Читать книгу Hebrew Daily Prayer Book - Jonathan Sacks - Страница 50
TACHANUN
ОглавлениеTachanun is not said on the following mornings: 1. On Shabbat or Festivals (including Intermediate Days), Rosh Chodesh, during the whole month of Nisan, on Yom Ha’Atzma’ut, Lag BaOmer and Yom Yerushalayim, the first eight days of Sivan, the Ninth of Av and the 15th of Av, the day before Rosh Hashanah, from the day before Yom Kippur until and including the day after Simchat Torah, Chanukah, the 15th of Shevat, Purim, Shushan Purim and the 14th and 15th of Adar Rishon in a Jewish leap year. 2. In the presence of a bridegroom on the day of his wedding and for the subsequent six days. 3. In a house of mourning during the week of Shivah. 4. On the occasion of a Brit Milah, if prayers are said where the ceremony will take place later that day or if the father, sandek or mohel is present.
On Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, begin with “David said” on page 113.
On Mondays and Thursdays, say the following quietly while standing until “David said”, on page 113.
He is compassionate. He forgives iniquity and does not destroy. Repeatedly He suppresses His anger, not rousing His full wrath. LORD, do not withhold Your compassion from us. May Your lovingkindness and truth always protect us. Save us, LORD our GOD, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to Your holy name and glory in Your praise. If You, LORD, were to keep account of sins, LORD, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness, that You may be revered. Do not deal with us according to our sins; do not repay us according to our iniquities. Though our iniquities testify against us, LORD, act for Your name’s sake. Remember, LORD, Your compassion and lovingkindness, for they are everlasting. May the LORD answer us when we are in distress; may the name of Jacob’s GOD protect us. LORD, save. May the King answer us when we call. Our Father, our King, be gracious to us and answer us, though we have no worthy deeds; act charitably with us for Your name’s sake. LORD our GOD, hear the sound of our pleas. Remember for us the covenant of our ancestors, and save us for Your name’s sake. And now, My LORD, our GOD, who took Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, creating for Yourself renown to this day: we have sinned and acted wrongly. LORD, in keeping with all Your righteousness, please turn Your wrath and anger away from Jerusalem, Your holy mountain. Because of our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and Your people have become the scorn of all those around us. And now, our GOD, heed Your servant’s prayer and pleas, and let Your face shine on Your desolate Sanctuary, for Your sake, O LORD.
Incline Your ear, my GOD, and hear. Open Your eyes and see our desolation and that of the city called by Your name. Not because of our righteousness do we lay our pleas before You, but because of Your great compassion. LORD, hear! LORD, forgive! LORD, listen and act! Do not delay – for Your sake, my GOD, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name. Our Father, compassionate Father, show us a sign for good, and gather our scattered ones from the four quarters of the earth. Let all the nations recognise and know that You are the LORD our GOD. And now, LORD, You are our Father. We are the clay and You are our potter; we are all the work of Your hand. Save us for the sake of Your name, our Rock, our King and our Redeemer. Pity Your people, LORD. Let not Your heritage become an object of scorn, a byword among nations. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their GOD?” We know we have sinned and that there is no-one to stand up for us. Let Your great name stand up for us in time of trouble. We know we have no merits of our own: therefore deal with us charitably for Your name’s sake. As a father has compassion on his children, so, LORD, have compassion on us, and save us for the sake of Your name. Have mercy on Your people; have compassion for Your heritage; take pity in Your great compassion. Be gracious to us and answer us, for righteousness is Yours, LORD. Always You do wondrous things.
Please look, please swiftly have compassion for Your people for Your name’s sake. In Your great compassion, LORD our GOD, have pity and compassion, and rescue the flock You tend. Let us not be ruled by wrath, for our eyes are turned towards You. Save us for Your name’s sake. Have compassion on us for the sake of Your covenant. Look and answer us in time of trouble, for Yours, LORD, is the power to save. Our hope is in You, GOD of forgiveness. Please forgive, good and forgiving GOD, for You are a gracious, compassionate GOD and King.
