Faith - Emunah
What is faith?
In Judaism it does not mean belief. Beliefs are called daos, whereas faith, emunah, means something else entirely.
Of course one cannot have faith without beliefs.
We have faith in our beliefs.
But what is the nature of faith itself?
In Hebrew the word emunah is closely related to the word for mother, aim. This alone gives us enough metaphor to approach an understanding of faith, and how it matters perhaps even more than our intellectual beliefs.
Faith is the attachment we have to our source, exactly parallel to the way a baby is carried by it’s nursing mother.
Let’s consider the experience of a newborn.
It has developed from nothingness into a part of something called Mother. Just when it’s finally got it’s whole body together, it get’s ejected from the cosy womb, the only life it’s known until now, out into the world, perhaps into a room filled with lights and people with masks.
It cries, understandably.
Now it is put to breast, and hears again the familiar heartbeat and smells the familiar smell, hears the soft voice and the body it knows as home holds it close with the most indescribable love.
The food that had just a short time ago come without any effort whatsoever was now available but only with applied concentration to the mouth area, and a strong will to live.
I hope the metaphor is clear enough. Our soul is the baby, ejected from Heaven into this world, and it needs and wants to reattach itself to its Source, its tender Mother/Father in Heaven, God Almighty.
Faith is attachment to our beliefs, most importantly meaning that our actions are consistent with our word, but also in that our beliefs are something that nourish our sense of meaning in the life we live day by day.
And at the risk of getting hokey-er than thou, I think we’re are close to what it means to serve God in prayer.
Shemonah Essray is said in a silent whisper, only loud enough for you to hear, because within the variety of its blessings you can privately concentrate on that which is important to you.
So all you need really to motivate yourself in parer is to ask yourself - how badly do I want this or that?
That will no doubt lead you to ask why you want it, and within no time you are exploring the will that drives you. It is not difficult to find the particular blessing that your areas of desire relate to - livelihood, health, justice, wisdom, and so on.
But it isn’t even necessary to add one’s self into the Shemonah Essray with their particular concerns, if we don’t feel the need. The Sages, and among them the last of our prophets, wrote the Shemonah Essray in the plural (“Bless us, heal us…) because it’s blessings are universal needs for the entire Jewish people, even as individuals. In fact, when we really get down to it - it is only when we stop needing to ask for ourselves, and concentrate our prayers on others, that we ourselves become truly blessed. This is not rocket science. If one is a cause of blessing to the world, will they not feel it as well?
Be that as it may, the Sages wrote the Shemonah Essray in the plural so as to bind our people together across the centuries.
Every Jew can find his or her life circumstances represented in the paragraphs of Shemonah Essray and even without adding a word of our own, think within the words as they are written, about themselves or others they are concerned about.
Whatever the concern of your mind is, it is yours alone, and there is no need to share it with another human being.
To have a private world is essential to Tefila, and I believe this is why the Shemonah Essray is whispered quietly to one’s self.
Let’s consider the source of this halacha in the Gemara, where we will learn that Tefila is silent from Chana, the mother of Samuel, one of the greatest prophets. Let’s take a look at her story.
Samuel One, Chapter One
There was a man from the pinnacle views of Mt. Efraim, and his name was Elkana; son of Yerucham, son of Elihu, son of Tochu, son of Tsuf, of the House of Efrat. He had two wives. The first one was named Chana, and the second, Penina.
Penina had children, and Chana had no children.
That man would leave his town at the appointed Holiday times, to pray and make festive offerings before the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Chafni and Pinchas, were the Priests before the Lord.
Came Elkana’s day and he made his offerings, and gave to Penina his wife and all of her sons and her daughters their portions.
And to Chana he gave a double portion, because it was Chana he loved, but God had closed her womb.
And her husband’s other wife would constantly anger her in order to rile her, because God had closed against her womb.
And as He (Elkana) did year after year, so that whenever she would go up into God’s House so would she be angered, and she would cry, and not eat. Elkana, her husband, would say to her: “Chana, why do you cry and why don’t you eat, and why is your heart broken? Am I not better to you then ten sons would be?”
So Chana got up after she ate in Shiloh, and after they drank, and Eli the Priest sat on the Chair at the doorway of God’s Sanctuary. Now she was embittered of soul, and she prayed unto God and cried and cried. And she vowed a vow and said: “God of Hosts if You look deeply into the affliction of Your handmaiden, and remember me, and not forget Your handmaiden, and You give to Your handmaiden the seed of Men, then I will give him to God all the days of this life, and a razor shall never touch his head.
And it was as she increased her praying before God that Eli began to watch her mouth. Now Chana was speaking on her heart, only her lips moved but her voice was not heard, so Eli thought she was drunk.
Eli said to her: “How drunk do you want to be? Remove your wine from you.” And Chana answered him and she said: “No, my master. I am a woman of pained spirit – I didn’t drink wine or beer. And I poured out my soul before God. Don’t make your maidservant out to be a wanton daughter. It was because of my long story and my anger that I’ve been speaking so long (to God).”
Eli answered her and said: “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your request that you have asked of Him.”
