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(Concluded from page 239.)
By
Isaac Leeser
The ninetieth psalm, which is headed—“A Prayer of
Moses, the man of God,” is every way worthy of the
great prophet. It exhibits the Creator as the
Producer of the universe, and still as the Protector
of every individual man on earth. Often as this idea
comes before us in investigating any religious
truth, its importance is such that we cannot recur
to it too often. Whether therefore we wish to
elucidate that God is the Providence, the Governor,
the Judge, the Rewarder, the Avenger, or the Hearer
of prayer, it is always to be considered that He is
especially watchful over all from his very nature as
the Omnipresent and Almighty, not as though He
required any special effort of power or vigilance to
execute his wish in general or in detail, on earth
or in heaven. The prophet next sketches the eternity
of God, and the perishableness of man. He says: “For
a thousand years are in thy eyes as the yesterday,
when it passeth, and as a watch of the night. Thou
strewest them (men) out, they spring up in sleep; in
the morning man sprouteth forth like grass; in the
morning he bloometh and sprouteth, in the
even<<278>>ing he is cut off and withereth.” He then
prays for understanding to comprehend his existence
and relation to God, asks for mercy and the avertance of evil, and closes with invoking
protection and permanence of the work in which he
was engaged, probably the sanctuary, which he was
the means of erecting in the wilderness. You will
find in the whole of this extremely beautiful psalm
nothing mean, no idea unworthy of acceptance; so, on
the other hand, there is no laboured attempt to
glorify God;—nothing but the gushing forth of simple
and natural language of the highest order, to
express the emotions of his soul.
The Psalms of David, of Asaph, of the sons of Korah,
and other sweet singers of Israel, are, as may well
be expected, strictly made after the model of Moses.
Though the Psalmists wrote on a great variety of
occasions, and, if critics may be believed, at great
intervals of time, they always kept before them the
illustrious and holy men who first taught us by
their examples how to pray. I would gladly analyze
specimens of each; but the time to do so would be
quite too long for a single lecture: But this much
is certain, that in the Book of Psalms we have a
collection of devotional exercises far exceeding in
value, both as regards their influence on the spirit
and their stylistic excellence, anything within the
whole range of literature. Many have been the
attempts to add by new compositions to the store in
our possession; and though some have rare merit,
they have not yet equalled the legacy of the
ancients. With this I do not mean to assert that the
psalms and prayers scattered through the Bible have
exhausted the subject, or that there are not
occasions for which they might be considered
inappropriate; but we must not forget that we were
never interdicted employing our own words to address
our Maker; and I only wish to maintain the simple
truth, that the Biblical prayers are the best in
existence, and should alone serve as models by which
we should frame our thoughts and combine our words
so as to lay before God a prayer or thanksgiving
worthy of his acceptance, which we are assured it
will be, if duly offered with sincerity and
devotion.
It
is perhaps impossible at the present day to
ascertain whe<<279>>ther, during the existence of
the first temple, a set form of prayer was in use
among us. The Psalms, or a portion at least, existed
in a separate collection, and no doubt were used as
devotional exercises; but we know nothing of this
with any degree of certainty. According to 1
Chronicles xxv., it appears that David appointed
certain musicians and their assistants to sing and
play at the house of God during the service of
sacrificing. In 2 Chronicles v. 13, we read that at
the consecration of Solomon’s temple, the immense
choir then established duly performed the task
imposed upon them, “praising the Lord who is good,
for his kindness endureth for ever.” And in the same
book, chapter xxix. 30, we read that Hezekiah and
the chiefs ordered the Levites to praise the Lord in
the words of David and Asaph the seer, which they
accordingly did. In the reign also of Josiah, xxxv.
15, we see that the singers were at their post,
according to the ordinance of David, Asaph, Heman,
and Jeduthun, the king’s seer; all which proves the
probability at least that, with the music thus
traditionally brought down during the whole series
of the Davidean kings, the prayers of his composing
and those of his associates; the world-renowned
Asaph and Heman, and their contemporaries, were also
in practical use, not alone at the temple, but
likewise among the people.
