DOES PRAYER WORK?

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

I love when people say, “I am sending you my thoughts and prayers.” What exactly do they mean by it?

Many people pray on the assumption that God hears them and, if the praying individual is worthy, God will respond positively. The Bible clearly states that God “hears my voice, my pleas; for He turns His ear whenever I call” (Ps. 116: 1), or, “The Lord hears and saves them from their troubles” (Ps. 34: 18). Similarly, during the Jewish daily service, one praise God, “who hears prayer” (Amidah).

Today, almost every Jewish religious service ends with a prayer (in Hebrew called “Mi Sheberah- He who blessed…,”) calling upon God to bring healing to individuals mentioned  verbally by the worshippers. In traditional settings, this prayer is recited during the Torah service, with the scroll covered, but recently it has proliferated to the point that it is being offered at almost every congregational prayer, often using the melody by Debbie Friedman. The question is, does it work?

There are basically three types of prayer: petition, praise and thanksgiving. The issue is not with the last two; it is with the first kind. Theologians and psychologists have debated the question of the efficacy of petionary prayers for centuries, some arguing in favor and others in the negative.  Those who define God in theistic terms believe that petitionary prayers work, because God is a Persona who cares, loves and responds. On the other hand, religious naturalists, like me, claim that God, as the energy of the universe, does not respond to petitionary prayers, because that would imply that God interferes with the normal operation of the universe. God does not do that. God keeps the world going through its own internal energy, which is still not totally understood.  Furthermore, if these prayers are not heard or responded to, it would turn God into an uncaring, and worse, cruel being.  

I believe that prayers help the individual who prays. There are indeed many benefits to prayers, because they help the individual or the community to focus on the subject matter at hand; they deepen their understanding of how the world realy operates; they give voice to the desires and expectations of those who pray with a sense of reality; they strengthen the bonds that bind one person to another during worship, and help them develop a positive outlook on life. Obviously, prayers have to be realistic and not beyond the realm of possibility. Even the Rabbis of old have maintained that “to pray over the past is to utter a vain prayer” (Ber. 9:3).

So, let us concentrate on prayers of thanksgiving, expressing gratitude for everything we have; on prayers of praise that highlight the wonders of the universe, and accept the reality of life with modesty and humility. The world is not perfect, and it is our job to make it better and better. Prayer can give us that insight to do our share.

 

 

 

 

 
 

BEING A SEPHARDIC JEW

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

There are two main groups in the Jewish world today. Some are called Ashkenazic Jews, namely those who come from Eastern Europe, and Sephardic Jews, that is those who are of Spanish origin. (The word SEFARAD means "Spain" in Hebrew). This division is old and goes back to the early medieval times.

A large number of Jews arrived in Spain in 711, after Tarik ibn Ziyyad, a Berber Moslem, and  his army crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, and conquered southern Spain. When North African Jews got there, they found a small Visigothic Jewish community, but they quickly overwhelmed them with their numbers and high culture. During the next few hundred years, Jews created a “Golden Age” in Spain, which included great luminaries, such as the biblical commentator, Abraham ibn Ezra, the Aristotelian philosopher, Moses Maimonides and the great Hebrew poet, Judah Halevi. However, their lives began to sour with the Reconquista, when Christian forces began to push down the Arabs. In 1391, many Jews were killed in Seville during a riot. Finally in 1492, claiming that the Jews were a bad influence on the new Christian converts, King Ferdinand and his wife, queen Isabela, issued a decree of expulsion for all Jews. From then on, Spanish Jews started to spread all over Europe and north Africa. A number of them eventually arrived in the Ottoman Empire ,which gladly welcomed them because of the special skills they possessed. (By the way, Spain revoked the decree in 1968).

There are a number of cultural and religious differences between Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews. The first used Yiddish, based on German, as their daily language, whereas Sephardic Jews, developed Ladino, based on Spanish. They also differ on the special chant each one uses for the weekly chanting of the Hebrew Bible, the great variety of foods they are proud to have, and the inclusion of different Hebrew poetry in their daily liturgy.

In addition to Sephardic Jews, who are of Spanish/Portuguese origin,  there are many other Jews, like Iranian Jews, Yemenite Jews, Ethiopian Jews, who are often called Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) Jews, and follow the Sephardic customs but they are not technically Sephardic, because they did  not come out of Spain. 

Today, Sephardic Jews can be found in many parts of the world, many in Israel, but also in South America, Europe and Turkey. Most Sephardic Jews tend to be more traditionalist. However, with greater intermingling between these two groups, the differences are beginning to diminish. For example, I, a Sephardic Jew from Turkey, married an Ashkenazic Jewish woman from Argentina, and we happily keep a mixed house.

WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT ABRAHAM?

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D.

In reality, very little!

In the Hebrew Bible, Abram, later called Abraham, appears as the first of the three patriarchs, and the founder of the Israelites. We are told that he was born in “Ur of the Chaldeans” and, that at God’s bidding, he left for the land of Canaan (Gen. 11:31). God also promised that his descendants would own this new land (Gen. 12: 7). Famine, however, forced him to go to Egypt (Gen. 12: 10). When he returned to Canaan, he appears to be a very wealthy man (Gen. 13: 2). He had two wives (Sarah and Keturah), and a concubine, Hagar (Gen. 16: 3) as well as a few children, including Isaac and Ishmael. God set up a covenant with Abraham, promising him that he will be “the father of a great multitude” (Gen. 17: 5). At Sarah’s death, he bought the Cave of Mahpelah near Hebron as a family burying place, and when he himself died, he was buried in it, at the age of 175, next to his wife, Sarah (Gen.25).

The stories about Abraham in the Bible read like an elaborate legend about a leader who is not a perfect individual: He is a righteous person, compassionate and  hospitable with strangers (Gen.18), but also an unscrupulous liar when he tries to pass off his wife, Sarah, as his sister in order to save his skin (Gen. 12: 13). “He believed in God” (Gen. 15:6), we are told, and was blindly loyal, to the point of willing to sacrifice his son Isaac to God (Gen. 22).

There are a number of textual and historical inaccuracies in the biblical description of Abraham, which would indicate that the stories about him most likely circulated orally and were finally written down after a long period of time: for example,

aa. He is not mentioned in any other ancient Near Eastern texts. We do not even know when he actually lived.

bb. The expression “Ur of the Chaldeans” (Gen.11:31) is problematic, because we do not know where the city is located. Furthermore, when the city of Ur existed, there were no Chaldeans, and vice versa. 

cc. There seems to be an internal discrepancy within the text that deal with Abraham’s departure. In Gen.11:31, he departs from Ur with his family, but in Gen.12:1,4, he seems to leave only with his nephew, Lot. Modern scholars ascribe each story to a different literary source (namely P and J).

dd. When the Bible states, “The Canaanites were then in the land” (Gen. 12:6), it implies that they do not exist now. However, when Abraham allegedly lived, there were indeed Canaanites in the land. (9) Clearly, this text was written much later when the Canaanites had disappeared as an identifiable group.

ee. The Bible claims that Abraham died at the age of 175. This number, obviously, cannot be taken literally. In fact, none of the numbers in the Hebrew Bible can be taken as historical fact. They are mostly symbolic and have cultural significance.

The legends about Abraham continued to evolve in time, with a clear tendency to portray him as perfect as possible. In the New Testament, Abraham appears as a dominant figure: Matthew traces Jesus back to him (1:1); in fact, according to John, Jesus was present even before Abraham (5:58). James stresses Abraham’s faith and says that his was so great that he would have offered his son willingly to God (2:21).

The Book of Jubilees (c. 2nd cent. BCE), describes Abraham as a famous astronomer (Chap. 12). Its author also believed that Sarah was taken from Abraham “by force” (Chap. 13) and not as the result of Abraham’s plea that she should pass herself as his sister (Gen.12).

 Josephus, the Jewish historian (born in Jerusalem in 37 CE and died in Rome in 100 CE) considers Abraham as “a person of great sagacity” (Ant. Book I, 7:1), a man of “incomparable virtue” (Ant. I:17) and an astronomer (Ant I.7:1). He discovered monotheism on his own (Ant. I.8: 1). According to Josephus, Isaac willingly went up to the altar to be sacrificed (Ant. I.13:4). Furthermore, the Pharaoh never abused Sarah, and when he discovered that she was his wife and not his sister, he excused himself to Abraham and showered them with all kinds of gifts (Ant. I. 8:1). For Philo, the Greek-Jewish philosopher of Alexandria (c. 15-10 BCE- 45/50 CE), Abraham stands for the person who has total faith in God (Virt. 39).

In the Quran, Abraham appears as a grand personality, who was “a man of truth, a prophet” (Sura 19). He was viewed as the patriarch of the Islamic faith: “the Father of Muslims” (Sura 22) as well as the “imam of the nations” (Sura 2). To him is attributed the construction of the Ka’aba and the pilgrimage rites to it (Sura 2). God, according to the Quran, ordered him to sacrifice his son, left nameless (Sura 37). Muslim tradition, however, stresses that this was not Isaac, but his brother Ishmael, the patriarch of Islam and the forefather of Muhammad.