And she said: “If that would bring you servant grace in your eyes.” And the woman went her way, and she ate, and didn’t make faces anymore.
They got up early and bowed before God, and returned to their home in the Heights, and Elkana was intimate with Chana his wife, and God remembered her. And it was, after the appropriate time, that Chana was pregnant and bore a son; and she called his name Shmu-el, because she had asked for him from God.
And the man Elkana went up with his entire household to offer to God the offering of the day and his vow offering. But Chana did not go, for she said to her husband: “Until the child is weaned, and then I will bring him, and present him before God, and he will dwell there forever.” And Elkana her husband said to her: “Do what is good in your eyes, sit here until you have weaned him, but God will fulfil His word.” And the woman stayed home and nursed the child until she had weaned him.
And she brought him up with her when she had weaned him, with three bulls and one measure of fine flour, and a bag of wine, and brought him to the House of God in Shiloh. And the child was still just a child. They slaughtered a bull, and they brought the child to Eli. And she said: “With my master’s permission, by your life my master, I am the woman who stood before you here, in order to pray to God. For this child I prayed, and God gave me my request that I had asked of Him. And also I have lent him to God, as long as he exists, he is lent to God." And they bowed there to God.
When Chana says: “I have lent him to God” she is giving her child back to God, to serve in the Tabernacle under the guidance of the High Priest Eli, showing her desire for children was not a selfish one and at the same time initiating the education of one of Israel’s greatest prophets.
Let’s focus now on what Chana’s story teaches us about the laws of Tefila. The Talmud in tractate Brachos gives a running commentary to our verses.
“Rav Hamnunah says: How many great laws do we learn from these verses about Chana!
“Now, Chana was speaking on her heart” from here we learn that one praying must direct his heart;
“only her lips moved” from here that one praying must vocalise the words;
“but her voice was not heard” from here that it is forbidden to raise one’s voice in Tefila.
“so Eli thought she was drunk” from here that it is forbidden to pray while drunk.
“Eli said to her: ‘how drunk do you want to be? Etc.’ Rabbi Elazar says, from here we learn that one who sees something improper in his friend, should rebuke him.
“And Chana answered him and she said: ‘No, my master.’” Ulah says, and some say it was R. Yosi the son of R. Chanina who said: “She said to him: ‘You don’t have mastery over this matter, and the Holy Spirit does not dwell on you - for you suspected me in this thing.”
Some say this is what she said: “You are not a Master. There’s no Divine Presence or Holy Spirit about you – for you pre-judged me guilty, and did not look to the possibility of merit. Don’t you know that I’m a woman of pained spirit, and I didn’t drink wine or beer?” R. Eliezer says, from here we learn that if one is suspected falsely, that he must make the truth known.
“Don’t make your maidservant out to be a daughter of wickedness.” Rabbi Elazar says, from here we learn that praying when drunk is like offering to idols, for it’s written here: “as a daughter of wickedness” and it’s written there: “And men went out, sons of wickedness from among you…” Just as there it means idol worship, so too here it means idol worship.
“Eli answered her and said: ‘Go in peace…’” Rabbi Elazar says, from here we learn that one who falsely suspects his friend must then appease him, and not only that, but also bless him, as it says: “and may the God of Israel grant your request that you have asked of Him.”
Chana’s great faithfulness to God was that even though she was tormented by her husband’s other wife year in and year out, she did not despair amidst her suffering but instead channelled her desire into a long and heartfelt conversation with God.
We find the Jewish people were challenged by God often in the desert, for example by having to survive three days in the desert without water, which I think for just about anyone would be quite the challenge. But whenever they complain in those situations they get in trouble.
Why?
Because the situation was being done to them on purpose in order for them to develop their awareness that everything comes from God.
If something is missing, then besides of course doing whatever we can (as God helps those who help themselves) we must turn immediately to God in prayer and supplication, because what is the purpose of having anything if we forget Who gives it to us and why?
This is Chana’s great emunah, her attachment to God.
We can feel Chana’s pain as she asks for a son. That son, when he becomes a full grown man, will in time annoint both Saul and then David as Kings over Israel, besides providing the leadership of a king himself until the people wanted more than God's word alone.
The Sages say that Samuel in his time was as great as Moshe and Aharon put together, which is no small praise. This great prophet Samuel was brought into the world because of the attachment his mother Chana had with her Creator.
But why was Chana barren to begin with?
Indeed, why were Sarah, Rivka and Rochel?
The Sages teach that is is because: The Holy One Blessed be He desires the prayers of tzadikim.
But doesn’t that seem almost cruel to the righteous, that they have to suffer so just because God “desires” their prayer? And why does He desire their prayers so much anyway?
When things come easily they are taken for granted. Your everyday baby can be brought into the world through the normal channels of biology, it doesn't take much.
The baby that isn’t brought miraculously into this world, brought down by a supreme act of willpower but rather as is the normal course of nature, does not need much in the way of parental desire to be conceived, and can even be an accident!
Let's appreciate why Leah did not need to be barren. It was very clear to her whom her husband loved more. She still fully cherished every child from him passionately and without question, and not as a possession but rather a Divine gift, which is evidenced by the names she gives them. And of course it is she who names them, because it was she who brought them about, consider Yissachar.
