Preparing for Seder Part 3鈥擵isual Midrash on the Four Children
Apr 11, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Pesah
The four children (formerly known as the four sons) are among the most provocative part of the seder鈥攆or children provoke their parents. That is why Elijah is needed to restore peace between the generations. The evolution of the text as we find it in our Haggadah is complex, and interesting explanations can be found in the recent 91快播 collection of Sound Bytes of Torah for Passove on YouTube. I have long been fascinated by the interpretation in imagery that offers four books, presumably each book representing one of the four 鈥渢ypes鈥� of child. But which one is which?
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Breath of Life鈥擭ight or Morning
Apr 3, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
The journey through the Passover seder is beloved by many households and communities that gather together. While the meal itself is a feast, the Aggadah, the telling of the story that comes before it, is a rich and multifaceted experience that brings together text and song, classic primary sources, modern interpretations, and personal experience.
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Elijah鈥擣amilies and the End of Days
Mar 27, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Pesah
Elijah is an enigmatic and beloved figure in the Passover seder, with a myriad of explanations for his appearance and role. It鈥檚 worth noting that Elijah appears first in our liturgical texts even before we sit down to begin the seder: the haftarah for Shabbat Hagadol (the Shabbat before Pesah) is from the end of Malachi, and concludes with the haunting words, 鈥淏ehold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of Adonai; and he will return the hearts of parents to their children, and the hearts of children to their parents.鈥�
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Time and Eternity on Shabbat Morning (Part 2)
Mar 19, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Here is a parable for worship from the experience of my wife, a management consultant. A professor comes into class at Harvard Business School with a glass bucket, which he places on the desk. He then takes some large rocks from under the desk, places as many of them in the bucket as will fit, and asks the class if the bucket is full. The students (of course) reply that it is. He then takes out some pebbles and pours them into the bucket until it overflows, and, upon being questioned, the students again affirm the bucket is full. A bag of sand is then procured and poured into the bucket, followed by the same question, and finally water鈥攅ach of these examples drawing some suspicion and hesitancy from the students. The class is then asked the point of this exercise, and a couple of bright ones who have read The One Minute Manager reply that it鈥檚 always possible to squeeze a little more into the day, to achieve one more small task. The professor replies, 鈥淭he only way to get the big rocks in is to put them in first.鈥�
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Time and Eternity in Shabbat Services (Part 1)
Mar 11, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
I remember well a warning from one of my teachers in rabbinical school (for me, the Leo Baeck College in London). We were discussing Shabbat morning services, and the warning was to young(ish) rabbis and rabbinical students that if we 鈥渋ndulge ourselves too greatly in liturgy, the result will be that the ovens of our congregants will come to be the homes of a new generation of burnt offerings.鈥� The message was quite clear that these burnt offerings would be desirable neither to our congregants nor to God.
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鈥淟ight and Dark, Peace and . . . ?鈥�
Mar 5, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Many regular shul-goers are familiar with the two blessings that precede the Shema鈥� in the morning service (whether on a weekday, Shabbat, or Festival). The first (Yotzer) addresses God鈥檚 role in the natural cycles of creation and the physical world, and the second (Ahavah Rabbah) speaks of God鈥檚 love for Israel, manifested in the gift of Torah. After the opening blessing formula, Yotzer continues, 鈥�yotzer or u-vorei choshech, oseh shalom u-vorei et ha-kol鈥� (God forms light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates everything; Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat, 107). The text has a poetic balance and engages with familiar metaphors; it is no surprise to learn that this line is based upon Isaiah, as much of the text of the siddur is based upon biblical sources and allusions.
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On Doubt and Prayer (Part 4): 鈥淪oul鈥� of Prayer
Feb 19, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
In the preliminary section of the morning service, the siddur guides us through some of the most basic concepts of our existence. We ask each day, 鈥�Mah anu? Meh chayeinu?鈥� (Who are we? What are our lives?), and I confess that I always wonder if the questions are rhetorical or if they demand from us, each day, an answer. Each day, we also turn to two paragraphs that address the core nature of every human being: the siddur invites us to affirm that we are more than 鈥渁 body with vessels and glands, organs, and systems of wondrous design鈥� (Siddur Sim Shalom for Weekdays, 4), and presents the challenging, inspiring, and even comforting words, 鈥�Elohai neshamah she-natata bi tehorah hi鈥� (My God, the soul You planted within me is pure). Very starkly, the soul is identified as a gift from God, created by God and 鈥渂reathed into us,鈥� that will one day be taken from the body. Unlike Descartes, who in his Meditations on First Philosophy reflects extensively on where precisely in the body the soul is to be located, the siddur does not deal with this question.
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On Doubt and Prayer (Part 3)
Feb 11, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
The droughts experienced recently in California and Israel became so severe that religious leaders of many faith traditions called for special prayers for rain. In the context of the history of Jewish liturgy, this is especially resonant, for much of our earliest data about rabbinic liturgy is based upon the detailed description of prayers for rain in the Mishnah (see Mishnah Ta鈥檃nit chapters 1 and 2, and extensive discussion in the Gemara). However, prayers for rain, especially in modernity, also bring us immediately into some of the most challenging contemporary reflections about prayer and ritual: 鈥淒oes it work?!鈥� Even though meteorology is far from an exact science, I suspect that there are few (if any) climate scientists who would include ritual gatherings, no matter how sincere, among the variables that determine the likelihood of rain.
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