debka_notion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
debka_notion) wrote2005-10-10 05:32 pm
debka_notion) wrote2005-10-10 05:32 pm
Praying to the "Tishrei G-d" and Takhanun
First off, I'm quoting Steve, a fabulous frosh with whom I'm making friends by talking about this aspect of prayer as talking to the Tishrei G-d. (This is currently the month of Tishrei, full of holidays with interesting theological issues, the main one currently being repentance.)
So I was just praying and a number of things came to mind in regards to Tishrei theology and tachanun (a section of the service, theoretically optional, basically doing twice a day 5 1/2 days a week, barring holidays, what we do constantly during Yom Kippur- aka, "G-d, we lack merit but we think you're swell, and we're really trying- please forgive us?"). The first was a statement![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nuqotw made to me what seems like ages ago, that Takhanun was something to be said in English and very quickly. In some ways I agree- I started off with it in English to know what I was saying (significantly later than she said this), and it's a marvelously potent piece of text for something so short. (Note that I'm only familiar with the text in Siddur Sim Shalom which is rather different from that in Orthodox siddurim, I'm told.) I often read it in Hebrew at this point, but still sometimes switch to the English, something I do for very few sections of the liturgy, since I generally feel like the Hebrew says it better. But Takhanun is different somehow. There's something oddly potent about it as a unit, rather than my frequent approach with is to connect with some chosen words of ideas in any piece of text and really pick the details for power in my relationship with G-d. I've yet to bring myself to do that with Takhanun much, and I'm not sure I Want to. Nor do I know quite what makes it so different. But there's something.
The body language is pretty potent too. Putting one's head Down really compliments the mood and message of the text. Soemtimes it really talks to me and draws me in to a sort of difficult piece of theology, sometimes not. Often when I bow in other religious contexts lately, I take it as a reminder that G-d is everywhere rather than using it just as the stereotypical lowering of self in relation to a raised divine presence. Instead, it can also be a drawing closer to parts of G-d's presence that we overlook, quite literally. But that isn't the mindset for repentance. But imagining G-d drawing me upwards as I sit straight again after the first real paragraph and again as I stand up towards the end has been an interesting experience lately.
Returning to the larger theme here, there's something about repentance that makes a lot of Jews uncomfortable. I think too many of us associate repentance with confession in the Catholic sense, and feel like it's something we need to get out of the way as briefly as possible. I spent a lot of my childhood hearing people say, around the high holidays, that "Jews are lucky, we get to get our confessing out of the way once a year, wholesale." (My hometown is a fairly Catholic place- it took me until middle school or so to realize that not all Christians were Catholics, and it wasn't that I was living in an entirely Jewish bubble-world, let me assure you.) There's this idea that too much repenting isn't very Jewish. One might note that Takhanun is entirely excluded from every Reform siddur that I've seen (admittedly, not That many, and I've had fairly little contact with weekday services in them: they weren't used much at home). And it's still something that I feel a bit strangely about, even excluding the theological issues (which are huge, and I don't know where to start with them. I think the only reason Tishrei doesn't give me the theological heeby-jeebies is that I find deep significance in discomfort with pieces of religious thinking.). But it wraps up with one of the issues of American Judaism- we seem to spend more time on who we're not than on who we are, and by excluding things because they're traditionally thought of as Christian theological items, we deprive ourselves of religious depth. I'm just not sure where to go with the whole issue from here.
So I was just praying and a number of things came to mind in regards to Tishrei theology and tachanun (a section of the service, theoretically optional, basically doing twice a day 5 1/2 days a week, barring holidays, what we do constantly during Yom Kippur- aka, "G-d, we lack merit but we think you're swell, and we're really trying- please forgive us?"). The first was a statement
nuqotw made to me what seems like ages ago, that Takhanun was something to be said in English and very quickly. In some ways I agree- I started off with it in English to know what I was saying (significantly later than she said this), and it's a marvelously potent piece of text for something so short. (Note that I'm only familiar with the text in Siddur Sim Shalom which is rather different from that in Orthodox siddurim, I'm told.) I often read it in Hebrew at this point, but still sometimes switch to the English, something I do for very few sections of the liturgy, since I generally feel like the Hebrew says it better. But Takhanun is different somehow. There's something oddly potent about it as a unit, rather than my frequent approach with is to connect with some chosen words of ideas in any piece of text and really pick the details for power in my relationship with G-d. I've yet to bring myself to do that with Takhanun much, and I'm not sure I Want to. Nor do I know quite what makes it so different. But there's something. The body language is pretty potent too. Putting one's head Down really compliments the mood and message of the text. Soemtimes it really talks to me and draws me in to a sort of difficult piece of theology, sometimes not. Often when I bow in other religious contexts lately, I take it as a reminder that G-d is everywhere rather than using it just as the stereotypical lowering of self in relation to a raised divine presence. Instead, it can also be a drawing closer to parts of G-d's presence that we overlook, quite literally. But that isn't the mindset for repentance. But imagining G-d drawing me upwards as I sit straight again after the first real paragraph and again as I stand up towards the end has been an interesting experience lately.
Returning to the larger theme here, there's something about repentance that makes a lot of Jews uncomfortable. I think too many of us associate repentance with confession in the Catholic sense, and feel like it's something we need to get out of the way as briefly as possible. I spent a lot of my childhood hearing people say, around the high holidays, that "Jews are lucky, we get to get our confessing out of the way once a year, wholesale." (My hometown is a fairly Catholic place- it took me until middle school or so to realize that not all Christians were Catholics, and it wasn't that I was living in an entirely Jewish bubble-world, let me assure you.) There's this idea that too much repenting isn't very Jewish. One might note that Takhanun is entirely excluded from every Reform siddur that I've seen (admittedly, not That many, and I've had fairly little contact with weekday services in them: they weren't used much at home). And it's still something that I feel a bit strangely about, even excluding the theological issues (which are huge, and I don't know where to start with them. I think the only reason Tishrei doesn't give me the theological heeby-jeebies is that I find deep significance in discomfort with pieces of religious thinking.). But it wraps up with one of the issues of American Judaism- we seem to spend more time on who we're not than on who we are, and by excluding things because they're traditionally thought of as Christian theological items, we deprive ourselves of religious depth. I'm just not sure where to go with the whole issue from here.
no subject
no subject
On non-Torah reading days, they are actually very close. What the Sim Shalom does not have all of is the text for Torah reading days.
[...]and by excluding things because they're traditionally thought of as Christian theological items...
One of the things that really bothers me about Judaism in general is the number of knee-jerk reactions to Christianity (for an example, take a look at k'dusha d'sidra, and consider why the Aramaic translation is present).
[...]there's something about repentance that makes a lot of Jews uncomfortable...
I cannot imagine that repentence makes ANYONE comfortable, insofar as it requires admitting to wrongdoing and taking responsibility for one's own actions. Even those who actually do it (not everyone does) still find it extremely difficult at times and even very humbling.
G'mar v'chatima tova.
The Vortex
no subject