Kol Hamevaser Contents Volume 2, Issue 1 Staff September 20, 2008 Managing Editors Alex Ozar 3 Editorial: On Selihot Ben Kandel Rabbi Shalom Carmy 4-5 On Optimism and Freedom: A Preface to Rav Gilah Kletenik Kook’s Orot Ha-Teshuvah Alex Ozar Emmanuel Sanders 6-7 Levinas and the Possibility of Prayer Shaul Seidler-Feller Ari Lamm 7-9 An Interview with Rabbi Hershel Reichman Staff Writers Rena Wiesen 9-10 Praying with Passion Ruthie Just Braffman Gilah Kletenik 10 The Supernatural, Social Justice, and Spirituality Marlon Danilewitz Simcha Gross 11 Lions, Tigers, and Sin - Oh My! Ben Greenfield Noah Greenfield Ruthie Just Braffman 12 Lord, Get Me High Simcha Gross Joseph Attias 13 Finding Meaning in Teshuvah Emmanuel Sanders Devora Stechler Rena Wiesen Special Features Interviewer Ari Lamm Gilah Kletenik 14-15 Interview with Rabbi Marc Angel on His Recently Published Novel, The Search Committee Typesetters Yossi Steinberger Aryeh Greenbaum Upcoming Issue In the spirit of the current political season and in advance of the pres- idential elections, the upcoming edition of Kol Hamevaser will be on Layout Editor the topic of Politics and Leadership. The topic burgeons with poten- Jason Ast tial, so get ready to write, read, and explore all about Jews, Politics, and Leadership. Think: King Solomon, the Israel Lobby, Jewish Sovereignty, Exilarchs, Art Editor Rebbetsins, Covenant and Social Contract, Tzipi Livni, Jewish non- Avi Feld profits, Serarah, Henry Kissinger, the Rebbe, Va'ad Arba Aratsot, and much more! About Kol Hamevaser The deadline for submissions is October 12, 2008. the current editors of Kol Hamevaser would like to thank and applaud our outgoing editors, David Lasher and Mattan Erder, Kol Hamevaser is a magazine of Jewish thought dedicated to spark- as well as Gilah Kletenik and Sefi Lerner for their efforts to- ing the discussion of Jewish issues on the Yeshiva University campus. wards the phenomenal success of Kol Hamevaser's inaugural It will serve as a forum for the introduction and development of year. A fine job indeed. new ideas. The major contributors to Kol Hamevaser will be the un- Special thanks go also to Zev Eleff for his vision, initiative, and dergraduate population, along with regular input from RIETS patient practical guidance. Roshei Yeshiva, YU Professors, educators from Yeshivot and Semi- naries in Israel, and outside experts. In addition to the regular edi- tions, Kol Hamevaser will be sponsoring in-depth special issues, This magazine contains words of Torah. speakers, discussion groups, shabbatonim, and regular web activity. We hope to facilitate the religious and intellectual growth of Please treat it with proper respect. Yeshiva University and the larger Jewish community. 2 Volume2, Issue 1 Spirituality: Teshuvah and Tefillah OnOn SelihotSelihot BY: Alex Ozar Rambam is speaking of a more fundamental titled “Jewish Law and Morality,” articulates a ically. Such, of course, is not the ideal form of form of kavvanah, one that is essential for all theory of mitsvah observance of direct rele- prayer; at the same time, it is no small achieve- tefillah: the basic awareness that one is stand- vance to our inquiry. Berkovits struggles with ment to have taught the lips to pray on their Selihot, for many of us, is just plain hard. ing before God. Without such awareness, the following question: What moral or reli- own, without the conscious participation of the Forfeiting sleep to muddle and mumble claims Rav Hayyim, tefillah is not tefillah at gious meaning can there be in rote physical ac- heart and mind.”v If our goal is to maximize through obscure and arcane liturgical poetry all; it is mit’asek, or totally intention-less ac- tions? One has fulfilled his obligation to wear the presence of God in our lives and world, can be frustrating. Even when we manage to tivity, which has no significance. Therefore, if tefillin whether it affects his soul or not, and then having our bodies act in consonance with somehow penetrate the daunting, fortress-like one prays without this awareness, the Rambam one is absolved of his duty to pray, according Godliness is surely a significant step in the language barrier, we nonetheless feel con- rules that he is required to pray again. to all opinions, even if he prays with no cog- right direction. founded, lost in a sea of allusions and poetic nizance of the prayer’s meaning. What is the The Hazon Ish objects to Rav Hayyim’s When we recite selihot, and whenever we flourish. We know when to briskly mumble pray, even if our hearts and minds have regret- through the text and when to raise our voices in tably wandered far from tefillah, the very fact a tone of passionate