by Recommended by UTJ
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are that of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the Union for Traditional Judaism, unless otherwise indicated.
It is impossible to ascribe human emotions to God, but in some sense, God must have been very excited when He presented the Jews with the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. They had shown such faith when they left Egypt – with just a few pieces of matzah and no water – to follow God into the desert. He must have had such nachas when they stood at Sinai pledging – as we learned in last week’s Torah portion – na’aseh v’nishma, “Whatever You tell us, God, we will do and then try to understand.” It was a statement of complete trust and love. Never before had they felt so close to God.
In Parashat Teruma, God presents to the Jewish people a path to maintain that closeness – the path of worship. It is a path that we have continued to this day, 3300 years later – a path that has become part of the kishkes, the make-up of every Jew.
A Jew has to daven, a Jew has to pray. It’s a hunger of the soul…an outpouring of longing for God…a yearning to connect with our Creator, to feel that He is there listening and watching over us. The need to pray is, of course, universal. Human beings are not only thinking creatures but also praying creatures.
We Jews have always prayed to God. Since the time of Abraham, we have cried out to God…thanking Him for His mercies…begging for His help…praising Him… confessing and confiding in Him…and pleading for His guidance. When we stand up before God and pour out our hearts, we are engaged in what the Torah calls Avodah, which we translate as, “worship,” and which literally means “work” and refers to our holy work, the service of the heart. Many of us don’t pray anymore.
Many of us don’t daven because we’re not “at home” with God and are practically tongue-tied or even embarrassed in His presence. Most Jews today are raised in non-religious homes and don’t even know where to begin. They are so competent with everything they do – work, sports, hobbies – and feel so incompetent and, therefore, uncomfortable, when they walk into a shul. The Hebrew may be too difficult for them to read fluently, let alone understand. The structure of the prayers, the melodies, the length of the service can be overwhelming to anyone who doesn’t attend regularly. It can seem like an insurmountable wall in the path to God.
The Kotzker Rebbe once asked, “Where is God to be found?” His answer is as profound as it is instructive: “God can be found wherever you let Him in!” Judaism insists that every human being can find a path to God. We are all created in God’s image. God gives to each of us a neshama, a holy soul, that yearns to cleave to Him. But how?
The Tanzer Rebbe was once asked, “What do you do before you pray?” The Rebbe replied, “I pray that I may be able to pray.” Maybe that’s what those of us who are uncomfortable davening need to do – just pray, just speak to God from our hearts and also ask Him for help that we may be able to pray.
Why is prayer so hard for many? It’s because prayer is a function of the heart – not of the lips, nor even the mind. To pray is to feel, and feelings cannot be mechanically manufactured by reading a script of prayers. While we yearn to feel God’s presence, we simply cannot expect to enter the synagogue and immediately find God there. To find God in shul, we must first find Him in our hearts.
V’asu li mikdash v’shakhanti b’tokham, “And make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them,” commands the Torah (Exodus 25:8) in this parasha. Why doesn’t God say, “Make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in it – in the sanctuary”? The sages comment that God resides not within the sanctuary so much, but within the heart of every person, unless, of course, the Great Tenant is dispossessed!
But most of us have not dispossessed God from our hearts. Most of us are seeking God. If we can just take that desire and add our special energy and focus to it, we might just transform our prayers into a true Avodah, a true service of the heart.
Does the siddur, the prayer book, our prepared script of prayers, help us or get in the way of our connecting with God? Is there a point to sticking to a set scheduled Amida text – which is our main prayer – three times a day? Why can’t we just pray spontaneously when we feel like it?
The rift between structured prayer and the need for spontaneous prayer is one of the oldest controversies in Judaism. On one side, we have Maimonides, who argues that the commandment in last week’s parasha (Ex. 23:25), Va-avad’tem et Hashem Elokeychem, “And you shall serve – avad’tem, do your Avodah for – the Lord your God,” means that it’s incumbent on us to pray, to do our Avodah, our holy work, the service of our hearts, whether we’re in the mood or not. For Maimonides, the act of praying itself helps put us into a sacred frame of mind and opens us up to the possibility of connection.
On the other side, Nachmanides believes the commandment to pray is rooted in the verse later in the Torah (Num. 10:9): “When you are at war in your own land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound short blasts on the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the Lord your God and be delivered from your enemies.” Authentic prayer is the voice that rises during times of crisis crying out for help.
For Nachmanides, prayer is, “I need you.” God listens to our prayers and yes, He answers them – but not always in the way we expect.
For Maimonides, prayer is “I serve you.”
Who is right? The Talmud (Berachot 4:4) says they’re both right! Crisis can be a powerful incentive to pray, but you need not have a crisis in your life to find God. So the Talmud tells us that, although the Amida should be recited three times a day, we must add our personal prayers from our hearts.
But shouldn’t prayer be spontaneous? Of course! But without a formalized prayer service, we might never get around to praying; and if we really try to bare our souls before God during services together, who knows what power our collective prayers may have? Each of our souls can synergistically uplift the others.
Know that God listens to your prayers and that His light is always there for you to access – whenever and wherever you are.
Shabbat Shalom!
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