Who knows, but perhaps the emotional test of Leah is actually greater than that of the barren Matriarchs. What evidence is there for that? Only this - there are a number of barren Matriarchs, but only one Fertile one.
God desires the tefila of the tzadikim because the arousal of their will to a high degree of concentration is the vehicle for blessing.
For example the person of Shmuel, Yitzchok and Yosef, and of course poor Benyamin, just to name a few. If young Shmuel were to ask his mother where babies come from, I think she might have answered “from God!” without hesitation. It is the attachment of our creative will to our Source, our Creator, which is the only power any of us have to do anything, ever.
An average person thinks babies come from the birds and bees. Matriarchs of the Jewish people know their blessings are from God, and they therefore cherish their blessings to the upmost.
And so it is no coincidence that all the “barren” matriarchs (and Leah!) of the Bible end up producing the greatest leaders of the Jewish people. Because the will-power and desire that brought those souls into the world was fully concentrated on the Divine in us, the love in us.
TO SUM UP
We learn from Chana that tefila must be silent, inner, private, just between us and God.
Just as Chana prayed without concern for who saw her, and yet she was silent (until she had to defend herself to Eli), we too pray our Shemonah Essray in a whisper only we ourselves can hear, because if our words can be heard by another then we not as free to say what is really in our hearts and minds.
It is inevitable that we alter our thoughts simply by being in shule with other people, but the silent whisper of Shemonah Essray at least affords a part of the service wherein we can focus internally.
I think in part the reason Torah teaches us the concept of praying silently through Chana is to express that even when things feel awful, and there’s no one we want to be among, when we cannot even eat because of an aching hole in our heart, that is when we need to turn inwards most of all, and seek God’s help to get us out from the funk.
Chana gives us a fantastic paradigm, but on a daily basis it would be hard to match her intensity.
The Rambam gives a succinct description of how to prepare for prayer.
Laws of Tefila 4:15-16.
What is kavana of the heart? Any tefila said without kavana is no tefila. And if one prayed without kavana they must pray again, this time with kavana.
If one’s mind is confused and his heart is troubled, it is forbidden for him to pray until he settles down.
Therefore one who returns from a long journey and is tired or distressed, it is forbidden for him to pray until he settles down.
The Sages said: “Let him wait three days until he rests, and his mind cools off, and then he can do tefila.
How does one achieve kavana? He must empty his heart of all thoughts, and see in his mind as if he is standing before the Divine Presence.
Therefore one must sit a moment before tefila in order to direct his heart, and afterwards pray softly and supplicating, and not make his tefila like someone carrying a burden who tosses it off and goes his own way.
Therefore one must [also] sit a moment after tefila, and only then leave.
The early Chasidim would wait an hour [in meditation] before tefila, and one hour after tefila, and they would elongate their tefila [so that it took] one hour.”
Nowadays the halacha tells us not to skip davening because we’re “distressed” or tired from a typical journey.
This is because we are so far from the level of kavana the halacha assumes, and our sense of what a "journey" is varies so much from what the halacha referred to, that to behave as they did in the olden days would be to say: “Hey look at me, I can’t daven after that terrible airplane food, my mind is too troubled. Normally I pour my tender heart out before Him.”
Still, we don’t have to assume that we have no relationship with kavana as the halacha describes. All it really asks for is a quieting of the body-ego so one can hear their soul.
The few minutes of solitude during Shemonah Essray is the brief meditation we can (if we’re not lazy) use daily to remind ourselves of the things which are most central to life.
And exactly because we doven daily and review the same blessings over and over, our understanding of them deepens and matures slowly but surely (if we but think about the words at all).
This must be so - just as a shape will emerge from a block of wood if we but sand it daily for a few minutes. It may take time to shape the block of wood that is our head into something resembling a human, but it is well worth the effort.
So part of the “service of the heart” is getting down to that quiet and honest internal place – a place of wonder, joy, at times a place to feel great shame and at times great happiness. A place where we “offer” to God our real feelings. Prayer is designed to create a mental space wherein we contact the Divine. As it says:
I build a sanctuary in my heart….
The Shemonah Essray is constructed to make up the following skeleton for tefilah:
1. Relating to who God is.
2. Asking our needs from God.
3. Thanking God.
That is to say, the first object of tefilah is to become aware one is standing before God – but the context within which we do so is what makes Jewish prayer unique.
We do not simply stand before God as individuals with no history, but rather as the present link in a chain that goes back thousands of years.
This is the purpose of the first blessing.
The story of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs that dominate the first book of the Bible are there for us to learn about why God chose Avraham and his children to receive the Torah – and that is the context we place ourselves in when we utter the phrases: “Our God and the God of our Fathers; God of Avraham; God of Isaac; and God of Jacob.”
When we stand in Shemonah Essray and utter the words “God of Avraham” etc., we are making this profound statement: You are “our God,” referring specifically to the covenant of Torah, which began with Avraham and the promise of the Land, and continuing today in us and our relationship to that very Land and the Law that is meant to govern it.
