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SERMON BY RABBI michael berk
Acceptable Prayer
August 17, 2007
A few weeks ago, synagogues all over the world, we Jews read one of the most intriguing verses in all of Torah: God says: "May Israel always be of such mind to revere me and follow my mitzvoth…"
This may sound astonishing to you. That is, it may seem remarkable to you that God doesn't know whether or not Israel will remain faithful to the covenant. This is so, especially if you have a very common belief regarding God, namely, that God is all knowing. If God is all knowing, how can God not know whether or not Israel will remain faithful? If God is all knowing, how can we really exercise free will? If God is all knowing, what sense do any of our prayers make?
Finally, if God is all knowing, what sense does religion make?
The beloved sages of the Jewish people have come up with some answers to these questions, but the essential issue is that all the absolutes about God we learned as children, that God is all knowing, all powerful, and everywhere, are really similar to the way children feel about their parents. In other words, they are child-like beliefs in the divine, really, wishful thinking.
One of the things that troubles me is that most of us never evolve and grow very much religiously. I frequently hear theological statements from people that represent fantasy, wishful thinking, and child-like world views. One person said to me last week: God only sends me as much challenge as I can handle. I thought about all the people I've visited who have experienced so much tragedy in their lives they cannot bear it. How did God misread the amount of suffering they could bear? I thought of the person in one of Rabbi Harold Kushner's book who, upon hearing the theology that God only sends people suffering commensurate with what they can bear: If I weren't so strong my child wouldn't be sick right now!
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I understand that at times, especially times like illness and death, there is comfort in these beliefs. But I also know these ideas are overly simple, logically unsustainable, and sometimes dangerous.
I have heard people say that they know their prayer was heard and answered because the person they prayed for who was ill, recovered. That's a very pleasant and reassuring thought, at one, quite shallow level. But if you examine that way of thinking, it raises disturbing questions like: How many prayers does it take before God will grant someone recovery? Why is one person's prayer granted and not another's? Does the person for whom no prayer is uttered stand a poorer chance of recovery? What about cultures that pray to their own deities: Do they people never recover? Why does God make it look like recovery is dependent on observable and knowable phenomena, like medical skills, medicines, and the like, when all along it has to do with prayer?
It has been said, with great wisdom: be careful what you pray for. We Jews pray in a distinctive way, and there is sophistication to Jewish prayer that is clearly illustrated by an ancient tradition of Yom Kippur.
After the ritual of atonement had been completed in the ancient Temple, the High Priest offered up a prayer in which he prayed that the new year which was now beginning be a year of blessing, prosperity, tranquility and peace. And then, according to the Talmud, he addressed God in these strange words: "May the prayer of the traveler not come before you."
Can you imagine! The high priest asks God to pay no heed to the prayer of those who were on the road! How could he say such a thing on the holiest day of the year?
To understand these odd words, we need to look at the background in which this prayer emerged. The welfare of the land of Israel than, as now, depended upon the harvest. Rain was the primary need of the people; rain in its due season. Its coming or its lack make all the difference between a year of prosperity and a year of famine.
Now let's think about how the traveler felt. Passing through the unpaved roads and the sandy lanes of the Judean countryside, the last thing he wanted was rain. Thinking primarily of his own comfort, this wayfarer might unthinkingly, though understandably, be tempted to whisper a prayer like, "Oy, Dear God, could you please hold back on the rain, just a bit, until I reach my home? Is that too much to ask, O Holy One?"
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Well, yes; it is. From the perspective of Jewish prayer, that is inappropriate prayer. The High Priest knew that the welfare of the nation came before the comfort of that individual traveler. That is why the High Priest would implore God not to accept the prayer of the traveler.
You might be asking yourself: "Who was the High Priest, important though he may be, to tell the Master of the Universe which prayers to pay attention to"? That's a bit chutzpadik, isn't it? Can't we leave it to God to determine which prayers He finds acceptable? We must assume that this was the High Priest's method of telling his people something about the true nature of prayer, something that's important to all of us for whom prayer is important. Perhaps the High Priest was saying: Before you pray, think of your relationship to those around you, to the community as a whole. Try to see your needs and your desires in the larger perspective of the common good.
What I've just said is truly traditional, Jewishly, and truly at odds with our highly individualistic, Me-first way of viewing the world. But it needs to be said if we are to come to an understanding of prayer that is adult like and does not view God as a cosmic vending machine. If we do not evolve our understanding, we risk letting Judaism become irrelevant to us. Just as I know people who feel their prayers were the cause of someone else's recovery from serious illness, I have also known people who have turned away from religion because they have prayed for something and did not receive it. The prayer was not granted. Can you see how childish this is? A child becomes angry when the parent tells him he can't have or do something the parent knows is wrong or not good. The child doesn't see the wisdom; he sees only the refusal. Though the refusal comes out of love for the child, that is not something the childish mind can grasp.
Mature prayer does not ask for special favors from God. I believe mature prayer asks for strength and maturity to accept God's wisdom, so submit to God's will, which we may not comprehend, but which we know is for the good of the world.
The owner of a stage-coach may have prayed for a set-back to the railroads. The maker of candles might have liked to have God stop the spread of electric light bulbs. But their vested interests had to give way to the outward march of civilization, just as the ancient traveler had to accept a heavy downfall of rain even at the most inconvenient time for him.
It's possible to spend your life praying only when you need or want something. But I think you'll end up disappointed with religion. I would rather you learn to see yourself as a part of a noble enterprise, the Jewish people. I would rather you join your prayers with theirs and become not just a receiver, but also a giver.
Let their be no travelers in our midst, who are preoccupied only with what they need, and who do not think about what they can give. Let our hearts be open to the welfare of others and the common good of all. Let us learn to pray for the right things, for the ability to be unafraid, and for the wisdom to face life with faith.
Ken yehi ratzon: May this be God's will. Amen.
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