![the Open Siddur Project [logo]](https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Open-Siddur-Project-Logo-2016.svg){kind=logo}
TOGGLE COLUMNS (on/off):ADJUST COLUMN POSITIONS: select the column header cell and drag it where you want. show me!COPY INDIVIDUAL COLUMN(S): use CopyTables, a browser extension.
| Source (German) | Translation (English) |
|---|---|
Das Erste und Eigentliche des Gebets ist: nicht dessentwegen beten, was wir haben wollen, sondern um dessentwillen, was wir sein sollen. Wir haben auch unser Verlangen, jeder weiß um Bedürfen und Not und Hoffnung seines Daseins; aber das Gebet will uns vor allem zu uns hinführen, will uns die seelische Kraft, dieses innere Recht zeben, daß wir ein Begehren hegen dürfen, daß wir es vor den hinbringen können, vor den alle Menschen, jeder mit seinem Entbehren und Leiden, seinem Harren und Sehnen, hingestellt sind. Es ist nicht ein Zufälliges, daß Worte für das Beten in der biblischen Sprache rückbezügliche Wörter sind (hithpallel, hithehannen): auf den Menschen hin, auf sein Ich zurück will das Beten wirken. |
The first and essential thing about prayer is not to pray for the sake of what we want to have, but for the sake of what we should be. We also have our desires, everyone knows the need and want and hope of his existence; but prayer wants above all to lead us to ourselves, wants to give us the spiritual strength, this inner right, that we may cherish a desire, that we may bring it before him before whom all men, each with his want and suffering, his waiting and longing, are placed. It is no coincidence that the words for prayer in the biblical language are reflexive words (התפלל hitpalel, התחנן hitḥanen): prayer wants to work towards man, back to his ego. |
Alles wahre Beten ist so ein Weg, der den Menschen zu der Wahrheit, dem Sinne seines Wesens und seines Daseins hinweist, so daß der Mensch sich selbst findet. Beten kann daher zum Gebote werden: du sollst beten, du sollst zu dir hin gelangen. Und wenn der Mensch sich entdeckt, die Wirklichkeit seines Lebens und damit sich selbst erkennt, ist er alsbald vor Gott hingestellt. Denn er ist damit zu dem Schaffenden, Bestimmenden und Gebietenden seines Lebens, zu dem, was er vor Gott und von Gottes Gnaden ist, hingeleitet. Der Mensch betet vor Gott, er betet von Gottes Gnaden. Dadurch, daß er sich vor Gott stehend, van Gott erkannt, von Gott gehört weiß, kann er zu Gott beten. |
All true prayer is thus a path that leads man to the truth, to the meaning of his being and existence, so that man finds himself. Prayer can therefore become a commandment: you shall pray, you shall come to yourself. And when man discovers himself, recognizes the reality of his life and thus himself, he is immediately placed before God. For he is thus led to that which creates, determines and determines his life, to that which he is before God and by God’s grace. Man prays before God, he prays by the grace of God. By knowing that he is before God, recognized by God, heard by God, he can pray to God. |
Darin gewährt das Gebet dieses Zwiefache, von dem der Psalm spricht: das reine Herz und den festgegründeten Geist. Das reine Herz, das ist der Sinn für das Echte und Einfache, die Ablehnung des nur Scheinenden, nur Geltenden, Täuschenden, diese Fähigkeit, wahr vor Gott zu sein. Der festgegründete Geist, das ist die Kraft der inneren Freiheit, dieser Beständigkeit im Guten und Rechten, die Abweisung alles dessen, was vom Heute zum Morgen schwankt und wechselt, dieser Wille, vor Gott zu bleiben. Seelisch rein, seelisch fest sein, das ist der Segen, den das Beten, das Gebet zu dem einen Gotte, gibt und wahrt. |
In this, prayer grants the twofold thing of which the psalm speaks: the pure heart and the steadfast spirit.[1] Psalms 51.12. The pure heart is the sense of what is genuine and simple, the rejection of what is only apparent, only valid, deceptive, this ability to be true before God. The firmly grounded spirit is the power of inner freedom, this constancy in what is good and right, the rejection of everything that fluctuates and changes from today to tomorrow, this will to remain before God. To be spiritually pure, spiritually firm, that is the blessing that prayer, prayer to the one God, gives and preserves. |
Rabbi Leo Baeck’s essay on prayer “Gebet im Judentum,” was published in the “Judentum und Gebet” issue of Bne Briss (September/October 1935), top of page 82. Many thanks to Dr. Michael Meyer who noted this essay in Rabbi Leo Baeck: Living a Religious Imperative in Troubled Times, note 151 page 245. The essay essentially reconciles the Stoic maxim “Know Thyself” with the rabbinic dictum “דע לפני מי אתה עומד (“know before whom you stand,” Berakhot 28b.7), the former famously placed at the entrance to the Temple at Delphi, and the latter a familiar inscription adorning many synagogues entrances, sanctuaries, and aronei haqodesh. –Aharon Varady
Source(s)
Notes
| 1 | Psalms 51.12. |
|---|
“Gebet im Judentum | Prayer in Judaism, by Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck (1935)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
Stable Link:
https://opensiddur.org/?p=54439
Associated Image:
Alte Synagoge, Steeler Straße 29 in Essen (credit: Frank Vincentz, license: CC BY-SA)
(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in category pages and in shared links on social media.)
Terms of Use:
Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:
- Properly attribute the work to Leo Baeck, Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Aharon N. Varady (translation).
- Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
- Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=54439>.
- Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)
Additional Notes:
- The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
- We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
- If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.
Support this work:
The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.
ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17
Comments, Corrections, and Queries