In the rabbinic literature, the number and the intensity of the legends about “Abraham our father,” reach their highest level. For example, we are told that when he was born, a star rose in the east and swallowed four stars in the four corners of heaven. He discovered monotheism on his own. He learned Torah all by himself. He almost sacrificed Isaac when Satan appeared and shoved Abraham’s arm aside so that the knife fell out of his hand. He was tested with ten trials and stood firm in all of them. 

Abraham most likely was a real person, but, it is almost impossible to ascertain the historical details of his life. His legendary stature increased as time went on.

 

WHITE LIES

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

In my professional life, either as an author or as a speaker, I try to be very careful about what I say and what I write. I am also trained as a lawyer and know that every word counts, because words, I believe, have power of action. According to the Bible, when God began to create the world, the text says, “God said: let there be light , and there was light” (Gen.1:3). So, God created the universe (allegorically) with the power of words. In ancient times, borders were secured by placing curses on signs, on the assumption that if one crossed illegally, the curse itself would take effect. Following the teachings of the biblical Book of Proverbs that state, “Death and Life are within the power of the tongue” (18:21), I try to use the media truthfully, not to destroy but to build. I am aware of the fact that it is easier to criticize and to denigrate, and it takes a greater effort to support, encourage or uplift the other. Ultimately, lies beget other lies, whereas truth prevails. Remember, words can be forgiven but can never be forgotten.

Yet, there are occasions when truth can be very hurtful, and can destroy friendships and family bonds. So, at times one resorts to a white lie. What is a while lie? It is an untruth told to spare feelings. The difference between a “black lie” and a “white lie” is that one uses a “black lie” to gain a personal benefit, whereas a “white lie” is often used to please another. The Torah records a good example: In Genesis 18, when God promised Abraham that he would have a child in a year’s time, Sarah, his wife, said to herself, “Now that I am withered, am I to have enjoyment-seeing that my husband is so old” (v.12). Yet, when God repeated these words to Abraham, he changed them to say, not that Abraham was old but that Sarah was old. Thus, as the medieval rabbinic commentator Rashi points out, God saved the good relationship between husband and wife.

The ancient Rabbis also knew of white lies and allowed them in limited circumstances. Here is an example. In the Talmud (Ket. 17a) we are told that the Rabbis were discussing the issue of how to describe the bride in a marriage document. The followers of the school of Shammai argued that the bride should be described truthfully, “as she is.” Whereas the followers of the school of Hillel maintained that the bride should always be described as being pretty. The Sages concluded that in marriage one praises the wife as being fair and attractive.

According to the ancient Rabbis, it is permissible to even exaggerate the facts in order  to establish peace between individuals. Here is an example:

When two people had a dispute, Aaron [the High Priest] went and sat near one of them and said to him: "My son, see what your friend is doing? He is beating his heart and tearing his clothing saying: "Woe is me. How can I lift up my eyes and look at my friend. I am ashamed of myself since I was the one who offended him." Aaron would sit with him until he removed the hatred from his heart. Aaron would then go and sit next to the other and say to him: "My son, see what your friend is doing? He is beating his heart and tearing his clothing saying: "Woe is me. How can I lift up my eyes and look at my friend. I am ashamed of myself since I was the one who offended him." Aaron would sit with him until he removed the hatred from his heart.When the two met, they would they hugged and kissed each other. (Avot de Rabbi Natan 12:3).

Modern writers very often support the use of white lies to promote goodwill. Doing some research online, I found a source that lists 60 popular white lies, whereas another one has 15. Some white lies save relationships, others ease a hectic situation and yet others buy us some time. Among them, we have, “Yeah, you look great in this dress,” “I have no idea how fast I was going,” “I’ll start working on that ASAP,” “He/she was with me last night,” “I thought I already sent that email out.” I would also add, “the check is in the mail.”

As long as we are not hurting others or breaking the law, these white lies make life more pleasant. However, if they become routine, and are used all the time, we undermine the trust that others have in us. In the Talmud, Yeb.63 a, we are told that Rav (3^rd century, Amora) did not have a good relationship with his wife. In the words of the Talmud, “She would constantly aggravate him.”  When Hiyya, Rav’s son, grew up, he would alter his father’s words so as not to anger his mother. When Rab became aware of his son’s tactics, he told him to stop doing that, less it becomes a life pattern for his son.

In our time, some politicians make use of white lies so often that we do not know where the truth is and where the lies begin. So, we don’t trust them. But that is not the correct way to communicate with others. We have to be truthful and reliable. So, my advice for you is to follow the teachings of Ecclesiastes that tells us to keep our words few in number (5:1), and to use white lies only in extreme cases. Please don’t forget to tell me you absolutely loved my short essay!!
  

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This is an introduction to Judaism that deals with history, basic beliefs, festivals and life-cycle rituals.