The following 17 blessings oh Shemonah Essray are said within the context of being the children of the Avos, and their historic mission.
The first three blessings of Shemonah Essray one says to establish these facts:
Firstly we are the people of the Torah, descendants of the Avos;
Secondly that God is the only Power over live and death and everything in-between;
Thirdly that to be holy is to be attached to God and thereby transcend the limitations of this world.
After this lofty beginning we then ask for blessings in every arena of life.
Now let’s consider an example. Let’s say we want to pray for someone going through a difficult divorce. Imagine them in your mind, think about them for a minute – picture them in their distress, and care about them. Remember their Hebrew name. Or don't. Call them whatever or want. Or don't. Even thinking about them is enough, if you believe God knows your thoughts.
Now when you say the appropriate blessing, say it with feeling. Be alive in it.
Perhaps in the case of the woman whose husband won't grant a divorce you might think of her as a "captive" and ask HaShem to redeem her in the blessing go'ale Yisroel, which reads like this:
See our affliction, and fight our fight and redeem us quickly for Your Name's sake, because You are a strong Redeemer. Blessed are you, O God, Redeemer of Israel.
Now the blessing is really referring the pains of the Jewish people in exile. But if this poor woman is not suffering from being a Jew in exile, I don't know who is. The injustice of her situation is sourced solely in the weakness of Rabbinic authority, not the restrictions of it, which can only really be remedied when the Almighty redeems us all from exile. Still, she is in her own personal Egypt. As well, I'm sure she's suffered heartbreak, so "heal us" is appropriate, and I'm sure there might be financial difficulties, so the blessing for money is appropriate too... oh the list just goes on and on. So many things to ask for... won't the Almighty get tired of us?
Do you have children?
Do you love them?
Do you get tired of them?
Only when they do what...?
Fight, whine, or constantly choose to do bad things.
And even then aren't you always willing for them to come back...?
So no, He does not tire nor slumber. 24/7/365 The channel is open.
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The Purpose of the Shemonah Essay:
The Men of the Great Assembly, (among them the last of the prophets) created for the masses a vehicle that could express both the simplest needs of every Jew, but also the deepest and most esoteric relationship of the soul to God. It is in itself almost a prophetic work in that it combines a perfect simplicity with depth that is unfathomable.
But it’s the simplicity that’s key.
When we repeat the same words daily and begin to care about them, they become a road we travel through time. The words a broad script wherein we find the thoughts that expresses our issues. The words themselves, even without deep concentration on their particular meaning, become a meditation of sorts for a few minutes. They help give our psychic boat a rudder to steer through our day.
The word “meditation” can be confusing, I know - it confused me.
Whenever you concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes, and perhaps in this generation for more than a minute, you are meditating.
As we’ve already said, I believe kavana is in essence directed thought-energy. Kavana is the directing of mind, the laser-like focusing of intention and desire.
The thirteen middle blessing of requests are focused on particular realities within our lives, our world – and we can direct our tefilah, our minds and our breath, to shape our world into a place where those blessings find fulfilment.
Jewish tefilah is patterned on the deepest mystical traditions of Torah; and yet it is also practiced by all of the world’s Torah observant Jews, and has been said daily by Jews throughout history.
There are additions into the tefilah to mark seasonal changes, and to commemorate every holy or special day (happy or sad) in the Jewish calendar.
Tefilah has been the pulse of Jewish life itself, as it has weaved its way from year to year around the twists and turns of our unique history.
There is perhaps nothing else so available to the masses that connects us today as a people, and as a people to our history.
Are we saying that every time people get together in a prayer “service” that we’re doing this terrifically spiritual thing?
I believe that the term “service” as in “The Kabbalat Shabbat Service will begin at 6 pm in the Tiki Room” is rooted in the original Hebrew term for prayer, Avodah.
“Service” in prayer refers to what we are offering God, originally in the Temple in Jerusalem, but now when we pray the daily prayers in shule, wherever we live around the world.
When the Temple was destroyed we became sub-units of Jews spread all over the globe, but when it comes to prayer we all still faced Jerusalem and said the same words (basically).
Even though it has been almost two thousand years since then, only minor changes of wording exist between all the various customs of the Torah Jewry. The immediate familiarity that this shared prayer creates can be felt even in a shule very different from our own. This is because for all those centuries we’ve really been saying the Shemonah Essray together, just at different times around the world-clock.
Still, I often hear the complaint against the mitzva of daily obligatory prayer, that it makes the whole experience a burden and soon becomes something done by rote, instead of a meaningful spiritual experience.
It is a good point, but a selfish one, and that is the problem here.
Let me explain.
Imagine for a moment if you treated your spouse or friend that way.
“I’ll recognise your existence when I need something from you, understood?”
“Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t I ignore you for a while and then ask for a big favour!”
So what am I suggesting, that God wants us to put the time in with Him?
Well, actually strike that, and reverse it.
In order for this relationship to be real in our hearts and minds, we have to live it.
If we think talking to God is imaginary – then that’s what it is.
To sum up: Keeping the faith means keeping one’s mind and heart attached to their higher consciousness, and is the essence of prayer, just as nursing is essential to the infant.
