WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A PRAYER, composed centuries ago, no longer is relevant?
Does it get edited out of the sedur?
Is it simply skipped, staying in the sedur for “reference”?
The prayer in question is אשר יצר.
When the prayer was composed hundreds of years ago, the statement that if one opening (that was supposed to be) closed is open, or one opening (that was supposed to be open) is closed, it will be impossible to live even for one hour.1
Today, if an orifice that should open is closed, it can be bypassed. If an orifice is open that should be closed, a surgeon can close it.
A few examples.
A person cannot breathe.
The person may be intubated (a tube put into their mouth and down to their lungs) or a tracheotomy can be performed to allow air to bypass any obstruction (closing an orifice that should be open).
A person cannot eat.
The least invasive way is to add nutrients intravenously. Alternatively, a feeding tube may be inserted via the person’s mouth.
A person cannot excrete waste
Urine can be drained from a bladder with a catheter; this is a common practice for patients who are expected to be bedridden for some time. The catheter also is used to unblock an obstruction that has, effectively, closed an orifice that should be open.
Urine and feces can be removed to a colostomy bag. This often is employed following bowel surgery where a surgeon has temporarily closed a normally open orifice.
Surgeons may close an orifice that simply should not be present. This may be the result of a birth defect.
I am not considering wounds caused by accident or war. These are not “natural” openings. The prayer, at least in this scrivener’s opinion, is limited to those orifices humans have at birth.
There ARE other orifices: ears and nose. Even these now are being “opened” by medical and surgical procedures, for example, cochlear implant surgery may help the deaf hear.
That HaShem has given humans the ability to develop and implement ways to open that which are closed and to close that which are open is praise worthy. But the prayer is passe.
The question remains: What will future sedurim do with the prayer? Will the rabbis drop it or replace it with something that is relevant to our time?
Sources
1. Variations are found in the Mizrachi sedurim דעת " and סדור תפלת ישרים and the Conservative סדור לב ישראל.
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