What to prayer and the symphony have in common? TB Berachot 29

 If you think that we moderns are the only people who have trouble with the prayers found in the prayer book, you would be wrong. According to tradition, King Solomon wrote in the book of Koheleth observes that “There is nothing new under the sun.” (1:9) that’s why today’s daf TB Berachot 29 warns against rote recitation of the words.

 We learned in the mishna that Rabbi Eliezer says: One whose prayer is fixed, his prayer is not supplication. The Gemara asks: What is the meaning of fixed in this context? Rabbi Ya’akov bar Idi said that Rabbi Oshaya said: It means anyone for whom his prayer is like a burden upon him, from which he seeks to be quickly unburdened. The Rabbis say: This refers to anyone who does not recite prayer in the language of supplication, but as a standardized recitation without emotion. Rabba and Rav Yosef both said: It refers to anyone unable to introduce a novel element, i.e., something personal reflecting his personal needs, to his prayer, and only recites the standard formula.

Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman writes in his book The Way Into Jewish Prayer:

“With the writing of a prayer book, centuries later, the danger of treating prayer like a fixed task became even greater, and to this day there are many Jews who falsely identify the outward act of reading liturgy with the inner act of worship. Heschel decries this ‘spiritual absenteeism.’ Some modern men and women ‘pray by proxy’ (he says), letting the Rabbi or Cantor do the work while they sit passively in the pews turning the pages; others read the words, but they recite the prayer book ‘as if it were last week’s newspaper…. The words are there but the souls who are to feel their meaning, to absorb their significance, or absent. They utter shells of syllables but put nothing of themselves into the shells.’

But the minute Beethoven’s symphonies were written out so that musicians could perform them, the meaning of keva (fixed) and kavanah (spontaneous) changed. Orchestras do not make up the notes from scratch. They follow the composer’s note by note instructions. Keva would now be going through the notes in the right order. But there is such a thing as musical Kavanah, nevertheless. It is the creative interpretation of the piece, which makes one performance magnificent and another humdrum. So too with prayer. After prayer books came into being, the option of making up all the blessings were gone. Kavanah became the way the prayers are read. Every worshiper like a musical performer, going about the task of saying words that are hallowed by tradition, but able to do so with newly discovered meeting each and every time…. Others, however, attend carefully to what the words mean, think deeply of their consequences, and commit their very being to the prayer books vision of a better world. Such people, Heschel tells us, know that ‘To pray is to dream in league with God.’” (Pages 34-37)

Here is an example how you can add kavanah to your fixed prayer. The eighth blessing of the weekday Amidah is a prayer for healing. After the Torah is read on Monday, Thursday, and Shabbat morning services, a special prayer for healing, mi sheberach, is recited with the names of all the people we are praying for. During these moments of keva, I encourage you to think about a time when a friend or family member was in dire need of healing. Picture that person in distress, waiting for the help, healing, and comfort to come. Then continue to pray the prayer.