Please, gracious and compassionate King, remember and call to mind the Covenant between the Pieces [with Abraham] and let the binding of his only son [Isaac] appear before You for Israel’s sake. Our Father, our King, be gracious to us and answer us, for we are called by Your great name. You who work miracles at all times, deal with us according to Your lovingkindness. Gracious and compassionate One, look and answer us in time of trouble, for salvation is Yours, LORD. Our Father, our King, our Refuge, do not act with us according to our evil deeds. Remember, LORD, Your tender mercies and Your love. Save us in Your great goodness, and have mercy on us, for we have no other GOD but You, our Rock. Do not abandon us, LORD our GOD, do not be distant from us, for we are worn out by the sword and captivity, pestilence and plague, and by every trouble and sorrow. Rescue us, for in You lies our hope. Put us not to shame, LORD our GOD. Let Your face shine upon us. Remember for us the covenant of our ancestors and save us for Your name’s sake. See our troubles and heed the voice of our prayer, for You heed the prayer of every mouth.
O Compassionate and gracious GOD, have compassion on us and on all Your works, for there is none like You, LORD our GOD. Please, we beg You, forgive our sins, our Father, our King, our Rock, our Redeemer, living and eternal GOD, mighty in strength, loving and good to all Your works, for You are the LORD our GoD. O GoD, slow to anger and full of compassion, act with us according to Your great compassion and save us for Your name’s sake. Hear our prayer, our King, and save us from our enemies’ hands. Heed our prayer, our King, and save us from all distress and sorrow. You are our Father, our King. We are called by Your name. Do not desert us. Do not abandon us, our Father. Do not cast us away, our Creator. Do not forget us, our Maker – for You are a gracious and compassionate GOD and King.
There is none like You in grace and compassion, LORD our GOD. There is none like You, GOD, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth. Save us in Your great compassion; rescue us from storm and turmoil. Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; do not attend to our stubbornness, wickedness and sinfulness. Turn from Your fierce anger, and relent from the evil meant for Your people. Remove from us the scourge of death, for You are compassionate. This is Your way, to show unearned lovingkindness to every generation. Have pity on Your people, LORD, and save us from Your wrath. Remove from us the scourge of plague and the harsh decree, for You are the Guardian of Israel. You are right, my LORD, and we are shamefaced. How can we complain? What can we say? What can we plead? How can we justify ourselves? Let us search our ways and examine them and return to You, for Your right hand is outstretched to receive those who return. Please, LORD, please save. Please, LORD, please send success. Please, LORD, answer us when we call. For You, LORD, we wait. For You, LORD, we hope. For You, LORD, we long. Do not be silent while we suffer, for the nations are saying, “Their hope is lost.” To You alone every knee must bend, and those who hold themselves high bow down.
You who hold out an open hand of repentance to receive transgressors and sinners – our soul is overwhelmed by our great sorrow. Do not forget us for ever. Arise and save us, for we seek refuge in You. Our Father, our King, though we lack righteousness and good deeds, remember for us the covenant of our fathers, and our testimonies daily that “The LORD is One.” Look on our affliction, for many are our sufferings and heartaches. Have pity on us, LORD, in the land of our captivity. Do not pour out Your wrath on us, for we are Your people, the children of Your covenant. GOD, see how low our glory has sunk among the nations. They abhor us as if we were impure. How long will Your strength be captive, and Your glory in the hand of the foe? Arouse Your strength and zeal against Your enemies. Let them be shamed and deprived of power. Let not our hardships seem small to You. Swiftly may Your compassion reach us in the day of our distress. If not for our sake, act for Yours, so that the memory of our survivors be not destroyed. Be gracious to the nation who, in constant love, proclaim twice daily the unity of Your name, saying, “Listen, Israel, the LORD is our GOD, the LORD is One.”
LOWERING THE HEAD
On Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, begin here. The following, until “what to do” on page 119, is said sitting. When praying in a place where there is a Torah scroll, one should rest one’s head on the arm on which the tefillin are not worn.
David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into GOD’S hand, for His mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.” Compassionate and gracious One, I have sinned before You. LORD, full of compassion, have compassion on me and accept my pleas.
