Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

I recently received an interesting email from Arnie Eisen, the Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary that was addressed to many people on the Conservative list-serve. His comments and concerns regarding prayer and the Conservative Jew reflect, in my opinion, a problem that is legion among many modern Jews—regardless of synagogue affiliation.

He notes how this debate surfaced many times between Abraham Joshua Heschel-arguably Conservative Judaism’s greatest theological thinker—and Mordechai Kaplan, who paradoxically prayed to a God who was too great to listen to his prayer. Both men would engage in thoughtful dialogue and then take a break to davin Minchah!

At this point in time, I will not address all the sundry issues Eisen brings up. Suffice it to say that it is my opinion that any kind of prayerful relationship with God is largely dependent upon the belief in a God who not only creates the world out of absolute nothingness, He also enters into relationship with the universe and produces a life-form that is capable of asking the ultimate questions regarding its ontology and purpose. When we affirm that God is the Creator, we are also affirming that God has entered into a personal relationship with something Other than Himself! [1]

For this reason, I believe that God is aware of our prayers for we exist as a figment of the Divine Mind. Of course, being human we are forced to utilize anthropomorphic imagery and language whenever conveying this wondrous Divine reality both to ourselves and to our fellow spiritual pilgrims.

Kaplan had serious reservations about the use of anthropomorphic language, as did Maimonides before him. However, even Maimonides admitted that God’s ethical attributes are the template for all human ethical interactions—a point even Kaplan must admit.

Therefore, I for one believe that human-esque language is vital for the prayerful enterprise, after all, the God of the biblical tradition is a compelling Presence who enters dialogue with mortal beings.

Stripping faith bare of all its anthropomorphic language has created some serious logistical problems in other areas of devotional life and observance especially with regard to prayer. Whether one wishes to admit it or not, the act of prayer is, in effect, a way of doing theology. Our theological beliefs all come out in the wash with prayer. Many modern Jews wrestle with the liturgy, for it speaks of a God who is “compassionate,” “merciful,” “angry,” and “forgiving,” but again, wrestling with the prayer book is not necessarily something that should be avoided. On the contrary: such prayerful reflection ought to incorporate serious and thoughtful reflection.

It is no linguistic accident that the one of the generic Hebrew terms for prayer is תְּפִלָּה (tefillâ) “prayer” in the reflexive state means to “judge oneself” and is related to פְּלִילִים (pelîlîm = judges) Some grammarians suggest it means to “estimate,” “make assessment” to hitpall¢l “to seek assessment, consideration, to pray.” Hence, to pray is to engage in self-reflectivity. When engaged in prayer, we need to constantly ask ourselves: What is this passage saying to me? According to Jewish tradition, prayer is an invitation for us to examine our beliefs, our attitudes, and character. Prayer is, in a manner of speaking, the language of the heart that wishes to approach God. Since we have no other means of expressing our thoughts, words, dreams, and hopes except in human terms, prayer teaches us to recognize the limitations of our own humanity. We cannot help but speak to God in human terms.

Liturgy contains a kaleidoscope of anthropomorphic depictions. If prayer is to be personally meaningful, we must see through its words and allow ourselves to hear and experience its spiritual message. Prayer forces us to examine our deepest primal beliefs in a Supreme Being. The act of praying says something immeasurably important about who we are and what our spiritual vocation and destiny may be. Its spiritual implications are too profound, too weighty, to challenging to ignore and it is this subject we will address next. Fr. W.W. Meissner summarizes the importance of prayer:

In this activity, the believer immerses himself in the religious experience in a more direct, immediate, and personal way than in any other aspect of his religious involvement. Thus all the unconscious and preconscious as well as conscious and reflective elements in the individual’s relationship to God and the characteristics of his God-representation come into play.[2]

From Meissner’s insightful comments it is not hard to see why so many modern Jews are spiritually challenged when it comes to prayer. Prayer is an activity where we come face-to-face with our deepest beliefs and convictions. We can either face our questions of faith, or we can run away from them. Unfortunately, many Jews have run way from prayer. If human speech is denigrated, what can a modern Jewish person prayerfully say to God? The modern Jew typically does not have an imaginative picture of how God and the world are interrelated. Few seem to know what God-talk means in terms of the individual’s personal spiritual formation.

In the next week or two, I will try to address the answers that I believe cut to the very heart of prayer. For now, we have merely scratched the proverbial surface.