The Indianapolis Jewish Community has joined with Jews from all over the world in praying for the safe return of the three teenagers kidnapped in Israel. Together we raise our voices in support of these young men and their families.
Rabbi David Fohrman comments that our immediate impulse to pray seems to be almost instinctive. He suggests that the need to pray is hardwired into the human condition. To act on this instinct to pray is not an act of desperation, but instead represents a real belief that such actions can have a beneficial effect.
The problem with Rabbi’s analysis is that an overwhelming number of Jews, certainly of Progressive Jews, do not believe that the act of praying can have any impact at all. While Torah is replete with instances of God responding to human pleas, most of us do not believe that such is the case any longer. We believe that prayer can have an effect upon us, and maybe our actions can have an effect, but we do not believe for a moment that God micromanages the world – that God responds to specific requests.
I, as a professional religious person, would suggest that there is more involved than we might think. And, as is often the case, the issues lies in the words.
That we have an instinctive need to pray implies that we are in some sort of relationship with the Divine. The nature of that relationship is not clearly defined and is certainly not the request hotline, where we ask and God provides. But if there were not some sort of relationship, prayer would never even enter our minds. And a relationship – any relationship – implies movement between the parties – movement that can go either way.
There are ways that we can help these three young men and their families. Political activism is certainly one of them. Supporting their families and standing together as a community is another.
And maybe – just maybe – prayer might also help. Who knows? And it certainly could not hurt.
B’Shalom
Rabbi Stanley Halpern