You Can't Always Get What You Want, So Don't Ask (for too much) - Tuesday Kavvanah, 4/24/2012

Did you notice? Morning minyan for the past week and a half (since Pesah) has been SIX WORDS shorter! Truly amazing! I have accomplished so much with that extra time.

From whence comes the savings? There are two places in the Amidah where we no longer ask for rain (in Israel). Well, actually only one of them is a request; the other is a mere mention. At the beginning of the Gevurot  paragraph, the second berakhah of the Amidah, we have been saying the following since Shemini Atzeret:

מַשִּׁיב הָרוּחַ וּמורִיד הַגָּשֶּׁם

Mashiv haruah umorid hagashem.
God causes the wind to blow and the rains to fall.

And we have been making the following request since Dec. 4:

וְתֵן טַל וּמָטָר לִבְרָכָה

Veten tal umatar livrakhah
And give us dew and rain as a blessing

The first has been eliminated completely, and the second shortened to the perfunctory and vague veten berakhah / give us blessing.

Why the change?  There is a rabbinic principle (e.g. Mishnah Berakhot 9:3) that one should not offer a tefillat shav, a prayer in vain. That is, we cannot request something from God that cannot naturally occur, like rain in Israel during the summer, or that one's 2-year-old will not throw a tantrum when denied a lollipop.

As a guiding principle to tefillah, I have found that it is more effective to think of statutory prayer as maintenance rather than asking for things that you do not have.  Isn't it wonderful, say the words of the siddur, that the sun came up this morning, that I had the energy to get dressed and venture out, that I had food on my plate, and that this world is filled with unmeasurable quantity of blessing.

There is always a place for making requests outside of the traditional framework, but it is nonetheless a good idea to consider very carefully what we ask for; the reasonable request has a better chance of being heard.


~
Rabbi Seth Adelson

We Will Seek No Rain Before Its Time - Wednesday Kavvanah, 12/7/2011

Coming to the end of the second rainy day in a row, this rabbi wonders if it might not be sheer coincidence that two nights ago we began the seasonal addition of "veten tal umatar livrakhah" ("and grant dew and rain as a blessing") into the sixth baqashah / request of the weekday Amidah.  Of course, says my rational side, God does not really work that way, and anyway the request is for Israel, not here.

Meanwhile, the very idea that we make this request at all is curious.  The obligation to do so is described in Mishnah Ta'anit, accompanied by an explanation for its timing:


אין שואלים את הגשמים, אלא סמוך לגשמים
They only ask for rain when it is close to the rainy season. (Ta'anit 1:2)

Israel, though located in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, does not receive any rain at all from roughly March to October.  One might think that we should ask for rain year-round, because every little bit helps.  And given how important rain was to the livelihoods of our agricultural ancestors, it might be expected to be a consistent theme in daily prayer.

But there is also a rabbinic principle that we should only tell others what they are ready or willing to hear, and extending that logic to prayer, we should only make requests are within the realm of possibility.  There is no point in asking for rain in the Israeli summer, because it simply isn't going to happen.  By the time we start adding this to our weekday tefillot, there is a good chance that rain might fall.

So regardless of how wet it might be in New York, now is absolutely the time to pray for rain.  Stay dry!


~
Rabbi Seth Adelson

Wednesday Kavvanah, 3/30/2011 - Stepping Out of Yourself

The Amidah (standing, silent tefillah) is on a higher level then other parts of the Jewish service. As such, it is customary to leave your regular self behind before beginning by taking three steps forward. (Many people also take three steps back first, so that they have room to take three steps forward, although it's the forward steps that are the essential choreography.) As such, we enter the court of the King (i.e. God) at the start of the Amidah.

I can think of many times that I would have liked to have left myself behind for a few minutes or a few months, but of course it is never so simple as simply taking three steps. However, the idea that we have the ability, even metaphorically, to step out of ourselves, suggests a certain control that many of us doubt that we actually have. Perhaps the physical and mental exercise of taking a few steps forward can bring that possibility closer to reality.

Wednesday Morning Kavvanah, 1/19/2011 - Shalom: Wish or Request?

The oft-repeated line, "Oseh shalom bimromav..." (May the One who makes peace on high make peace for us and for all Israel), which we find at the conclusion of every Amidah and many forms of the Qaddish prayer, is not really a baqashah, a request. There is a very specific form for the liturgical mode called baqashah, and this is not it.

However, we do say it frequently, and there is no question that we need peace - here in America, in Israel for certain, and throughout the world. Its role as a concluding thought in these prayers points to the centrality of this need.

And yet, we do not formally request peace of God; we simply wish that God will bestow it. I find this ironic - something that we need so desperately, and yet we do not simply come out and ask for it.