PSALM 6:2–11
LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or chastise me in Your wrath. Be gracious to me, LORD, for I am weak. Heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in anguish, and You, O Lord – how long? Turn, LORD, set my soul free; save me for the sake of Your love. For no-one remembers You when he is dead. Who can praise You from the grave? I am weary with my sighing. Every night I drench my bed, I soak my couch with my tears. My eye grows dim from grief, worn out because of all my foes. Leave me, all you evildoers, for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping. The LORD has heard my pleas. The LORD will accept my prayer. All my enemies will be shamed and utterly dismayed. They will turn back in sudden shame.
Sit upright. On Mondays and Thursdays, say the following. On Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, continue with “Guardian of Israel” on page 117.
LORD, GOD of Israel, turn away from Your fierce anger, and relent from the evil against Your people. Look down from heaven and see how we have become an object of scorn and derision among the nations. We are regarded as sheep led to the slaughter, to be killed, destroyed, beaten and humiliated. Yet, despite all this, we have not forgotten Your name. Please do not forget us. LORD, GOD of Israel, turn away From Your fierce anger, and relent from the evil against Your people.
Strangers say, “You have no hope or expectation.” Be gracious to the nation whose hope is in Your name. O Pure One, bring our deliverance close. We are exhausted. We are given no rest. May Your compassion suppress Your anger against us. Please turn away from Your fierce anger, and have compassion on the people You chose as Your own.
LORD, GOD of Israel, turn away from Your fierce anger, and relent from the evil against Your people.
Have pity on us, LORD, in Your compassion, and do not hand us over to cruel oppressors. Why should the nations say, “Where is their GOD now?” For Your own sake, deal kindly with us, and do not delay. Please turn away from Your fierce anger, and have compassion on the people You chose as Your own.
LORD, GOD of Israel, turn away from Your fierce anger, and relent from the evil against Your people.
Heed our voice and be gracious. Do not abandon us into the hand of our enemies to blot out our name. Remember what You promised our fathers: “I will make your descendants as many as the stars of heaven” -yet now we are only a few left from many. Yet, despite all this, we have not forgotten Your name. Please do not forget us.
LORD, GOD of Israel, turn away from Your fierce anger, and relent from the evil against Your people.
Help us, GOD of our salvation, for the sake of the glory of Your name. Save us and pardon our sins for Your name’s sake.
LORD, GOD of Israel, turn away from Your fierce anger, and relent from the evil against Your people.
On all days, continue here:
Guardian of Israel, guard the remnant of Israel, and let not Israel perish, who declare, “Listen, Israel”
Guardian of a unique nation, guard the remnant of a unique people, and let not that unique nation perish, who proclaim the unity of Your name [saying], “The LORD is our GOD, the LORD is One” Guardian of a holy nation, guard the remnant of that holy nation, and let not the holy nation perish, who three times repeat the threefold declaration of holiness to the Holy One.
You who are conciliated by calls for compassion and placated by pleas, be conciliated and placated toward an afflicted generation, for there is no other help.
Our Father, our King, be gracious to us and answer us, though we have no worthy deeds; act with us in charity and lovingkindness and save us.
Stand at .
We do not know what to do, but our eyes are turned to You. Remember, LORD, Your compassion and lovingkindness, for they are everlasting. May Your lovingkindness, LORD, be with us, for we have put our hope in You. Do not hold against us the sins of those who came before us. May Your mercies meet us swiftly, for we have been brought very low. Be gracious to us, LORD, be gracious to us, for we are sated with contempt. In wrath, remember mercy. He knows our nature; He remembers that we are dust. Help us, GOD of our salvation, for the sake of the glory of Your name. Save us and grant atonement for our sins for Your name’s sake.
The Leader says half-Kaddish.
Leader:
Magnified and sanctified may His great name be, in the world He created by His will. May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetime of all the House of Israel, swiftly and soon – and say: Amen.
All:
May His great name be blessed for ever and all time.
Leader:
Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, raised and honoured, uplifted and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond any blessing, song, praise and consolation uttered in the world – and say: Amen.
LAWS OF THE AMIDAH:
1. The Amidah is said standing, facing Jerusalem (in practice, this usually means facing the synagogue wall containing the Ark), with feet together.
2. During the Amidah, we must be especially conscious of standing in the presence of GOD. To symbolise entry to the Divine presence, we take three steps forward before beginning the prayer (having first taken three steps back), and at the end bow and take three steps back, bowing first left, then right, then forward.
