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Introduction to Pesukei d’Zimra (1)

Introduction to Pesukei d’Zimra (1)

Introduction

The siddur is the most important work of Jewish spirituality. Developing an internal prayer-life for people of all ages is not easy. What sometimes helps me engage in the discipline of regular davening is a deeper understanding of the inner workings of the siddur. The more that I can appreciate what each section, prayer, paragraph, sentence and even word is doing, the more that I appreciate the hard spiritual work daily tefila.

Working to cultivate a prayerful personality and struggling to engage in the mitzvah of davening may or may not be the same process. For some, developing a personal relationship with the Creator of the World is a private matter that does not overlap with the hard work of regular daily tefila. I have found that for me, the more attuned I am to the meaning provided by the siddur the more I am able to develop that personal relationship with God. 

These essays will develop some broad introductory concepts about the nature of pesukei d’zimra with an eye toward a wider conversation about how these ideas can help us grow spiritually. There are three very different ways to conceptualize the role of pesukei d’zimra. 

  1. There is only one direct reference to this section of the siddur in the gemara. This text, the starting point for our analysis, refers to pesukei d’zimra as Hallel. 
  2. For a prominent group of rishonim, pesukei d’zimra serves as preparation for the recitation of the amida. 
  3. And finally, there is a smaller group that understands pesukei d’zimra functioning on its own track, apart from the amida and not exclusively as a kind of Hallel. 

My hope is that with a wider angle lens we might better appreciate broader messages embedded in pesukei d’zimra. We will then summarize the various approaches and harness each idea to help build more prayerful personalities.

First Beracha of the Amida (אבות) – part 5 of 5 – Divine Love

First Beracha of the Amida (אבות) – part 5 of 5 – Divine Love

The first beracha of the Amida also refers to God as א-ל עליון (el elyon) – The Powerful God who is Most High. This is a strange way to refer to the Creator of the World and is a citation from a non-Jewish priest whom we meet in the book of Bereishit. After the successful battle against the four kings in chapter fourteen, Avram is greeted by a mysterious priest who interrupts the negotiations with the King of Sodom. The Torah tells us:

(18) And Malki-Tzedek king of Shalem brought forth bread and wine; and he was a priest of God the Most High (el elyon). (19) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Avram to the God Most High, Maker of heaven and earth ; (20) and blessed be God the Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tenth of all1.

The concluding phrase of the first beracha refers to the beginning of the next chapter when God tells Avram that he has nothing to fear. After his military victory Avram receives a blessing from a non-Jewish priest and then assurance from God that he will be safe. God tells Avram: Do not be afraid, I will protect you (Bereishit 15:1)2. What do the rabbis who wrote this beracha want to communicate to us by pulling this narrative into the opening of the Amida?

The remainder of this beracha refers to: 1) God as doing chesed; 2) God who remembers the chesed of our ancestors; 3)and, God who brings redemption with love3. One might not think that Avram needed a God overflowing with chesed and love at this moment in the narrative. However, it is precisely at this time, a time of victory and power, that we need to be reminded of the importance of chesed.

The first section of the beracha brought us to the introduction of Moshe to God and his humble, hesitant approach to leadership. The second piece of this beracha now brings us into a very specific moment of the life of Avram avinu when he is in a position of power. Moshe, before he stepped into his role as leader, and Avram, at the end of the battle, are in two opposite places. Moshe is afraid to step into the geopolitical arena and approach Pharo, while Avram has just won a war against the four kings who had already defeated the five kings. The Amida juxtaposes these two Biblical moments to remind us that, whether we have just experienced great success or are feeling nervous about what might come next, God will be there for us, with love.

Chapter fifteen continues with the Berit ben ha-betarim (The Covenant between the Pieces). Now Avram, despite his great success, expresses his own self-doubt about who will inherit his path. At this point he does not have children, and he is scared that perhaps his vision of the world might come to an end with his own passing from this world. Avram is told of his own future – that he will indeed have his own children – as well as the future of the Jewish People. We will be enslaved and ultimately redeemed, and throughout it all, God will be with us.

Divine grace or love, what this beracha refers to as חסד, (sometimes translated as loving-kindness) is a foundation of a life of prayer in particular and Jewish theology more broadly. We will return to this idea later in these essays.

First Beracha of the Amida (אבות) – Part 4 of 5 – Silence

First Beracha of the Amida (אבות) – Part 4 of 5 – Silence


How can we simple human beings give praise to the Master of the World? There is a certain absurdity to the notion that I can offer words of admiration to God. And yet, the basic structure of the Amida begins with the three blessings of שבח – praise1.

Bavli Megila 18a

Rabba bar bar Channa said in the name of Rebbi Yochanan: One who praises the Holy Blessed One too much will be uprooted from the world…

Rebbi Yehuda from the village of Guvraya and some say from the village of Gibor Chayyil: To you silence is praise – silence is the panacea. When Rav Dimi came, he said: They say in Israel, “A word is worth a sela, silence is worth two sela.”

