As we run into expressions of violence and hostility while reciting our prayers
For too many years now, as I recite the traditional Jewish prayers, a few points get me into trouble. I’d love to discuss it with anyone else who prays.
It is too obvious that addressing such an issue needs deep humility. When I run into difficulty while praying, I know that many believers before me found a way out in keeping up with tradition.
This is particularly true as I recite a verse of the Tanakh – since it is viewed as having divine descent and inspiration.
However, if I’ve got a problem in reciting a passage of the daily prayers or of the Tehillim, it is not enough for me to know that the whole Jewish community recites it exactly like that.
Certainly, it is crucial for my religious commitment to know that the whole world employs exactly these same words. But my prayer is better if, at the very moment I‘m saying the words, I also feel that these words are mine: that is, that they live in my feelings and in my will.
There is a statement of Chazal I feel is quite important, in this respect. Our prayer should not be “something fixed” (Berakot IV), so “we should not pray as we were reading a report” (Rabbi Abbahu on behalf of Rabbi Elazar).
Obviously, if we pray as we are reading a report, it is easier not to notice any possible difficulties.
I also believe that we have the absolute duty to think of those who can make a mistake in praying: as they can misunderstand a difficult passage. While praying, people struggling in their lives to cope with difficult situations, or under the pressure of their community, and not having studied enough, might get tempted to relate with a difficult passage in a way offending the goodness of God and his true will.
TEHILLIM 137.9
This well-known verse reads, addressing Babylonia: “Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.”
Many scholars tackled the difficulties raised by this verse. It has also been a topic of academic symposia.
As we recite this verse, a thing is in our minds: upon those who will kill infants, we are invoking God’s blessing.
I have to confess that, when I recite the Tehillim, as I realize that stopping at the verse 137.8 – and not going any further – would be seriously wrong, I usually omit the entire Tehillim 137. This is wrong too, I know. But I just can’t read that verse; I just cannot think about what I’m supposed to say.
Then allow me to make a proposal, in all humility.
In the Tehillim editions specially designed for prayer, appropriate authorities could recommend that a note be added to Tehillim 137.9: suggesting that we recite a suitable and appropriate sentence before that verse; such as: “O Lord! Don’t let doom drive us never again to such insanity, that we say: …”
The following comments try to explain the rationale behind this proposal.
We can easily find on the internet plausible explanations of Tehillim 137.9 (as well as of other passages difficult to recite). Anyway, this verse seems to me a striking example that sometimes understanding is not enough to pray.
Scholars all agree that the author identifies with the eye-witnesses of similar killings of his people’s children, as Babylonians captured Jerusalem. That’s why he wishes the enemies will face a similar fate one day. It is not a quite commendable wish. It is however understandable that, as the memory evokes anguish, hatred may be the final outcome.
Some would argue that the Shoah made this verse relevant once more. However, no witness reported that the victims ever wished the same fate on the children of their German slayers.
Anyway, we hope we will never find ourselves in such a dreadful situation, that it could rip words of anguish and hatred from deep within us.
It will never be easy to explain why Tehillim 137.9 invokes God’s blessing on infants’ killers; and above all, to recite that blessing as we pray.
The author looks forward to God to execute his vengeance. But as to how, we would have expected him to leave it in God’s hands. Specifying the objects of the vengeance like that, that’s already quite horrible; but adding the religious act of invoking God’s blessing on the executors, this is too hard to accept.
The opinion of most scholars – quite subdued – is that Tehillim 137.9 shows how extreme suffering can push us to the brink of insanity.
BIRKAT HA-MINIM
This is the text of the twelfth blessing of the Amidah, as found in many siddurim (e.g. ArtScroll)
“And for the slanderers let there be no hope, and may all the heretics perish in an instant, and may all the enemies of Your people be speedily cut down. And may You speedily uproot, smash, cast down, destroy, pull down and humble the willful sinners swiftly in our days. Blessed are You, HASHEM, Who breaks enemies and humbles willful sinners.”
More than a blessing, it feels like a curse.
While reciting our prayers – especially the Tehillim – if we run into a curse, it is not usually an issue. It fosters us to strongly refuse evil and ask God to fight it.
However, the Birkat ha-Minim is embodied in the Amidah, and the Amidah is not a prayer like any other.
The masters on prayer say that reciting the Amidah is as though we tune out of the world around us and its distractions; so we can recall what truly matters, “nurturing our relationship with God and serving him with all our hearts”.
Anyone who prays the Amidah with such a focused mind may have troubles in invoking God’s destruction of the wicked.
Looking at it from a different angle: as we quote the various categories of evil-doers who deserve annihilation, we run the risk of identifying some of them with our own enemies, or with general and community’s enemies.
In my view, we should explicitly recommend not to pray the Birkat ha-Minim like that.
Even if we were to admit that the twelfth blessing is a true curse of the enemies, surely the proper attitude would be to let God handle it; as it is up to him to determine who deserves his punishment.
In my humble opinion, while saying the words of the Birkat ha-Minim, if you find in yourself hostility to someone or to any group of persons, or even to other peoples, you should repress it; and leave anything, and above all the choice of who to destroy, in God’s hands.
For many years now, I’ve been reciting the Birkat ha-Minim by adding some words: thanks to which I fine-tune the twelfth blessing perfectly with the blessings coming before or following. So far, I’ve been keeping it to myself; as these adjustments were intended to aid me to pray better, not to teach anybody.
When I recite the Birkat ha-Minim, I add a few words after citing each category of evil-doers: shifting the focus to my heart, to my soul, to my inner self, and to the heart soul and inner self of all those who pray: so we may cope with the evil drives we can find in ourselves (personified as negative powers), rather than with people in flesh-and-blood.