3. At four points during the Amidah (indicated by the symbol in the text), we bow, bending the knees at the first word, bowing at the second, and standing straight before saying GOD’S name.
4. The Amidah is said quietly. We alone should be able to hear what we are saying (based on the biblical precedent of Hannah whose “lips moved but her voice was not heard", I Samuel 1:13). It should be said with complete concentration.
5. If, before one has finished the silent Amidah, the Leader begins the repetition and reaches Kedushah, one should pause, listen with full attention to the Kedushah, and then return to one’s prayer. One should not interrupt one’s own prayer by saying the congregational responses aloud.
AMIDAH: THE STANDING PRAYER
The Amidah is the summit of prayer: in it, we enter the holy of holies of religious experience. We say it standing because we are conscious of being in the unmediated presence of GOD. The name Amidah is also related to its earliest setting: prayers said by the people of the Ma’amad, groups of laymen who, in Second Temple times, accompanied their local “watch” (mishmar) of priests who officiated in the Temple on a one-in-24-week rota. The Ma’amad was one of the prototypes of congregational prayer.
According to tradition, the Amidah in embryonic form dates back to the Great Assembly in the time of Ezra following the Jews’ return from Babylon. Several centuries later, it was canonised in a fuller form by Shimon HaPakuli in the days of Rabban Gamliel II.
It is often called the Shemoneh Esreh, “Eighteen", because it originally consisted of eighteen blessings (now, nineteen). It has a three-part structure: 1. praise (blessings 1–3); 2. requests (blessings 4–16); and 3. thanks (17–19). Each of these has a tripartite form. The first and last sections each contain three blessings. The middle section is composed of twelve blessings, six personal requests and six collective ones. The first three personal requests are for spiritual goods (wisdom, repentance and forgiveness). The second are for physical goods (deliverance, healing and livelihood). The first three national requests are for physical events (ingathering of exiles, justice, and an end to internal conflicts). The second three are for the nation’s spiritual needs (the righteous and pious, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the restoration of the Davidic monarchy). One blessing, “Listen to our voice” (the sixteenth, last of the “request” blessings), stands outside this structure because it is a prayer about prayer itself. It is also the point at which individuals can add their personal requests.
Blessing 1: Patriarchs. In these opening chords we refer back to the dawn of our people’s history – the days of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In so doing, we echo Moses, who constantly referred to the patriarchs when praying for forgiveness for the people. GOD’S love for, and covenant with, those who first heard His call is the supreme ground on which we stand when we turn to Him in prayer. The paragraph ends with a reference to Abraham, who was the first person to heed GOD’S call. For Your sake, O GOD of life – the phrase literally means “Living God". The translation, however, conveys the poetic structure of this short but powerful prayer: four phrases, each ending with the word chayyim, “life.”
Blessing 2: Divine might. The fivefold reference to the resurrection of the dead reflects the controversy between the Sadducees and Pharisees in the late Second Temple era. The Sadducees rejected belief in resurrection; the Pharisees, whose heirs we are, affirmed it. Belief that those who died will one day live again is one of Judaism’s great principles of hope, set out in the vision of Ezekiel of the valley of dry bones that came to life once more. Jews kept hope alive; hope kept the Jewish people alive.
Kedushah. The Kedushah is the supreme moment of holiness in prayer. It takes several different forms. Common to them all is that they are built around the two supreme mystical visions in the Hebrew Bible, of Isaiah (6) and Ezekiel (1–3). The prophet sees GOD enthroned in glory, surrounded by angels singing His praises. Isaiah hears them singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts: the whole world is filled with His glory.” Ezekiel (3:12) hears them singing, “Blessed is the Lord’s glory from His place.” Together they constitute the most sublime expression of prayer as praise in the presence of GOD.
In the morning, Kedushah is said three times at different points in the service. There is Kedushat Yotzer, which appears in the first of the three Shema blessings (page 62), Kedushah de-Amidah, said here during the Leader’s repetition; and Kedushah de-Sidra, towards the end of the service. The first and third do not require a minyan and are said sitting. The second requires a minyan and is said standing. The reason is that the first and third are descriptions of the song of the angels; the second is a re-enactment. We stand, feet together, rising on our toes, as if we too were angels.
