Pray and Mean It #7 -- R'tzei Adonai Eloheinu
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Thanks and best wishes – Cantor Jack Chomsky, Congregation Tifereth
Israel, Columbus Ohio
Pray and Mean It 7
This is the 7th installment in this series.
We continue our sequence of discussions about the blessings of the
Amidah, noting that the Amidah always begins and ends with
(essentially) the same blessings (3 at the beginning and 3 at the
end). We’re therefore focusing on these 6 blessings prior to
examining the 13 blessings in the middle.
We have completed the opening 3 b’rachot, and now move on to the
closing 3 b’rachot. The first of these (the 17th of the 19 weekday
b’rachot and the 5th of the 7 b’rachot on Shabbat or Yom Tov) is
R’tzei -- a prayer for the acceptance of our offering.
רְצֵה, ה' אֱ-לֹהֵֽינוּ, בְּעַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל וּבִתְפִלָּתָם, וְהָשֵׁב
אֶת הָעֲבוֹדָה לִדְבִיר בֵּיתֶֽךָ [וְאִשֵּׁי יִשְׂרָאֵל] וּתְפִלָּתָם
בְּאַהֲבָה תְקַבֵּל בְּרָצוֹן, וּתְהִי לְרָצוֹן תָּמִיד עֲבוֹדַת
יִשְׂרָאֵל עַמֶּֽךָ. וְתֶחֱזֶֽינָה עֵינֵֽינוּ בְּשׁוּבְךָ לְצִיּוֹן
בְּרַחֲמִים.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', הַמַּחֲזִיר שְׁכִינָתוֹ לְצִיּוֹן.
R’tzei Adonai Eloheinu b’amcha yisrael uvit’filatam, v’hasheiv et ha-
avodah lidvir beitecha [v’ishei yisrael] ut’filatam b’ahavah t’kabel
b’ratzon, ut’hi l’ratzon tamid avodat yisrael amecha. V’techezenah
eineinu b’shuvcha l’tziyon b’rachamim. Baruch Atah Adonai, hamachazir
sh’chinato l’tziyon.
Accept, Adonai our God, your people Israel and their prayer. And
restore the worship to the inner sanctuary of Your house. [And the
fires (offerings) of Israel] and their prayer in love and favor
receive willingly. And may the worship of Your people Israel be ever
acceptable to You. And turn our eyes again to see Your return in mercy
to Zion. Blessed are You, Adonai, who restores the Shechinah to Zion.
This b’rachah is about a) remembering the sacrifices of ancient times
-- the way we used to pray, b) asking for acceptance of our modern-day
offerings, and c) asking God to help us to look toward Zion and d)
asking God to renew the heavenly presence there.
a) remembering the sacrifices of ancient times
Although it has been difficult for me to imagine a return to the
ancient form of worship (animal sacrifice), I am struck by the
difficulty of offering something truly worthwhile in our prayers: In
ancient days, the sacrificial practice required our ancestors to offer
objects of unquestionable value. In fact, the exact “cash” value of
the sacrifice must have been quite clear. What do WE offer of similar
value today? Of course, it was the animal who made the greatest
sacrifice. Still, I find it challenging to try to make my prayer as
real as a physical sacrifice.
b) asking for acceptance of our modern-day offerings
What does it mean when we ask to “restore the worship to the inner
sanctuary of Your house?” At face value, it means re-institute the
animal sacrifice and those who include the words v’ishei yisrael (and
the fires/offerings of Israel) emphasize this. (My tradition doesn’t
include these words.) I am more comfortable attempting to restore the
intensity of worship to the inner sanctuary that is me and my
relationship to God -- to take this moment in the Amidah as we begin
its final sections to put an exclamation point on everything I’ve said
up to this point.
We can further reflect on what it might mean if God were to command us
to re-institute the worship of the Temple. Would it be animal
sacrifice? Or would it be something deeper -- something that doesn’t
require the death of an animal, but would somehow reach deeper into
our own lives?
c) asking God to help us to look toward Zion
I was about 25 years old when I first visited Israel. From an early
age, I knew that it was supposed to be important -- but I didn’t
really feel it and I didn’t exactly know why. Mostly, I knew it was
important to my grandparents. My parents hadn’t been to Israel, but
my grandparents regularly purchased Israel Bonds for their
grandchildren -- and I can still remember when they visited Israel on
the S.S. Shalom! (Hard to imagine today.) Even for those who have
not yet been to Israel -- or perhaps especially for them -- a daily
(or 3x daily) statement of desire to look toward Zion will probably
help to encourage a visit to Israel and to deepen the experience when
it comes.
Today, having been fortunate to visit Israel quite a few times (though
not enough times), the (3x) daily recitation of these words helps
deepen my bond to the land and people that I know so well -- and,
again, to entice me to visit sooner rather than later.
d) asking God to renew the heavenly presence there
Again, we can reflect on what this means. To those who first
organized our daily prayers, they clearly envisioned a return of the
divine presence that would mandate the reinstatement of the
sacrificial rituals. Yet there are so many ways in which we can
perceive of renewing God’s heavenly presence in Zion -- whether it has
to do with the religious life of those living in and visiting Israel,
or a presence which will protect its citizens and help to move toward
a time of peace and security in which Jews and non-Jews can live in
peace and prosperity and trust one another in ways we cannot yet
imagine.
Worth praying for. Worth working for.
If you wish to respond, you may e-mail me at Cant...@aol.com.