The ordinance of prayer
Shabbat Shalom to our readers.
Why is it that, the first time we hear it, a speech will captivate us, but bore us when repeated? A song, however, can become increasingly pleasant the more we hear it? Psychologists explain how our brains love to uncover new information. When we turn our attention to a subject matter, our brain focuses on the ideas expressed by the speech.
With a song, it is the opposite. We aren’t trying to get new information. Our brain wants to dance with the song and needs to know all the parts of the song to perfect it. Our brain creates a neurological pathway once we have mastered the song and it therefore feels wonderful each time we hear the song, as that pathway lights up.
Parashat Mishpatim is generally known as the portion packed with laws and rules mostly of social legislation. However, looking at the first words of Rambam’s Laws of Prayer he derives the commandment to pray from this week’s parasha as well. From the verse “You shall serve the Lord your God …” (Shemot 23:25) Rambam learns “it is a positive commandment to pray every day”.
A few aspects of this law are perplexing. First, why did the Torah choose to put the basis of prayer in the section of the laws that belong in a courtroom? Nestled within the laws of a goring Ox, Judicial etiquette. Also, how could the law of prayer be derived from the commandment to “serve” God? Why not just command to pray?
Traditionally, the Hebrew word tefillah is translated as prayer. Chassidic thought dismisses that translation. Prayer is usually associated with requesting help from God. Should we not need anything today, prayer would seem unnecessary. However, we are commanded to pray every day, regardless of our needs. Tefillah should be more literally rendered as “attachment” like the Hebrew root “t’f’l”.
Every day, through tefillah, we connect with God and communicate our soul’s attachment to its source.
Connecting with God through our emotions. Service usually implies manual labour, but connecting to God through tefillah needs consistent effort of a different kind.
The laws of prayer were given with the command to serve God, a labour of awakening our souls to the state of ultimate union with the divine. Tefillah is not supposed to be a one-time intellectual exercise like a great lecture or class.
Although there is room to add in special and unique prayers, the general rule is that we follow our siddur every day in its entirety.
Davening is like a song that we want to ingrain into our heads and learn each step of the routine. A beautiful song and dance with God celebrating life and our mission in the world. Tefillah shows us how we are needed in the world. God needs, so to speak, our prayers to have a relationship.
Mishpatim means “laws” and generally refers to laws that are logically understood. Laws that civil society would have adopted without explicit commandment in the Torah. The message of putting tefillah after the slew of general laws is to show this unique connection to God.
Every facet of our activities has this potential connection. Not just when we pray can we connect to God, but even when we go to work, even when we eat and sleep, we can connect to God. By encompassing our whole experience, the Torah becomes our life.
Cairns-based Rabbi Ari and Rebbetzin Mushkie Rubin are directors of Chabad of Far North Queensland.
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