If, however, the idea of regular prayer was not
developed so early as the first temple, we shall
have no such difficulty of arriving at the fact
immediately after its destruction. It is probable
enough that no sooner were the daily sacrifices
abolished by the violent irruption of the Chaldeans
under Nebuchadnezzar and his chief guardsman Nebuzaraddan, than the pious of Israel resorted to
prayer as a suitable substitute, knowing as they
did that “the sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit,” and that “obedience is better than the fat
of rams.” They came to the conclusion that, with the
abolition of the daily oblations on the altar at
Jerusalem, the permanence of Israel sad the
salvation of the pious were by no means forfeited.
Hence they resorted to periodical prayer, at those
hours, we may assume, when the priests formerly
brought the offerings to the door of the temple.
Hence therefore the morning and
<<280>>afternoon
service; add to which the obligation of speaking of
the law “when we lie down,” whence accordingly the
evening prayer. On referring to Daniel vi. 11, you
will find, that “when Daniel learned that the decree
against praying had been signal by the king Darius,
or, as he is called in the Bible, Daryawesh the
Median, he went to his house where he had windows in
his upper chamber which looked towards Jerusalem,
and three times every day he fell on his knees, and
prayed and praised before his God just as he had
been doing before that time.”
If even this practice
was customary with Daniel only, which it would be
absurd to suppose, it soon spread to others, as
there is no doubt that the Shacharith,
Minchah, and ‘Arbith, or morning,
afternoon, and evening prayers, are institutions
existing during the second temple, for which
purpose the Synagogues were erected not alone in the
country of Palestine, but Jerusalem, the seat of
the temple, also, and were thus established that the
people might assemble and pray in a body, having
their Sheliach Zibbur, or messenger of the
congregation,—now called Chazan, or
superintendent of the worship,—to read aloud certain
portions, to which the people responded, or listened
in silence to be in readiness to answer Amen to the
portions called Berachoth, or blessings, in
case they could not recite the prayers themselves,
from ignorance of the words they should use. The
Chazan thus acted mediatorially for the uninformed;
and the responses they made were considered
equivalent to praying themselves; hence the custom
of repeating the Shemonay ‘Esray, or eighteen
benedictions, otherwise called the ‘Amidah,
(from ‘Amad, to stand, they being recited in
an upright posture,) aloud, after they have been
read by all able to read, each one to himself, in a
low tone of voice. Hence also the formula of
Kedushah, Kaddish, Bahrechu, and
similar pieces.
From Ezra 10, 11, and Nehemiah xii. 45, 46, it
appears that the ancient institution of David, that
is, the Psalms, was duly revived at the rebuilding
of the temple, and also that the law was publicly
read in the street from a wooden stand by Ezra,
which was interpreted and expounded by his
assistants, who are recorded in Nehemiah viii. 7.
Having thus clear proof that the
<<281>> temple was
the place where the Psalms were chaunted, and that
other localities were used to instruct the people,
we have at once the twofold element of Jewish
worship,—the temple for sacrifice and musical
accompaniment, and the place of assembly, whether
this was a stand temporarily erected in the street
to have much room, or a separate building specially
devoted to worship, for prayer, praise, and
instruction; for we read in verses 5 and 6 of the
chapter just now cited: “And Ezra opened the book
before the eyes of the whole people, for he stood
above all the people; and as he opened it, all the
people stood up,” just as we do when the law book is
borne to the desk where it is read. “And Ezra
praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people
cried out Amen, Amen, in lifting up their hands, and
they bowed down their heads, and prostrated
themselves before the Lord with their faces to the
ground.”
The latter observance of prostration is not
generally followed among us at the present day,
except by the Israelites of the German Custom on the
New Year’s festival and the Day of Atonement; but
the genuflexions, and bowing of the head at
particular passages, are yet practised, as you all
know; so also the responding of Amen at a blessing,
or Berachah, as was done when Ezra prayed
before the reading of the law, is yet constantly
observed among us. If therefore we freely
acknowledge that the prayer book, as it exists at
the present time, is the gradual accumulation of
many additions to an original simple form, we at the
same time claim for much of it the highest antiquity
and a uniformity from the earliest return of the
Israelites from the Babylonian captivity.
