In the Jewish liturgy, there is a
dynamic fluctuation between communal and private prayer. On Yom Kippur,we
are reminded that each of us is alone before G-d, yet we are standing
before Him as one united body: Kehal Yisroel.
In many of the commentaries on
the workings of the Yom Kippur "process", the lack of genuine teshuvah (return
in repentance) of just one community member has the potential to invalidate the acceptability of the prayer of the entire group. Fortunately, we believe in
a G-d who is compassionate and merciful to all of us and we hope that such strict Justice will never be imposed upon us.
We also believe that the merits
of the Tzaddikim can shield us from the rigours of that same strict
Justice. Similarly, the merits of the few truly righteous members of an apparently insignificant small congregation have the potential
to elevate the spiritual standing of the entire community of
Israel.
The dynamic inter-relationship of the individual and the collective is a concept that is dotted throughout the Torah. In Parshas Ahare Mos, for example, we read of the
detailed instructions for the liturgy of the High Priest on Yom Kippur, the Day
for Atonement. The proximate Parshas Kedoshim speaks of
the ways we are enjoined to “love our neighbour as ourselves” (Vayikra
19:18).
The two are, not surprisingly, very closely related: The
ritual act of atonement consists in the three steps of (i) praying for oneself;
(ii)praying for one’s near ones; and (iii) praying for the wider
community (Vayikra 16:17). This process begins with a prayer for
oneself but then moves on to two further prayers for others. The first
flows into the other two because that first self-focused prayer exists
primarily to make our subsequent prayers for the community acceptable.
Prayer is one of the deepest and most
selfless forms of caring for others that we are privileged to exercise as human
partners in the Divine Plan.
It is a hidden activity which does not
draw attention to the ego, and it can be exercised not just by Leviim and
Kohanim, but by anyone with a good and pure intention. Such profound and
atoning prayer may be performed in physical solitude or in the midst of a
congregation— It is a paradox of Jewish prayer that it is always communal and
(at its most profound) always a matter of an individual’s intimate communion
with G-d.
When it is performed in solitude
one never prays “outside” the community, and when one prays in the company of
other daveners, the real “business” still takes place in the sanctuary of one’s
own heart.
In Vayikra we read the
instructions for the High Priest on Yom Kippur:
“And there shall be
no man in the tent of meeting when he goes in to make atonement for the holy
place, until he comes out after having made atonement for himself, and for his
household, and for all the assembly of Israel.”
Vayikra 16:17
Though the vast majority of halakhic
commentaries on the liturgy place communal prayer in a firm position of
superiority over individual prayer, and though the strictest and most physical
conception of “ minyan ” is the one which has prevailed to this day—the
fact remains that the principal prayer in our principal liturgical
ceremony, on our most holy day is performed by a single
individual in clearly commanded isolation.
He enters and prays alone, but (as his
vestments underline) the High Priest takes the whole community on his shoulders
and bears them on his heart. So do we if we bind
ourselves to the whole Community of Israel and to those we pray for. We
may pray alone, but if our prayer is to be true—we never pray without this
awareness of the community. It is for this reason—according to Rebbe
Nachman of Breslov—that the Arizal recommended that one begin the daily
services with the declaration.
“Hareini mekabel 'alai mitsvat asei shel ve-ahavta
le-re'akha kamokha”
(I hereby accept upon myself the
positive commandment to love my fellow as myself.)
If we pray with and in the community—
we are remembering that our solitary prayers are always for
the benefit of all.
We too can stand before the ark in that
place of solitary pleading and encounter if G-d should choose that we might be
admitted. We are not high priests and yet we are invited to stand in The
Presence whenever we enter into liturgical or contemplative prayer with a whole
heart—with burning deveykus and the intention to draw close
our G-d.
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev said
that a person who prays with sincerity is actually standing in the Holy of
Holies when they pray, and that such a person’s upheld hands are like the wings
of the keruvim above the ark.
Before davening, we bind ourselves
in hiskashrus to the merits of those greater than ourselves in
the hope that we may ourselves be elevated. Thus strengthened, our prayers may
be of more use to those for whom we pray, and for those who may need our
assistance. In this context, it is said that Rebbe Mikhal of
Zlotchov used to begin his davening with the prayer:
"I join myself to all of Israel:To those who are more than I,that through them I may rise-and to those who are less than I,so that they may rise through my thought."(M. Buber "Tales of the Hasidim" p150)
In such a broad community of
saints and sinners, we are never alone in prayer and we have a duty to make our
contemplative lives an activity of community-focused chesed and
atonement worthy of one such as Aharon the High Priest.
©Nachman Davies
Erev Yom Kippur 5778
(September 29 2017)