In the Kedushah we move beyond the priestly prayer-as-sacrifice and the prophetic prayer-as-dialogue to prayer as a mystic experience. So holy is it that in Israel in ancient times it was said only on Shabbat and festivals. The Zohar interprets Jacob’s vision of a ladder stretching from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending (Genesis 28:12), as a metaphor for prayer, and this, too, is part of the meaning of Kedushah. We have climbed the ladder from earth to heaven. As the leader repeats the prayer on behalf of the entire community, we reach the summit of religious experience.
Blessing 3: Holiness. The threefold reference to holiness (“You are holy and Your name is holy, and holy ones praise You daily”) mirrors the threefold declaration of the angels in Isaiah’s vision: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts”. Kadosh, “holy", means “set apart, distinct". When used of GOD, it refers to His transcendence, the fact that He stands outside nature, creating and sustaining it. When used of Israel, it means that we too are summoned to stand apart from the idols of the age, living instead in close and continuous proximity to GOD.
The first three paragraphs of the Amidah form a composite unit. The first speaks of the beginning of covenantal time in the days of the patriarchs. The second is about the end of time: resurrection. The third is about holiness, beyond space and time.
Blessing 4: Knowledge. This is the first of the “request” blessings. King Solomon, when asked by GOD to name the thing he most desired (i Kings 3:5–15), asked for wisdom; so do we. Knowledge is prior to emotion, because “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9). Untutored emotion can be misdirected, even destructive.
This paragraph replicates the structure of the Amidah as a whole. It begins with praise (“You grace humanity with knowledge”), proceeds to request (“Grace us with the knowledge”), and ends in acknowledgement (“Who graciously grants knowledge”).
Blessing 5: Repentance. Knowledge and understanding allow us to see where we have drifted from the right path of life. So we ask GOD to help us find the way back to repentance.
Blessing 6: Forgiveness. Repentance involves asking GOD to forgive us. This applies to sins between us and GOD. Sins between us and our fellow human beings are only forgiven when we have apologised to, and tried to obtain the forgiveness of, those we have wronged. Knowledge, repentance and forgiveness are the three primary needs of the mind and soul.
Blessing 7: Redemption. The commentators explain that this request is not for national redemption, the subject of later blessings. Here the reference is to release from personal crises: captivity, persecution, misfortune or affliction. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch distinguishes between the first two phrases thus: “Look on our affliction” refers to suffering not caused by others, while “Plead our cause” refers to those who seek our harm. Rational argument is often insufficient to cure hatred; therefore we place our fate in the hands of GoD, asking Him to heal hostility (Rabbi J.H. Hertz). For Your name’s sake – may we be spared suffering not for our own sake but so that we may be free to worship You without distraction (Rabbi Jacob Zvi Mecklenburg). Redeemer of Israel – in the present, as opposed to the blessing immediately prior to the Amidah, which refers to acts of Divine redemption in the past.
Answer us: A special prayer to be said on public fasts (Ta’anit 11a). The Leader recites it at this point in the repetition of the morning and afternoon Amidah. Individuals say it in the afternoon only, as part of the 16th blessing, without the concluding benediction.
Blessing 8: Healing. We pray that medical treatment be successful, and that GOD Himself be part of the healing process. We are both body and soul: the health of one affects that of the other.
Blessing 9: Prosperity. We pray for GOD’S blessing on our efforts to earn a livelihood. Israel’s agriculture depends on rain, so this blessing includes – during the winter months – a prayer for rain. Israel is a land that teaches its inhabitants the need for prayer. Grant dew and rain – unlike the praise “He makes the wind blow and the rain fall” (page 76), which we begin saying on Shemini Atzeret, the actual prayer for rain is said later to coincide with the rainy season itself. In Israel, it is said from 7 Cheshvan. Outside Israel, it is said from the 60th day after “Takufat Tishri” the Jewish equivalent of the autumnal equinox.
