Intentional Praying
1st Day of Rosh Hashanah, 5784
Last year on Rosh Hashanah, I confessed that I spend way too much time on Jewish Twitter. A year or two ago, while browsing JTwitter as it is sometimes known, I saw a cute video making its round on Jewish twitter. It was a video produced by an Orthodox synagogue for its daily minyan members. It shows a man at daily minyan, sitting and checking his phone, oblivious to the praying going on around him. Eventually, the man sitting behind him taps him on the shoulder, and he looks up to see it is the Torah service, and the gabbai at the bimah is beckoning to him. He puts his phone down, gets up, lifts up the Torah without a word, shows it around, puts it down, goes back to his seat, and picks up his phone again. He soon gets a text: they were calling you up for an Aliyah. A voiceover and text proclaims: pay attention during services. Put your phone away.
I found this video very funny at the time, and I’ve been thinking about it recently as I’ve been thinking about prayer. Could a man who is engrossed with his phone be counted in a minyan? To answer this question, I went back to the sources. Specifically, to the Shulchan Aruch, the major work of Jewish Law that was written in the 16th century. Everything on Jewish law written since then has referenced the Shulchan Aruch. If you go on the Conservative Movement’s website you will find that questions of law are organized in the same fashion as the Shulchan Aruch. It is the law book. And I went to look up the laws of prayer in the Shulchan Aruch, specifically, the laws relating to the Amidah, the archetypal prayer. When Jewish laws talks about prayer, it normally refers to the Amidah. I found this law about the repetition of the Amidah: כשש"צ חוזר התפלה הקהל יש להם לשתוק ולכוין לברכות שמברך החזן ולענות אמן. When the prayer leader repeats the Amidah, the congregation should be silent and focus on the blessings that the prayer leader makes, and respond Amen. ואם אין ט' מכוונים לברכותיו קרוב להיות ברכותיו לבטלה. And if there are less than 9 people concentrating on the blessings, it is close to being a wasted blessing.
What are the implications of this? That being in the room isn’t enough to truly make a minyan. That to count toward a minyan, one also needs to be paying attention. There are exceptions to this. Elsewhere in the Shulchan Aruch, it notes that someone who is still praying their silent Amidah is counted towards the minyan of the repetition, even though they cannot respond with Amen as they are engrossed in prayer. But overall, the core idea of the law is that to count in a minyan, one should really be paying attention. Should really be praying.
That doesn’t bode well for the man in the video with the phone. In all honesty, he probably should not have counted toward that minyan. But I want to move away from the video and think about us, here, in this room now. I know that for many people here, this will be one of the only times you come to synagogue to pray during the year. I hope that this day will inspire you to come and pray more often. But if this is one of the only times during the year you come to pray, you might as well do it right. After all, schmoozing, being seen doing something Jewish, supporting the synagogue, those are all activities you don’t need to sit in a sanctuary for three hours to do. But here in this room, praying, it is worth putting in the effort to connect with what is means to pray.
Completely coincidentally, of course, the Torah readings and Haftarah readings of today are very much concerned with what it means to pray. Sarah and Avraham prayed for Yitzchak, Hagar prays for Yishmael’s life, according to a midrash Yishmael also prays for himself, and Hannah in the Haftarah praying for a son is the very archetype of prayer. The Bible states “וְחַנָּ֗ה הִ֚יא מְדַבֶּ֣רֶת עַל־לִבָּ֔הּ רַ֚ק שְׂפָתֶ֣יהָ נָּע֔וֹת וְקוֹלָ֖הּ לֹ֣א יִשָּׁמֵ֑עַ” “And Hannah prayed in her heart, only her lips moved, and her voice could not be heard.” The Talmud learns a different lesson of prayer from each part of this verse: from “And Hannah prayed in her heart,” we learn that we truly must be focused on prayer. That is where the Shulchan Aruch learns that a minyan needs to be concentrating on the blessings. From “Only her lips moved,” we learn that it is not enough to merely think the words, but we have to enunciate them with our lips. And from “and her voice could not be heard,” we learn that during the Amidah, when we are most intently praying, we should be audible only to ourselves.
But what about the end of the verse? “וַיַּחְשְׁבֶ֥הָ עֵלִ֖י לְשִׁכֹּרָֽה” “And Eli [the High Priest] thought she was drunk?” The Talmud learns from this that one should not be drunk and pray. This is true, but I think there is something else to gleaned from this. What is the stereotype of drunkenness? It is pouring oneself out, freely. It is speaking from the heart. It is emotional, messy, seeking connection. Prayer should not be done while drunk, but it has something in common with drunkenness. It involves vulnerability. It involves opening oneself up. Prayer is about a private conversation with God. And in that conversation with God, we are supposed to open ourselves up, and pour out our soul.
Is that not terrifying? Opening ourselves completely to a human being may seem bad enough, but to God? Who sits in Judgement on Rosh Hashanah, who writes our fate? Who are we to stand and speak before God? Is it any wonder that there developed the tradition of the Shaliach Tzibbur, the representative of the congregation, whose job it was to repeat the private prayers of the Amidah, to stand as a speaker for the entire community? Is any wonder that the Hineni prayer developed, where the Shaliach Tzibbur confesses they are not worthy of the task and asks for strength? הִנְנִי הֶעָנִי מִמַּֽעַשׂ, נִרְעַשׁ וְנִפְחַד מִפַּֽחַד יוֹשֵׁב תְּהִלּוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל Here I am, standing here, impoverished of good deeds, perturbed and frightened in fear of the one enthroned upon the praises of Yisrael. The congregation watches, in awe and fear, as the Shaliach Tzibbur, as the Cantor, opens themselves up on behalf of the entire community. And emphasizing their designation of this person as their representative, at every blessing, they say Amen! I believe!
That is how the institution of the Cantor developed. That is where Jewish prayer comes from. And that is why a Cantor davening in front of congregation mostly not paying attention, and davening just for themselves is like little like playing Monopoly by yourself, or trying to play football alone. A group activity has become a solo one.
In just a few moments, we’re going to begin the Musaf Amidah. We’re going to have a silent Amidah first, followed by a repetition. I encourage you to use the opportunity of the silent Amidah to try to pray like Hannah did. Pray from your heart, move your lips, and be heard only by yourself. Concentrate with all of your might on communicating exactly what you are thinking to God. You will find that it is really hard! It is difficult! Like everything, prayer takes practice. So when we move into the repetition of the Amidah, don’t think of it as the Cantor giving a performance. Think of it as the Cantor functioning as your representative. Pleading the case that all of the prayers we just said and could not bring ourselves to say will be accepted by God. Follow along in the English and get a sense of just what we are praying for today. And when the Cantor makes a blessing, join me in loudly following her blessing with Amen!
As I said before, prayer is a skill. Prayer takes practice. If you pray a couple of times a year, you might feel a little rusty. That’s alright. Like going to the gym, or playing piano, doing it a couple of times a year means that you will be a little out of practice. That’s also why we have our Shaliach Tzibbur. So this year, I have a prayer challenge for you: not just for today, but for the entire year. Stretch your prayer muscles. Practice that feeling of vulnerability and openness. And when the Shaliach Tzibur is praying, really try to think of them as your representative. And please, whether its Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, or just a daily service: don’t be like that man in the video on his phone. More interesting things are happening if you just raise your head.
