Spiritual and
Ethical Issues in the Historical Books of Tanach;
JOSHUA, JUDGES, SAMUEL, KINGS (Nevi’im Rishonim) These four
books ostensibly are merely the history of Israel from the entry into the
Promised Land until the destruction of the Temple and the temporary loss
of independent statehood. In fact they are actually, in a specifically
Jewish sense, the most deeply religious and spiritual books of the Bible.
One does not have to be specifically Jewish to see or feel the religion
and spirituality in the revelations of the prophetic writings or in the
words of the Tehillim. They speak to all people, as evidenced by the fact
that the Bible is still the world's bestseller and there are millions of
non-Jews who regularly recite the Psalms. However, it is specifically and
intrinsically Jewish to understand that G-d is revealed in the prosaic
material, in the political, social and military events in the lives of
ordinary men and women, kings and leaders that are described in the Nevim
Rishonim. Here are described the ideology and religious thoughts in
Judaism, while in Chronicles we have the purely historical. We learn from Chana, the mother of Samuel (Shmuel Alef 1:10-16), the halakhot that one may pray silently, pray only when one is serious and thoughtful, and that prayer requires a broken heart [according to the Kotsker, there is nothing more complete than that]. Now, from our chapter we learn additional halakhot. Rabbi Binyamin taught, "Prayers are only heard when they are said in the synagogue, even as King Solomon prayed, 'Hearken to the praise and to the prayer' (8:28), the place of the prayer is from the place where praise is uttered" (Berachot 91a). Said Rabbi Chiya ben Abba, "A person should not make their requests and their pleas before they have offered up words of praise, as it is written, 'Hearken to the praise and to the prayer'" (Berachot, 31a). However, if that would be all, then it seems that there would not be very much distinctive about Jewish prayer, nothing to make it specifically Jewish and intrinsically different from the general human spiritual needs and desires. Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple shows the distinctive and specific Jewishness of our prayers. In that prayer, there are neither personal requests nor are there any praises for mercies and blessings vouchsafed to any private individuals. Rather everything - prayers, pleas, praises and thanksgivings - are all expressed in terms of the Nation. It is the welfare of the Jewish People as a social-political-religious unit that is sought. At first there is a recalling of the national experience of the Exodus from Egypt and the building of the Temple to the G-d of Israel (16-21). Then there follows a plea for justice for any social crimes between the people, and forgiveness for them (30-32). National sin, defeat or exile, and subsequent redemption, prosperity and welfare form a prelude to the end of the prayer (33-39). The site of the Temple as the predestined place, through which the prayers of Israel will be channeled, is made clear (48). Finally, Israel is recognized as G-d's chosen Nation and their Exodus from Egypt as the reason for Divine providence and salvation (49-53). These have been and remain the themes of our prayers as Jews. There is place and importance for personal pleas, requests and praises. Those are equally valid and essential for all Mankind, but to them we add the collective- national theme that is essential and specific to Judaism as a religion. We find in the Tanach that from the beginning, Mankind offered sacrifices as their praise and prayer. They erected matzeivot to Hashem. These were single stones as befits the worship by individuals. After the book of Shemot, however, when the emphasis and purpose is the Jewish Nation, all this changed. Now, not only individuals could and did worship Him. Rather, there is a new revolutionary and traumatic idea that there was to be a whole nation devoted to Him in all its activities and yearnings; so when Eliyahu gathered the people on Har HaCarmel to accept G-d, he rebuilt the altar with 12 stones - the 12 Tribes of Israel. First in the Mishkan and later in both Temples, the matzeivah was exchanged for the mizbeiach, the altar made of a number of stones, reflecting the nationalist characteristics so special to Judaism. Once these sanctuaries to G-d were built, individual places of worship were banned; their continued existence in practice, is merely proof of how difficult it was and is for Jews to see their praises and prayers primarily as expressions of a national collective faith, rather than the individual's spiritual yearning and satisfaction. This predominance of the national collective nature of Jewish prayer is manifest not only in the obligation of communal prayer but in the structure and halakhot of our prayers. It is praiseworthy and necessary for
the individual to praise Hashem and to turn to Him in sorrow and need.
Prayer should never be allowed to be devoid of the individual's
spirituality, ecstasy and creativity. However, in Judaism one only fulfils
the duty of praying when one has said the set non-individualistic order of
prayer; mere halakhic permission has been granted to include
personal pleas and requests in the appropriate places within those of the
nation. Individuals may make their prayers and pleas, when they are saying
the obligatory 'He Who hears prayers' in the Shemoneh Esrei, (Talmud
Yerushalmi, Berachot 8:4). If one forgot to ask
G-d to remember them for life or to inscribe them for life, during Aseret
Yemei Teshuva, one does not repeat the prayer. However, if one did not say
"Holy King" with its national - supra-national message, one has to repeat
the prayer. This is the 25th installment in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
Parshat Mishpatim Homepage]
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