Sermon - March 20, 2009
What is Prayer?
Friday, March 20, 2009
Rabbi Mark S. Kram,
So I went to
Let me describe it: the bright lights near the ground lighting up the buildings blocking our view from ~25 miles away; then the bright fired rocket was soaring into the sky, at first trying ever so hard to build speed as it lurched towards outer space. We heard no sound – it was eerily quiet, that is, until about 5 minutes after launch when the rocket was miles up in the sky, a beautiful plume of smoke trailing through the sunset reflection. All of a sudden, we heard a great rumble. It was the rocket. Proving once again that light travels faster than sound! It was amazing!
Some years ago, our daughter Lea and I were lucky enough to see a launch from only 5 miles away – the closest civilians like us can watch from. It was a sunrise launch – on a beautiful clear early morning! And quite AWESOME. After seeing that, I now know where kids get that word.
And aside from the event itself – I got my real introduction to Recon Jud from a colleague who came to the microphone just prior to us leaving the dining room for the beach to suggest a special blessing for the launch. He said, we couldn’t say “B’A’A’E’M’H’ oseh ma’a’seh bereishit” because a launch is not a miracle that God creates. But, we also couldn’t say, “oseh ma’a’seh yadeinu” – who makes the work of our hands – because its’ not totally a result of the work of our hands, despite all the engineering and calculations, thought and effort put into the entire project by humans.
It was in between – and therefore, he offered this prayer: “B’A’A’E’M’H’ sheh oseh ma’a’seh merkavah.” Praised are You,….. who makes real the shuttle/chariot.” Only in a RRA Conference would I hear such a prayer. Quite an introduction to Recon Judaism!
That we can – should?! – create a new prayer spontaneously for an amazing event seems very appropriate. Isn't that what our mission statement on the back wall says: "Making the Old New and the New Holy." Finding that connection at that special moment between something created by the efforts of our own hands, and yet, and yet, supported or empowered or initiated by our God-given talents and abilities. It seemed that we had to say something (and with all the cancellations, maybe our prayer is what actually made the launch successful?!) that would create that link between us and God. Our actions and Gods' place in this context.
For the blastoff was much larger than simply a combination of engineering, computer design, diligence, human effort and hard work. For us rabbis (maybe that's what makes us unique) – it was important to memorialize that moment just as we pronounce a blessing prior to eating or drinking or lighting Shabbat candles.
And therein lies the subject for the keynote teaching for the conference. What is Jewish prayer. Before we delve deeply into this subject, I'd like to share with you some prayers from the ultimate source for me – children's prayers to God I found on the internet at JimmyAkin.org.
Dear God,
I do not think anybody could be a better God than you. Well, I just want you to know that. I am not just saying that because you are already God.
Dear God,
Is Rabbi David a friend of yours, or do you just know him through the business?
Dear God,
It is great the way you always get the stars in the right place. Why can't you do that with the moon?
Dear God,
I am doing the best I can. Really !!!!
And, the best:
Dear God,
I didn't think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on Tuesday night. That was really cool.
But seriously, a former colleague and friend, Rabbi Ed Feld, presented the thinking of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. As a child Rav Kook gained a reputation of being an ilui (prodigy). He entered the Volozhin yeshiva in 1884 at the age of 18, where he became close to the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (the Netziv). Although he stayed at the yeshiva for only a year and a half, the Netziv has been quoted as saying that if the Volozhin Yeshiva had been founded just to educate Rav Kook, it would have been worthwhile. During his time in the yeshiva, he studied about 18 hours a day. appointed the first chief Ashkenazic rabbi of
Imagine, this Orthodox figure in full dress – coming into each settlement and offering a blessing to these ultra secular Zionists! I would have loved to have seen their faces!
What Rav Kook taught about prayer was that prayer's purpose is to "free the soul." It's about freedom.
We generally think that prayer began formally after the destruction of the 2nd
Rav Kook taught the petitionary prayer – prayer in which we ask for something – doesn't work! He throws this concept out. In its place he suggests that the soul itself needs prayer, and that in religious life, the "freeing of the soul." For Rav Kook, prayer is about freedom – freeing the soul to "go higher" let's say, or to go somewhere other than be grounded on land alone.
For him, it happens in the following 3 ways:
- Taking a stance
- Having discernment
- Being open to surprise
He wrote,
"Before beginning to pray, it is important to feel the need for prayer and the joy of prayer. Prayer does not seek to change anything in the Divine (God), eternal and outside the boundaries of change, but to rise up to the heights of God, and experience all the transformations that that effects in the soul, and all the transformations that it may effect in the world insofar as the soul is connected to it."
What does your soul yearn for? Have you experienced the soul trying to break free?
There are 3 synonyms for prayer in the Bible: standing, meditating and encountering. These represent 3 different aspects of the essential purpose of prayer in the service of God. We will only talk about the first tonight. Standing, is most appropriate in the morning,
"Before a person turns to the business of daily life and the necessary demands of bodily existence. One can instill a strong and upright ethical stance which can withstand conflict with the force of the times. Therefore, the kind of prayer appropriate for this activity is called: "stance – amidah."
TAKING A STAND IN THE MORNING, planting our feet directly in the place where we are solid, unwavering in our ethical and moral thinking, prepares us to face the world – a world with all of the challenges to shove us or pull us into one or another less ethical direction.
Taking a stand – on what? What do you think about when you get up in the morning? I know I think I'd like to smash the alarm clock, wondering how it went off so soon! I know we're each supposed to open our eyes and before getting out of bed or engaging in conversation with anyone – before any other thoughts enter our minds – we're taught to say: "modeh ani lefanecha, melech chai v'kayam; she'che'che'zar'ta bee nish'ma'tee b'chem'lah; raba emunatecha," "Thank you, God, eternal ruler, for returning my soul to me; you have great faith in me [that I will make something of today]."
WHAT STANCE DO WE TAKE? Where do we position ourselves to start our day? What mantra do we recite or what do we tell ourselves to fortify ourselves to meet the challenges of the day? This story might help us:
The Story Of Eighteen Boys Who Grasped Holiness:
In
At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.
After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, "Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything G-d does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is
God's perfection?"
The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father's anguish and stilled by the piercing query. "I believe," the father answered, "that when G-d brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that He seeks is in the way people react to this child."
He then told the following story about his son Shaya:
One afternoon Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys Shaya knew were playing baseball. Shaya asked, "Do you think they will let me play?" Shaya's father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya's father
understood that if his son was chosen to play it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging.
Shaya's father approached one of the boys in the field and asked if Shaya could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates.
Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said, "We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning."
Shaya's father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya's team scored again and now with two outs and the bases loaded with the potential winning run on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?
Surprisingly, Shaya was given the bat. Everyone knew that it was all but impossible because Shaya didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However, as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shaya should at least be able to make contact. The first pitch came in and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya's teammates came up to Shaya and together they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya.
As the pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung the bat and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game. Instead, the
pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman.
Everyone started yelling, "Shaya, run to first. Run to first!" Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions were, so he
threw the ball high and far over the third baseman's head.
Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second." Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing short stop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base and shouted, "Run to third." As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, "Shaya, run home!" Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit a "grand slam" and won the game for his team.
That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "those 18 boys reached their level of G-d's perfection."