As I read “the slanderers”, I say “the slanderers lingering inside us” – “the heretics”, “the heretics hidden in our souls” – “the enemies of your people”, “the enemies of your people still at work in our hearts” – “the wilful sinners”, “the wilful sinners in our hearts”.
Sure, we might also consider these evil drives to be present in our enemies, or in community’s enemies; in people not praying with “us” or not praying like “us”. However, we can realize that these people are not so far from “us”: I think it’s rather important to know.
Further down I’ll explain why, in my opinion, we are allowed to introduce personal innovations to the daily prayers; even to a central prayer like the Amidah.
So far, it is worth highlighting that, by the time the Birkat ha-Minim was introduced in the Amidah, it was probably not meant to invoke divine retribution for the wicked.
Apparently, it is proved that the twelfth blessing was added just as the community decided to exclude Jewish-Christians from the synagogue. Instead of “heretics”, they said “Nazoreans”. During prayer services, Christians were consequently forced to condemn their mistake, or else to leave.
Then, why not make the past relevant today? As we pray the twelfth blessing, we should ask God to help us verify our possible “heretical leanings”: when we will do an “accounting of the soul”; or even – if we need to and if God helps us to do so – at the very moment we pray the Birkat ha-Minim.
So, cursing our enemies or the enemies of the community should be out of the question.
As I see things, we should admit that throughout our lives we face temptations which – if we were to give in to them – would lead us into one of the categories of evil-doers cited in the twelfth blessing. A number of us forget it easily. Yes, we tend to “sugarcoat” what suits us.
__________________________
As a rule, studying should be enough to address any difficulty we run into when reciting the prayers. Studying brings even an especially challenging text of the prayers closer, and makes it ours. Fine studying indeed does not generate only a reasoned understanding – which should force us, all the time, to “run through” the explanation – : much more, it develops a spiritual growth, thanks to which we are able to kick-start instantaneously our feelings and our will, at the very moment when we are spelling the words of our prayer; either as they prompt me to ask something, or as they urge me to consider my condition and my behaviour.
However, please allow me to point out an exception.
Studying could not be enough, if the words coming out of our lips sound as if they were preventing us from an immediate and complete (also emotional) involvement. If this is true – as in Tehillim 137.9 – we shouldn’t underestimate the problem.
If we run into words which – as we perceive them – apparently offend God’s goodness and justice, it may be impossible to make them ours. Nonetheless, we actually need to make them ours: we need to bear in our hearts the right feelings and the straight intention needed in order to pray.
We can easily find fine explanations online even for the most challenging passages of the daily prayers and of the Tehillim (as Tehillim 137.9). They help us to understand why a verse was written just that way. However, it may not be enough. Namely, going back to the time and circumstances in which those words were written may not be enough; or to retrace the twenty centuries evolution of the daily prayers, up to the current wording proposed in the siddurim, may likewise not be enough.
We must also remember, as stated above, our absolute duty to think of those who might get tempted while praying to relate with a difficult passage in a way offending the goodness of God and his true will.
Therefore, why not just make available some carefully studied amendments to those difficult passages, with the express purpose of making it easier to pray?
Concerning the traditional daily prayer, this proposal should not run into a deal-breaker. Even if traditional prayer’s words are utterly venerable, they are not viewed as having divine descent. Traditional prayer underwent many changes over the centuries; in particular, the Birkat ha-Minim blessing of the Amidah was repeatedly modified.
For a long time now, a well-established form of the daily prayers is currently in use, mainly of the Amidah; the Birkat ha-Minim blessing comes in several slightly different versions, as found in the various siddurim. Envisioning significant changes is difficult, but not impossible in principle: no religious tenet stands against any reasonable amendment.
Let’s go see what has been handed down by tradition, concerning possible changes to daily prayers.
The Sages argued that a person praying is allowed to introduce “innovations”; even if the question sparked lively conversation. (A well-known example: Rabbi Acha on behalf of Rabbi José said: “We need to introduce innovations every day.” But Rabbi Zeira replied: “Whenever I did that, I made mistakes.”)
The Sages usually admit a particular kind of change: that is, expressing one’s own needs. Some Sages maintain that I should express my needs at the blessing “You, who hears prayer”; others, at the end of the prayer; others, as I recite the blessing especially concerning my needs: e.g., if someone is sick at home, I can add a personal request to the blessing for the sick. This is open to debate: there is nothing to prevent it. Many publications cover it in rich detail, e.g. Hatefillah bemachashevet Chazal, J. Heinemann, Amanah Editions, Jerusalem 1974.
Therefore we may assume as being well established the principle that the door is open to propositions aiming to introduce “innovations” to the traditional prayers.
At the very least, this is true for the expression of our needs. However, there is nothing – in principle – to prevent us from introducing further changes: namely, making a few highly peculiar expressions of the traditional Tefillah less hard to recite.
Obviously this is a sensitive matter. It would be highly advisable to rely on authoritative guidance: would we be able to solicit it?
Anyway, I hope I’m not wrong in assuming that anybody who feels ill at ease while reciting the Birkat ha-Minim, is authorized to find out the solution that best suits him – with all due caution and respect; even if some indication/confirmation from foremost authorities would definitely be very helpful.
Much more challenging is the difficulty we face as for e.g. Tehillim 137.9.
For everyone who recites the Tehillim daily – so that throughout the month he reads each of the 150 Tehillim once or even more than once – this kind of difficulty is no minor issue. The words of the Tehillim are viewed as having divine descent; then they cannot be omitted or modified, that’s out of the question.
Especially if you pray alone, is it really impossible to allow you to say, before or after the divine words, an agreed-upon addition, recommended by foremost authorities: making it possible for a person to pray without hindrance passages as Tehillim 137.9?