Judaism and Liturgy

         

         

          I read a book last year by Richard Dawkins called The God Delusion. Dawkins is one of the new atheist gurus along with Christopher Hitchins who has written many books and speaks publicly to disprove the existence of G-d or to show why religion is either silly, superstitious or even dangerous.

          Dawkins is a biologist who throws his hat into the ring of anti-G-d polemic with his book which attempts to prove that G-d does not exist. His writing is very good and interesting, and I think there were some points in the book where he almost proved to himself that G-d exists (but just didn’t want to use the term “G-d”).

          But there were some arguments that were downright childish. “How can a person hear all the prayers of billions of people at the same time?” My answer, “Ummm… maybe an infinite being can do that?”

          But one particularly puerile “proof” of his was an experiment he performed (scientist that he is). He collected a large group of people (100, 1000 – I don’t remember exactly), and had them all pray for the same thing. When the large number of people prayed and nothing happened, it was a proof that G-d doesn’t exist.

          I would answer that this simply means G-d doesn’t necessarily answer prayers. But what strikes me is the common notion of the use of prayer even among religious people. But now let’s take a mature look at what prayer really is all about.

          Last week, I was on a flight from Miami. Now, I think I am an experienced traveler. I have flown more times than I can count (than I can remember). At least 100 flights. When I fly there are two things that never cease to amaze me. The first is looking out the window to see the ground sink below me and to see buildings, landforms, coastline, rivers, cities, clouds – you get the idea. Specifically, on my last flight I saw Miami at night. The buildings were all lit up and I could see the center city, then the municipal area terminating at the coastline, then the blackness of the ocean beyond. As the flight continued, we were completely over the ocean and I looked up and saw only stars and down below I saw points of light from boats on the water. Though they were lights from boats they looked like stars. Stars above and below and I felt like I was traveling not through the sky but through outer space. It was an incredible sight. Near the end of the flight, I could see that we were over Ocean City, Maryland, and a few minutes later I was able to make out the coastline of New Jersey. Well, that describes the first thing that amazes me on flights. The second is that when I look around the cabin of the airplane, I find very few other people as amazed as I am. I wonder what a person from the 1800’s or earlier would feel or do if given the opportunity to take a ride in the sky. And now it seems that it has become for many of us a mundane experience. Does repeating an activity, or seeing the same thing too many times diminish our wonder, our amazement and our joy? Couldn’t there be something valuable to retaining our sense of wonder and our ability to be amazed? Wouldn’t our lives be so much more beautiful if we could?

          I believe that one of the roles of religion is to keep us in touch with what is amazing. Our prayers and blessings are written by those inspired by nissim and brachot. Nissim are daily wonders that we may overlook if we are not paying attention. Brachot (blessings) are the good things we have in our lives that we may not appreciate if we take them for granted. Our liturgy is really poetry written to describe the emotional depth that the writer felt at experiencing what we have been given by G-d. Our liturgy is not only, and not usually, about asking for things we want or need, but for appreciating the things we have. Our sages tell us we should say 100 blessings a day. These are blessings in response to amazing things in the world and in life. If one could find 100 things a day to be amazed at, what an amazing life one could have. And the real message of our liturgy is that there are always at least 100 amazing things – we just have to open our eyes. Our prayers and blessings are the formula to do just that. As the New Year arrives, may we approach our liturgy and services whether, on the High Holidays or Shabbat services, with this fresh perspective and be renewed, inspired and inscribed for a sweet year.

Shanah Tovah
Robert Patsko