Is the Pope Catholic or Recent Developments in the Holy Friday Prayer
An Italian newspaper ran the following piece:
— The Italian Rabbinic Assembly takes a “pause of reflection” in its dialog with the Catholic Church, following the reintroduction of the Holy Friday prayer, “Oremus et pro Judaeis,” in the reinstated Latin Mass:
“Oremus et pro Iudaeis Ut Deus et Dominus noster illuminet corda eorum, ut agnoscant Iesum Christum salvatorem omnium hominum. Oremus. Flectamus genua. Levate. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui vis ut omnes homines salvi fiant et ad agnitionem veritatis veniant, concede propitius, ut plenitudine gentium in Ecclesiam Tuam intrante omnis Israel salvus fiat. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen”
So, what does all that Latin mean? (Danya provided the text below).
Free translation:
We also pray for the Jews, so that God Our Lord may enlighten their heart, so that they will know Jesus Christ, savior of all humankind. We pray. We bend our knees. Rise. Omnipotent and eternal God, [you] who wants that all men be saved and know the truth, make it so that with the entrance of all peoples in Your Church all of Israel be saved. For Christ our Lord. Amen.
I had a strong feeling of pained familiarity with this. Especially the knee bending.
Doesn’t this seem a bit like this passage:
It is our duty to praise the Master of all, to acclaim the greatness of the One
who forms all creation. For God did not make us like the nations of other
lands, and did not make us the same as other families of the Earth. God did
not place us in the same situations as others, and our destiny is not the same as anyone else’s.
And we bend our knees, and bow down, and give thanks, before the Ruler,
the Ruler of Rulers, the Holy One, Blessed is God….
Therefore we put our hope in You, Adonai our God, to soon see the glory of
Your strength, to remove all idols from the Earth, and to completely cut off all false gods; to repair the world, You holy empire. And for all living flesh to call Your name, and for all the wicked of the Earth to turn to You. May allthe world’s inhabitants recognize and know that to You every knee must bend and every tongue must swear loyalty. Before You, Adonai, our God,
may all bow down, and give honor to Your precious name, and may all take upon themselves the yoke of Your rule. And may You reign over them soon and forever and always. Because all rule is Yours alone, and You will rule in honor forever and ever.
The core ideas seem to be similar, we pray to you, a deity in whom we hold tremendous trust and believe has dominion in this world (and perhaps the next). we hope you will, using means at your disposal to ~convince others to feel the same way about you that we do.
There is a key difference. Their text specifically talks about Jews. Our text, which by the way, is the Aleinu, references (is primarily concerned with?) converting all non-jews. Is their approach better or worse?
Personally, i think that particularistic religious notions of God have led to a lot of bloodshed and are born out of an epistemological arrogance. Don’t get me wrong, I am as arrogant as the next guy, probably moreso, and especially where epistemology is concerned, but geez believing that my God is right, yours is wrong, mine should change your mind, this seems beyond reasonable to me. Let’s not get all hot and bothered about the lack of deep ecumenicalism in other faiths until we do a proper and moral job of inspecting and correcting our own house. That’s why I am glad that all the Italian Rabbinic Assembly took was a “pause of reflection”, anything more, in light of our own liturgy would have been out of place.
I am not really sure this is any worse than the òì ëï paragraph in Aleinu (or really, all of Aleinu for that matter) except that it mentions Jews specifically. Any Thoughts?
Interesting comparison that really made me think. It feels weird being called out “by name” in a Catholic prayer.
I wouldn’t, however, say the Aleinu is about converting non-Jews. I think it’s referencing the Noachide Laws.
That said, it does seem as if the Catholic prayer took a page from the Aleinu text. Interesting.
Agreed. “Please God help everyone else recognize you as we do” is a reasonable prayer. “Please God help those backward XXX specifically to recognize you as we do” is not cool. And sort of indicative of an unhealthy obsession/fixation on XXX’s.
ZT, what the heck are you saying? Is Judaism right or wrong for praying that all recognize G-d as we do – you seem to contradict yourself on your beliefs in the same, let alone subsequent, statements.
We don’t pray that all people become Jews. We pray that they worship and accept G-d. Even G-d’s Torah doesn’t require that all people become Jews.
It could be argued that Christian (including Catholic) people, as well as Moslems, are already worshiping G-d, (yes, that’s right, OUR G-d) as they understand Him to be worshiped.
It would descend into an intricate look at non-Jewish theology to decide how well Christianity and Islam conform to the Noachide laws, and I don’t think that’s really a good use of our time.
