Simplicity in Prayer

The recent post about simplicity reminded me of an email I wrote to a friend of an inmate I visited last year right after Yom Kippur. Excerpts:

R... was able to fast on Yom Kippur, but didn’t have a Holiday prayer book with him, only the regular prayer book that Rabbi O... gave him when he spent a few days at .... So he decided to read from the prayer book, and stumbled upon the chapters of Ethics of our Fathers (a section of the Talmud that is sometimes studied on Shabbat afternoons, so it is printed among the prayers). One sentence that caught his eyes is in Chapter 2 Mishna 5 – “in a place where they are no worthy people, try to be a worthy person (a Mentch!)”… After he read that, the idea became his main focus and meditation for Yom Kippur.

I had goose bumps… I read and taught this Mishna at least 100 times, but I read it as an intellectual statement, as good advice, ethical and moral suggestion. But R... turned it into an emotional plea, into a prayer to G-d to help him stay sane and spiritual within the walls of the prison.

For thousands of years the Jewish people read from the same exact book, the same exact prayers in commemoration of the Holiest day of the year. We talk about our past, our present and our future, our physical, mental, spiritual and emotional state. We talk about our thoughts, our speech and our actions. We read the Avinu Malkenu, the Al chet, the Aleinu, the Shema, and the silent Amida.

To me none of it came close to the simplicity and profoundness of one lonely statement by one lonely man in one lonely place : “please G-d help me stay a Mentch”