Pray
and Mean It is a project I established a few years ago, reflecting on individual prayers within daily davening.
I thought it might be useful to share some of the postings through this blog.
Thanks
and best wishes – Cantor Jack Chomsky ,
Congreg ation Tifereth Israel,
Columbus Ohio
Pray and Mean
It
At the outset, that is what I have chosen to call this
exercise – Pray and Mean It.
Many of us grew up learning to say or sing the words of
prayers without a clue as to what they meant.
Some grew up without even knowing how to say the words at all. Either scenario has been cause for too many
people to turn their back on the practice of prayer – under the erroneous
assumption that it is not a meaningful activity.
I do staunchly maintain that meaning might flow from
practice – in other words, it may be beneficial to engage in the activity even
before it has meaning. But the
enterprise I undertake at this time intends to attach practice and meaning from
the very beginning.
The focus of our musings will be the daily shacharit
service – that is, the service recited on weekday mornings (as contrasted with
Shabbat). Once upon a time, I thought
that it was too long – had too many pieces to it. But as I have grown more and more experienced
with its content and structure, I think I would struggle to figure out what
needs to be cut.
Nonetheless, this venture begins from the other
direction. With each of these postings,
I will suggest a prayer text and behavior as a starting point – imagining that
the only thing that the reader is doing comes from the texts contained herein
and in this order. In other words,
Dayenu! It Would Be Enough if you only
said and did what is in these pages. But
of course, I would encourage you to add layer upon layer to your personal
practice.
Others might choose an order very different from mine. Perhaps you’ll re-write this book in your own
way, your own order. May your enterprise
and mine be blessed!
Step #1
I choose to begin with the Birchot Hashachar – the “morning
blessings.” You’ll find the text in
question in Siddur Sim Shalom for Weekdays on page 6. In the original Siddur Sim Shalom on page
10.
Birkot Hashachar begins with a litany of 14 or so
blessings. In this first “lesson,” I’ll
refer just to the first of those:
okugv lkn ubhekt v v,t lurc
vbhc hufak i,b rat
vkhk ihcu ouh ihc ihjcvk
Baruch atah Adonai
Eloheinu Melech haolam, asher natan lasechvi vinah l’havchin bein yom uvein
lailah. In Siddur Sim Shalom for Weekdays, this is translated as
“Praised are You Adonai our God, who rules the universe, enabling us to
distinguish day from night.”
Very nice. Very
polite. But what it REALLY says in the
Hebrew is Praised are You Adonai our God, ruler of the universe, who gave to
the rooster the wisdom to distinguish between day and night.
What’s the difference?
Well, for one thing, is the prayer about me? Or is it about a rooster? I think that the prayer is about waking up in
the morning. I don’t know about you, but
I don’t wake up in the morning by accident.
I wake either because my clock radio alarm turns on (the [a]moral modern
equivalent of the rooster) or because I know
it’s going to turn on soon.
The most important thing about this b’rachah is that we
wake up by reciting a blessing – rather than saying “$#@!%*#!” This is a beautifully affirmative act – one
which might feel out of reach for some people.
I know that I’ve been blessed by being naturally a morning person – and
I don’t face the struggles that some others do!
As noted above, this b’rachah is the first of 14 or so,
most of which have to do with “coming on-line” – recognizing the basic
functions of our bodies and minds. I’ll
get back to those others later in these writings. But the key is to begin our day recognizing
a) that we are fortunate to be alive, b) that we are fortunate to have a means
to determine when it’s time to get up.
We could be thankful that God gave the rooster the natural knowledge to
announce the start of the day. We’re probably thankful that we don’t need to
hear the rooster any more! We could be
thankful that our alarm clock works, for the electricity that powers it, for
the workers who manufactured it, the people who sold it to us, etc. We could be thankful that it starts with a
news or entertainment choice we prefer – like NPR (in my case).
Mastering this b’rachah means that we would wake each day
being thankful – rather than resentful of the fact that our sleep and rest have
ended.
Dayenu! If this were
the only act of prayer that you would perform each and every day, one could
maintain that you have a significant connection to God, thankfulness and
prayer.
So try to begin each day with a blessing and not a
curse. Make it a conscious act. Be proud of yourself for doing it. Say it in your own words. Or in English. Or in Hebrew.
If you can make this simple (well, maybe not so simple) b’rachah have
meaning for you when you say it’s words in Hebrew, I think you’ll really be on
to something. . .
okugv lkn ubhekt v v,t lurc
vbhc hufak i,b rat
vkhk ihcu ouh ihc ihjcvk
Baruch atah
Adonai Eloheinu Melech haolam, asher natan lasechvi vinah l’havchin bein yom
uvein lailah
Praised are You Adonai our God, ruler of the universe, who
gave to the rooster the wisdom to distinguish between day and night.
If you wish to
respond, you may e-mail me at CantorJC@aol.com .
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