Prayer and Psalms

I, like many of you, have been a bit preoccupied with headlines and news updates.  With the rise in tension and rocket attacks, I can also say that my kavanah in my tefilot has also improved (a fortunate byproduct of an unfortunate time).  What psalms or prayer are you adding?  One shul suggested 83, 130 and 142.

How are your prayers managing in this time of turmoil?

To Learn or to Daven

Within Judaism, there is a significant tension between these two primary acts, to learn Torah and to daven.  The Babylonian Talmud, in Shabbat 127a states:

אלו דברים שאדם אוכל פרותיהם בעולם הזה והקרן קימת לו לעולם הבא, ואלו הן:  כיבוד אב ואם וגמילות  חסדים והשכמת בית המדרש שחרית וערבית והכנסת אורחים ובקור חולים והכנסת כלה ולווית המת ועיון תפילה והבאת שלום בין אדם לחברו ובין איש לאשתו ותלמוד תורה כנגד כולם.

These are the precepts whose fruits a person enjoys in This World but whose principal remains intact for him in the World to Come:  They are: honoring one's father and mother, acts of kindness, early attendance at the house of study morning and evening, hospitality to guests, visiting the sick, providing for a bride, escorting the dead, absorption in prayer, bringing peace between man and his fellow, and the study of Torah is equivalent to them all.

Clearly the status of Torah study (on simple reading of this text) trumps all, including the delving into the depths of davening.  To this note, I once heard this story told over about Rabbi Soloveitchik which I found a version of here: 

Torah learning would be more beneficial than saying Tehillim during the spare time on Rosh Hashanah. Rav Y. B. Soloveitchik states that once, his father, Rav Moshe Soloveitchik, zt”l, saw him saying Tehillim on Rosh Hashanah and took the siddur from him, replacing it with Maseches Rosh Hashanah. He then said to his son, “My father (Rav Chaim) would learn the laws of shofar, etc.,  because that is what the day represents (and on Yom Kippur he would learn the rituals of that day) because that is where Hashem’s world is today.” 

Some see this approach as appropriate only for the most elite Torah learners which can be best expressed by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's statement, also from the above article: “The talmid chacham should go as his heart desires, as it is said ‘the ones who learn Gemara, there is nothing greater.’”

For those of us who are not giants in Torah or Talmud - are we left just to chant tehilim?  After a recent conversation with a family member (@bradinsky) who shared with me a fascinating class on superstition and Jewish customs, I have been thinking deeply about which comes more natural, studying or davening? Which is more powerful and transformative on the individual? Which is easier and which is more difficult?  I am in the process of writing a longer post on this subject, but I wondered what others thought?  

Pslams by the Sea

I came across the following question answered by Rabbi Yaakov Cohen of the Beit El Yeshiva:

Question: Can I say Tehilim on the sea side without a shirt on?

Answer:  One should dress respectably when praying or saying Tehilim. But there is no Isur (prohibition).

I love this particular question and the response - which is totally appropriate and subjective. The questioner is comfortable enough to daven at a beach or felt moved to pray after bathing topless.  The rabbi recognizes that there is a need to promote proper decorum in prayer but that there is no real restriction to spontaneously say psalms.  

Think about it - who wouldn't be at a beach, pondering the eternity of the tide and not think to praise Gd and nature's amazing cycle?  Just to bridge to a post last week on davening on airplane - I am not sure I would recommend gathering a minyan of people to pray as it might bother the other sun worshipers.

Davening with 40,000

I watched and read from afar about the NY Rally at Citi Field on the dangers of the Internet.  In one article reviewing the event on Tablet, author Michah Stein slipped in the following comment:

The event kicked off (45 minutes late) with a communal reading of psalms and a stadium-wide mincha service. For all the hype and hoopla surrounding the event, the sight of 40,000 people praying together was undeniably moving.

I can only say that this is an interestingly kind observation in otherwise skeptical review.