WHAT IS JEWISH PRAYER?
by Adin Steinsaltz
Prayer is the salient expression of religious emotion in man and of his relationship with his CREATOR. There are, of course, many other forms by which people may express their religious feelings, from those fixed ceremonial rites that in themselves constitute a religious ritual, to those acts which man performs in order to obey the Will of GOD, or from which he may refrain because they negate the CREATOR’s Will and Command.
While these aspects are to be found in every person possessing religious feeling, they are to be found even more so in the Jew, whose life is filled with positive and negative Commandments, traditions and customs, and Jewish ways of expression and thought.
Yet there are various influences that are prone to obscure or conceal the inherent purpose of those acts that a person might perform in order to express a relationship with GOD. Habit and routine may cause a person to cease being aware of the reason for the performance of a given action. It often happens that a person living in a society that shares his faith and behaves in a similar fashion will perform these acts because they seem the normal mode of behavior, without attention to their actual content.
Even when a person performs a ritual ceremony, there is no assurance that the meaning of this performance will be fully realized, as every act involves an external, technical aspect. By punctilious insistence upon performing it in a precise and particular manner, and in assuring that all the objects required are in proper condition, a person is liable to forget its main purpose.
By contrast, prayer is a direct and unequivocal act of relating to GOD. In whatever way, it is performed, and in whatever manner, it is uttered, prayer is essentially one thing: an explicit addressing by the human “I” to the Divine “Thou.” In the most essential sense, prayer is direct speech, in which man confronts and addresses his CREATOR.
Such speech may be of many kinds: request, supplication, thanksgiving, complaint, or even simple conversation. All these can be found in prayer, and each one of them can be expressed by personal, individual prayer. The prayers that may be found in the books of the Bible—particularly in the Book of Psalms, which is basically a compendium of individual and public prayers—represent all of the kinds and varieties of prayer with which the individual or public may address GOD the CREATOR. The wide range of prayers and benedictions found in the Siddur likewise include the entire spectrum of ways in which a man may address his MAKER.
Many prayers are requests or pleas in which man addresses GOD and asks for something—be it life, health, or success, deliverance from disaster or from poverty. Man may appeal on behalf of himself or for others, whether near and dear or distant acquaintances. On the other hand, there may be requests of an entirely different sort, in which a person asks GOD to consider the shame he has suffered, or voices his desire to be avenged, to have his enemies punished.
There are still other prayers that are a way of saying “Thank you,” whether in general—for all the good things in life, or for the existence of something beautiful or pleasurable—or for some personal, private matter—recovery from illness, deliverance from danger, or in acknowledgement of some special event.
On the other hand, there may be prayer that is an expression of questioning, of wonder, or even of complaint, such as the bold words of criticism uttered by Avraham: “Far be it from You to do so, to slay the righteous with the wicked… Shall not the JUDGE of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25); or the complaint that also indicates supplication and submission: “Righteous are You, O LORD, when I complain to You; yet I would plead my case before You. Wherefore does the way of the wicked prosper?” (Jeremiah 12:1).
There are yet other prayers that have no clear, definite form of address, but are merely a kind of conversation or outpouring of the heart before GOD. At times, this confession is a declaration of love and yearning such as “My soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You” (Psalm 63:1); at others, it expresses a sense of distance, in which the person bares his heart before GOD, asking nothing, yet expressing his grief at his material or spiritual loss.
On yet other occasions, a person may wish to “tell” GOD about his good deeds, and to say with a sense of satisfaction, “Remember this, O my LORD, for my good” (Nehemiah 5:19), or may wish to confess his sins; both overt and covert. All these types, and many others, may be expressed in personal prayer, and are thus to be found in the Siddur, formulated as it is for both personal and public use.
This aspect of prayer—of direct speech addressed to GOD—is essentially very intimate in character. Not only when a person is alone in the darkness of night, pouring out heart and soul, but even when standing in the midst of a large congregation, with everyone reciting the same words aloud, a close, intimate relationship with GOD is being expressed. This address in the form of conversation, of direct speech of the human “I” to the Divine “Thou,” even when expressed by the entire congregation, is based on the simple assumption that such dialogue is possible.
But whether plea or praise, prayer is always speech addressed to GOD, and such speech is only possible when a person knows that “Verily GOD has heard me and attended to the voice of my prayer” (Psalm 66:19). This realization that “You hear the prayer of every mouth” is what directs man to pray and to confide in GOD all those secret, personal matters—needs, anxieties, requests, and heartfelt desires.
But in order to pray in this manner, to “pour out his complaint before the LORD” (Psalm 102:1), one needs to feel a sense of intimate closeness to GOD, as “Our Merciful FATHER.” The child standing before his father feels he can tell him everything in his heart: to plead, to complain, to thank, or to simply tell him about things...
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