This passage reminds us of the power of silence. There are many settings where people can benefit from the skill of sitting in quiet. Learning to listen is not a simple task, but it is important throughout our lives. This is true in a shivva house2, when meeting with friends for a cup of coffee, and in cultivating a sense of spiritual patience before God.

Prayer is hard, and we are not trained to work hard at davening. People are often told that, if you just say the words enough times, eventually something will happen. If you are lucky, you may have encountered a teacher who brought tefilla alive with joy, deeper explanation, meditation, intention, clapping, dancing or a guitar. Learning the cadence and rhythm of davening is important. Working on a reciprocal relationship with a being outside of ourselves is much harder and more essential.

The Talmud tells a story of a Rabbi who tried to use too many words:

Bavli Masechet Megillah, page 25a

A certain person went down (to lead the prayers) before Rebbi Chanina, he said: The Lord, the great, the mighty and the awesome, the powerful, the strong and the valiant.

Rebbi Chanina said to him: Have you completed the praise of your Master? Now, these three (praises) if Moshe had not written them in the Torah, and the men of the great assembly had not established them, we could not say them. And you said all of these? It is like a man who has thousands upon thousands of coins of gold and they praised him with one thousand coins of silver. Is this not disrespectful of him?

The person leading the prayers for Rebbi Chanina is expressing a human desire to praise God. When really feeling that connection there can be a natural out-pouring of more and more praise. Rebbi Chanina comes to teach us that divine praise must be bound or it will ultimately be endless.

The rabbis here again return to those three central adjectives of God – הַגָּדֹל הַגִּבֹּר וְהַנּוֹרָא, Great Mighty and Awesome – and understood that Moshe gave us a gift. Without the ‘permission’ granted from Moshe to recite these words, we could not stand before God and offer praise.

First beracha of the Amida (אבות) – Part 3 of 5 – Spiritual Diversity

First beracha of the Amida (אבות) – Part 3 of 5 – Spiritual Diversity

I would like to return to the section we analyzed last time, but now from a different perspective. The first beracha of the Amida introduces God to us as:

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם אֱלֹהֵי יִצְחָק וֵאלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב

Last time we examined the humility of Moshe when he covered his face in the divine presence as a model for our own posture in prayer. This is true not only within the world of tefilla but helps to foster a broad sense of theological humility. Part of that humility demands that I recognize that the path by which I come close to God is not the only path. …

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First Beracha of the Amida (אבות) – Part 2 of 5 – Humility

First Beracha of the Amida (אבות) – Part 2 of 5 – Humility

The next slice of the first beracha of the Amida I would like to look at is also a citation of a Biblical verse. However, the phrase is so commonplace that we don’t always realize that it first appeared in the Torah. The opening beracha describes God as:

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob
אֱ-לֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם אֱ-לֹהֵי יִצְחָק וֵא-לֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב

This exact phrase appears twice in the third chapter of Shemot (verses 6 and 15) and then once in the fourth chapter (verse 5).1 When God first speaks from the burning bush and calls Moshe’s name, Moshe’s immediate response is “הנני – here I am” (3:4). However, in the next two verses God tells Moshe to remove his sandals because he is standing on holy ground and then introduces God’s-self and says: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Shmot 3:6). …

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A Journey to Prayer – Introduction

A Journey to Prayer – Introduction

An Approach to the עמידה, Amida:

I would like to invite you to join me on a journey to prayer. Over the next several months, I hope to share one essay every two weeks. Each installment will analyze one or two texts that serve as an introduction to a life of davening.

We will begin with the first berakha of the Amida and then move slowly through the nineteen blessings of the daily tefilah. The experience of standing before God can be uplifting, boring, enlivening, repetitive, fun and tedious. The essays on the first berakha offer a broad introduction to a way of thinking about prayer.

I see five core ideas emerging from the first berakha that lie at the heart of the prayer experience: 1) honesty and integrity, 2) humility, 3) spiritual diversity, 4) silence, and 5) divine love. These five key concepts will help drive my approach throughout this journey to prayer. As we travel together on this path, we will begin to notice the ways in which how we approach prayer echoes many broader question about Jewish life and Jewish law.

First Beracha of the Amida (אבות) – Part 1 of 5

First Beracha of the Amida (אבות) – Part 1 of 5

The text that serves as the grounding for my understanding of tefilah is a Gemara in Masechet Yoma about the four words at the center of the first beracha of the עמידה (Amida). In chapter ten of Devarim, Moshe Rabbeinu outlines what he thinks God asks of each of us. Moshe then presents some basic ideas about how God interacts with our world1.The first beracha of the Amida quotes a small portion of this section and refers to God with the following four words:

The Lord who is great, mighty and awesome (Deut. 10:17)

The rabbis attend to this phrase and note that a similar version appears in other places in Tanakh. Jeremiah and Daniel each use three of these four words, which leads to a fascinating debate. …

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