Jewish Prayers to an Evolutionary God: Science In the Siddur

By Joel Yehudah Rutman MD

Why do we pray? On the one hand, prayer offers us a way to meditate on the knowledge of God and have intimate interaction with a personal creator. And for many Jews, it offers a sense of community and fulfils a need for daily connection with a venerable tradition and language. Yet for many modern Jews, prayer is at best old fashioned—or at worst, no longer necessary. In Jewish Prayers to an Evolutionary God: Science in the Siddur, author Dr. Joel Rutman provides a new way of understanding the existing language of Jewish prayer, and he integrates science with Jewish liturgy—all the while striving to preserve the passion that makes prayer matter. The aim is to enable Jews to daven (pray) with kavanna (intent), trusting that science will not pull the rug out from under their prayer. The poems also continue the ancient tradition of hazzanim (cantors) who author new prayer-poems.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Jul 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781483466224

Book preview

JEWISH

PRAYERS

to an

Evolutionary

GOD

Science in the Siddur

JOEL YEHUDAH RUTMAN MD

Copyright © 2017 Joel Yehudah Rutman MD.

[e-mail]

Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures, Jewish Publication Society, 1985

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-6623-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-6622-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017904580

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 6/30/2017

To Dad, who taught me to pray and to question.

Joel Yehudah Rutman, M.D.

Acknowledgements

I thank my good friends from Zichron Yakov for their encouragement and critique – David Benjamin, AB Burstein, Hillel Halkin, Martin Orkin and Alan Stephens. Rabbi Samuel Stahl of San Antonio, Texas, and Dr. Dan Gold (now living in Zichron Yakov) have both kindly offered constructive criticism. I thank Rabbi Schubert Spero of Cleveland, Ohio and Jerusalem for his guidance and encouragement. I am indebted to Professor Yehudah Gellman of Jerusalem for finding and giving me his copy of W Cleary’s Prayers to an Evolutionary God (Woodstock: Skylight Paths Publishing, 2004) whose title I have modified. I thank my parents for unstinting love and encouragement, the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland for my early Jewish education; Young Israel of Cleveland for examples of fine Jews at prayer; my uncle and teacher Rabbi Moshe Lefkovitz z"l for trying to pound some Talmud into me; Brandeis University for opening my mind and Harvard Medical School for setting a high bar.

I thank my precious grandchildren Sophia and Zachary Rutman for the opening section of the rooster poem. My dear cousin, Harvey Klineman in Jerusalem, my oldest friend, has provided inestimable help with cover and design.

Aharon aharon haviv, to my wife Hedy - There will always be a lady fair, to smooth your troubles and to muss your hair.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Housekeeping

General Approach

Comments and Poems that Affirm Science in the Siddur

Shakharit / Morning Prayers

Ma’ariv – Evening Service

Shabbat Prayers

New Moon

Grace after Meals / Birkat Hamazon

Festival Prayers

Appendices

References

Bibliography

Glossary

About the Author

Introduction

This book aims to recast Jewish prayer in accord with the findings of science – especially concerning the evolution of the cosmos and life. I have a foot in both camps – hazzan / cantor as well as physician. My method is to find an intriguing or disturbing passage in existing prayer as it relates to science and / or evolution, comment upon it and then present a related poem. In this process, new ways of understanding existing language emerge.

Our prayers, though formulated by previous generations, have the potency to illumine the predicaments of later generations and to speak anew to the needs of each successive generation. More than is written in them can be found in them.¹

Thus, I retain some sense of the original beracha (blessing) in the novel English poems presented here although not necessarily what the beracha’s original sense may have been.²

I restrict my comments to those prayers that bother me. It’s very personal. I’m not at all bothered by He looked and fashioned the form of the moon (Shabbat morning service, Koren Siddur, 460) even though the moon remains spherical all month. And I prize wondrous passages like …the God who daily opens the doors of the gates of the East and cleaves the windows of the sky. I, too, savor poetic imagery. On the other hand, I’m quite bothered by the second passage of the Shma that informs us that rain will come if we obey God’s commands and that drought will follow disobedience to His word. (See below p.57)

For more extended discussion of many of the topics covered here the reader is referred to my related book Why Evolution Matters:A Jewish View (Vallentine-Mitchell 2014)

This effort has come with a good deal of soul-searching. I worry that in the course of measuring each phrase of the siddur against the standard of scientific acceptability, we may lose passionate belief in God’s grace and love. For many of us, it’s precisely when we cease rational analysis of the text and enter into the mood and music of the tefillah that we come closer to God. I grant that prayer is more than a rational meditation on the divine-human interaction, and that it may be most meaningful when it is emotional, even mystical – as may happen when I pray with the congregation as hazzan / cantor or in solitude. The difficult challenge, therefore, is not only to integrate science with Jewish liturgy, but to do so in such a way as to preserve the passion that makes prayer matter.

That said, my motivation for the comments and the poems that follow is the hope that they will enable Jews to davven (Yiddish for ‘pray’) with kavanna (Hebrew for ‘intent’) – trusting that science does not pull the rug out from under their prayer.

The new prayer-poems presented here follow venerable precedent.³ King David’s trusted counsellor, Achitofel, is admired by the rabbis as having written three new prayers each day!⁴

Continuing this tradition, fragments from the Cairo Genizah collection-primarily from the ninth to the twelfth centuries C.E.- reveal new poems, unknown poets, novel uses of poetry and unfamiliar poetic versions of familiar prose texts.⁵ It is my privilege to associate myself with this ancient tradition of hazzanim who authored new prayer-poems.

Housekeeping

The comments and poems that follow are based on selected prayers from the siddur, the set order of Jewish prayer. The translations and page numbers are those of The Koren Siddur (Orthodox) ed. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers, 2009); the Complete Art Scroll Siddur – Ashkenaz (Orthodox), ed. Nissan Scherman (Jerusalem: Menorah Publications, 1984); Siddur Sim Shalom (Conservative) ed. Jules Harlow (New York: Rabbinical Assembly, United Synagogue of America, New York, 1985); and Mishkan Tfilah (Reform) (Central Conference of American Rabbis, 2007). Biblical quotations are from Tanach: The Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1985).

Ideas tend to be repeated in the siddur. The statement, for instance, that God exists prior to creation of the universe and will continue to exist after it ends is found in many places. The comments I make in one such instance will generally apply to all.

The English translation of the original Hebrew prayer is in bold italic. This is followed by a Comment that interprets the prayer in terms related to science/evolution.

There follows a poetic version(in italics) of the understanding presented in the Comment.

General Approach

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I

Why Pray

Prayer is rather peculiar to many modern Jews. In the liberal university communities that are familiar to many American Jews in their early formative years prayer is considered stuffy, old-fashioned, out of it, not politically correct. It’s the scoffer, the one who denies God or purpose who gets attention. Believers are considered relics of a bygone age.

Why am I, and perhaps you as well, different? I began to pray as a child because I was taught to and expected to. I continue to pray as an adult for many