Our God and God of Our Ancestors
Jan 16, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Many prayers begin with the words “Eloheynu v’Elohei avoteinu” (Our God and God of our ancestors). I hear from so many people that these words are difficult, and an impediment to finding a pathway in Jewish prayer. The word God raises an array of difficulties: people who are inclined to the view “I don’t believe in God” might rightly feel that there is no integrity in addressing their words to God, an entity in whom (or Whom) they do not believe. Others find no security or support in the prayers and traditions of their ancestors, and say Fiddler on the Roof (“Tradition!”) is not enough.
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Hamavdil—The Holy One and Separation
Jan 8, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
We tend to think that the role of religion is to affirm and support an increasing sense of unity in the world. There is much to support such a view. At the end of ‘aleinu (a prayer at the end of every Jewish service), we quote Zechariah 14:9, affirming “ . . . on that day, Adonai will be One and God’s Name will be One.” The text is enigmatic, but certainly speaks of a vision of great unity. Many other texts, in prayers and elsewhere, speak similarly of a quest and vision for this unity. Scholars of mysticism speak of the unio mystica, the experience of unification that is often associated with testimonies of enlightenment.
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Keva–Kavanah (Liturgy–Prayer)
Dec 31, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
My teacher in London, Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Magonet, wrote a fascinating and inspiring poem-meditation exploring the concepts of prayer and liturgy, which I would associate with the traditional rabbinic terms keva and kavanah (the connection is not 100 percent perfect). Our synagogues are often in fact places of liturgy, where prescribed rites and rituals are carried out, with the gathered congregation participating and/or witnessing. Many among us yearn and dream for synagogues to be places of something else, something more transcendent. Let us turn to selections from Rabbi Magonet’s words:
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Menuchah Nechonah—Perfect Rest
Dec 20, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
“God filled with mercy, grant perfect rest, menuchah nechonah, under the wings of Your Presence, the Shekhinah . . . to the souls of all those slain, young children and teachers, at Sandy Hook School. May their resting place be in Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden, and may their souls be bound up in the gathering of all life. May they come to be at peace in their place of rest and we say: Amen.”
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For the Sake of my Brothers, Sisters, and Friends
Dec 19, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
The siddur is full of selections and quotations, from the Bible, the Talmud, Midrash, and even the mystical Zohar. There is great fascination and reward to be found in “unpacking” the paragraphs and pages to which we return so often in the cycles of community (and private) worship.
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Or Chadash (New Light): Electromagnetic or Supernal?
Dec 12, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
“Or chadash al Tsiyon ta’ir, venizkeh kulanu m’heirah le’oro” (Cause a new light to shine on Zion, and may we all quickly have the privilege to benefit from its radiance). Each morning, before reciting the Shema’, there is a blessing that opens with a quote from Isaiah praising God, “who forms light and creates darkness,” and looks back to the first great act of Creation—the creation of light and the establishment of cycles of light and darkness, designated as day and night.
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These Lights Themselves Are Holy
Dec 4, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Soon we light the candles of Hanukkah, which symbolize so many things. In this reflection, let us turn aside for a moment from the complex history and theology, and allow ourselves to enter the realm of kodesh—that which is holy. Hanerot Halalu (Siddur Sim Shalom, 193) is a curious text that we read, or sing, after lighting the hanukkiyah. It is not a blessing or a prayer, for it is not addressed to God; rather, it is a reminder to all who are gathered around the Hanukkah lights that we should not make use of them for any worldly purpose, for they are holy (kodesh hem).
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Shomer Yisra’el—The One Who Guards Israel
Nov 28, 2012 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
In the weekday liturgy, after the ‘Amidah, we find in the siddur a little-known sequence of prayer texts known as tachanun (supplications); it can be found in Siddur Sim Shalom of the Conservative Movement, pages 59 through 63. It is not difficult to detect some ambivalence about tachanun, for there is a long list of days on which it is to be omitted, including Shabbat and all Holy Days, and all days of celebration—even the birthdays of famous rabbis.
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