The Anomaly of the Night: Fear, Power, Divine Presence (Shekhinah), Part 2
Nov 6, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
To the human heart and soul, night and morning are profoundly different, even though an astronomer would see them as equivalent observed consequences of the orbit of the earth around the sun. The first blessing of the evening service (Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat, 28) praises God for establishing the natural cycles: 鈥淵ou roll away light as darkness sets in, and darkness as the light dawns.鈥� The morning service offers a tight structure of two blessings before, and one after, the Shema鈥� on the themes of Creation, Revelation, and Redemption (to be explored here in a future essay). Although the texts are a little different in the morning and the evening, the themes are identical.
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Night: Fear, Power, Divine Presence (Shekhinah)
Oct 29, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Transitions are times of vulnerability, anxiety, even fear. The mezuzah guides us through the transition between our home and the outside world. The words of the challenging, non-Israelite Prophet Balaam welcome us into the synagogue: 鈥�Mah Tovu (How beautiful are your tents O Jacob).鈥� I wrote several reflections on the prayer texts that support us , giving thanks for soul and body restored to strength and vitality for another day.
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Mizmor LeDavid (Psalm 23)鈥擳ime, Text, Melody
Oct 23, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Psalm 23 is beloved in much of the English-speaking world for affirming a certainty of the divine presence鈥攅ven in times of dread and adversity鈥攊n the most hauntingly beautiful language. The paean to the Psalm by 19th-century American pastor Henry Ward Beecher is widely cited.鈥淭he twenty third psalm is the nightingale of the Psalms. It is small, of a homely feather, singing shyly out of obscurity; but oh! it has filled the air of the whole world with melodious joy, greater than the heart can conceive鈥� (Life Thoughts).
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Prayer: Invitation and Outcry
Oct 16, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM), with many organizations and agencies working together to spread awareness and the understanding that this scourge is endemic in modern society鈥攁nd that no religion and no sector of society is exempt. My friend and colleague Rabbi Lisa Gelber, associate dean of The Rabbinical School of 91快活林, was invited by FaithTrust Institute to write the 鈥淯niversal Prayer鈥� for the call of unity that opened DVAM, and the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (which convened the call) then created to frame the prayer on a flyer. The prayer has found wide acceptance and recognition.
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Words of Prayer: New and Old
Oct 9, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
鈥溾�� is a lighthearted song made famous by a pair of Orthodox artists in the 1980s called the Megama Duo (start at 3 minutes and 22 seconds in the linked video). The song would never have become as (in)famous as it was if the experience of 鈥渘ot being able to find the place鈥� was unfamiliar. But, on the contrary, we have all been there, and it鈥檚 good to laugh at, and with, ourselves. When we do find the place in our prayer books, we see lines and paragraphs and pages of text, and it is often hard to find ourselves in the words.
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Simhat Torah: Which Way When the Circle Ends
Sep 23, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Simhat Torah
The annual celebration of Simhat Torah brings great joy to so many of us of all generations, and it is a fitting and triumphant conclusion to the long and multifaceted season of intense Jewish observance and focus that began (a little before Rosh Hashanah) with Selichot. In Israel and in congregations observing a single day of festivals, Simhat Torah is blended with Shemini Atzeret, offering the intense experience in the morning of Hallel, Hakkafot (processions with dancing) and Geshem (the prayer for Rain).
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Welcome Guests鈥擵isible and . . .
Sep 16, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Sukkot
The sukkah is fragile and temporary, yet stands as a symbol of joy and celebration. Rabbi Reuven Hammer, in his commentary Or Hadash (Siddur Sim Shalom, 331), reminds us of a debate about the meaning of Leviticus 23:43 (鈥淵ou shall live in Sukkot for seven days . . . in order that future generations will recall that I made the Israelite People dwell in Sukkot when I brought them out of Egypt鈥�): 鈥淩abbi Eliezer said that [these sukkot] were clouds of glory and Rabbi Akiba said they were actual huts (B. Sukkah 11b).鈥�
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Ne鈥榠lah: Final Closing, or Not Quite?
Sep 11, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Yom Kippur
鈥�P鈥檛ach lanu sha鈥檃r鈥� (Keep open the gate for us) are the words of a fragment of a piyyut attributed to Elazar Kallir (6th century, Land of Israel) [see the Rabbinical Assembly鈥檚 Mahzor Lev Shalem, 414].
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