Feedback and Issues Raised - Page 3
Written by Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet Friday, 01 October 2004
A Prayer Book in the Making
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Universalism and Particularism
How are we to express the universal beliefs of Judaism within the framework of the statutory services? The structure consciously moves from the universal picture of God as Creator of the entire cosmos (yotzer or) to God’s special concern with the Jewish people, in the Shema and Amidah, returning to the universal theme at the end of the service with the second paragraph of the Alenu with our hopes for the universal recognition and acceptance of God. That is to say the construction of the service preserves the tension that we are both a unique people, but at the same time part of a wider humanity. (The same twofold identity has to be addressed by all faith communities.) Understood in that way there is no need to add ‘universalising’ elements within the service, since the challenge is clearly expressed, nevertheless it is legitimate to seek out more explicit universal expressions.
One of the sentences that lends itself to ‘universalising’ is ‘Oseh shalom bim’romav’, ‘may the One who makes peace in the highest…’. The problem is that where it occurs at the end of the Amidah we are at a point in the service that is focused on the Jewish people in its unique relationship with God, so it would make sense to retain the traditional text which concludes with ‘v’al kol yisra’el, ‘and upon all Israel’ alone. However where the same passage appears at the end of the Kaddish at the end of the service, with its messianic overtones, it would make sense to amend the text by adding one of a number of options: ‘v’al kol yosh’vei tevel’ ‘on all who inhabit the world’, ‘v’al kol b’nei adam’ ‘and upon all human beings’, or ‘v’al kol ha-olam kulo’ ‘and on the entire world’.
Nevertheless the current practice of adding such phrases when singing ‘oseh shalom’ at the end of the Amidah may mean that it is too late to make this contextual distinction. If that is the case, then there is an argument for adding a phrase about seeking peace for ‘all the peoples of the world’ in the ‘sim shalom/shalom rav’ blessing at the end of the Amidah as well.
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