The Jewish amidah prayer (Shemona Esreh) is something special in which there is a tremendous logic, which is unfortunately not always seen by the people praying. The first 3 prayers of the Amidah are introductions of the attributes of Gd for which we have to thank Gd. The last two prayers are the farewell and the thanks we utter to Gd for His goodness. The 14 prayers in the middle (19 - 5 = 14) are actually prayers that make us grow as a nation. All prayers are in the we form, as we are a nation and being Judged as a nation but also as a person. The first one is Choneen ha-daat (He who grands knowledge). My parents taught me as a child that Knowledge is power, but that the Character of a person defines him more. Through asking Gd for Daat (knowledge) He opens up spiritual gates through which we start seeing the world. The purpose is still a Tikun olam. But repairing the world starts at yourself first. The prayer asks Gd to open also gates of Bina (insight), Deah (knowledge) ve Sechel (brains/memory). And this specific order is important, as without insight, you will not get to the knowledge. And if there is no brain to store the knowledge, then you are nothing more than a brick. When we have openend this previous level of Daat, we spiritually can evolve into the next level: Teshuva (repentance/returning to Gd). Through our previously attained level we start seeing what we have done in our lives and where we make/have made errors. Only when we understand what we have transgressed we can start repenting and return to Gds Thora and His service. Through this second prayer we ask Gd to accept our apologies as we have gained insight in our errors. When we have made teshuva for ourselves, the Teshuva still needs to be accepted by Gd and He still needs to forgive us for our misdeeds. We ask in the prayer Chanun haMarbeh Lisloach for forgiveness in 2 ways: -Selicha for our Chataim (accidental transgressions) -Mechila for our Peshaim (wilful transgressions) The Rambam writes in his Jad haChazaka how we should repent: Have insight, understand what you have done, repair your damage, pay for unrepairable damages, only then ask for forgiveness of the people involved/hurt, have the intention never to transgress again and only then dare to ask Gd for forgiveness. If that has been done, Gd will eventually forgive him/her. But then, Gd has punished us with hardships, to make us repent and return. As we did not see them in time these punishments continued to rectify our deeds in the hard way, as a father punishes his children to correct them. In the prayer Go-eel Yisrael we ask Gd to redeem us from the justified punishment He gave us in the past, when we have repented in the right ways now. Also illnesses we have are results from punishments. Gd uses them to also correct us here. Not directly actually, but our sins damage the organs in our body, in the same way that a sin of a Jew damages also the Jewish nation (as it is for the small, it is for the big). That is the way He created this world. And only He can repair the damage as He is the ultimate doctor. But we will have to ask for it in the prayer Rofee Cholee amo Yisrael. And then we start moving a tremendous level upwards. When we are better again, we ask Gd to bless us again in our work and give us sustenance as a nation. Then we ask Gd to call on a big Shofar (rams-horn) to call (spiritual) freedom to the world and start redeeming our people from all corners of the world, back to Israel. More next time.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 01:02:52 +0000
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