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July 11, 2003/Tamuz 11 5763, Vol. 55, No.46
Healthy worship must change
Torah study
RABBI STEVEN MILLS
Chukat-Balak/Numbers 19:1-25:9
Focal point
"This is the ritual law that Adonai has commanded: Instruct the Israelite people to bring you a red cow without blemish. ... You shall give it to Eleazar the priest. It shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. ... The cow shall be burned in his sight. ... A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the cow and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, to be kept for water of lustration for the Israelite community. It is for cleansing." (Numbers 19:2-9)
D'var Torah
In 1997, I received the following e-mail before Passover: "Dear Rabbi: I am not familiar with the Jewish holidays as they are observed today. I have understood that you still celebrate Passover. I have also been told that your members serve the Passover Lamb (or goat). ... Maybe we could meet each other's needs. I have six kids that I need to sell."
It is easy to understand how a person who knows Judaism only through the lens of the Bible would think that the descriptions of the sacrificial service represent Jewish worship today. For our biblical ancestors, worship meant taking an animal to an altar to offer up a ritual sacrifice to God, but first the people had to be pure. The ritual of the red heifer created ashes for that purification.
A radical transformation took place in Jewish worship after the destruction of the Second Temple. It is the genius of the Jewish leaders of the time that they had the vision to transform the sacrificial cult to ha'avodah shebalev, "service of the heart," or prayer.
Jewish worship has gone through many transformations since 70 C.E. The Reform Movement has made both minor revisions and radical reformations in Jewish worship. We heard the clarion call for change again this year in Reform congregations throughout North America as the new prayer book, "Mishkan T'filah," was piloted in advance of its publication.
This opportunity for study and immersion in the texts has enriched worship and an understanding of prayer.
There was a partnership between the Temple priests and the Israelites in worship; the priests needed an Israelite to bring an offering to the altar, and the Israelite relied upon the expertise of the priest. This partnership is being renewed in our age. When congregants evaluate worship and clergy share their expertise, community prayer becomes meaningful for everyone.
By the way
"Jewish community prayer would cease to be Jewish community prayer if today's worship service were to be something totally and entirely different from yesterday's worship service, or last week's, or last year's, or that of a hundred years or two thousand years ago." (Jakob J. Petuchowski, "Understanding Jewish Prayer," p. 6)
Perhaps first and foremost, prayer is a delivery system for committing us to great ideas that make life worth living, because ideas that are ritually construed empower us to do what we would otherwise never have the courage to do. (Lawrence A. Hoffman, "The Way Into Jewish Prayer," p. 104)
Your guide
- At what moment in your life has prayer meant the most to you?
- What empowering experience have you had in a worship setting? What was it that contributed to the moment?
- What do you do to prepare for prayer? How does this preparation enrich your worship experience?
Rabbi Steven Mills is the regional director of the UAHC Northeast Lakes Council/Detroit Federation, Cleveland.
Torat Hayim, produced by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, is on the Internet at www.uahc.org/growth.
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