A Study of Jewish Worship: from Sacrificial Cult to Rabbinic Benedictions and Prayers

By Dr. Martin Sicker

Judaism, the origin of which dates from the rejection of polytheism by the patriarch Abraham nearly four thousand years ago, is committed to the worship of the one and only God. In the course of that long period of devotion, the character of that worship has evolved from a primitive form to progressively more sophisticated approaches necessitated by historical circumstances. The present study is concerned primarily with the original concept of worship of the divine in the form of a sacrificial cult, conducted by a priestly hierarchy, as described in the biblical Pentateuch, and the later transition to a democratized form of verbal worship conducted by the laity in a synagogue or by the individual in one’s home, as described in the rabbinic literature.
One of the significant difficulties encountered in such a study is the translation of biblical and rabbinic Hebrew texts into English, which employs terminology such as ‘worship’ and ‘prayer’, terms which have no reliable biblical or rabbinic Hebrew equivalent. Accordingly, the common equation of worship, in the general sense of reverence paid to a god, with prayer, in the more precise Jewish sense of supplication or petition, can be misleading. Indeed, prayer, understood in the latter sense, constitutes a rather small segment of the voluminous liturgy of Jewish worship, much of which is drawn directly from Scripture, whereas prayer as petition, both formal and personal, is primarily the product of individuals confronting a variety of challenges to their and their coreligionists’ social and physical wellbeing. The principal focus of this study is on prayer, understood in the latter sense, which is traditionally interconnected with benedictions intended to give hope to those petitioning for divine beneficence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669852346

Dr. Martin Sicker

Dr. Martin Sicker is a writer and lecturer on the Middle Eastern geopolitical and cultural history, with a special focus on Jewish history and religion. He is the author of 62 previous books on these subjects as well as on geopolitics, political theory, and political economy.

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Copyright © 2022 by Dr. Martin Sicker.

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Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

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Rev. date: 10/19/2022

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CONTENTS

Preface

Worship in Ancient Israel

Verbal Worship in the Biblical and Post-Biblical Periods

Rabbinic Worship

References

Notes

Preface

Judaism, the origin of which dates from the rejection of polytheism by the patriarch Abraham nearly four thousand years ago, is committed to the worship of the one and only God. In the course of that long period of devotion, the character of that worship has evolved from a primitive form to progressively more sophisticated approaches necessitated by historical circumstances. The net result of this is reflected in the contemporary division of the ancient faith into Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, and Reconstruction models of Judaism, with further differentiations within each of these continuing to evolve. These developments have generated a substantial body of literature, including diverse prayer books, reflecting fundamental changes in the liturgy, as well as minor alterations in the English translations of the traditional Hebrew texts that essentially ignore their literal meaning.

The present study is concerned primarily with the original concept of worship of the divine in the form of a sacrificial cult, conducted by a priestly hierarchy, as described in the biblical Pentateuch, and the later transition to a democratized form of worship conducted by the laity in a synagogue or by the individual in one’s home, as described in the rabbinic literature. One of the significant difficulties encountered in conducting such a study is the translation of biblical and rabbinic Hebrew texts into non-Semitic languages such as English, which employs terminology such as ‘worship’ which has no reliable biblical or rabbinic Hebrew equivalent. With regard to the latter, for example, there is a tendency to consider ‘worship’ as meaning ‘prayer,’ which in the relevant Hebrew texts denotes a request or supplication. However, in addition to prayer in the sense of supplication or petition, the Jewish concept of worship also encompasses thanksgiving, confession, benediction, study, affirmation, and praise, each of which has a place in the liturgy of Judaism.¹

Accordingly, the common equation of worship, in the general sense of reverence paid to a god,² with prayer, in the more precise sense of supplication or petition, can be misleading. Indeed, prayer, understood in the latter sense, constitutes a rather small segment of the voluminous liturgy of Jewish worship, much of which is drawn directly from Scripture, whereas prayer, both formal and personal, is primarily the product of individuals confronting a variety of challenges to their and their coreligionists’ social and physical wellbeing. The principal focus of this study is on prayer, understood in the latter limited sense, which is traditionally interconnected with benedictions intended to give hope to those petitioning for divine beneficence.

With regard to that interconnection, it was taught: "A man should always first recount the praise of the Holy One, blessed be He, and then pray. Whence do we know this? From Moses; for it is written, And I besought the Lord at that time, and it goes on, O Lord God, Thou hast begun to show Thy servant Thy greatness and Thy strong hand; for what god is there in heaven and earth who can do according to Thy works and according to Thy mighty acts, and afterwards is written, Let me go over, I pray Thee, and see the good land etc [Deut. 3:23-25]."³ This is how one would approach a human king to request a favor, first extolling royal magnificence, and only them making a petition; how much more so should one follow that pattern in approaching the divine King of kings!

