Wearing God’s seal of approval TB Yoma 69

Our God in heaven is the God of truth, whose Torah is truth, whose prophets speak truth, and who abounds in deeds of love and truth (Zohar, parashat Vayakel 206a) In fact Rav Hanina teaches on today’s daf TB Yoma 69 “the seal of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is truth.” (Sefaia.org translation) I learned from this Gemara that I can’t pray a lie.

“As Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Why are the Sages of those generations called the members of the Great Assembly? It is because they returned the crown of the Holy One, Blessed be He, to its former glory. How so? Moses came and said in his prayer: “The great, the mighty, and the awesomeGod” (Deuteronomy 10:17). Jeremiah the prophet came and said: Gentiles, i.e., the minions of Nebuchadnezzar, are carousing in His sanctuary; where is His awesomeness? Therefore, he did not say awesome in his prayer: “The great God, the mighty Lord of Hosts, is His name” (Jeremiah 32:18). Daniel came and said: Gentiles are enslaving His children; where is His might? Therefore he did not say mighty in his prayer: “The great and awesome God” (Daniel 9:4).

The members of the Great Assembly came and said: On the contrary, this is the might of His might, i.e., this is the fullest expression of it, that He conquers His inclination in that He exercises patience toward the wicked. God’s anger is flared by the gentile nations’ enslavement of His people, yet He expresses tremendous might by suppressing His anger and holding back from punishing them immediately. Therefore, it is still appropriate to refer to God as mighty. And these acts also express His awesomeness: Were it not for the awesomeness of the Holy One, Blessed be He, how could one people, i.e., the Jewish people, who are alone and hated by the gentile nations, survive among the nations?

“The Gemara asks: And the Rabbis, i.e., Jeremiah and Daniel, how could they do this and uproot an ordinance instituted by Moses, the greatest teacher, who instituted the mention of these attributes in prayer? Rabbi Elazar said: They did so because they knew of the Holy One Blessed be He, that He is truthful and hates a lie. Consequently, they did not speak falsely about Him. Since they did not perceive His attributes of might and awesomeness, they did not refer to them; therefore, they cannot be criticized for doing so.” (Sefaria.org translation)

There are certain prayers or parts of prayers I can no longer pray because I would be lying. Anybody who has visited Jerusalem today knows that it is a bustling city with new building going up all around the town. Many of our prayers about Jerusalem reflect an era before the reestablishment of the State of Israel. For example in the penitential prayers called takhanun we find such sentences as these: “Please turn your wrath and anger away from Jerusalem, your holy mountain… Open your eyes and see her desolation and that of the city called by your name.” One month from now we should observe the fast of Tisha B’Av lamenting the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem and the exile the Jewish people. I can’t recite many of the earth, poems of lamentation, because they describe Jerusalem as “now girds herself with sackcloth.” I have friends who modify their observance of this fast day because of the reality that Jews have returned home and have begun to rebuild Jerusalem to its former glory.

I don’t believe that God is angry with these changes to the traditional prayers because He hates lies. When we speak the truth, we can say that we wear God’s seal of approval.