THE LANGUAGE OF PRAYERS

QUESTION:

What is the halakhic justification for modern congregations reading part of their prayers, not in Hebrew, but in the vernacular? Also, did not the congregation in ancient Alexandria send an enquiry to Palestine concerning the permissibility of prayers in the Greek language? (Asked by Dr. Herman E. Snyder, Springfield, Massachusetts.)

ANSWER:

The locus dassicus for the permissibility of prayers in any other language than Hebrew is found in the Mishnah, Sotah 7:1, as follows: “These may be said in any language … the shema and the tefillah.” The Talmud, elaborating this statement, says that the word shema, besides meaning “hear,” also means “understand.” Therefore the shema may be recited in any language that one understands (Berakhot 13a). As for the tefillah, which is primarily a petitional prayer, the Jerusalem Talmud (Sotah 1:1, 21b) says that it may be recited in any language in order that the worshiper may know just what it is that he is petitioning God to give him. On this matter the Tosfot Yom Toy to the Mishnah passage in Sotah cites the Talmud as follows: “The tefillah is a plea for God’s mercy, so it may be prayed in whatever language the worshiper wishes.” Rashi explains this as follows: “In this prayer the worshiper should concentrate in the language he knows best.”

However, in Shabbat 12b there is a discussion as to the recitation of the tefillah in the vernacular. Rabbi Judah permits it outright, but Rabbi Jochanan says that this prayer should be recited only in Hebrew because the ministering angels who carry our prayers up to God pay no attention to Aramaic. This statement led some scholars to the conclusion that Aramaic was the only non-Hebrew language which is forbidden in personal prayer because of the angels’ supposed disregard of that language. However, another decision based upon that discussion is found in Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim 104:4, which says that only private prayer must necessarily be in Hebrew, but public prayer can be in any language. This is because with regard to public prayer it is understood that God is present with the congregation and therefore we do not need any angel intermediary (the explanation is cited by Be-er Hetev).

One would imagine that with the law so clearly and firmly stated that there could never be any objection to public prayer in German or English or in any modern language. But when the Reform movement started, the Orthodox authorities opposing the Reform, struggled to find arguments which would blur the clear permission given in the earlier codes. For example, when the Hamburg Temple was founded in 1818, the Orthodox authorities gathered opinions from rabbis all over the Jewish world in order to forbid the existence of the Reform Temple. These opinions were published in the well-known work, “Words of the Covenant” (Eleh Divreh Habrit). Among the anti-Reform opinions there is the responsum of Moses Sofer of Pressber. This great scholar and brilliant mind could think up no better argument against the vernacular than to assert that the meaning of the Hebrew is so deep that no translation into any modern language can do justice to it.

Also it is interesting to note a second attempt to overcome this clear permissibility of the law. It is found in the well-known commentary Tiferet Yisrael. Commenting on the statement in Mishnah Sotah that prayers may be recited in all languages, a footnote to his commentary says: “Now that the Reformers are trying to bring about changes, the rabbis in their authority may have the full right to protect Judaism by abolishing the pennission of the Mishnah to pray in all languages.” These attempts, so vague and uncertain, cannot possibly undo the clear statement of the law, beginning in the Mishnah and finalized in the Shulhan Arukh, that prayers may be recited in all languages, especially so in the public synagogue prayer.

Now as to the second part of the enquiry, namely, whether the Jewish community in Alexandria sent an enquiry to the rabbis in Palestine in order to find out whether they may pray in Greek which was their language: There is no question that this large and ancient community conducted its Torah reading and very likely, also, its prayers in the Greek language. See the many references given by Schuerer The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ Vol. 3, pp. 93-95. We know that the Alexandria community did communicate with the rabbis in Palestine on many topics. In the Mishnah (Negaim 14:13) we are told that they enquired of Rabbi Joshua as to the proper procedure when the purification sacrifices of two lepers got mixed up with each other and one of the lepers died. Also in the Talmud (Niddah 69b) we are told that Rabbi Joshua ben Chananiah was asked twelve questions by the Alexandria community. These twelve questions are enumerated in the Talmud, but there is not a single one among them as to whether it is permissible to pray in the vernacular.

The fact that the sources indicate that the Jews in Alexandria worshiped in Greek and read the Torah in Greek and also that they cor-responded with the rabbis on many matters, these facts may well have led them at one time or other to ask the Palestinian authorities about prayers in the vernacular. But if they did ask such a question and it is recorded, I have not been able to find it. It may be that the questioner had in mind, not Alexandria, but another Hellenistic Jewish community, namely, Caesarea. We are told (J. Sotah 7:1, 21b) that Rabbi Levi came to Caesarea and found that the community prayed in Greek. He wanted to forbid them to do so but Rabbi Jose said, “No, they are permitted to do so.”