Thursday, January 13, 2005

part 2 psalms and kohelet 11-1

In chapter 34, all of the sentences from the second are in Hebrew alphabetical order. Like the "ashrei" prayer which is said three times a day. It's the opening of mincha, the afternoon prayer, if you're not familiar with it, you can easily find it there in a traditional, Orthodox siddur, prayer book. It is said with every prayer session.
In the order of the "aleph," "bet," because G-d created the world with the letters in that order.

2- We must thank G-d for everything. even what seems bad. and we must pray to G-d.
3- like a child identifies with his parents, imitates them, we must imitate G-d and praise Him. anavim, the humble ones, those without egos. They can identify with , feel for others. If the ego's too large, one can't think of anyone else.
(I remember once reading an artilce in a woman/parenting magazine that claimed that there should be at least three years between children to "allow for full ego develpment." That's the most rediculous thing to encourage selfish children as an ideal.) It is important to be anav.
4- Here we get into an important part of Judaism, the community, minyan. Prayers are superiior in groups, not isolated. A group has more strength. We learned it in Kohelet, that the three-ply rope is stronger than the single. One should follow the shaliach tzibbur who leads the dovening and hear his brachot, blessings. There's a difference between t'filat hatzibbur and tfila b'tzibbur prayer of the group or prayer in a group. Best is when one prays and others say amen. Problem is that when people are supposed to be listening, they can't concetrate and their minds wander, so we pray along together.
yachdav with him. Who is the "him?" Is it G-d, the chazan or other people? There should be harmony; each doing his part, and together beautiful.

That's it for the day's t'hilim. Amazing an hour spent discussing only 4 lines.

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