On Saturday morning while cogitating on the weekly portion of Torah in the Ruach class, I obsessed on the concept of and the act of “prayer”. It was “bshert” (fate) that Rabbi Young brought in a hand-out with ten Hebrew words and their interpretations of the use of “prayer” in the Torah. Question: Does God rest?
I asked if anyone in the 21 member “class” prayed, how they prayed, when they prayed and to whom did they pray? One thing is clear to me and that is the ritual in attendance at services requires those present to repeat the prayers in the prayer-book. Most of us in the class are familiar with the notion of why does God punish people who live exemplary lives. An immediate instance in this class was questioning the punishment of Moses for his striking, not speaking to a rock to produce water needed by thirsty people in the desert. Moses could go up to Mt. Pisgah and overlook the land he was forbidden to enter but he was denied entry into the place he was told to take his people to. Moses could have asked for just one more minute, hour or year instead of fulfilling 120 years allotted to him.
Many examples of a contrary God who did not deal justice out uniformly were given. In discussing God’s seemingly ignoring breaking his commandments by individuals and peoples there were no clear answers by those who uniformly prayed to Him. I mentioned in an earlier essay that Rabbi Sherwin Wine chose not to use the deity’s name when he led services in the Reform Congregation that he led. Perhaps, when God did not act to right a wrong, the Deity was tired and napped.
My question stands: when you pray: to whom, when, why and where and what do you do that is prayer? Following the meeting, I spoke to Herman Goldblatt who is a Holocaust Survivor to check on the accuracy of the facts I was going to use when my second Bar Mitzvah rolled around. I will use the fact he related during the class when he said that he could not understand why the Tzadik (wise man) in his village was taken out and used as target practice by Nazi soldiers. How could God allow this? How is it that bad things happen to good people?
Rabbi Young told a story about God being opportuned by someone who wanted God to say yes to what he wanted. But the Rabbi explained that God could have said yes but he often says no. This was just as good an answer as anything said on this Saturday morning. Perhaps when God is so dispirited, He sleeps.
Herman’s question about why this wise man was used as target practice by idol worshippers in the 20th Century did not receive a satisfactory answer. There is irony in that he survived the concentration camp while I was studying for my first Bar Mitzvah and that he will come to my second Bar Mitzvah in 2008.