Page 35 - Jewish News_March 2021

COMMENTARY March 2021 35A

Our prayers God’s outstretched arm

we have in our lives. It is right to ask paper and you think I’m going to run
God for what we need. Jethro receives out of toilet paper, but you have an-
From extra praise in the Talmud because his From other roll where that one was and you
don’t know how did that even take
prayer to God is focused on others.
the the plural. Many Jewish prayers are for the place.” There are other fanatical evan-
Much of our liturgy is written in
gelicals whose refusal to “bend the
Bimah the community, which includes each Bimah knee at the altar of science” puts not
one of us. Our ancient sages brilliant- only their parishioners’ lives at stake,
ly structured our prayers this way. As but the tens, hundreds and thousands
well, each of us, in our own words of who may come in contact with them.
Rabbi Michael Shefrin prayer, make requests on behalf of our Rabbi Howard Siegel Is God at war with science? Is rea-
Associate Rabbi, families and our world, which again, Temple Beth Sholom son the enemy of the people? Has igno-
Temple Emanu-El includes us. These are good and right “God took us out of Egypt with a strong rance become the opioid of the masses?

ews are supposed to pray. Recent- ways to pray. hand and an outstretched arm, with These are the questions to be asked this
ly, we have been given much to We should also make sure to pray awesome power, signs and wonders.” year at the Passover table. Rabbi Har-
Jpray for and about. We ask God for others. There are so many who need (Deuteronomy 26:8) old Kushner wrote in his groundbreak-
for safety and peace. We thank God for our prayers. Those who are ill, those we his year’s celebration of Pass- ing book When Bad Things Happen
health and abundance. Yet, something worry about, those who have no one to over, amidst a crippling pan- to Good People, “God, who neither
felt different for me this past year. The pray for them. Even those whose way Tdemic, takes on even greater causes nor prevents tragedies, helps
words of devotion and appeal felt more of being in the world bothers us can be importance. This time it is not a single by inspiring people to help.” God has
global. Perhaps because we are all im- prayed for. Offering prayers with oth- nation, or people, who face the op- gifted us with the intelligence to break
pacted by the pandemic, I found that ers in mind is an act of humility. pressive onslaught of the Coronavirus down a nuclear atom, dissect DNA,
more often, my prayers included oth- I’d like to share something per- but an entire world. This time it is not understand the complicated workings
ers. Our tradition says this is good. sonal with you. During daily prayer, a slave people fleeing a pharaoh and of chemistry and physics...and to do so
In the Torah, Moses’ Midianite during the allotted time for personal his well-armed Egyptian forces, but in the service of humankind.
father-in-law, Jethro, offers beautiful devotion, my prayers are focused on a relentless invisible enemy with no We are God’s outstretched arm.
words in praise of God. After Moses others. They are focused on you. I ask boundaries, nor containment. Can we Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan taught,
tells him all that God had done for the God to look after you, to answer your afford to wait for God’s outstretched “Since faith in God is essentially faith
Israelites, Jethro offers, “Blessed is the prayers, to give you everything that arm? Is the lesson of Passover to put in [God’s] power to redeem [humani-
Lord, who rescued you from Egypt and you want and need. Jethro taught me to your trust in God, not science; faith, ty], to lose faith in the potentialities of
the hand of Pharaoh, who delivered do this. Perhaps you will do the same. not reason? human nature is to lose faith in God as
the people from under the hand of the As Passover approaches, still Last year at this time, an evan- well.”
Egyptians.” (Exodus 18:10) physically distant from others, let us gelical minister in Florida announced, Our real struggle this Passover is
Do you see what is so special about appreciate our freedom by seeking to “This should be a time of supernatu- to break the chains of ignorance and
his prayer? Jethro offered praise to be closer to God and to others through ral sustenance, where what you have fundamentalism, restoring faith in in-
God, not for what had been done for our prayer. in your hand will multiply. And every tellect and trust in reason. In doing so,
him, rather, for what had been done God, help us to be like Jethro. Let day there will be multiplications,” he we can again become the outstretched
for Moses and the people. His worship us praise You for all that You do and continued. “You look at your toilet arm of God.
was on behalf of others. offer more prayers with others in mind.
It is good to give thanks for what Amen.

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