In Judaism it does not mean belief. Beliefs are called daos, whereas faith, emunah, means something else entirely.
Of course one cannot have faith without beliefs.
We have faith in our beliefs.
But what is the nature of faith itself?
In Hebrew the word emunah is closely related to the word for mother, aim. This alone gives us enough metaphor to approach an understanding of faith, and how it matters perhaps even more than our intellectual beliefs.
Faith is the attachment we have to our source, exactly parallel to the way a baby is carried by it’s nursing mother.
Let’s consider the experience of a newborn.
It has developed from nothingness into a part of something called Mother. Just when it’s finally got it’s whole body together, it get’s ejected from the cosy womb, the only life it’s known until now, out into the world, perhaps into a room filled with lights and people with masks.
It cries, understandably.
Now it is put to breast, and hears again the familiar heartbeat and smells the familiar smell, hears the soft voice and the body it knows as home holds it close with the most indescribable love.
The food that had just a short time ago come without any effort whatsoever was now available but only with applied concentration to the mouth area, and a strong will to live.
I hope the metaphor is clear enough. Our soul is the baby, ejected from Heaven into this world, and it needs and wants to reattach itself to its Source, its tender Mother/Father in Heaven, God Almighty.
Faith is attachment to our beliefs, most importantly meaning that our actions are consistent with our word, but also in that our beliefs are something that nourish our sense of meaning in the life we live day by day.
And at the risk of getting hokey-er than thou, I think we’re are close to what it means to serve God in prayer.
Shemonah Essray is said in a silent whisper, only loud enough for you to hear, because within the variety of its blessings you can privately concentrate on that which is important to you.
So all you need really to motivate yourself in parer is to ask yourself - how badly do I want this or that?
That will no doubt lead you to ask why you want it, and within no time you are exploring the will that drives you. It is not difficult to find the particular blessing that your areas of desire relate to - livelihood, health, justice, wisdom, and so on.
But it isn’t even necessary to add one’s self into the Shemonah Essray with their particular concerns, if we don’t feel the need. The Sages, and among them the last of our prophets, wrote the Shemonah Essray in the plural (“Bless us, heal us…) because it’s blessings are universal needs for the entire Jewish people, even as individuals. In fact, when we really get down to it - it is only when we stop needing to ask for ourselves, and concentrate our prayers on others, that we ourselves become truly blessed. This is not rocket science. If one is a cause of blessing to the world, will they not feel it as well?
Be that as it may, the Sages wrote the Shemonah Essray in the plural so as to bind our people together across the centuries.
Every Jew can find his or her life circumstances represented in the paragraphs of Shemonah Essray and even without adding a word of our own, think within the words as they are written, about themselves or others they are concerned about.
Whatever the concern of your mind is, it is yours alone, and there is no need to share it with another human being.
To have a private world is essential to Tefila, and I believe this is why the Shemonah Essray is whispered quietly to one’s self.
Let’s consider the source of this halacha in the Gemara, where we will learn that Tefila is silent from Chana, the mother of Samuel, one of the greatest prophets. Let’s take a look at her story.
Samuel One, Chapter One
There was a man from the pinnacle views of Mt. Efraim, and his name was Elkana; son of Yerucham, son of Elihu, son of Tochu, son of Tsuf, of the House of Efrat. He had two wives. The first one was named Chana, and the second, Penina.
Penina had children, and Chana had no children.
That man would leave his town at the appointed Holiday times, to pray and make festive offerings before the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Chafni and Pinchas, were the Priests before the Lord.
Came Elkana’s day and he made his offerings, and gave to Penina his wife and all of her sons and her daughters their portions.
And to Chana he gave a double portion, because it was Chana he loved, but God had closed her womb.
And her husband’s other wife would constantly anger her in order to rile her, because God had closed against her womb.
And as He (Elkana) did year after year, so that whenever she would go up into God’s House so would she be angered, and she would cry, and not eat. Elkana, her husband, would say to her: “Chana, why do you cry and why don’t you eat, and why is your heart broken? Am I not better to you then ten sons would be?”
So Chana got up after she ate in Shiloh, and after they drank, and Eli the Priest sat on the Chair at the doorway of God’s Sanctuary. Now she was embittered of soul, and she prayed unto God and cried and cried. And she vowed a vow and said: “God of Hosts if You look deeply into the affliction of Your handmaiden, and remember me, and not forget Your handmaiden, and You give to Your handmaiden the seed of Men, then I will give him to God all the days of this life, and a razor shall never touch his head.
And it was as she increased her praying before God that Eli began to watch her mouth. Now Chana was speaking on her heart, only her lips moved but her voice was not heard, so Eli thought she was drunk.
Eli said to her: “How drunk do you want to be? Remove your wine from you.” And Chana answered him and she said: “No, my master. I am a woman of pained spirit – I didn’t drink wine or beer. And I poured out my soul before God. Don’t make your maidservant out to be a wanton daughter. It was because of my long story and my anger that I’ve been speaking so long (to God).”
Eli answered her and said: “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your request that you have asked of Him.”
