15 January 2011 | 10 Shevet 5771

Exodus 13:17-17:16

I have been a serious student of Jewish prayer for more than a decade.  Almost every day of those ten years I have practiced, studied and struggled with the prayer book in an attempt to learn more about myself, orient my thoughts with the beliefs and tenets of my tradition and to draw my soul closer to God.  Although this time has made me better at prayer, I can’t really say that it has become easier.  Each day is unique unto itself and my sense of spiritual fulfillment is often related more to how I feel mentally and physically than a criticism of the Jewish prayer.  Notwithstanding, Jewish prayer is difficult.  The service feels long, the language is too unfamiliar and the task it is asking us to do – to acknowledge, to praise and to request of God -is way out of our comfort zones.   Regardless, we are commanded to pray and our tradition exalts prayer so high that Jewish prayer was deemed appropriate for replacing the sacrificial service practiced in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. 

Seeing that prayer has taken such a prominent role in our religious and spiritual life, I was often tempted to ask – Why make Jewish prayer so difficult?  Why not simplify it?  In fact, rabbis and Jewish educators from the days of the Talmud up to our present day have worked to try and simplify Jewish prayer.  However, their efforts were always at odds with the tradition, which wants to keep things complicated.  This week, we learn something about the problem of making things too easy. 

In parshat Beshalach, we intercept the Jewish people at the shores of the Reed Sea.  The great redemption of our people is at hand and we are so close to seeing the end of our oppression. Our Torah portion begins like this:

Now when Pharoah let the people go, God did not lead (Nakham) them by way of the land of the philistines, although it was nearer; for God said, “ The people may have a change of heart (yeNakhem) when they see war, and return to Egypt.” (Exodus 13:17)   

The Torah uses two words that look and sound related but have completely different roots and therefore different meanings.  The word Nakham (to lead) contains the root – Nun; Chet; Hay – while the word YeNakhem (change of heart) has the root – Nun; Chet; Mem and means more than just a change a heart, it means to regret or have remorse.  God was concerned that the Israelites would have regret and remorse once they experienced war and that their own hearts would lead them back to Egypt.

Normally, the use of two words that have similar but different roots would not be an issue worth discussing.  However, as we can see by looking at the Hebrew, when these words are conjugated into the sentence, they each take on letters that make the two different words look almost identical.  For me this linguistic coincidence has more meaning than simple happenstance. 

This sentence speaks of God’s thought process as our people were led out of the land of Egypt.  It teaches us a truth about all good things that we receive in our lives.  We really only appreciate the things we work hard to obtain.  Just like God’s concern about the Israelites state of mind upon experiencing war, unless we put in the time and effort to do the work that Jewish Prayer demands of us we are quick to retreat from it when times get tough, to abandon the discipline after we get what we want, and are all too ready to dismiss it when our perception of the world conflicts with what we think a prayer is trying to say.   Jewish prayer is hard because it needs to be hard.  Jewish prayer is complicated because it is through the struggle that we find God and ourselves. 

Shabbat Shalom

Make this year the year that you learn how to read Hebrew – Join our ongoing classes – Sunday mornings & Monday evenings with Rabbi Gold and Steve Grossman – and make the words of the prayer book jump off the page and live in your soul. The power is in your hands.   Check out the Shabbat bulletin, go online (www.aasynagogue.org) or call the office (404) 355-5222 for more details.