All God All The Time

Growing up in New York there was a radio station (1010 WINS) that proclaimed as its tag line “All news all the time.” Prayer is alike that: “All God all the time.” We praise God, thank God, extol God’s virtues and proclaim our allegiance and full devotion. But, for those among us who struggle with the meaning of God and, at times, the very existence of God, Jewish prayer is difficult. In the words of my friend and colleague Rabbi Bill Rudolph: “Who is this HaShem guy anyway?”

Over the last three years I’ve been attending Tuesday morning minyan and, over the last two weeks, after the passing of my mother, I’ve been davening everyday. During this time I have been looking for meaning, for clues – what do all these words mean – what do they say to me? Thus, rather than just reading the Hebrew, which I struggle to do anyway, I’ve been reading prayers in English and attempting to find meaning. How are these words helpful in enabling to find my way through the day and find meaning in all that is happening?

One morning, I settled on one particular prayer in the very first pages of the Siddur.

The act of putting on T’fillin is, in itself, a mysterious act of devotion. It’s actually quite odd. As cars whiz by on Roswell Road we are placing black boxes on our foreheads and wrapping leather straps around our arms. It is as if we are wiring ourselves to talk to God. But the prayer we recant while wrapping the straps around our fingers is, in my thinking, quite remarkable:

כא וְאֵרַשְׂתִּיךְ לִי, לְעוֹלָם; וְאֵרַשְׂתִּיךְ לִי בְּצֶדֶק וּבְמִשְׁפָּט, וּבְחֶסֶד וּבְרַחֲמִים.	21 And I will betroth thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in justice, and in loving kindness, and in compassion.
כב וְאֵרַשְׂתִּיךְ לִי, בֶּאֱמוּנָה; וְיָדַעַתְּ, אֶת-יְהוָה. {פ}	22 And I will betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the LORD. {P}

This is a little difficult to, if you will, “unwrap”. Who is speaking to whom? Is God saying this to Israel, is Israel committing this to God. Reading the book of Hosea, from where the verses are taken, makes it even more complicated. Essentially the message from God to Israel in Hosea is: “You are a harlot but I love you anyway.” Read it.

But the core message of the verses we read that the relationship/marriage/betrothal between people and God is frame by five key elements:

Righteousness – צֶדֶק

Justice - מִשְׁפָּט

Kindness - חֶסֶד

Mercy - בְרַחֲמִים

Belief/Faith – אֱמוּנָה

It seems to me that if we wanted to come up with five key elements that would elevate all of our engagement with the world, and mark them with holiness, we would be hard pressed to find better ones than righteousness, justice, kindness, mercy and faith. Can we begin each day by contemplating how we will act with righteousness; how we will treat each other with justice and kindness; what acts of mercy we will show? Can we learn to have faith in ourselves and others?

Our prayer can vacillate between mindless recitation and a Hebrew sing-a-long. But if we take the time to explore the words we can find great wisdom, remarkable beauty and meaning.