The Prayer Book -- Week 6
THE PRAYER BOOK: A WINDOW ON JEWISH THEOLOGY
Instructors: Barbara and Reuven Sutnick
questions/comments:
SH'MA YISRAEL: PRAYER OR DECLARATION?
It is 1946 or '47 or '48. Youth Aliya(1) workers circulate among
sorrowful refugees in displaced persons camps in Europe. They come upon
young orphaned children who have no conscious memory of their pre-war
lives. "Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad" the workers say to
each of these children in turn. Then a flicker of recognition appears
on a young face! They have found another Jewish child to bring home to
the Land of Israel.
The Sh'ma is the single most well-known, oft-recited phrase of Jewish
liturgy. It appears in many sections of the siddur, and is recited as
part of various of prayer services. It is at the same time the last
words spoken on the death bed; and also the first prayer that Jewish
infants hear whispered into little ears, often from the first day of
their lives.
It will be the aim of this Lecture to discover what these words are all
about and why they have become so central to Jewish thought and
practice. We will then look briefly at the full Sh'ma, which consists
of five parts (the first two lines plus the three paragraphs). Finally,
we will turn to the fact that the Sh'ma appears in the siddur surrounded
by a ring of blessings. Before doing all this, however, we will take a
detour into the question of how the Sh'ma came to the Jewish people in
its present form, and what we can learn from Jewish traditions about its
transmission.
* * * * *
The first line of Sh'ma, the most famous, is spoken out loud:
"Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad"
(Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.) (Deuteronomy 6:4)
The second line is whispered under one's breath:
"Baruch shem k'vod malchuto l'olam va'ed"
(Blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom for all eternity.)
The question of why line #1 is declared aloud and why line #2 is
whispered takes us on a mystical journey to the realm of the angels.
(Hold onto your hats!) At journey's end, we will turn to the task of
analyzing at least the first part of the prayer itself. We begin by
considering the following midrash (see bibliography):
When Moses went up on high (to receive the Torah), he overheard the
attending angels saying to God: "Blessed is the Name of His glorious
kingdom for all eternity",and he brought this prayer down to the Jewish
people. Why do we not then say it publicly? R. Asi said: "That which
was stolen from the palace of the King, we do not adorn ourselves with
it in public; but rather (wear it) in the house. But on Yom Kippur,
when we are as pure as the attending angels, we say out loud, "Blessed
is the Name of His Glorious Kingdom for all eternity." (Midrash Devarim Rabba 2:36)
Last week we discussed the midrash which asserted that the Penitential
Service ("Selichot") was revealed to Moses in response to his request
that God show Moses His essence. According to that midrash, God's gift
to the People of Israel was to model to them the way to access Divine
mercy -- which is through prayer. In the midrash above, Moses acquires
for Israel still another remarkable Hebrew prayer -- but this time,
Moses has to steal it!(2) What is more, this prayer is so precious,
that Israel dare not recite it aloud; it is therefore hidden between the
lines of the Sh'ma, where for 364 days of the year it is whispered.
The entertaining midrash above incorporates a number of elements which
we need to understand in order to discuss our primary focus in this
lecture: Sh'ma and its surrounding Blessings. Let us begin by delving
more deeply into it. The first element of background is that when Moses
received the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible), he went
up onto Mount Sinai for forty days and nights. The Bible records that
for forty days (a number of mystical completeness), Moses lived in
closer proximity to God than anyone in recorded religious history. His
time on the mountain was a special time for special things to happen.
He saw things no other person would ever see, and was able to gain
special insight into the Divine intellect.
Among the amazing sights and sounds that Moses witnessed, according to
the midrash, was the six-word chorus of God's attending angels praising
Him ("Blessed is..."). In the brevity that characterizes ideal prayer,
the angels convey their acceptance of the kingdom of God, and praise God
at the same time. By contrast, THE PRAY-ER'S acceptance of the kingdom
of God is reiterated each day by saying the OTHER set of six words:
"Hear, Israel..." But, the Sh'ma is a direct quote from the Bible
(Deut. 6) -- if ever there were a prayer which needs no embellishment,
it is the Sh'ma! Its six words comprise the concise doxology by which
Jews affirm daily their acceptance of Heaven. In other words, according
to this midrash, Moses took something for the children of Israel which
they already had. Isn't this like taking coals to Newcastle?