Blessing 10: Ingathering of exiles. With this paragraph, the requests change from individual to collective hopes. They begin with three prayers for political-historical renewal: the return of exiles, the restoration of independence, and an end to the factionalism that caused great damage to the Israelites from the biblical era to the end of the Second Temple period. Sound the great shofar: A reference to Isaiah 27:13, “On that day a great shofar will sound". Raise high the banner: Isaiah 11:12, “He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.”
Blessing 11: Justice. A prayer for self-government. The “Judges” in the biblical book of that name were not merely judges in a legal sense; they were leaders of the people (Rabbi Abraham ben HaRambam). The prayer for the restoration of judges, following the ingathering of exiles, is thus a plea for the return of national sovereignty. Remove from us sorrow and sighing – the plaint of a people who have known the full precariousness of being dependent on the goodwill of others.
Blessing 12: Against Informers. The text of this paragraph underwent several changes during the centuries. Its original object was the sectarianism that split the Jewish world during the late Second Temple period. There were Jews in the Hellenistic age who turned against their own people. Faith (emunah) in Judaism involves the idea of loyalty – to a people and its heritage. This prayer is a protest against disloyalty.
The Talmud says that, to formulate this prayer, Rabban Gamliel turned to Shmuel HaKatan. Rav Kook pointed out that the only other reference to Shmuel HaKatan in rabbinic literature says that he used to say: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls.” Only a person who deeply loved his fellow human beings could be entrusted with the task of constructing this prayer, which must be free of animosity and schadenfreude.
Blessing 13: The righteous. After mentioning those who harm the Jewish people, we go on to describe those who endow it with greatness: the righteous, the pious, the elders, scholars and converts. The remnant of their scholars is a reference to those Jews who endured religious persecution under the Greeks and Romans, and later in Europe survived the Crusades to the Holocaust. Judaism lost many of its greatest scholars as martyrs.
Blessing 14: Rebuilding Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the home of the Jewish soul, the place to which we turn in prayer and for whose restoration Jews prayed in every generation. The Book of Psalms has left us an indelible description of how Jews felt when the city fell to the Babylonians in the sixth century bce: “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion … May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy” (Psalm 137). Jerusalem is mentioned more than 600 times in the Hebrew Bible.
Blessing 15: Kingdom of David. David was promised by GOD that the monarchy would always be the heritage of his children. The Davidic monarchy came to an end with the Babylonian conquest. It will be restored in the messianic age. The word “Messiah” in Hebrew means “anointed”; that is, a duly appointed king of Davidic descent.
Blessing 16: Response to Prayer. An all-inclusive prayer, that our prayers be heard.
At this point in the silent Amidah, the individual can include any of his or her personal requests.
Blessing 17: Temple Service. The last three blessings, called by the Sages “Thanksgiving", are linked because they were said by the priests in the Temple (Tamid 5:1). This paragraph was originally a prayer that the day’s sacrifices be accepted. The priests then said Modim, “We give thanks to You” and blessed the people. According to Tosafot, this means that they said the threefold Priestly Blessing, but according to Maimonides it means that they said the prayer beginning “Grant peace.”
Blessing 18: Thanksgiving. The root y-d-h has three meanings: 1. to bow (see Tar-gum to II Samuel 16:4), hence we bow at the beginning and end of this blessing; 2. to confess or profess; and 3. to thank. The blessing begins as a confession of faith, and moves to thanks for GOD’S blessings which surround us continually. For Your miracles which are with us every day – Nachmanides explained the difference between a “revealed” and a “hidden” miracle. Revealed miracles stand outside the laws of nature; hidden miracles take place within them. GoD is present not only in signs and wonders, but also in the very laws that govern the universe. To see the miraculous in the everyday is part of the Judaic vision, beautifully expressed in these lines.
Blessing 19: Peace. Shalom means more than the English word “peace”: it also means “completeness, perfection, harmonious interaction". The prophets of Israel were the first in history to conceive of peace as an ideal, most famously in the words of Isaiah: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore.” Peace is the ultimate hope of monotheism, with its belief that the world is the product of a single will, not the blind clash of conflicting elements.
Guard my tongue: A private meditation composed by the fourth-century scholar Mar son of Ravina. It beautifully mirrors the opening meditation, “O LORD, open my lips.” Having asked GOD to teach us what to say in His presence, we now ask Him to teach us what not to say in the presence of other human beings. We ask for help not to respond in kind to those who seek our harm. “The way of the righteous is to suffer humiliation but not to inflict it; to hear themselves insulted but not to reply” (Yoma 23a).
