DOES GOD HEAR OUR PRAYERS?

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

 In the Hebrew Bible, the basic assumption is that God hears our prayers and responds. For example, the Psalmist declares, “Blessed is God who has not turned away my prayer” (Ps.66:20; see also 34:18; 116:1-2; 145:18). The prophet states, “Call and I will answer you” (Jer. 33:3). In the wisdom literature, God is viewed as one “who hears the prayer of the righteous (Prov. 15:29). And in the daily liturgy, we find that God “hearkens to prayer” (16^th benediction).

Yet, many prayers seem to be left unanswered in spite of our need, sincerity and fervor. Even the Psalmist at times complains, “How long, O Lord will you ignore me forever” (Ps. 13:1), and the prophet exclaims, “How long, O Lord, shall I cry out and you do not listen” (Hab.1:2). Some people justify God’s silence by the fact that we lack faith, or because we treated others wrongly or even because we are prideful.

In reality, the answer may be found elsewhere. Instead of worrying about whether God listens to our prayers or not, I suggest, we concentrate on the formulation of our prayers, which are nothing but an expression of our hopes and expectations of ourselves! It does not make a difference if someone is listening. The prayer exercise itself must help us formulate our prayers in a realistic and constructive manner—don’t ask for miracles or for the impossible-, giving us options for possible future behavior.

 What do you think?

GOOD DEEDS AND THEIR REWARD

 

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

 Recently, our online rabbinic study group in Boston got stuck on a statement in Midrash Rabba (c. 5^th cent. CE) that reads:

שומר מצוה לא ידע דבר רע (“whoever observes the commandments will not suffer anything bad”). (Mishpatim, 32:8)

 This is factually not correct. Many people observe the commandments and still do not get their deserved reward.

 Maybe, good deeds ought to be carried out for their own sake without concern for any reward. The satisfaction of having done something right, should be enough!

Do you agree?

 

BOOKS I HAVE PUBLISHED

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.d

Here below is the list of all the books I have published:

1.FINDING GOD (with D. Syme)- Behrman House

2.WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I DIE (with D. Syme)-Behrman House

3.MOSES' HORNS (Behrman House)

4.MANY FACES OF GOD (Behrman House)

5.AND GOD SPOKE (On the Decalogue)-Behrman House

6.SPIRITUAL PATHS (Turner)

7.MODERN JUDAISM (Cognella)

8.VIVIR VOMO JUDIO (Palibrio)

9.MOTIVE CLAUSES IN HEBREW LAW (SBL Dissertation Series 45)

10.A GOD WE CAN BELIEVE IN (with R. Agler)- Wipf and Stock

They are all available for purchase.

HEBREW TRANSLITERATION; PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, PhD

 Transliterating (or, Romanization of) Hebrew into English is a problem, primarily because Hebrew is a Semitic language and English is not.  Hebrew has some letters that are not reproduced in English or other languages that are not Semitic.  (Please note: Sumerian, even though it uses cuneiform signs, is not a Semitic language).

          Which are the problematic Hebrew letters?

 1.     The guttural letter HET  can be transliterated variously: h (in academic Hebrew, with a dot underneath), Chet (in German) , Jet (in Spanish) or simply h. I prefer the last one, even though, in English or Hebrew , it sounds close to the letter heh.

2.     The guttural letter AYIN can be rendered as a, even though it sounds like the simple Hebrew letter alef.  (Many Middle Eastern Jews still pronounce the letter correctly. Arabic has a similar letter)

3.     The letter R, is not rolled the way some Israelis do, but is rendered as a simple r.

4.     The letter KOF, at the back of your throat, is difficult to distinguish from the Hebrew letter KAF.

5.     The letter TET, t (with a dot underneath, in academic Hebrew), is not pronounced differently from t (taf).

6.     The letter SAMEH, is pronounced like the letter sin, as s.

           In my practice, the Hebrew alphabet is transliterated (and pronounced like Latin) as follows:

 a (alef), b (bet), v (vet), g (gimal), d (dalet), h (heh), v (vav), z (zayin), h (het), t (tet), y (yod), k (kaf), h (haf), l (lamed), m (mem), n (nun), s (sameh), a (ayin), p (peh), f (feh), ts (tsadi), k (kof), r (resh), sh (shin), s (sin), t (taf).

           NOTE: I do not like the transliteration of the festival of Hanukah, as Chanukah (as in German), or as Janukah (as in Spanish). In French, Chanukah, would be pronounced as Shanukah.