On the other hand, I’m pretty upset with the idea that Pope B. is re-introducing a lesson to his Faithful that Jews are deficient in faith.
unlike this old christian prayer, aleinu does not call for conversion of the other to our religion; nor does it specifically focus on one set of people. It is also recited in the context of one massive religion oppressing a tiny minority.
all it calls for is an unspecified recognition of all people of God.
there is thus no valid comparison.
The exact text of the Aleinu varies depending on whose specific liturgy you are using. Both the Wikipedia Aleinu entry and Jewish Virtual Library page zt linked above talk about a verse that the Catholic Church actually banned from the Aleinu back in the day (go figure) and which most Ashkenaz siddurim continue to omit. And it should probably be noted that most Reform siddurim I’ve seen omit the al-kein paragraph of the Aleinu entirely (except the “ve-ne’emar” quote at the end).
Also, at most shuls I’ve been to that sing the Aleinu out loud, they say most of the al-kein paragraph silently. I wonder if this practice has origins in avoiding stirring up the non-Jewish neighbors (although that’s PURE speculation on my part).
It’s totally false to claim that the Alenu is calling for the conversion of non-Jews to Judaism. There is no such concept whatsoever in Jewish teaching. The prayer is that all of humanity will abandon both false gods and idols, as well as evil. In doing so it is prayed that they will therefore come to recognize the Creator as the sovereign of all existence. That’s all. There’s certainly no sense and no desire whatsoever in Jewish liturgy of non-Jews dropping their religions to convert en masse to Judaism.
The vision of Aleinu is of a world and society on its way to redemption and true life through the stripping away of intellectual illusions and moral corruption. It’s actually quite stirring.
The singling out is a big problem. The Aleinu, iirc, according to Vishny’s Siddur Companion was composed in response to this prayer, to provide Jews with an article of faith that could help them resist attempts to convert them. The often censored line, “They bend their knees to nothingness*, to a god that cannot save…” comes right before “But we bend our knees . . . to the Blessed Holy One,” is one I wouldn’t mind seeing reinstated.
Let the Catholics pray as they will, let us pray as we will, and have done with it.
*I seem to recall an article in the CCAR Journal from a few years back saying that the word for nothingness and the name of Jesus share a common gematria.
Aleinu has roots in the Babylonian Exile. Jews were MUCH more willing to proselytize then.
It’s important, too, to keep a historical perspective on the Jews as the ultimate Other in Christianity. As no other groups are so singled out, this reinstatement leads me to believe that once again, the Jews are being used as the people against whom Christians define themselves. I wish they’d leave us alone already.
Anyway I don’t see why it’s inherently wrong for one group of people to hope/pray/work for others to come around and ‘recognize the truth’ of their position. Doesn’t anybody who believes strongly in anything do this?
Eric: “It’s totally false to claim that the Alenu is calling for the conversion of non-Jews to Judaism.”
So calling for everyone to submit to righteous gentilehood (ie., the Noahide laws which stipulate that one must acknowledge that the G-d of Israel is the one true god) — that isn’t praying for humanity’s conversion to Jewish belief?
Being a goy through the proscriptions of Torah is still being converted to Jewish belief.
And what about the blessing for christians we say every day in shmone esreh? This is completely blown out of proportion. Why are we to assume catholics take their liturgy any more seriously than we take our own?
>>“So calling for everyone to submit to righteous gentilehood (ie., the Noahide laws which stipulate that one must acknowledge that the G-d of Israel is the one true god) — that isn’t praying for humanity’s conversion to Jewish belief?
Being a goy through the proscriptions of Torah is still being converted to Jewish belief.”
I’m not sure. We’re certainly not praying for people to join the Jewish people or Jewish religion. We have no expectation or desire that they begin putting on tefillin or forgoing pork or keeping Shabbat or speaking Hebrew. The text of Alenu is pretty clear… “To drive away idols from Earth, so that the false gods will be totally annihilated. To repair the world through the sovereignty of the Eternal One–and every human being will call out with Your name. To revolutionize every evil person on the planet–to turn to You. Every Earthling will see–and understand….”
This is entirely a prayer for a moral, intellectual and perceptual revolution–not for a religious revival in any conventional sense. We want people to recognize the reality and presence of the Creator. That strikes me as being as general and ecumenical as one could ever possibly get! So yes–Alenu asserts that the basics of Jewish belief are “true” (what serious intellectual or conceptual system doesn’t?!) but the response we seek to that truth from present-day non-believers is as non-particularistic and broad as could be imagined.
