Letters to Malcom: Letter 2 (Part 3)

I have been admittedly hesitant and procrastinating on writing on standardized liturgy versus personal liturgy. This is in a large part because I don't believe there is a clear traditional Jewish view of on this question. Nonetheless, it's time to write something so let me just start and we'll see how we do. 

Traditional Jews have set prayers for all services - which means at least three times a day. Now, that does not mean that any given service has not evolved over the years, of course it has. Nor does is mean that every traditional Jew, or even any two particular synagogues will have the exact same service - that's not true either. There are a myraid of minor differences and sometimes relatively major differences based on country of origin, subsect, and rabbinic leadership. And there are even some slots in which one can fill in personal prayers when praying quietly. Yet, within those boundaries traditional Jews tend to be quite conservative when it comes to changing or updating liturgy. Try to walk into any synagogue and say, we should try doing this some other way, and you will be shouted down if not worse. 

This then begs the question, why is our liturgy so unyielding? Why not provide people or at least leaders the lattitude to pray what they want (during the standard service)? For the purposes of this post, I'm going to not concentrate on the historical circumstances that caused a standardization of the prayers (see Maimonides), rather, I'll concentrate on the view from where we are now. 

So why have a standard liturgy?

1) A first answer is inline with Maimmonides claim: sometimes it's hard to express oneself. Do we really want to use our own words when someone has already expressed the same feelings much more eloquently? Nevertheless, Lewis' comment, "we shall continue to pour into them our own meaning," is very much on target. 

2) Connection to the past: there is something to be said to using the same prayers my grandfather recited in Auschwitz and his ancestors recited during the Cossack rebellion and his ancestors during the massacres of the Crusades. Sure, again I will pour in our own meaning but that doesn't blunt to the power of connecting to the past and realizing that God must have answered them since I'm here. 

3) Congregational prayer: power in numbers if everyone is praying the same thing. Not to mention everyone knows what's going on and no one has to guess. And even if someone is praying alone, he or she can still feel part of the congregation who prays knowing that they are reciting the same words. 

4) Standard liturgy also enables concrete teaching of the prayers.

OK, those are my thoughts for now.

If I don't have a chance to get back on I would like to wish everyone a happy and sweet New Year. A year of peace, joy, and gladness in which we see the hostages returned, the IDF soldiers are safe, and hatred is no more. 

Letter to Malcom: Letter 2 (Part 2)

The second form of prayer that Lewis relates to in this Letter, is the behavior of the congregation during prayer. Lewis speaks highly of a Greek Orthodox mass he once attended in which, "some stood, some knelt, some sat, one crawled about the floor like a caterpillar," and no one cared what anyone else was doing. 

What Lewis does not address in his liberalism of behavior is are there any limits? Certainly, Lewis is assuming that the particular behavior is chosen in order to maximize concentration on the prayer or some other aspect of prayer. If not, what would be the point? So any behavior that would work against this goal would be rejected. Even beyond that I would assume that Lewis would limit any sort of obscene or irreverant behavior during prayer, even though he doesn't say so. An example, would Lewis be accepting of someone coming to pray in a bathing suit? I would assume not. God of course, knows what a person looks like so in that sense it doesn't matter. The person, however, is demonstrating irreverance - one would not appear in front of an important personage in that dress, so how can a person appear in church that way? 

Traditional Jewish prayer allows for a range of behaviors through most of the prayers assuming they are honorable and fitting (I don't think crawling around like a caterpillar would qualify). An exception is when the Holy Ark is open and/or the Torah scrolls are being carried. The only prayer exception is during the amidah in which we stand with feet together in the stance of the straight-one-legged angels who stand before God. 

The idea of copying the angels, or indeed, looking towards others for guidance rather then choosing ones own form of prayer, will be the central question when weighing formalized liturgy against spontaneous supplication. 

Letter to Malcom: Letter 2 (Part 1)

I have to admit, this Letter really threw me. Maybe someone can enlighten me as to Lewis' initial thought process was -  but let's see if we can break it down. 

The question at hand is the form of prayer and there are several modalities of form. First, there is standardized liturgy versus personal liturgy. Second, there is one's pose during prayer, and third, there is communication to God via speech versus thought as the means of prayer. In conclusion, Lewis seems pretty liberal and willing to let people decide what forms 'speak' best to them, but he still makes certain statements which I feel the need to bring up.

The first is Lewis assertion that the highest form of prayer is prayer without words. Now, in some respect I agree that there is a place for prayer without words. In fact, as we've discussed, such prayer may be the function of the shofar (rams horn) blown on Rosh HaShana (the Jewish New Year) or Susan's Horn - the realization that as a finite human I don't even understand my own needs, and so I am going to simply turn to go with a call or a cry and let Him fill in the rest. 

But that is not what Lewis is referring to. Lewis means prayer without any physicality whatsoever. In fact, he says that his first attempts was that even when praying for someone else he strive not to name the individual but to simply have a mental picture of the person. My guess is that via this sort of 'prayer' Lewis is hoping to shed as much physicality as possible and, by using on mentality, come as close to God as possible? 

It goes without saying that traditional Jewish prayer, which requires not only the words to be mouthed but also to be heard by the person praying, rejects such a notion. The Talmud is clear that God Himself comes to the synagogue. He is close by even in exile. There is no need to shed our bodies in order to reach out to Him. 

It's not my place to say, but I don't see why a Christian would feel any differently. Does not Aslan assert to Bree (in a way that is foreign to Judaism) that he can be touched and smelled? 

So, that is my first thought on this Letter. I would suggest the opposite of Lewis. Better that prayers should be spoken and names should be named. This enables people to better internalize, better concentrate, and better recognize that, even though they are physcial beings, they are beloved by God who 'lowers' Himself to hear our prayers. 

From a practical standpoint Lewis comes to this conclusion as well. I would argue that part of prayer is recognizing who we are, embracing it, and understanding that we can still approach Him. Thus, on Rosh HaShana we pray, whether we are sons or whether we are servants our eyes look towards You, until You have mercy upon us.