And she said: “If that would bring you servant grace in your eyes.” And the woman went her way, and she ate, and didn’t make faces anymore.
They got up early and bowed before God, and returned to their home in the Heights, and Elkana was intimate with Chana his wife, and God remembered her. And it was, after the appropriate time, that Chana was pregnant and bore a son; and she called his name Shmu-el, because she had asked for him from God.
And the man Elkana went up with his entire household to offer to God the offering of the day and his vow offering. But Chana did not go, for she said to her husband: “Until the child is weaned, and then I will bring him, and present him before God, and he will dwell there forever.” And Elkana her husband said to her: “Do what is good in your eyes, sit here until you have weaned him, but God will fulfil His word.” And the woman stayed home and nursed the child until she had weaned him.
And she brought him up with her when she had weaned him, with three bulls and one measure of fine flour, and a bag of wine, and brought him to the House of God in Shiloh. And the child was still just a child. They slaughtered a bull, and they brought the child to Eli. And she said: “With my master’s permission, by your life my master, I am the woman who stood before you here, in order to pray to God. For this child I prayed, and God gave me my request that I had asked of Him. And also I have lent him to God, as long as he exists, he is lent to God." And they bowed there to God.
When Chana says: “I have lent him to God” she is giving her child back to God, to serve in the Tabernacle under the guidance of the High Priest Eli, showing her desire for children was not a selfish one and at the same time initiating the education of one of Israel’s greatest prophets.
Let’s focus now on what Chana’s story teaches us about the laws of Tefila. The Talmud in tractate Brachos gives a running commentary to our verses.
“Rav Hamnunah says: How many great laws do we learn from these verses about Chana!
“Now, Chana was speaking on her heart” from here we learn that one praying must direct his heart;
“only her lips moved” from here that one praying must vocalise the words;
“but her voice was not heard” from here that it is forbidden to raise one’s voice in Tefila.
“so Eli thought she was drunk” from here that it is forbidden to pray while drunk.
“Eli said to her: ‘how drunk do you want to be? Etc.’ Rabbi Elazar says, from here we learn that one who sees something improper in his friend, should rebuke him.
“And Chana answered him and she said: ‘No, my master.’” Ulah says, and some say it was R. Yosi the son of R. Chanina who said: “She said to him: ‘You don’t have mastery over this matter, and the Holy Spirit does not dwell on you - for you suspected me in this thing.”
Some say this is what she said: “You are not a Master. There’s no Divine Presence or Holy Spirit about you – for you pre-judged me guilty, and did not look to the possibility of merit. Don’t you know that I’m a woman of pained spirit, and I didn’t drink wine or beer?” R. Eliezer says, from here we learn that if one is suspected falsely, that he must make the truth known.
“Don’t make your maidservant out to be a daughter of wickedness.” Rabbi Elazar says, from here we learn that praying when drunk is like offering to idols, for it’s written here: “as a daughter of wickedness” and it’s written there: “And men went out, sons of wickedness from among you…” Just as there it means idol worship, so too here it means idol worship.
“Eli answered her and said: ‘Go in peace…’” Rabbi Elazar says, from here we learn that one who falsely suspects his friend must then appease him, and not only that, but also bless him, as it says: “and may the God of Israel grant your request that you have asked of Him.”
Chana’s great faithfulness to God was that even though she was tormented by her husband’s other wife year in and year out, she did not despair amidst her suffering but instead channelled her desire into a long and heartfelt conversation with God.
We find the Jewish people were challenged by God often in the desert, for example by having to survive three days in the desert without water, which I think for just about anyone would be quite the challenge. But whenever they complain in those situations they get in trouble.
Why?
Because the situation was being done to them on purpose in order for them to develop their awareness that everything comes from God.
If something is missing, then besides of course doing whatever we can (as God helps those who help themselves) we must turn immediately to God in prayer and supplication, because what is the purpose of having anything if we forget Who gives it to us and why?
This is Chana’s great emunah, her attachment to God.
We can feel Chana’s pain as she asks for a son. That son, when he becomes a full grown man, will in time annoint both Saul and then David as Kings over Israel, besides providing the leadership of a king himself until the people wanted more than God's word alone.
The Sages say that Samuel in his time was as great as Moshe and Aharon put together, which is no small praise. This great prophet Samuel was brought into the world because of the attachment his mother Chana had with her Creator.
But why was Chana barren to begin with?
Indeed, why were Sarah, Rivka and Rochel?
The Sages teach that is is because: The Holy One Blessed be He desires the prayers of tzadikim.
But doesn’t that seem almost cruel to the righteous, that they have to suffer so just because God “desires” their prayer? And why does He desire their prayers so much anyway?
When things come easily they are taken for granted. Your everyday baby can be brought into the world through the normal channels of biology, it doesn't take much.
The baby that isn’t brought miraculously into this world, brought down by a supreme act of willpower but rather as is the normal course of nature, does not need much in the way of parental desire to be conceived, and can even be an accident!
Let's appreciate why Leah did not need to be barren. It was very clear to her whom her husband loved more. She still fully cherished every child from him passionately and without question, and not as a possession but rather a Divine gift, which is evidenced by the names she gives them. And of course it is she who names them, because it was she who brought them about, consider Yissachar.