LAWS OF SHORT FORM OF THE AMIDAH:
1. The shortened form is used only in cases of genuine emergency, for example, if there is no time to say the full Amidah with concentration, or in the case of one who is seriously ill.
2. It is not said on the evening after Shabbat or festivals, or when “Grant dew and rain” is said.
Our Father, our King: A prayer attributed, in its earliest form, to Rabbi Akiva. The opening two words juxtapose the two aspects of our relationship with GOD. He is our King and we are His subjects; He is our parent and we are His children. The first relationship is governed by justice, the second by love, compassion and forgiveness. By placing the words in the reverse order, we mirror both history and faith: history because GOD called us His children (“My child, My firstborn, Israel”) at Mount Sinai before He became Israel’s king; faith because we ask GOD to let His parental love temper the severity of justice.
TACHANUN: PLEADING WITH GOD This section of the prayers, known as Tachanun, “plea", is a return to private prayer, which began with the silent Amidah. The Siddur preserves a careful balance between the two ways in which we address GOD: as individuals with our personal hopes and fears, and as members of a community whose fate and aspirations we share. First we pray individually (the silent Amidah), then communally (the Leader’s repetition), then individually in Tachanun again.
Knowing that our time in the direct presence of the supreme King of kings is drawing to an end, we approach Him directly, seeking, as it were, a private audience. Our voices drop; we whisper our deepest thoughts; we express our feelings of inadequacy and vulnerability. We know we are unworthy: we say nothing in our defence except that we have absolute faith in GOD.
The word Tachanun derives from the root ch-n-n meaning “to show favour, to be gracious, to forgive". What differentiates Tachanun from other modes of prayer is the extent to which we emphasise our failings and our lack of good deeds. We express our dependence on GOD’S unconditional grace and mercy.
Tachanun is the chamber music rather than the symphony of the soul, and it has a unique intensity of tone.
The practice of following public prayer with private intercession goes back to Temple times. After the daily sacrifice, “The Levites sang the Psalm [of the day]. When they reached the end of each section [the Psalm was divided into three parts] they blew the shofar and the people prostrated themselves” (Tamid 7:3). Some communities continued the custom of prostration, with face to the ground, even after the destruction of the Temple. We preserve a trace of that gesture by resting our head on our arm and covering our faces as we say Psalm 6. The Reader’s repetition of the Amidah stands in place of the daily sacrifice, which is why we subsequently “fall on our faces”.
The custom of attaching special significance to Mondays and Thursdays is also ancient. Already in the Second Temple period, Mondays and Thursdays were days on which the pious would fast. According to tradition, Moses began his ascent of Mount Sinai to receive the second tablets on a Thursday and descended forty days later on a Monday (the tenth of Tishri, Yom Kippur). The second tablets were a sign of GOD’S forgiveness. Hence these days were seen as “days of favour". They were also market days when people would come from villages to towns. Congregations were larger; the Torah was read; law courts were in session. The heightened atmosphere was the setting for more extended penitential prayer.
One of the classic biblical instances of supplication was Daniel’s prayer on behalf of the exiles in Babylon (Daniel 9). Sections of that prayer, together with other verses from the prophetic books and Psalms, form the core of these paragraphs. There are three sections, each containing eighteen mentions of GOD’S name: thus we say them quietly, standing, as if they were forms of the Amidah.
A tradition, found in the Gaonic literature, dates these prayers to the period of persecution under the Romans, when three exiles crossed the Mediterranean, found temporary refuge and then suffered renewed oppression. Some passages may have been added in the wake of the Gothic and Frankish persecutions in the seventh century. Their mood bespeaks the tears of Jews throughout the centuries of exile who experienced persecution, expulsion, humiliation, and often bloodshed at the hands of those amongst whom they lived. Even in times of freedom, we continue to say these prayers, keeping faith with our ancestors and remembering their tears.