          Nor do I like to transliterate Baruh (“blessed”), as baruch.

           In Hebrew , a “happy holyday,” would be Hag Sameah, and not Chag           Sameach.

           Furthermore, today, in Israel, they use the Sefardic (i.e., of Spain) pronunciation of Hebrew and the Ashkenazic (Eastern-European) script. Therefore, we do not say and transliterate Boruh Ato Adonoy, but Baruh Ata Adonay. (“Blessed are you, Oh, God”).

           This is how I would transliterate the first sentence of the Hebrew Bible:

Bereshit bara Elohim et ha-shamayim ve-et ha-aretz. (“When God began to create heaven and earth” , JPS, Gen.1:1)

           Now, that is simple and readable!

 

 

 

 

A PRAYER OF HEALING; A Religious Naturalist Version

 

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D 

Here is an example of a traditional Jewish prayer for healing:

“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me and I shall be saved; for thou art my praise (Jer. 1714). May it be thy will, O Lord my God, and the God of my fathers, speedily to send from heaven a perfect cure, both spiritual and physical, unto my sickness. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who art the faithful and merciful Healer of all flesh. Amen” (The Authorized Daily Prayer Book, Joseph Hertz, p. 1061) 

          Traditional prayers are addressed to God, with the expectation that the divine will respond favorably. Often, this does not happen. Therefore, many people have searched for ways to reformulate the content of the prayers and, in fact, refocus them in order to make better sense of them and, actually, derive some strength when facing the unknown in a rational matter.

          Here is a prayer of healing that I can recite with clear conscience as a religious naturalist who does not address but simply invoke the divine in life: 

רוח העולם ומקור כל יקום

The spirit of the universe and the source of all existence 

          Life experiences show us that illness and suffering are not punishments, but an inevitable part of the fragility of life itself. Nature has provided our bodies with the means to keep us alive and the means to overcome pain and suffering. We hope these will prove effective when we are down, and that our doctors, nurses and other healers will have the knowledge and the wherewithal to strengthen us when our afflictions become too powerful for us to battle them alone. 

          We invoke God, the energy of the universe, and express our gratitude for every moment we experience good health and wellbeing, and our hope for a speedy recovery. We also think of our friends and relatives who are in pain. In particular, we think of…..(names here). We hope that they will be restored to good health, both physical and spiritual, in due time. We want them to know that we are thinking of them and will keep them in our mind continually. May they see release soon and may we continue to enjoy their company in better times. And for those with a terminal illness, we hope they will have the strength to leave life without much suffering and with a gentle sense of peace. 

Amen.

 

OUR NEW BOOK: A GOD WE CAN BELIEVE IN

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D 

A colleague of mine, Rabbi Richard Agler and I have just published a book on theology, entitled A God We Can Believe In. We have also incorporated 25 essays written by other Rabbis and academics. As we state in the Preface: 

          It is self-evident that many of the characterizations of God found in our sacred texts, liturgies, and holidays are replete with images that large numbers of contemporary Jews find neither meaningful nor believable.

          Our annual cycle is filled with references to a Deity who intervenes in history, supernaturally responds to prayers, protects his (sic) faithful and chosen, and executes righteous judgment. In the twenty-first century, such propositions engender doubt and disbelief in rabbis and laypersons alike. At the same time, they are a disincentive to Jewish engagement, commitment, and affiliation.

A God We Can Believe In is a response to this moment. Herein you will find contributions from leading rabbis and academics that articulate paths to Jewish hearts, minds, and souls with God-teachings that are spiritually compelling and intellectually sound.

          Our authors present God in ways that are consistent with the facts that higher learning has established, the principles of reason, and their own life experiences. We are not speaking primarily to academics, but to all inquisitive Jews, and perhaps even non-Jews, who seek to live by these same lights.

          The value and importance of the poetic, the metaphorical, and the ancient religious imagination are vital in Jewish tradition. At the same time, God-language, God-teaching, and God-understanding need to be coherent, comprehensible, and credible if modern Jews are going to hear it.

          In these pages you will find a God that cannot be brushed aside by educated moderns; a God that does not violate the realities of logic or natural law; a God presented in accessible, yet deeply grounded, Jewish language; a God that can be lived with, and lived for.