It
may be assumed as doubtful whether any one now
living could determine with accuracy whether, in the
early days of our history, any set form of prayer or
liturgy was in use, except the reading of portions
of the sixth and eleventh chapters of Deuteronomy,
and of the sixteenth of Numbers, known collectively
as the Shemang, so called from the initial
words of the first of these sections, commencing
with the words Shemang Yisrael, “Hear, O
Israel.” It is more than probable that, though
prayer was always a duty, the wording of it was left
voluntary with each individual. When, however, at
the return from Babylon, the <<282>> pure Hebrew had
ceased to be the spoken language of the people, and
when, we have every reason to judge from Nehemiah,
no proper dialect was prevalent, but a sort of
Lingua Franca, a compound of Hebrew, Persian,
Aramaic, and Phoeniciao, and afterwards of Greek and
Latin: it became evidently the business of the
Sanhedrin, or Synedrion,—those who both
superintended the affairs of the state and the
interests of religion, to introduce a formulary of
prayer written in the ancient Hebrew, so as to
preserve the connexion with ancient Israel, and to
maintain the purity of the law in its original,
uncorrupted, traditional text, and to add also
pieces in the popular speech of the people, chiefly
Aramaic, that they might understand, without
interpretation from the Meturgeman or
translator, the words of praise which the
Sheliach Zibbur uttered. We have several such
fragments of prayers ; one the celebrated Kaddish,
evidently of great antiquity, from all absence of
allusion to Roman or gentile supremacy, and the
other the Yekum Purkan Min Shemayah, a
petition for the peace of the schools at Babylon and
Palestine, as also for the welfare of the individual
congregation where it is recited or used, among the
German Jews. There are other Aramaic pieces
scattered through the prayers, but it would take too
long to quote them now.
The most learned can only hazard conjecture; but it
is not reasonable to suppose that at any time great
and violent changes could be introduced into
Judaism. No one acquainted with the character and
disposition of our people, and the pertinacity with
which even small changes are opposed and little
matters conserved, can for a moment imagine that
prayer three times a day could ever have been
introduced, unless the custom had always been more
or less prevalent, as was the sacrificing twice or
three times every day in the temple. The only
difficulty in the case is the amount of pieces which
are to be recited, and in them, even at the present
moment, the greatest diversity of view prevails. If
we, however, take up the prayer book and examine it
by the internal evidence of style, we shall be able
to determine pretty accurately the age of the
various component parts. We need not expect the
elevation of diction to be found in the
<<283>> ancient portions of the Bible; for, as said, the
Hebrew had ceased to be the vernacular tongue, and
was therefore merely the language of the learned, or
the priesthood and scholars. Still can we trace the
gradual deterioration of the style, until it
received a new impulse, first by the Asiatic school
of neo-Hebraico poets, such as Kalir and Rabbi
Nissim of Babylon, and afterwards by the writers of
Spain and the Barbary coast; for instance Rabbi
Jehudah Hallevi, Shelomah Ibn Gebirol, Abraham and
Moses Ibn Ezra, the contributors to the Portuguese
Siddur, and their imitators and followers in France,
Italy, and Germany.
Examining now the form of prayers by this standard,
and taking into account the hints regarding the
blessings found in Mishnah and Talmud, we must
characterize as most ancient Elohai Neshamah,
together with the benedictions and petitions till
Vayedabber of the German Minhag, which
are also found, though in a somewhat different
order, among the Sephardim and Portuguese. The
subsequent portions till Yishtabbach, except
Baruch Sheamar, are either selections from
Bible, Mishnah, and Talmud, or entire psalms and
passages from Scripture. But from Yishtabbach
till end of the 'Amidah or Shemonay 'Esray,
with the exception of some interpolated pieces, the
whole is of high antiquity, and is regarded as a
preface and conclusion to Shemang, and the
'Amidah is then joined to the last as the close
of the prayers proper. The form for Nefilath
Apayim, or falling on the face, which ceremony
is not now in vogue, is only in a small portion
original, as all the Minhagim employ a Psalm,
and the variety of the phraseology of the various
readings shows that modern additions and changes
have taken place. The prayers proper were concluded
with 'Alenu Leshabeach, both in style and
substance beautiful and forcible in the extreme. The
same process of investigation will show us the
portions of the evening and night prayers which are
from early ages ; and we may freely appeal to any
one critically acquainted with the Hebrew, to
confess whether this hypothesis has not every
appearance of correctness. I only wish that time
would permit to analyze the whole in your presence.