On a text level, the midrash addresses something perplexing: the
phrase, "Blessed is the Name of His glorious kingdom for all eternity"
appears nowhere in the Bible. Yet, it is inserted into the series of
biblical paragraphs quoted directly which constitute Sh'ma. On the level
of ritual practice, the midrash addresses another matter of interest:
the inserted phrase is nearly always read silently. Its underlying
question is if we are going to go through all the trouble of bringing a
non-biblical text to a uniformly biblical recitation, why say it
silently. Sh'ma is a declaration of principles. It is the Jew's pledge
of allegiance. These are words we proclaim loudly, to such an extent
that Jewish law prescribes the exaggerated pronunciation of
E-CH-a-a-a-Ddd -- (the Lord is One) Wu-uh-uh-uh-un!! On the theological
level, the midrash considers the remarkable possibility that humanity's
praise of God, our acceptance of the yoke of Heaven and our witness to
God's Unity and Uniqueness are only part of the story.
So Moses "steals" the prayer for Israel, and in doing so renders it
slightly unsuitable for public use. Text-wise, we whisper a
non-biblical prayer in between Sh'ma and its first paragraph, which
comes to us directly from the Bible (see Deut. 6). Ritually, the
secondary proclamation, even if we see it as the words of angels, does
not belong to man in the same way that Sh'ma does -- so we whisper.
And, as our whispering signifies a lack of ownership, we tacitly
acknowledge that beyond ourselves the entire "NETWORK" of creation, each
with its own measure of eloquence, accepts the yoke of heaven.
Still and all, this is one strange midrash! I am taken by the utter
incongruity of Moses, the man who asks and God delivers, being forced to
resort to theft. God willingly provided Moses with the Order of
Penitential Prayer; why should He refuse now? One possible explanation,
which I offer unsupported by commentary, is that we have before us a
stylized reference to a legend from another culture. Remember, the
Romans (influenced profoundly by the Greeks) dominated the region in the
Talmudic period. In a well-known myth, Prometheus "stole" fire from the
gods and gave it to humans. That myth betrays an antagonism between
heaven and earth, in which great benefit to humanity is withheld -- fire
had to be stolen. The midrashim formed an important part of the way
Bible was taught and preached in the ancient synagogue. In other words,
our midrash may be taking a contemporary motif and rendering it. It is
as if to say, Moses was close enough to the source of all heavenly
secrets that he was unlimited in what he could learn. He could override
the limitations of God-defined revelation; he could "steal" anything he
wanted. Prometheus used such closeness as an opportunity to bring us
fire, as the legend goes. Moses found the ultimate "steal-able" in the
angel's prayer. Ironically, the content of the prayer, the acceptance
of the yoke of heaven, was already contained in the Sh'ma. The angel's
prayer is actually lesser than the prayer God already gave us. So we
whisper the lesser proclamation; thereby identifying with the angels in
some measure. But we recite Sh'ma out loud.
- Sh'ma: Hear O Israel -
At this point, please find and read the Sh'ma prayer in your siddur.
(If you need a review of our system of locating prayers in the siddur,
the Appendix "Order Your Siddur" appears again at the end of this
Lecture.) *SIDDUR SEARCH* The Sh'ma with and without its accompanying
blessings, appears in several places in the siddur. The easiest place
to find it is in the evening service (mA'aRiV or ARVit in Hebrew). If
you begin at the beginning of the evening service, you should come upon
Sh'ma on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th page.
*EUREKA*
My real intention in bringing such a long introduction is to describe
Sh'ma in terms of what it is and in terms of what it is not. Sh'ma IS a
proclamation which we are commanded to say twice daily, upon going to
sleep and upon awakening. It IS a six-word doxology (ritualized
statement of faith) which manages to capture the essence of Jewish
monotheism, national chosenness and the relationship between God and
Israel. It IS pure biblical prayer which asks for nothing. It IS a
proclamation which addresses Israel; but does not address God! It IS
apparently uttered by the people for the sake of the people, as opposed
to prayer which praises God and replaces sacrifice. It IS also a very
noticeable part of our daily ritual which is set apart in its
presentation in the Prayer Book and in its performance in the Synagogue
service. So much for what Sh'ma IS.
Now for what it isn't: Sh'ma IS NOT said silently, because it
proclaims something for HUMANS to hear; the angels' prayer praises God
directly. The Sh'ma is not and never was the property of angels. It is
the unique trust of human beings. Thus we have by negative definition:
if "Blessed is the Name ..." belongs to the angels; then Sh'ma Yisrael
belongs to people.
So, what we have here is a profoundly meaningful prayer. Yet at first
glance, it is an unlikely candidate for conveying anything of real
depth! First, Sh'ma consists of six Hebrew words only. (cf. the
blessing formula, in which six words are merely the OPENING of the
statement.) That makes it an extremely concise mouthful. Indeed in less
than the time it takes to pronounce "Fundamental principle of ethical
monotheism combined with elements of history and nationalism" -- Sh'ma
is already over! Secondly, Sh'ma does not address God. Thirdly, it
doesn't ask for anything. Fourthly, it doesn't really praise God. So
what makes it so profoundly deep? First, it is short. Second, it
addresses the people Israel, which reveals much about the focus of
Hebrew prayer. Third, it doesn't ask -- it teaches. Fourth, it doesn't
praise God -- it praises Israel!
