BOWING BEFORE THE ARK
QUESTION:
Is the custom which was established at Washington Hebrew Congregation some years ago for the rabbis to enter the Sanctuary and to bow before the Ark while the Congregation rises, a local innovation or is it based on some longstanding Jewish tradition? (Asked by Rabbi Joshua O. Haberman, Washington, D.C.)
IT IS NOT A widespread custom to bow towards the Ark on entering the Sanctuary. I suppose the question was asked because Catholics bow on entering the Church. Often when we see what seems to be a Christian custom observed by Jews, we must not assume that we picked it up from them. As the Talmud says, “It is not from them that we learned it.”
The question that concerns us is: Is this bowing before the Ark at the beginning of the service contrary to Jewish custom or the spirit of Jewish law? I would say, “Not at all,” for the following reason: The custom of prostration on Yom Kippur in the Musaf service is based by analogy on what actually occurred at the Temple in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur. The people were facing the Holy of Holies (our synagogue Ark takes its place) and when the high priest uttered the Ineffable Name, they prostrated themselves.
So the custom of prostrating toward the Ark is anciently Jewish, although the carrying over of it to the synagogue is not a law but a custom. Please see my responsum in Current Reform Responsa, page 49, “Bowing and Kneeling on Yom Kippur.” At all events, there you have a precedent. But you really do not need any analogy. The concept of bowing toward the Sanctuary is clearly Jewish, as you can see from the opening prayer of the daily service, Mah Tovu. The second sentence reads: “And I in Thy great mercy will come into Thy house and bow unto Thy holy Sanctuary. Of course the verse comes from the Psalm 5:8, which was written when the Temple still stood; but the very fact that it was taken into our prayer book and put at the opening of the service, indicates that the idea and the gesture is in no way contrary to Jewish feeling.
Isaiah of Trani the younger (13th-14th century, Italy) who is cited regularly in the Shilte Hagiborim to Alfasi, has a definite statement with regard to bowing towards the Ark. It is at the end of Chapter I of Kidushin, where the Talmud speaks of honoring the scroll of the Law. He comments as follows: “We are required to stand up in the presence of the Torah, but not required to bow down to it. It is not found in all the Torah that one must bow even to the Ark.”
Now it is clear from the statement of Isaiah of Trani that to bow before the Ark is not a requirement of the law; but he does not say it is forbidden to do so. In fact, he would not have taken the trouble to make such a clear and inclusive statement if he were not aware that the custom actually existed and he wanted to comment upon it.
There is some evidence more direct than this negative inference that the custom of bowing toward the Ark was observed. Jacob Moellin, the chief source of our Ashkenazic customs (Mainz, about contemporary with Isaiah of Trani) used to bow before the Ark whenever he left the synagogue (see “Minhagim” in the Laws of Daily Worship). But even more definite is the statement of Joseph Caro. The Tur, upon whom Joseph Caro bases his Shulchan Aruch, merely says ( Orach Chayim 150) that the door of the synagogue must be facing the Ark, i.e., in the opposite wall. If the Ark in our Western countries is on the eastern wall, the door must be on the western wall. Caro repeats this law in his Shulchan Aruch, but adds the following: “In order that one may bow from the door towards the Ark.” In other words, he visualized each worshiper coming in and bowing from the door towards the Ark.
Of course Isaiah of Tram is quite right. There is no requirement in the law to bow before the Ark. Yet it would be natural to do so, and apparently it was done in various places, and it cannot very well be considered forbidden or wrong.
As for the feeling that bowing before the Ark smacks of idolatry, such a feeling was sensed by the commentator Anaf Yosef, to the prayer book. Therefore he is careful to indicate that we are not bowing to those objects; we are bowing to God Who made them holy. In case you do not have the commentary, I will give you the complete statement:
The fact that we bow down toward the holy Ark in which the Torah is, this bowing is not a deification and not for the purpose of worshiping the Ark or the Torah. We are bowing down to the Lord of all, Who placed His holiness upon these objects.
At all events, it is clear that the custom of bowing down was possibly an actual practice seen by the commentator, and he warns against its being understood in an idolatrous fashion.