As the month of Elul unfolds and we prepare for the arrival of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the shofar calls us to awake and repent, and we search for prayers that will express our innermost thoughts.
The siddur is filled with prayers of thanks and supplication, petition and praise. We use ancient words to convey modern thoughts and challenges, and struggle to balance our routine of prayer with our spontaneous and heartfelt personal prayer. We attend the synagogue and listen to the prayers, sometimes engaging completely, sometimes with wandering minds, and we struggle to return to the prayer content.
Throughout the ages, Jewish sages and scholars have discussed the most appropriate and effective means of expressing ourselves through prayer. Today, we yearn to find what we think might be magical words that will be heard and answered.
As we stand together on Rosh Hashanah, we hope that all we love and hold dear will be inscribed favourably for life and health and success. Where are the words that will accomplish everything that is in our hearts?
If only it were as easy as finding the right words. Many talmudic texts teach us that everything we do to express ourselves is actually a prayer we have composed. Even the clothes we wear are a statement of prayer. One rabbi would wear his finest clothes to express respect for God. Another rabbi would not dress well in order to express his need to God. Yet another rabbi would vary his clothing depending on the state of the world.
Certain other talmudic texts tell us that prayer alone will never be considered in isolation of our actions. People cannot pray for something they themselves are unwilling to give. People cannot ask for forgiveness if they are not willing to forgive others. We cannot pray for compassion if we are unable to extend compassion to the world. We are the image of God and we create the communication based on our actions. If we have chosen to become the image of strictness and unforgiveness, then we will encounter those attributes within God when we pray.
The Talmud comments on the sufferings of Job by framing the events as having begun on Rosh Hashanah. Job is afflicted with personal tragedy, illness and tremendous misfortune. He keeps arguing with his friends that he has done nothing to deserve his suffering and continues to demand that God answer him. At the end of the text, God responds to Job. Yet, God has been silent throughout most of Job’s arguments with his friends and his pleading and demanding that God answer. The rabbis state that God answers Job only after Job prays for his friends. Only when he shows compassion toward his friends does God show compassion toward him.
On Rosh Hashanah, we read the Torah portion that tells of Sarah conceiving Isaac. Both Sarah and Abraham are extremely old and have been waiting for this pregnancy and for a child since before they began a journey of covenant. God has been promising them this child for decades. What are the magical words of prayer that unlock this promise and result in the conception of Isaac? According to the rabbis, it is only after Abraham prays for God to heal Avimelech, his friend, that God fulfils the covenantal promise.
Only after we enact deeds of compassion, forgiveness and giving will the words we say in prayer have the power of our intent. When these things go hand in hand, the midrash tells us that Rosh Hashanah has the power of God answering our prayers with the following statement: “My children, I look upon you as if today you have been made for Me anew, as if today I created you, a new being, a new people, a new humanity.”