What is remarkable about the prayers is the absence of anger or despair. If we ever doubt the power of prayer to transform the human situation, here we find an answer. Despite being treated as a pariah people, Jews never allowed themselves to be defined by their enemies. They wept and gave voice to pain: “GOD, see how low our glory has sunk among the nations. They abhor us as if we were impure.”
Yet they remained the people of the covenant, children of the Divine promise, unbroken and unbreakable. Prayer sustains hope, and hope defeats tragedy. In these profound and moving words, Jews found the strength to survive.
With its intense penitential mood, Tachanun is not said on days of festive joy; nor is it said on the Ninth of Av or in the house of a mourner.
He is compassionate: Penitential prayers woven from a variety of biblical texts, from Genesis and Exodus, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Joel, Lamentations, Daniel and Psalms. Lacking a Temple and sacrifices, we offer GOD our tears in their place: “The sacrifices of GOD are a broken spirit; a broken and humbled heart, GOD, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:19).
And now: A prayer uttered by Daniel (9:15–19) in the first year of the reign of Xerxes, when he foresaw that the desolation of Jerusalem would last for seventy years. Fasting, dressed in sackcloth and ashes, he pleaded to GoD to forgive the people and bring an end to their suffering. These words play a key part in the Selichot (penitential prayers) on Fast Days.
We are the clay and You are our potter: A verse from Isaiah (64:7) which became the basis of one of the liturgical poems on Kol Nidrei night. The passage weaves together three appeals to GOD’S compassion: 1. we are Your children and You our parent: have mercy on us as a parent forgives a child; 2. we are Your creation and You are our Creator: save us as an artist saves his most precious works of art; 3. we are Your witnesses, bearers of Your name: therefore save us for the sake of Your name. Let not the nations say, seeing our suffering, “Where is GOD?”
You who hold out an open hand: GOD’S forgiveness stretches beyond strict retribution: “I do not desire the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live” (Ezekiel 33:11).
David said to Gad: Words spoken by David during a moment of crisis (11 Samuel 24). The king had sinned by taking a census of the people. GOD, through the prophet Gad, offered him a choice: famine, war, or punishment directly from heaven. David replied: it is better to be punished by GOD than suffer the cruelty of man.
LORD, do not rebuke me: A psalm of intense emotional power, spoken out of fear’s heart of darkness. The Lord has heard my pleas – from the deepest pain, strength is born, when prayer becomes the ladder on which we climb from the pit of despair to the free air of hope.
Look down from heaven: These heart-rending words were already known in Europe in the eleventh century, and recall the terrible persecutions Jews suffered during the early Middle Ages.
despite all this: After the Holocaust, the concentration camp at Theresienstadt was excavated. A hidden room was discovered, which had served as a secret place in which the prisoners would pray. On one of its walls were written the words: “Yet, despite all this, we have not forgotten Your name. Please do not forget us.”
Guardian of Israel: A three-line prayer set in motion by a phrase from Psalm 121: “See: the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps". An example of early liturgical poetry, it has the same structure as the poem preceding the morning Amidah, “Rock of Israel! Arise to the help of Israel …” and the prayer said on the Ten Days of Penitence, “Remember us for life, King who desires life …” In each case the stanza contains four lines, all ending with the same word (Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen). The prayer was transferred from the penitential prayers known as Selichot to the Daily Service.
We do not know: A line taken from the prayer of King Jehoshaphat when the nation was confronted by a coalition of hostile powers intent on war (II Chronicles 20:12). Our custom is to stand after these words. Abudraham explains that this is because – like Moses pleading on behalf of the people – we have prayed in every posture, sitting (before the Amidah), standing (during the Amidah), and “falling on our faces” (during Tachanun). We have exhausted the repertoire of prayer and do not know what else to do. We stand at this point to signal that our private supplications have come to an end.
READING OF THE TORAH
From earliest times, the public reading of the Torah has been a constitutive element of the spiritual life of Israel. At Mount Sinai, to confirm the covenant between the people and GOD, Moses “took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people” (Exodus 24:7). The penultimate commandment of the Torah specifies that every seven years (on Sukkot following the sabbatical year) there should be a national assembly at which “the people, men, women, children and the strangers in your communities” were to hear the Torah proclaimed “so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your GOD and observe faithfully all the words of this Torah” (Deuteronomy 31:12).
