attributes. These are the kind of attributes that we, hopefully, saw in our parents. So why should we ‘fear’ a G-d that we know is even better than our “bestest” and most wonderful parent?

The rabbis wanted to teach that we should fear G-d but they did not know how to teach that we should fear a beneficent G-d who was invisible and ultimately unknowable. How could they communicate this concept to the average Jew? G-d was an abstraction and, was and is everything that we know about G-d and at once nothing that we know about G-d. A conundrum.

Then a rabbi sitting the far corner suggested this: “If we are summoned before the king, we have absolutely no idea why. The only thing that we know about the king is that he has absolute control over all of his subjects… he alone controls whether we live or die [think about what you would feel if a couple of black suits and dark glasses showed up at your door, talking to their sleeve, and said that you will go with them. Now!].” “So,” the rabbi continued, “if HaShem is like our King, we should fear Him because He, too, has absolute control over every aspect of our lives.”

HaShem, as we say in our H”H liturgy, controls who will live and who will die; who be fire and who by sword; who by earthquake and so on.

It seems then that that rabbi was right. If for no other reason than the uncertainties of life, we should fear G-d. But is that the only reason? Are there other aspects of ‘fear’ that we should consider?

Someone suggested that we should think of ‘fear’ of HaShem in terms of the ‘awe’ in which we hold Him. I disagree. Awe is a term that has been degraded in usage. We stand in awe of the Grand Canyon – okay, that is HaShem’s creation; but we also stand in awe of Lance Armstrong’ achievements: 7-time winner of the most grueling bicycle race in the world/testicular cancer survivor and return competitor in the same race and still coming in to stand on the podium with much younger men! Maybe you can say that that too is HaShem’s achievement and it is because Lance, with the help of G-d overcame his cancer and it was really G-d who gave Lance the ability in the first place. But is he had not stood in the ‘fear of G-d’, perhaps he would never have made those goals.

So what other words in the English language might give us a better idea of what it means to ‘fear G-d’? From the thesaurus we find: Terror; Dread; Fright; Trepidation; Wonder; Admiration; Respect; Amazement; Surprise; Wonderment; Astonishment… how about this quotation?

“We serve the deities… by drawing near to our ancestors, by purifying ourselves of our sins and stain, in leaving self behind to unite with the public, and in 'dying to self' to become one with the ‘State’.”
From the Japanese Kokutai ni Hongi. Sacred Texts of the World1982, "Purity and Awe" (Ninian Smart and Richard D. Hecht (eds.)

“Think about it…”


This was the presentation to our Shabbos Torah Study Group. We had a lively discussion. (pro & con) Much was left to be considered and discussed further... One comment was; "Not all rabbis got 'A's' in class."

The one thing that was NOT found was - Where did this statement FIRT originate?