Who knows, but perhaps the emotional test of Leah is actually greater than that of the barren Matriarchs. What evidence is there for that? Only this - there are a number of barren Matriarchs, but only one Fertile one.
God desires the tefila of the tzadikim because the arousal of their will to a high degree of concentration is the vehicle for blessing.
For example the person of Shmuel, Yitzchok and Yosef, and of course poor Benyamin, just to name a few. If young Shmuel were to ask his mother where babies come from, I think she might have answered “from God!” without hesitation. It is the attachment of our creative will to our Source, our Creator, which is the only power any of us have to do anything, ever.
An average person thinks babies come from the birds and bees. Matriarchs of the Jewish people know their blessings are from God, and they therefore cherish their blessings to the upmost.
And so it is no coincidence that all the “barren” matriarchs (and Leah!) of the Bible end up producing the greatest leaders of the Jewish people. Because the will-power and desire that brought those souls into the world was fully concentrated on the Divine in us, the love in us.
TO SUM UP
We learn from Chana that tefila must be silent, inner, private, just between us and God.
Just as Chana prayed without concern for who saw her, and yet she was silent (until she had to defend herself to Eli), we too pray our Shemonah Essray in a whisper only we ourselves can hear, because if our words can be heard by another then we not as free to say what is really in our hearts and minds.
It is inevitable that we alter our thoughts simply by being in shule with other people, but the silent whisper of Shemonah Essray at least affords a part of the service wherein we can focus internally.
I think in part the reason Torah teaches us the concept of praying silently through Chana is to express that even when things feel awful, and there’s no one we want to be among, when we cannot even eat because of an aching hole in our heart, that is when we need to turn inwards most of all, and seek God’s help to get us out from the funk.
Chana gives us a fantastic paradigm, but on a daily basis it would be hard to match her intensity.
The Rambam gives a succinct description of how to prepare for prayer.
Laws of Tefila 4:15-16.
What is kavana of the heart? Any tefila said without kavana is no tefila. And if one prayed without kavana they must pray again, this time with kavana.
If one’s mind is confused and his heart is troubled, it is forbidden for him to pray until he settles down.
Therefore one who returns from a long journey and is tired or distressed, it is forbidden for him to pray until he settles down.
The Sages said: “Let him wait three days until he rests, and his mind cools off, and then he can do tefila.
How does one achieve kavana? He must empty his heart of all thoughts, and see in his mind as if he is standing before the Divine Presence.
Therefore one must sit a moment before tefila in order to direct his heart, and afterwards pray softly and supplicating, and not make his tefila like someone carrying a burden who tosses it off and goes his own way.
Therefore one must [also] sit a moment after tefila, and only then leave.
The early Chasidim would wait an hour [in meditation] before tefila, and one hour after tefila, and they would elongate their tefila [so that it took] one hour.”
Nowadays the halacha tells us not to skip davening because we’re “distressed” or tired from a typical journey.
This is because we are so far from the level of kavana the halacha assumes, and our sense of what a "journey" is varies so much from what the halacha referred to, that to behave as they did in the olden days would be to say: “Hey look at me, I can’t daven after that terrible airplane food, my mind is too troubled. Normally I pour my tender heart out before Him.”
Still, we don’t have to assume that we have no relationship with kavana as the halacha describes. All it really asks for is a quieting of the body-ego so one can hear their soul.
The few minutes of solitude during Shemonah Essray is the brief meditation we can (if we’re not lazy) use daily to remind ourselves of the things which are most central to life.
And exactly because we doven daily and review the same blessings over and over, our understanding of them deepens and matures slowly but surely (if we but think about the words at all).
This must be so - just as a shape will emerge from a block of wood if we but sand it daily for a few minutes. It may take time to shape the block of wood that is our head into something resembling a human, but it is well worth the effort.
So part of the “service of the heart” is getting down to that quiet and honest internal place – a place of wonder, joy, at times a place to feel great shame and at times great happiness. A place where we “offer” to God our real feelings. Prayer is designed to create a mental space wherein we contact the Divine. As it says:
I build a sanctuary in my heart….
The Shemonah Essray is constructed to make up the following skeleton for tefilah:
1. Relating to who God is.
2. Asking our needs from God.
3. Thanking God.
That is to say, the first object of tefilah is to become aware one is standing before God – but the context within which we do so is what makes Jewish prayer unique.
We do not simply stand before God as individuals with no history, but rather as the present link in a chain that goes back thousands of years.
This is the purpose of the first blessing.
The story of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs that dominate the first book of the Bible are there for us to learn about why God chose Avraham and his children to receive the Torah – and that is the context we place ourselves in when we utter the phrases: “Our God and the God of our Fathers; God of Avraham; God of Isaac; and God of Jacob.”
When we stand in Shemonah Essray and utter the words “God of Avraham” etc., we are making this profound statement: You are “our God,” referring specifically to the covenant of Torah, which began with Avraham and the promise of the Land, and continuing today in us and our relationship to that very Land and the Law that is meant to govern it.
