How many of us know
( ) All
( ) Most
( ) Some
of the Hebrew we read in our sidurim?
Understand, there is no problem reading the left hand pages (local language) of bilingual sedurim; certainly it’s one way to self-learn the meaning of the right hand pages. Prayers don’t HAVE to be in Hebrew.
But it helps to know a little Hebrew if only to keep pace with whomever is leading the service.
An aside: In (most) Sefardi/Mizrachi congregations, almost every word is read aloud, unlike our Ashkenazi friends who read the first and last words aloud and everything in the middle is in their heads. When you’re in a hurry, find an Ashkenazi minyan.
ANYWAY, the congregation, to its credit, encourages pre-bar mitzvah boys to take part in Shabat services. The kids read a goodly portion of the service from Hodu (לשם קראו בשמן) to Hodu (לשם השמים). Once bar mitzvah – it’s automatic, by the way and has nothing to do with extravagant parties costing more than a new sefer Torah – the congregation makes sure the young men get their fair share of Torah honors; they are expected to be present and they are not forgotten.
While the rabbi’s sons are bilingual, it seems Hebrew is their first language with English a close second, the other children lack this facility. Not that they can’t converse in another language – typically Spanish or French – and while they can read “sedur Hebrew” – some quite well – they lack an understanding of what they are reading.
The congregational sidurim are, with few exceptions, Hebrew only. If you want to nit pick, Hebrew and Aramaic, but I have no nits to pick. There are a few Hebrew/English or Hebrew/Spanish sidurim; the operative word is “few.”
I asked one of the speed readers, age about 11, if he knows Hebrew. His reply – “no, nada, zip.” In other words, while he READS nicely, he has no clue what he is saying. His father likewise is “Hebrew deficient.”
That bothers me.
If you are going to pray in Hebrew, you should know what you are saying.
According to Merriam-Webster Online ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pray) “pray” is defined as follows:
transitive verb
1: entreat, implore —often used as a function word in introducing a question, request, or plea
2 : to get or bring by praying
intransitive verb
1: to make a request in a humble manner
2: to address God or a god with adoration, confession, supplication, or thanksgiving
I also am bothered by what seems a child’s requirement to see how fast he can read – or, in truth recite since the boys know many of the psalms be heart – the prayers.
It’s Shabat, after all.
Korbanote start at 7:45 with Hodu at 8. We normally head home between 10:30 and 11. To do what? Kiddish, a snack, and a nap followed by lunch. (It works for me.) But if we leave a half hour later and get to the house around noon (rather than 11:15 or so), what’s the big deal. It’s not as if we are going to go shopping or play on the computer – it’s Shabat after all.
Yet most of the boys, as boys do, rush through the psalms as quickly as they can. The rabbi’s sons – who actually understand what they are saying – seem not to be in the rush to get lunch.
(I have seen some grown men race through a Shabat service, even the Torah reading, although that’s usually when the reader is not prepared and it making mistakes; he goes as fast as possible so the congregation can’t correct him. That is not the situation where I find myself on most Shabats.)
We read in Ethics of the Fathers, Chapter 4, Para. 20 (פרקי אבותת ד כ)
Elisha ben Abuyah said: “If one learns as a child, what is he like? Like ink written on new paper. He who learns as an old man, what is he like? Like ink written on erased paper.”
אלישע בן אבויה (האחר) אומר: הלומד ילד למה הוא דומה? לדיו כתובה על נייר חדש.
.והלמד זקן למה הוא דומה? לדיו כתובה על נייר מחוק
Translation by Philip Blackman, Judaica Press, ISBN: 0-910818-15-0
Hebrew is not my first language. I struggled to learn it as a 30-something. The boys of the congregation, without exception, go to “Jewish” day schools. So why don’t they at least have a concept of what they are reciting?
They are going to grow up to be like so many other Jews who “know” the words but lack an understanding of those words.
Perhaps I am just a curmudgeon, but it also bothers me to hear the recitations that omit all punctuation. There IS punctuation in the sedur. Periods. Commas. In the Ben Ish Hai used where I go, even question marks!
Consider reading a paragraph in English sans punctuation you wouldn’t know where a sentence starts or stops and it would become difficult to understand the writer’s intent especially when there are no capital letters to give clues it would be like reading the torah from the scroll rather than a terkun after reading this I think you get the idea
On the one hand, I’m delighted the pre-bar mitzvah boys have a role to play in the service. On the other, I am uncomfortable with the recitation races and the lack of understanding. I’m a little concerned that some adults will think the youngsters’ effort will exempt them – the adults – from saying their own prayers. While I am not a rabbi and I don’t play one on tv, I don’t believe a child’s prayers – never mind the child’s comprehension - can exempt an adult.
Still, I suppose to be fair, I should ask the adults who do lead parts of the service if THEY know what they are reading. (I already know these people have Hebrew as a second language, if not their first.)
** Nits, FYI, are lice eggs, and most parents whose children have spent anytime in school – makes no difference if the school is public or private – probably have encountered a “lice alert” at least once.