Thus Sh'ma is characteristic of biblical prayer in its brevity. In
spite of the length of our synagogue services, Hebrew prayer is ideally
economical; every word, prefix and suffix counts. (Of course, the ideal
of brevity does not necessarily apply to the study of prayer!!!) Next,
Sh'ma addresses Israel. If we think back to a point made in the first
Lecture, the Hebrew word for prayer, l'hitpalel, is reflexive, implying
some internal process. Here too, the addressee of the prayer is the
same as the pray-er -- in other words, Israel's accomplishment in
reciting the Sh'ma is to heighten its own realization of God's
One-ness. The activity is reflexive. Thirdly, Sh'ma teaches Israel
about its special national character in relating to Heaven. God is
identified by Name and then by a second Name with the plural genitive
ending: Our God. God is One, absolutely transcendent -- but He is also
the national treasure of Israel. Finally, the special relationship with
God serves to praise Israel:
The Rabbis taught: Israel is even more dear to God than the attending
angels, in that Israel (when we pray) mentions the Name of God after two
words: "Hear Israel God is One", whereas the angels mention the Name of
God only after three, "Holy, Holy, Holy - God, the Lord of
Hosts...(quoted from the "kedusha," which we will come to in Lecture7)".
(Talmud, Chullin 91b)
The Rabbis understood that our forebears' recognition of God's One-ness,
especially against the backdrop of widespread idolatry, was very much
to their credit. Hence one could suggest that the Sh'ma reflects a
sense of God's "appreciation," as it were. Hence the intimacy of Sh'ma,
its revealed compactness and its theme of nationalism, praise the people
of Israel as much as they do God -- if such a thing were conceivable.
Yet, at the same time, the unquestionable supremacy of God is not
overlooked. In fact the opposite is true: in Talmud Berachot 13b we
read that of all the concepts implied in Sh'ma, the one that requires
directed attention (kavanah) during recitation is the fact of God's sovereignty.
Up to this point, we have discussed in detail Part I of the Sh'ma
("line #1" or Deut. 6:4) and Part II (the line "stolen" by Moses from
the angels.) We will now turn to Part III of the Sh'ma, Deut. 6:5-9,
often called "v'AHaVta." For the remainder of this lecture, we will try
to understand all of the above by looking at Sh'ma in three ways: (a)
as a profoundly meaningful prayer (we can accomplish this by studying it
in its context in the Bible); (b) as the commandment to perform a ritual
act; and (c) as a central feature of the Jewish worship service -- a key
part of the siddur that is framed by blessings. Let us begin by
examining the relationship between two critical verses:
"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One" (Deut. 6:4)
"You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them; when you sit
in your house, when you walk along the way, when you lie down and when
you rise up." (ibid., 6:7)
Verse 6:7 shifts the focus to the commandment to recite Sh'ma and to
teach it to one's children. The Sefer Ha-Hinukh points out that "them"
refers to the words of Sh'ma, "Hear O Israel...". Hence, when the Bible
prescribes the recitation of certain passages evening and morning, when
lying down and when rising up, it is referring minimally to Deuteronomy
6:4 (Sh'ma). The truth is the details of reciting Sh'ma are so
important that they constitute the first (very lengthy) discussion in
the first chapter of the first tractate of the Talmud. However, within
the constraints of this lecture, we need only one detail: Deuteronomy
6:7 (the commandment to recite "these words" twice daily) is an
unmistakable, internal reference to the Sh'ma (vs. 6:4) as a verbal
ritual event. Sh'ma, is to be recited upon lying down and upon rising
up, coming and going. In our prayer ritual, this takes shape as the
appearance of Sh'ma as a fixed part of both the morning and evening
services (N.B. there is NO Sh'ma in the afternoon service). With this
realization in hand, it is possible to see a direct link between
biblical ritual and synagogue ritual today. To seize a contrasting
example from the history of Jewish ritual, Sh'ma in the synagogue IS NOT
like the Additional Service of the Sabbath and holidays. The Additional
Service (MuSaF) was an animal sacrifice in the days of the Temple. Sh'ma
is now and always was a prayer.
Before we leave the first paragraph (Part III) of Sh'ma, some of its
other important elements should be mentioned. The paragraph opens with
the commandment to love God. As you can imagine, much has been written
about what it can possibly mean to be "commanded" to "love" --
particularly when the love object is so abstract a Being as the Lord.
One notion is that a person should maintain a Jewish lifestyle out of
"love;" and not out of fear. That is to say, to relate positively to
one's Jewish life, rather than to keep traditions going for fear of the
consequences. In the Rambam's (Maimonides') interpretation, he calls
upon people to devote themselves to the spiritual and philosophical
quest of increasing their knowledge of God and His ways. Indeed, for
Rambam, to know God (deeply) is to love Him! This idea fits in well
with the commandment of "teaching these words to your children." If
love of God comes through knowledge, this must begin with education.
