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Feedback and Issues Raised - Page 2

Written by Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet Friday, 01 October 2004

A Prayer Book in the Making

‘Ancestors’ ‘Avoteinu’ or ‘Doroteinu’

While ‘Avoteinu’ can mean ‘ancestors’ as a generic term for people of either gender, its basis in the word ‘Avot’, ‘fathers’, makes it problematic. In the first paragraph of the Amidah, where we include both the patriarchs and matriarchs, it is logical to use the formulation ‘avoteinu v’immoteinu’ (‘our fathers and mothers’). However that does effectively define the word ‘avoteinu’ as applying only to males. (Incidentally in the 1977 edition we chose to translate the word as ‘fathers’ rather than as ‘ancestors’ throughout on the grounds that the word ‘fathers’ was more euphonious and less harsh than ‘ancestors’ with its sibilants. It is interesting that different periods bring different perspectives and criteria.)

While ‘doroteinu’, ‘our generations’, seems a good alternative to ‘avoteinu’, especially as it fits in rhythmically with the prayers, it has been argued that for Israelis the term today does not make clear that past ‘generations’ are intended. A phrase like elohei kol ha-dorot, ‘the God of all generations’, would be clearer, but would not fit the rhythm of the prayers! Moreover it has been argued that there were some problematic generations (of Noah’s flood, for example) which were pretty ‘godless’! (Even worse, the proposed alternative, ‘kadmoneinu’ ‘our early predecessors’ apparently suggests ‘neanderthals’! It has been dropped!)

Ben Yehudah’s classic Hebrew-Hebrew dictionary explains ‘dor’ as ‘Generation’: ‘the father, son and grandson are three "dorot"’. One of his proof texts is Job 42:17 - Job lived after this 140 years and saw his sons and son’s sons, four ‘dorot’, generations. Ben Yehudah defines the plural form as ‘the collectivity of living people at one time, time after time.’ His proof texts are Judges 3:2; Isaiah 41:4; Gen 9:12, the latter concerning the covenant that God makes ‘with you and with all living souls with you, l’dorot olam, for all generations to come.’ Joshua 22:27 again refers to generations to come, as does Exodus 12:14; Lev 23:31; Gen 17:7. The thrust of all these is to point forward to future generations. It is possible to use the word, relying on the context to make it clear that past generations are intended. Nevertheless others who have wrestled with the problem have tended to go back to ‘avot’, sometimes standing alone, sometimes adding mechanically ‘v’imahot’ wherever it appears.

A final decision on which term to use has not yet been made.