The following 17 blessings oh Shemonah Essray are said within the context of being the children of the Avos, and their historic mission.
The first three blessings of Shemonah Essray one says to establish these facts:
Firstly we are the people of the Torah, descendants of the Avos;
Secondly that God is the only Power over live and death and everything in-between;
Thirdly that to be holy is to be attached to God and thereby transcend the limitations of this world.
After this lofty beginning we then ask for blessings in every arena of life.
Now let’s consider an example. Let’s say we want to pray for someone going through a difficult divorce. Imagine them in your mind, think about them for a minute – picture them in their distress, and care about them. Remember their Hebrew name. Or don't. Call them whatever or want. Or don't. Even thinking about them is enough, if you believe God knows your thoughts.
Now when you say the appropriate blessing, say it with feeling. Be alive in it.
Perhaps in the case of the woman whose husband won't grant a divorce you might think of her as a "captive" and ask HaShem to redeem her in the blessing go'ale Yisroel, which reads like this:
See our affliction, and fight our fight and redeem us quickly for Your Name's sake, because You are a strong Redeemer. Blessed are you, O God, Redeemer of Israel.
Now the blessing is really referring the pains of the Jewish people in exile. But if this poor woman is not suffering from being a Jew in exile, I don't know who is. The injustice of her situation is sourced solely in the weakness of Rabbinic authority, not the restrictions of it, which can only really be remedied when the Almighty redeems us all from exile. Still, she is in her own personal Egypt. As well, I'm sure she's suffered heartbreak, so "heal us" is appropriate, and I'm sure there might be financial difficulties, so the blessing for money is appropriate too... oh the list just goes on and on. So many things to ask for... won't the Almighty get tired of us?
Do you have children?
Do you love them?
Do you get tired of them?
Only when they do what...?
Fight, whine, or constantly choose to do bad things.
And even then aren't you always willing for them to come back...?
So no, He does not tire nor slumber. 24/7/365 The channel is open.
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The Purpose of the Shemonah Essay:
The Men of the Great Assembly, (among them the last of the prophets) created for the masses a vehicle that could express both the simplest needs of every Jew, but also the deepest and most esoteric relationship of the soul to God. It is in itself almost a prophetic work in that it combines a perfect simplicity with depth that is unfathomable.
But it’s the simplicity that’s key.
When we repeat the same words daily and begin to care about them, they become a road we travel through time. The words a broad script wherein we find the thoughts that expresses our issues. The words themselves, even without deep concentration on their particular meaning, become a meditation of sorts for a few minutes. They help give our psychic boat a rudder to steer through our day.
The word “meditation” can be confusing, I know - it confused me.
Whenever you concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes, and perhaps in this generation for more than a minute, you are meditating.
As we’ve already said, I believe kavana is in essence directed thought-energy. Kavana is the directing of mind, the laser-like focusing of intention and desire.
The thirteen middle blessing of requests are focused on particular realities within our lives, our world – and we can direct our tefilah, our minds and our breath, to shape our world into a place where those blessings find fulfilment.
Jewish tefilah is patterned on the deepest mystical traditions of Torah; and yet it is also practiced by all of the world’s Torah observant Jews, and has been said daily by Jews throughout history.
There are additions into the tefilah to mark seasonal changes, and to commemorate every holy or special day (happy or sad) in the Jewish calendar.
Tefilah has been the pulse of Jewish life itself, as it has weaved its way from year to year around the twists and turns of our unique history.
There is perhaps nothing else so available to the masses that connects us today as a people, and as a people to our history.
Are we saying that every time people get together in a prayer “service” that we’re doing this terrifically spiritual thing?
I believe that the term “service” as in “The Kabbalat Shabbat Service will begin at 6 pm in the Tiki Room” is rooted in the original Hebrew term for prayer, Avodah.
“Service” in prayer refers to what we are offering God, originally in the Temple in Jerusalem, but now when we pray the daily prayers in shule, wherever we live around the world.
When the Temple was destroyed we became sub-units of Jews spread all over the globe, but when it comes to prayer we all still faced Jerusalem and said the same words (basically).
Even though it has been almost two thousand years since then, only minor changes of wording exist between all the various customs of the Torah Jewry. The immediate familiarity that this shared prayer creates can be felt even in a shule very different from our own. This is because for all those centuries we’ve really been saying the Shemonah Essray together, just at different times around the world-clock.
Still, I often hear the complaint against the mitzva of daily obligatory prayer, that it makes the whole experience a burden and soon becomes something done by rote, instead of a meaningful spiritual experience.
It is a good point, but a selfish one, and that is the problem here.
Let me explain.
Imagine for a moment if you treated your spouse or friend that way.
“I’ll recognise your existence when I need something from you, understood?”
“Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t I ignore you for a while and then ask for a big favour!”
So what am I suggesting, that God wants us to put the time in with Him?
Well, actually strike that, and reverse it.
In order for this relationship to be real in our hearts and minds, we have to live it.
If we think talking to God is imaginary – then that’s what it is.
To sum up: Keeping the faith means keeping one’s mind and heart attached to their higher consciousness, and is the essence of prayer, just as nursing is essential to the infant.