Be emotionally present and responsive in prayer

Rabbi Sam Thurgood.

Parshat Beshalach

Beit Midrash Morasha

To read the words in the siddur is easy. Even to have a sense that we are speaking to Hashem is fairly straightforward: the fact that we’re in shul, surrounded by other people davening, is certainly a big help.

But what about the feelings? One thing we should know is that not every prayer feels the same. Some prayers inspire us with their beauty and scope, others help us to feel grounded and settled with simple and practical faith.

The Song of the Sea, one of the greatest songs in the Torah, is a major feature of our parsha. After their terror at the prospect of being recaptured by the fearsome Egyptian army, the Jewish people witness the most awesome public miracle of all time. The sea split, the nation passes through peacefully, and those who intended to enslave them by force, the people who had oppressed them and murdered their children, are hurled into the roaring waves of the returning sea, never to be seen again.

The Jewish people sing a song of faith and deliverance, a song of glory and victory. Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook says that what we are trying to achieve here is to honour Hashem – not an intellectual realisation in our minds, but a deep yearning for G-d within us expressed in song. We are attempting to capture in words the song that our soul sings daily without words.

I’d like to contrast this with another wonderful song we sing daily – Ashrei. The core of Ashrei is Psalm 145 written by King David, and the Talmud tells us that if we say this prayer three times daily, we will have a place in the World to Come. My rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Avraham Goldfein, pointed out that clearly it’s not simply saying the song by rote, but living it and applying it.

Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch says that Ashrei is a song that shows us the goodness of Hashem. You know, so often we see (or seek) Hashem in times of crisis and difficulty – and that’s a good thing – but it can lead us perhaps to be a foul-weather friend to G-d; or worse, to link Him in our minds always to misfortune. Ashrei teaches us the opposite.

The good things in our life come from Hashem. He is gracious and compassionate, He sustains all of creation, He lifts us up when we fall. We should end Ashrei with a smile on our face.

These two songs – so different in style and feeling: glory and gratitude, splendid victory and quiet happiness – come together in our daily prayers, together with so many other emotions in our journey through the Siddur. May Hashem bless us to say, and to feel, our prayers daily.

Shabbat Shalom!