But this being out of the question, I must hasten to
complete what I meant to advance.
<<284>>
In going over the legacy of our fathers which our
various Tefilloth, Siddurim, or prayer
books (all these terms being synonymous) afford, the
candid inquirer will be convinced that as little as
our faith is wanting in containing all practical
moral duties, so little are our prayers wanting in
all that is spiritual and soul-elevating. It is true
that, for those who have not leisure, the forms are
somewhat long, at least as they now exist; but this
does not say that to the pious and devout soul they
are too long, or that a man properly alive to his
position towards the Most High should not love to
spend a considerable portion of his day in exercises
of devotion, by which he will live more in (so to
say) a friendly intercourse with his Maker rather
than think it a burden when he has to pray, and
which he cannot too quickly throw off from his
shoulders. But those who were compelled to labour
for their support, and who were in imminent danger,
and therefore not able to fix their minds in
devotion, were not expected to recite the usual, but
a much shorter form. Permit me to give you the two
forms which are already mentioned in the Talmud,
and thus accepted as authoritative. To premise, let
me call your attention to the fact that the various
'Amidah forms, for all the year, differing as
they do, all commence with the same three
benedictions, and conclude with three others of the
same tenor. The first refers to the covenant Kith
the patriarch, the second to the universality of
God’s power, and the third to his holiness. Of the
last three, the first speaks of the service, which
we pray may be acceptable, the second is the general
form of thanksgiving, and the third is a petition
for universal peace, as the crowning blessing which
the Lord can bestow. Now the rule is, that when we
are in a place of danger, we need not say the whole
of the Amidah; not even the first and last
three blessings; but, instead of this, as follows:
“The wants of thy people are many, but their
knowledge is weak and limited. O, may it please
thee, O Lord our God, to give to each individual his
maintenance, and to every creature whatever he may
stand in need of; do, however, as seemeth best to
thee in thy wisdom. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who
hearest prayer.”
When the danger, however, is not imminent,
<<285>>another formula is required; for then the
first three blessings are to be recited, after
which, “Give us understanding, O Lord, our God, to
know thy ways, and subject our heart to thy fear,
and forgive us our trespasses, send us the redeemer,
and remove all diseases from us; satisfy us also
with the pleasant products of thy earth, and
vouchsafe to gather our scattered captives from the
four corners of the world. Do thou also judge those
who go astray from thy law, and raise thy hand over
the wicked. Cause the righteous to rejoice at the
rebuilding of thy city, and the restoration of thy
temple, and the growing of the horn of David thy
servant, and the lighting up of the lamp of the son
of Jesse, thy anointed. Before we call, answer thou
us; while we speak, do thou hear; for thou, O Lord, redeemest and savest in all times of trouble and
affliction. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who hearest
prayer.”
After which the concluding benedictions are to be
said. Those of you, my hearers, who are familiar
with our daily service, will readily recognise in
the above an epitome of the full eighteen, or rather
nineteen, benedictions, or, more correctly speaking,
the thirteen between the third and seventeenth of
our series. You will readily understand that, like
the larger 'Amidah, the prayer Habinenu,
as it is technically called from the initial word,
contains all that man can ask of God in his
individual and social capacity, to satisfy his daily
wants, and to bestow on him wisdom, as likewise the
spiritual benefits to be expected in the building up
of the kingdom of the Messiah, and the restoration
of the worship of the Lord at Moriah. Let me here
remark that it is probable that whilst the temple
stood, the clauses relating to worship, and that
referring to the restoration of Jerusalem, may have
been differently worded, to answer the then state of
things, both in the large and condensed forms. But,
either during the existence of the Jewish
commonwealth or now, there is no question that the
essence of prayer was known and appreciated among
us, and that this proceeded, of from opponents or
reformers of Judaism, but from its teachers and
supporters.