          Our hope is that this book will help secure a place for a living, non-mythical God at the heart of Jewish life in this generation and in generations to come. We endeavor to strengthen the connections between our people, our faith, and our tradition.

          It is our further goal to impress upon our institutions the need to embrace new and systematic ways of addressing God in formal worship, of hearing God interpreted from the pulpit, of learning about God in classrooms, and of praying to God from future siddurim (“prayerbooks”).

          May our respective strengths strengthen us all— .חזק, חזק, ונתחזק 

          The book is available for sale at Wipf and Stock (www.wipfandstock.com) , the publisher, at  AMAZON and others. 

          Please let us know your reactions.         

Date: April 29, 2022

WHAT IS A "COVENANT"?

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

 The term “covenant” (from the Latin, con, namely “with”, venire, namely, “to come”) refers to “an agreement enacted between two parties in which one or both promises, under oath, to perform or refrain certain actions stipulated in advance” (ABD, 1/1179). The corresponding term in the Hebrew Bible is berit, coming most likely from the Akkadian  biritu, meaning a clasp or a fetter. The Septuagint (3^rd cent. BCE), which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, renders it as diatheke, meaning “will” or “testament.” Thus, Jews have the so-called “Old Testament” (a Christian term) and Christians have the “New Testament.”

           In the Hebrew Bible, a covenant may be established in two different ways:    a) Between two individuals, such as, the covenant signed between King       Solomon and King Hiram, of the city of Tyre (I K 5:26), or

          b) Between God and human beings, such as the covenant with Noah (Gen. 9:9), or, with Abraham (Gen. 15:18), with Phinehas, the priest (Num. 25: 12), with Joshua and the people (Jos. 24:25), with Jehoiada, the priest, and the people (II K 11:17), with king Hezekiah and the people (II Chr.29:10), with Josiah and the people (II K 23:3), with Ezra and the people (Ezra 10:3), and, the crown jewel, with the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai, through Moses (Ex.19:5). According to the Rabbis, this covenant includes, not only the Ten Commandments but the entire Torah (i.e., all the Hebrew Scriptures as interpreted by the ancient sages).

           The prophet Jeremiah (6th cent BCE), spoke of a “new covenant” that will be signed in the future between God and the Israelites (Jer.31:31), referring, most likely, to the restoration of Israel after the Babylonian exile and the reconstruction of the second Temple (See, Jewish Study Bible, p. 991). Christians, however, reinterpret this passage as a prophecy through Jesus in the New Testament.

           These covenantal documents were mostly modelled after Hittite covenants of Anatolia (2^nd millennium BCE), either as parity or suzerainty (see examples in ANET, pp. 201ff). They followed a strict literary format that included the following elements: 1. The identification of the covenant giver; 2. The historical prologue; 3. The stipulations; 4. The provision for deposit and public reading; 5. The list of witnesses to the covenant; and 6. The blessings and curses as a means of enforcement.

          Even though, we have many examples of treaties in the ancient Near East, the idea of covenant between a deity and a people is unknown to us from other cultures. In fact, we can state that this covenantal idea is a special feature of the Israelite religion. Jewish sages of the past used the format of legal documents between individuals and applied it to the special relationship between God and others.

           In reality, the concept of berit between God and Israel is more than an agreement between two parties, and implies an  imposition on the part of the deity, as indicated in the Book of Psalms by the expression, “He has commanded his covenant” (Ps. 111: 9). In so doing, God literally “cuts” (karat) a covenant, as clearly stated in Aramaic as gzr ‘ady, by simply imposing unilaterally a pact on the biblical Israelites. The idiom most likely comes from the ceremony that accompanies the covenant by “cutting” (namely, slaughtering) an animal during a ritual.

           How shall we view this concept in our time?  From the perspective of a non-theistic religious naturalism, where God is conceived as the energy of the universe, the idea of a personal God imposing a covenant is hard to accept. Nature acts as it must according to its own rules, and does not discriminate between people. It would be better, I would argue, to reinterpret the covenant as a sign of our own commitment to a particular way of life. Thus, when we say, God made a covenant with Jews, it really means that we are committing ourselves to the pursuit of the high moral standards espoused by the Torah, the text of the covenant. So, Jews can follow the teachings of the Torah as interpreted by the Rabbis (the so-called The Old Testament) and Christians can follow the teachings of the Gospels (the so- called the New Testament) as interpreted by Christian teachers. And we all respect one another.

 Date: 4/6/22