The first paragraph of Sh'ma also contains the commands to "bind them
as a sign upon your arm and let them be for frontlets between your
eyes. And write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your
gates." These charges have been traditionally interpreted as referring
to the tefillin (phylacteries) that are worn during morning prayers, and
the mezuzza that is affixed to Jewish doorposts. Our paragraph is in
fact the source of these commandments. Both ritual objects contain
"these words" hand-written upon them on parchment, and both serve as
constant reminders of the peoples' connectedness to God and the
commandments. The Sh'ma contains two additional paragraphs, Deut.
11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41, the study of which is beyond the scope of
this course.
It is time to locate Sh'ma in the context of the synagogue service
itself. If you glance at the headings at the tops of the pages of your
Siddur, you can find a number of clues indicating Sh'ma's centrality.
Look through the morning service. This service actually consists of
three large sections:
- Preliminary verses (Lecture 5);
- Sh'ma andits blessings; and
- the Standing Prayer (AMiDah - Lectures 7-8).
In the prayer book, each unit of fixed liturgy is set off by
surrounding blessings. Sh'ma is no exception. In the morning service
there are two blessings before Sh'ma and one after. (In the evening,
there are two blessings before Sh'ma and two after.) Thus, the section
is referred to as "The Reading of Sh'ma and its Blessings". Each of
these full paragraph blessings relates to a different aspect of the
relationship between God and the people of Israel. A study of each is
not possible here, but I do recommend that you read them to yourself in
English to discern the differing themes of each one.
In the synagogue, Sh'ma has its own discernible ritual. In some
synagogues it is sung with a special melody; in others, the congregation
rises. While this a departure from standard Jewish law (according to the
Rambam, we are not supposed to change our posture when reading Sh'ma --
see Rambam, Laws of Sh'ma 2:2), it does indicate an attempt to make
Sh'ma special. In Orthodox practice, one covers the eyes and recites
slowly. This is to enable the pray-er to achieve the most possible
KaVaNah (see Lecture 1 for a review of this concept). The prayer leader
of the synagogue is generally the last to finish, timing the recitation
to allow all present to read comfortably. The congregation therefore
waits until all members are ready before continuing with the service.
Why all the effort to make Sh'ma special to the discernment of all
present? Why take an individual prayer which does not require a minyan
(prayer quorum) and transform it into a formal ritual? This is because
Sh'ma is as close as we come to a biblically prescribed prayer service
-- that is, PRAYER SERVICE as opposed to the sacrificial rites. While
scholars argue about the original format of the biblical Sh'ma event,
they agree fundamentally that such an event was part of biblical ritual
practice. So, the effort to set Sh'ma off liturgically with its
blessings, graphically in the Siddur and ritually in the Synagogue is a
clear reflection of Sh'ma's ancient biblical origin.
NOTES
(1) Youth Aliya. A organized Zionist effort which brought many children
and young people -- many of them refugees -- to Israel, both before and
after the foundation of the State.
(2) see Lieberman ed., p.68: "he STOLE it from the angels and taught it
to Israel."
* * * * *
All rights reserved. No part of this lecture may be reproduced for
distribution except by permission of the Instructor.
* * * * *
1) How would you define/explain the commandment to love God. Do you
find that this is possible? If so, how is it attained?
2) For advanced students: Each of the blessings that surround the
Sh'ma has a particular theme. Try to identify the themes. In what way
does each of these themes relate to the Sh'ma itself? (N.B. In the
evening service, in which the blessings are in simpler form, they are:
mA'RiV ARaVim and AHaVat OLaM before the Sh'ma; and EMeT vEMuNah and
haSHKiVeinu after the Sh'ma.)
APPENDIX: ORDER YOUR SIDDUR
Although there are numerous editions of the prayer book available,
all tend to be arranged according to an order which is more or less
uniform. For this reason, the prayer book is called a "siddur" in
Hebrew, which means "order". In order to follow many of our course
discussions, please arm yourself with a traditional Daily Prayer Book
(siddur) with an English translation. (One that has only Sabbath
services will not be sufficient). Please *order* a siddur if you do not
have one already!
Despite all the order, finding your place in the siddur may take some
patience. A siddur does not have chapters and verses; nor is there
uniformity of pages from edition to edition. I will do my best to
direct you in locating particular sections that we will be discussing.
Such directions will be prefaced with the marker *SIDDUR SEARCH* and
will conclude with the marker *EUREKA!*. Please persevere!--I'll try to
make it worth your while!
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Created: 19/04/99 Updated: 22/08/1999