In the pages that follow consideration will be given to the origins of the physical sacrificial cult in ancient Judaism and the question of whether the metaphysical act of devotional speech accompanied the sacrificial rites or actually replaced them after those rites could no longer be performed. In either case, the physical sacrificial cult came to an end with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and was indeed replaced by Rabbinic Judaism, under which ‘worship’ took on the various aspects mentioned earlier, with special attention being given to the benedictions and prayers that constituted the core of what became known as ‘the service of the heart.’

Because of the variations in the prayer books of the several movements in contemporary Judaism, for purposes of this study the time-honored Hebrew text of the benedictions and prayers discussed in the following will be that which was considered standard from its final formulation some two thousand years ago until the nineteenth century. The English translation of the classical Hebrew text is that presented in The Authorized Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire, originally published in 1891, with minor revisions in subsequent editions.

Worship in Ancient Israel

Worship, by definition, is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. Primitive man generally displayed reverence and adoration for the deities that he believed were in control of the forces of nature that directly affected him. It was natural for primitive man to bring an offering—usually something precious from the fruits of the earth or the increase of his flocks or even, in some cults, the most precious of gifts, one of his children—a practice the Bible protested most vigorously against. But abhorrent as human sacrifice is, it is not unnatural.⁴ From the biblical perspective, the Torah teaches:

The essence of the human being is his need, and his ability, to sacrifice. Inherent in the logic behind this concept is the most fundamental aspect of the human predicament. Only the human being, among all other physical creatures of the world, is aware of its own limitations, reflecting on his own mortality. And since Adam [a person] is aware of the painful reality that no matter how strong, powerful or brilliant he may be, he will ultimately be vanquished by death, his only hope is to link himself to a being and a cause greater than he, which was there before he was born and which will be there after he dies.

Most people amass wealth and material goods in order to utilize them for themselves, to enjoy them in a physical here-and-now sense. But mortality teaches that our material possessions do not really belong to us; one day we will be forced to leave them and the entire world behind, and they will often fall into the very opposite hands to those we would have liked to receive them. Hence the real paradox: Only those objects which we commit to a higher cause, which we give to God, to His Temple, to His Study Hall, to His home for the sick, to His haven for the poor—only those are truly ours, because they enable us to live beyond our limited lifetime, perhaps to all eternity. Only that which we sacrifice is really ours!⁵

The first scriptural example of the self-generated need to present a sacrificial offering to God the Creator appears in the story of Cain’s conflict with his brother Abel, Cain being a tiller of the ground and Abel being a keeper of sheep. According to the biblical narrative, in the process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also bought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof (Gen. 4:2-4). Although the narrator does not explicitly indicate the motivation for their offerings, commentators have suggested plausible explanations based on Cain and Abel’s conflicting vocational interests; Cain was a farmer who labored to grow the produce of his fields, while Abel was a shepherd who exploited the opportunity to use those same fields to graze his flocks of sheep and goats. Both sacrificed to the Lord what was of significant value to each in the hope of gaining the support of the deity for their unchallenged use of the land.

It has been observed by scholars of the ancient world that Sacrifice was a widespread form of religious worship, and it is not to be wondered at that the [biblical] patriarchs should express their veneration for God in ways similar to those of the people around them, by sacrifice. When they believed they had a personal visitation from God, whether in the form of a divine or angelic visitor or by dream, or when they wished to call on the name of God and present themselves in worship before him, their sense of awe was expressed in this way . . . Their sacrifice was not a mere form of worship, but a genuine expression of their spirit and sense of God’s presence.⁶

Thus we are told that when Abraham ultimately decided to leave the polytheistic world in which he spent more than seventy years of his life, he entered the land of Canaan, and he passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the terebinth of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said: ‘Unto thy seed will I give this land’; and he builded there an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent . . . and he builded there an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 12:6-8).

Although the text does not specifically say so, it seems reasonable to assume that Abraham offered sacrifices of things valuable to him on those altars. Though Abraham used the forms of worship as they were in vogue in his time, even manifesting his love and devotion to his God by willing to sacrifice his dearly beloved son Isaac, yet at the last moment an inspiration comes upon him and it dawns upon him that his God does not want the sacrifice of human life. All God can possibly desire is to fear Him and to obey His commandments.⁷ This rejection of human sacrifice was subsequently set forth as Divine Law in the Torah: And thou shalt not give any of thy seed to set them apart to Molech [a Canaanite deity associated with child sacrifice] (Lev. 18:21). This law is given even greater emphasis by declaring child sacrifice a capital crime. Whosoever be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones (Lev. 20:2).

Centuries later, following the exodus of Abraham’s descendants from servitude in Egypt, Moses assembled the children of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai to receive the divine revelation of the Decalogue. The mass of people who witnessed what took place were overwhelmed by what they experienced and were unsure about how to give expression to their felt need to signify their obeisance to the God that liberated them. Sensing that adopting the modes of worship prevalent among the Egyptians would be inappropriate, they were at a loss as to how to react appropriately to the God they could not envision, but nonetheless needed to worship in some manner.