I think it’s a very interesting question whether the acknowledgment of the Creator is considered synonymous with recognition of the God of Israel. Could a non-Jew be considered a fine ‘Noahide’ if he/she acknowledged the Creator of all existence without connecting that Creator to the Jewish nation? I really dunno.
Could a non-Jew be considered a fine ‘Noahide’ if he/she acknowledged the Creator of all existence without connecting that Creator to the Jewish nation? I really dunno.
You don’t, but Maimonides does, and he says no.
I don’t have a problem with the Aleinu as written. The Aleinu doesn’t mention the word “Jews” or “Judaism” anywhere, so the first-person plural doesn’t have to be interpreted that way (see this post for more on that). And I believe in monotheism (rather than monolatry), which means that there are no other gods, so “my God is right, yours is wrong” is a logical impossibility. It’s not about “my God”, it’s about the only God. I think that Christians, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, etc., who are living an ethical life and committed to acting letakein olam bemalchut shaddai are already serving God (even if their actions stem from a different belief system), and therefore they’re not who the Aleinu is talking about. It is expressing the hope that “all the wicked of the earth” will begin to serve God in one of these many ways (KOL lashon!), not necessarily that they will adopt Judaism (either by becoming Jewish themselves, or by following the Noahide laws from within the Jewish belief system). This is about something much bigger than narrow concepts like “Judaism” (in the sense the word is being used in this conversation).
In contrast, “the Jews” and “Jesus Christ” (in this Catholic prayer) are much more specific and harder to explain away.
And to those who say that we have lots of things in our liturgy that we don’t believe either, I would respond that there’s a difference between holding onto legacy prayers out of inertia/tradition and actively reinstating them, and the latter seems to be what is happening here.
On the other hand, I don’t think it would be particularly productive for the Jewish community to get actively involved in this issue. Before doing so, we should stop and think about how effective it would be, and how graciously we would respond, if other religious communities challenged something in Jewish liturgy.
themicah writes:
And it should probably be noted that most Reform siddurim I’ve seen omit the al-kein paragraph of the Aleinu entirely (except the “ve-ne’emar†quote at the end).
I don’t know about the newer siddurim, but the 1975 Gates of Prayer includes this paragraph in full, as part of one of four Aleinu options. But I don’t think I’ve been to a Reform service where it was said out loud. (Kol Haneshama in Jerusalem always says it out loud, but uses a different version of the text.)
The translation you use results in an interesting parallel to the Aleinu, but I don’t think it is a valid liturgical parallel because the Latin text includes specific liturgical instructions: If you don’t understand them as instructions it does, very much, sound like the Aleinu.
In liturgical use this is part of the “Solemn Collects” used in that Friday service: six prayers happen in a row and all all follow the same format.
The first part of the prayer is sort of a call to prayer – The deacon says, “let us pray for XYZ”
Then there is a call to kneel – the deacon says “Flectamus genua.” and everyone kneels and prays silently for XYZ
Then there is a call to rise – the deacon says ” Levate.” and everyone stands up.
Then the priest reads the prayer.
The prayer for conversion of Jews comes in this list of six prayers: for the church, for the Pope, for the Catechumens (new converts), for the world (health, end to famine, an end to heresy, etc), for the conversion of the Jews, and finally for the conversion of the Pagans.
Considering that, in several ways, “pagans” covers everyone outside the church, mentioning the Jews, by name, is a very direct reference. In effect, Jews get prayed for twice. Even us lowly protestants only get mentioned in the “end to all heresies” passage, not as a direct prayer for our conversion! (Technically, Islam was viewed as a Christian heresy during the middle ages, so they are included in the same prayer as Protestants).
As someone who is used to hearing the lips of Christians talk about the “Jews who gave us…” (fill in the blank there as you will) it’s interesting that Jews are not mentioned, liturgically, in the context of praise, or as elder brothers from whom Christians might continue to learn.
The prayer in its older and newer forms asks for conversion, removal from darkness in ways that Christians do not pray for others. It is a parallel in thought – although, thankfully no longer in language – to the constant anti-Semitism in the Byzantine (Eastern Orthodox) rite, especially in the verses woven into the psalms and canticles at Vespers and Matins where Jews are scolded – nearly every Saturday and Sunday – for rejecting Jesus. I think it is because, liturgically at least, Jews are seen as “The Other”. Batya is right – “As no other groups are so singled out, this reinstatement leads me to believe that once again, the Jews are being used as the people against whom Christians define themselves.”