pleading, but can this be of our limbs groggily carrying us to shul, our genuine religious expression? We can grasp lips forming the prescribed sounds, and our the broader themes of selihot, such as peni- voices rising as we chant the desperate plea of tence, submissiveness, and our desperate need the yud gimel middot, is in itself invaluable. for God’s mercy, but maintaining concentra- Whether we know it or not, our bodies are op- tion on such ideas can be difficult; the boister- erating with that basic awareness of God of ous chatter of our inner lives only which the Hazon Ish spoke. We are through begrudgingly affords us any respite. Surely our bodies relating to God, and are part of his though, whether we understand or feel what we mission. Optimal, authentic prayer? Unfortu- say, or we are intently contemplating last nately not. Meaningful, valuable worship night’s baseball game, we will dutifully recite nonetheless? Certainly. selihot. And surely, though it may be grossly insufficient, and a senselessly wasted opportu- nity for deveikut, it will not be meaningless; it can’t be. It may be the case that, “Uttering Alex Ozar is a senior in YC majoring in words in the direction of another person with- Philosophy and is a Managing Editor for Kol analysis on a number of grounds. Of interest to out any awareness of what one is doing is utility in such obligations? Berkovits explains Hamevaser. us though is the following line: “For any man meaningless, not because it fails to rise to the that the very fact of our bodies behaving in the who stands to pray, it is not feasible to speak of authenticity of the Buberian I-thou dialogue, manner prescribed by a mitzvah, even if our totally intention-less activity, as he will always but because it is simply not an act of commu- minds are totally unengaged, means that our have some faint knowledge that this is prayer nication.”i It may be that intent-less chanting bodies are functioning with an “awareness” of ii before God, only he is not cognizant of it.” God and His will. Why do our arms wrap the of liturgy is “a gibbering muddle” , but it i R. Shalom Carmy, “Eliezer Berkovits’ Chal- Apparently, the Hazon Ish felt that the Ram- strands of our tefillin around our arms? Yes, in nonetheless carries real religious value. But lenge to Contemporary Orthodoxy”, in The bam could not have spoken of totally intention- an immediate sense, it may be mere habit. But where precisely is this value to be found? Torah U-Madda Journal (Volume 12), Yeshiva less prayer, because such prayer is at least a ultimately, is not due to the command of God? There are multiple approaches to this University, 2004. 200 virtual, or perhaps even real, impossibility. No question, but we will focus on a line of thought In performing the rote physical action of a one can pray without some awareness of God’s originating from a most unlikely duo of Jewish mitzvah, our bodies are responding to and in- ii Rabbi Shalom Carmy, Without Intelligence, presence. How are we to understand this rather thinkers: the Hazon Ish and Rabbi Dr. Eliezer teracting with a higher order, whether we know Whence Prayer?, in Jewish Spirituality and Di- bold empirical claim? Was the Hazon Ish so Berkovits. Rambam writes, “Any prayer de- it or not. “The religious system of Judaism, vine Law (The Orthodox Forum Series), ed. naively optimistic that he was convinced that void of proper intention is no prayer, and if one which disciplines the Jew in every situation all Adam Mintz and Lawrence Schiffman, Mike no man was so low as to be capable of prayer prays without intention, one must pray through life, establishes habitual patterns of Scharf Publication Trust of Yeshiva University, without turning his mind to God at all? Obvi- again.”iii And in the next paragraph, “What is physical reaction and conduct, which testify to 2005. 459 ously not. The Hazon Ish, as he says explicitly, meant by ‘intention?’ One must clear his heart an acute physical “awareness” of and order of iii was not referring to conscious awareness. The iv of all thoughts and view himself as if he were reality that is not of the body.” And as if he Rambam, Hilkhot Tefillah 4:15 awareness the Hazon Ish says we all have is were speaking to us, “People who pray regu- standing before the divine presence.” Every- iv unconscious, subliminal. Fair enough, but of R. Dr. Eliezer Berkovits, Essential Essays on body knows Rav Hayyim’s claim that the larly and on all the occasions prescribed by re- what use is an “awareness” of which we are Judaism, ed. David Hazony, Jerusalem, The Rambam is here referring not to the demand ligious law at times find that their minds have unaware? Shalem Center, 2002.