To alleviate their concerns, and implicitly acknowledging that before settling in the land promised to Abraham the Israelites were primarily pastoralists, the Lord said unto Moses: Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel: Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make with Me—gods of silver, or gods of gold, ye shall not make unto you. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me, and sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come unto thee and bless thee (Ex. 20:19-21).

In this passage the people were cautioned, Ye shall not make with Me—gods of silver, or gods of gold, ye shall not make unto you. Tangible representations of God in idols, even if made out of highly valued materials such as gold and silver, were categorically prohibited. Animal sacrifices were acceptable, as long as they did not involve idolatrous practices. Moreover, the altar upon which the sacrificed animal was to be offered was to be as simple as possible, an altar of earth, which would be required to be built anew every time the people changed locations, given that traveling with an altar made of earth would be impractical. Notwithstanding the literal wording of the text, rabbinic tradition has interpreted the phrase to mean that the altar does not actually have to be made of earth but that it must be attached to the earth; that is, it cannot be mounted on a portable pedestal. Nonetheless, taking the text literally, it seems evident that God wanted the popular mode of worship by sacrificial offerings to remain as simple as possible, clearly differentiating it from the more elaborate practices in the land from which they had just been brought out, and common in the territory to which Moses was to lead them. It has been suggested in this regard:

The existence of animal sacrifice as a virtually universal custom of mankind from times immemorial proves that the expression of religious feeling in this form is an element of man’s nature and, therefore, implanted in him by his Creator. To spiritualize this form of worship, free it from cruel practices and unholy associations, and so regulate the sacrificial cult that it makes for a life of righteousness and holiness was the task of monotheism. In heathen Semitic religions, sacrificial worship was cruel, often requiring human victims. It was foul—licentious rites being an essential element in many kinds of sacrifice. It was immoral—covering crimes and deliberate iniquities against fellowmen. It was irrational—steeped in demonology and magic. In absolute contrast to this degrading heathenism, the Torah banishes everything cruel, foul and unholy from the sacrificial cult. . . .Moderns do not always realize the genuine hold that the sacrificial service had upon the affections of the people in ancient Israel. It was for ages the main outward manifestation of religion, as well as the vehicle of supreme spiritual communion.⁸

It is noteworthy that there are recorded instances in the Pentateuch of individual utterances of prayers, a subject to be discussed later in this study. For example, the individual is instructed: When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithe of thine increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing [the poor tithe], and hast given it unto the Levite, to the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within thy gates and be satisfied, then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God: . . .‘Look forth from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Thy people Israel, and the land which Thou hast given us, as Thou didst swear unto our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey’ (Deut. 26:12-13, 15).

Considered from a historical perspective, it has been noted that in this instance the layman is supposed to utter a prayer by himself—not the priest, as the Priestly Code usually prescribes. This democratic attitude to permit the participation of laymen in the service of the sanctuary was evidently the fruit of consistent prophetic preaching. The prayer and praise quoted above is certainly one of the oldest Hebrew prayers; though attributed to Moses it dates back to the last century of the First Temple.⁹

Of particular historical importance was the stipulation that sacrifices were to be offered in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come unto thee and bless thee. As it turned out, the place where I cause My name to be mentioned in worship was to be exclusively in the portable Tabernacle, and later in the permanent Temple in Jerusalem. In this regard, Moses was instructed:

What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it without the camp, and hath not brought it unto the door of the tent of meeting, to present it as an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people. To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they sacrifice in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the Lord, unto the door of the tent of meeting, unto the priest, and sacrifice them for sacrifices of peace-offerings unto the Lord. And the priest shall dash the blood against the altar of the Lord at the door of the tent of meeting, and make the fat smoke for a sweet savor unto the Lord. And they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices unto the satyrs [sylvan gods or demons], after whom they go astray. This shall be a statute forever unto them throughout their generations. And thou shalt say unto them: Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, that offereth a burnt-offering or sacrifice, and bringeth it not unto the door of the tent of meeting, to sacrifice it unto the Lord, even that man shall be cut off from his people (Lev. 12:3-9).

This constraint was essential to the centralization of the critical religious aspects of the Israelite civilization to be developed and espoused by the nation of the children of Israel. Why was centralization of worship with regard to the sacrificial rites deemed so important? The simple answer is that from its outset, the essence of the nation of the children of Israel was its theopolitical foundation.

The unifying factor of a group of tribes that reconstituted them as a nation was their acceptance in the belief in the Lord as the one and only God, whose commandments and teachings were conveyed to them by Moses, the servant of God. Since the worship practices of the nations and peoples with whom the children of Israel would of necessity interact, it was essential that the nation of Israel’s public worship practices be clearly defined and followed. This required that the sacrificial rites be performed by specifically trained priests at a single central location where their procedures could be overseen and evaluated.

Prior to the completion of the portable Tabernacle, Moses had to ascend Mount Sinai to receive divine instruction. Once