PRAYING TOWARDS THE SHEKHINAH. SOME OBSERVATIONS IN MAIMONIDES’ ‘LAWS OF PRAYER’
Leo Mock University of Amsterdam
Maimonides is usually presented as an outstanding example of ratio- nalistic Judaism, who objected to mysticism, magic spells, and practi- cal Kabbalah, and thus appeals to the contemporary Jewish religious believer (hereby presuming a clear dichotomy between a rational, philo- sophical mode of thinking and a mystical, semi-magical and supersti- tious mode of thinking). It is no coincident that Maimonides’ writings play an important role in the books of modern orthodox thinkers as Y. Leibovich, D. Hartman and J.B. Soloveitchik. In this article I will try to point at some interesting aspects in Maimonides’ ‘Laws of Prayer’ which hint at his involvement in mysti- cal experience.
In the ‘Laws of Prayer’ in his codex Mishne Torah, Maimonides points out eight facets to which somebody who prays should pay attention. One of these is the direction of his prayer. Basically, a prayer should be directed towards the Temple in Jerusalem. Outside the land of Israel one should direct his prayer towards the Holy Land, in Israel it should be directed towards Jerusalem, in Jerusalem towards the Temple, and finally, while standing in the Temple itself, a person should direct his Sometimes one 1.(בית קודש הקודשים) ’prayer towards the ‘Holy of Holies is unable to direct the prayer as one should due to physical restrictions and conditions. Maimonides addresses this problem too: A blind person or one who cannot tell the cardinal points—and somebody travelling on a boat—should direct his heart towards the Shekhinah2 Maimonides’ source is the Talmud tractate Berakhot, although a significant difference becomes visible:
1 ‘Laws of Prayer,’ Ch. 5:3. 2 Ibid. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 ZUTOT 6.1 Also available online – brill.nl/zuto 12 leo mock
Our Rabbis taught: A blind man or one who cannot tell the cardinal points should direct his heart towards his Father in Heaven . . .3 The interesting point here is that there is no mention of the Shekhinah in the Talmudic excerpt, which reads ‘his Father in Heaven’ instead. תנו רבנן סומא ומי :Our printed Talmud editions have here in Hebrew -Other exist .שאינו יכול לכוין את הרוחות—יכוין לבו כנגד אביו שבשמים ing Talmud manuscripts also read ‘his Father in Heaven’ with minor תנו רבנן סומא ומי :variations. The Talmud manuscript of Firenze reads The Paris 4.שאינו יכול לכוון את הרוחות—יכוין את לבו כנגד אביו שבשמים תנו רבנן סומא ומי שאינו יכול לכוין את הרוחות—יכוןmanuscript reads: 5 תנו רבנן :And the Munich manuscript reads 6.את לבו כנגד אביו שבשמים 7.סומא ושאינו יכול לכוין את הרוחות—יכוין את לבו לאביו שבשמים כנגד) ’Since Maimonides uses the expression ‘towards the Shekhinah as the (לאביו שבשמים) ’rather than ‘to his Father in Heaven (השכינה Munich manuscript reads, his original source probably read ‘towards his which he changed into ‘towards ,(כנגד אביו שבשמים) ’Father in Heaven -As far as I know, no existing Talmud manu .(כנגד השכינה) ’the Shekhinah scripts or editions are known that read ‘Shekhinah’ instead of ‘Father in Heaven’ in this fragment, as Maimonides does.8 But there is more. In the previous chapter Maimonides elaborates as an important element of prayer (כוונה) ’on the theme of ‘intention which, if lacking, may hinder its performance: The intention of the heart’—how? [in what way can it hinder the per- formance of praying?] Every prayer which is not made with intention is not a prayer. And if one prays without intention, he should [כוונה] pray again with intention.9 What is that intention according to Maimonides?
3 bBer 30a, Soncino, ed. 4 Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, II.1.7. -to direct, aim, have intention. It would be inter—יכוין Apparently a variation on 5 to make a base, to establish, to—לכונן esting to suggest it to be related to the verb prepare. 6 Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, Heb. 671. 7 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, cod. Hebr. 95. 8 A search on the CD of the Bar-Ilan response project (fifteenth edition, 2007) yields no matches with the words ‘his heart towards the Shekhinah,’ except for the above- mentioned Maimonides fragment of his ‘Laws on Prayer,’ 5:3. 9 ‘Laws of Prayer,’ Ch. 4:15.