The following is the prelude to the Amidah, recited just before the first bow. It is often said while taking three steps backwards and three steps forwards, which is in the style of approaching royalty.
Look at this brief text and discuss the following:
- What, specifically, does this text say?
- How do you feel about it?
- What assumptions does it make about what people can or can't do?
- Do you agree with those assumptions?
- Why would someone choose this text to introduce the Amidah? Would you choose it? Why?
- If not, what kind of text would you prefer?
Adonai, open my lips,
and let my mouth declare Your praise.
Adonai s'fatai tiftach, ufi yagid t'hilatecha
We'll now look at the verse in context! We will do this often in our sessions, reading bits from the Torah which parallel and inspire our Amidah text in order to uncover deeper meanings.
הַצִּ֘ילֵ֤נִי מִדָּמִ֨ים ׀ אֱֽלֹהִ֗ים אֱלֹהֵ֥י תְּשׁוּעָתִ֑י תְּרַנֵּ֥ן לְ֝שׁוֹנִ֗י צִדְקָתֶֽךָ׃ אֲ֭דֹנָי שְׂפָתַ֣י תִּפְתָּ֑ח וּ֝פִ֗י יַגִּ֥יד תְּהִלָּתֶֽךָ׃ כִּ֤י ׀ לֹא־תַחְפֹּ֣ץ זֶ֣בַח וְאֶתֵּ֑נָה ע֝וֹלָ֗ה לֹ֣א תִרְצֶֽה׃ זִ֥בְחֵ֣י אֱלֹהִים֮ ר֤וּחַ נִשְׁבָּ֫רָ֥ה לֵב־נִשְׁבָּ֥ר וְנִדְכֶּ֑ה אֱ֝לֹהִ֗ים לֹ֣א תִבְזֶֽה׃
Save me from bloodguilt,
O God, God, my deliverer,
that I may sing forth Your beneficence. Adonai, open my lips,
and let my mouth declare Your praise. You do not want me to bring sacrifices;
You do not desire burnt offerings; True sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit;
God, You will not despise
a contrite and broken heart.
Questions:
- What does G-d desire, according to this psalm? What does G-d not desire?
It was stated: Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said: prayers [meaning the Amidah and its schedule of recitation] were instituted by the Patriarchs [i.e. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who each did prayerful things, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one at night, corresponding to the three daily prayer services].
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: prayers were instituted based on the daily offerings [There were sacrifices in the Temple in the morning and afternoon, activities extending into the night, as well as additional sacrifices on holidays which parallel with additional amidah prayers]
...פעם אחת היה רבן יוחנן בן זכאי יוצא מירושלים והיה רבי יהושע הולך אחריו וראה בית המקדש חרב [אר״י אוי לנו על זה שהוא חרב] מקום שמכפרים בו עונותיהם של ישראל. א״ל בני אל ירע לך יש לנו כפרה אחת שהיא כמותה ואיזה זה גמ״ח שנאמר כי חסד חפצתי ולא זבח שכן מצינו בדניאל איש חמודות שהיה מתעסק בגמ״ח...אלא מה הן גמ״ח שהיה מתעסק בהן היה מתקן את הכלה ומשמחה ומלווה את המת ונותן פרוטה לעני ומתפלל ג׳ פעמים בכל יום
Once, Rabban [our rabbi] Yohanan ben Zakkai, left Jerusalem, and Rabbi Yehoshua followed after him. And he saw the Holy Temple destroyed. [Rabbi Yehoshua said: Woe to us, for this is destroyed –] the place where all of Israel’s sins are forgiven! [Rabbi Yohanan] said to him: My son, do not be distressed, for we have a form of atonement just like it. And what is it? Acts of piety*, as it says (Psalms 89:3), “For I desire piety, not a burnt offerings.” And so we find that Daniel, the precious man, would busy himself with acts of piety. And what were these acts of piety that he was so busy with?...He would help a bride and bring her happiness, he would escort the dead [in a funeral procession], and he would always give a perutah to a poor person and he would pray three times a day
*This is a somewhat unusual way to translate hesed, which is usually translated as loving-kindness, but in this source, gimilut hasidim appears to mean, according to both Judah Goldin and Reuven Kimelman, something akin to 'acts of piety'
- According to two sources above, what is the relationship between Temple sacrifice and prayer?
- Why, then, do you think the Rabbis chose 'open up my lips' as the starting line for the Amidah? What argument might they be making?
The following texts provide two perspectives (hardly the only two!) on the opening line and what it could mean for us today:
Lawrence Kushner and Nehemia Polen
"The Psalm says, "God, would you please open my mouth." Hey, who's working my mouth anyway God? Who's praising God, me or God? What's going on here?
What's going on here is another spiritual paradigm, one in which God and people are not only not distinct from one another, but are literally within one another. God is the ocean and we are the waves. In the words of the Chasidic maxim 'Alles ist Gott, it's all God.' My mouth is God's mouth. My praises are God's words. In the teaching of Rabbi Kalynomos Kalmish Shapira of Piesetzna (who perished in the Warsaw ghetto), 'Not only does God hear our prayers, God prays them through us as well!'"
- What do you think Kushner and Polen mean when they say "God is the ocean and we are the waves"? How do you feel about that idea?
- Does what they're describing feel like prayer as your understand it? Why or why not?
Marcia Falk
In her book The Journey is Home feminist theologian Nelle Morton tells a moving story about a woman who is “heard to speech” by a supportive community. In Morton's recounting, a reluctant participant in a woman’s conference is given an extraordinary kind of attention—a wholly attuned, uninterrupted listening—that allows her to break through her reticence and tell her own story. Reversing the familiar model of speech as stimulus to hearing, Morton creates a new paradigm: hearing as stimulus to speech. This is, as Morton puts it, “a totally new understanding of hearing,” hearing that can indeed open the lips. Is this, then, what the prayer asks of God in the opening line of the Amidah?
[She goes on to say that it doesn't really. She's not a huge fan of the opening line.]
- What does it mean to be "heard to speech"? When, if ever, have you experienced it?
- What do you think of her conclusion about the opening line of the Amidah?