We
may, to prove this, freely offer our liturgy,—I
speak mainly of the most ancient portions,—and we
need not fear the verdict of the world. It is
therefore erroneous to <<286>> assume that true spiritual prayer was
invented or revealed by a man who, descended from
Israelites, has in the process of time become the
object of adoration to a large portion of mankind.
I
would deem my lecture incomplete, were I to omit
noticing the assumption of Christians, which,
suicide-like, some spiritualizing Jews acquiesce in,
that the prayers of our neighbours are more
spiritual than ours; and as an evidence we are
referred to the formula called the Lord’s prayer,
which is said to have been composed by the founder
of the Nazarene creed himself. It is found in
Matthew vi., and is in these words:—“Our Father,
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is
in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And
forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and
the glory, for ever.”
No
one will gainsay that this prayer contains correct
ideas of devotion, and conveys them in concise and
proper terms. But, from what has been said already
this evening, it would be the work of supererogation
to prove its simple Jewish origin and its conformity
with materials in our own possession, and which were
in vogue when the man of Nazareth is said to have
lived on earth. The phrase Abinu Shebashamayin
is so entirely Hebrew that no one can mistake it for
a moment for one of foreign origin. The Talmudists
loved to regard God as their Father, in conformity
to the Scripture phraseology in a great variety of
passages. “Hallowed be thy name” are the identical
words with which the Kaddish commences,—Yithgaddal,
Veyitkaddash Shemay Rabbah &c., “May his great
name be extolled and hallowed in the world which he
hath created according to his will.” “Thy kingdom
come” are the words which follow “May he establish
his kingdom.” “Thy will be done on earth as it is
in heaven” is almost identical with the form of the
usual weekday Kedushah, of the German form, or of
the Portuguese, for the ninth of Ab, which
commences, “We will sanctify thy name in thy world,
as they sanctify it in the highest heaven.” “Give us
this day our daily bread,” is the prayer of the
sage,—“Give me my daily <<287>> bread,”—which is
interwoven in many portions of our devotional
exercises. “And forgive us our debts” is “Forgive
us, O our Father, for we have sinned,” of the 'Amidah
“as we forgive our debtors” is almost the same with
the formula שדי ליה מרא
למאן דמצער לי “forgive, O Lord, the one who
aggrieveth me.” “And lead us not into temptation” is
the same as in the Shacharith, “And lead us
not into the power of sin, transgression,
temptation, nor contempt.” “But deliver us from
evil” is identical with “Deliver us from a bad
man,—evil occurrences,” &c. And lastly, “For thine
is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for
ever,” is only a paraphrase of the words of David in
1 Chron. xxix. 11: “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness,
power, glory, victory, and majesty; for all that is
in the heaven or on the earth is thine.”
There is, according to this exposition, nothing
original in this celebrated Christian prayer; all
it can claim is that it is a compilation not
possessed by us. But we really doubt whether the
views which it embodies are properly comprehended by
those who make use of it; since the petition that
God’s kingdom should come precludes the assumption
that the author of it could have been the Messiah
who is destined to advance that very kingdom which
is here asked for.
But it is time that I should conclude. Gladly would
I have given you a more carefully prepared lecture,
more worthy every way of your acceptance; but since
your kind invitation to address you this evening has
been received, I have been absent for near a week,
and my time since my return has been so much
occupied, that I have barely been enabled to sketch
hurriedly what I have done. You will easily see that
I have touched upon a great variety of topics
connected with our subject hut let me trust that
your good sense and personal inquiry will supply any
defect which you may discover. I have done.
Iyar 20th, May 22d, 5611. |
