Inauguration Blessing?
Judaism has blessings for just about everything–smelling fragrant trees, seeing a rainbow, hearing good news, hearing bad news, encountering a friend one hasn’t seen in a year, and more. There’s also a blessing that one says upon seeing a non-Jewish king, and some would say that this extends to seeing a (non-Jewish) head of state, as well.
The blessing is:
Baruch Atah Hashem, Elokeinu Melekh HaOlam, She’Natan MiKvodo L’Vasar VaDam.
Blessed are You, God our Deity, Ruler of the universe, who has given of His glory to flesh and blood.
Rabbi Sue Fendrick has recently mused (evidently inspired by Elaine Ruben in DC) about whether this blessing would be appropriate to say upon seeing a head of state on TV, and, as such, whether it makes sense to say upon watching someone become a head of state. I will leave it to you all to ponder whether or not this would apply.
In any case, I wish much luck and success to President-Elect Obama, who is inheriting quite a heavy load. And I also wish well to his most ardent supporters, who may yet have to learn that as intelligent and charming and, it seems, capable as the man is–he is, after all, only flesh and blood, and shouldn’t be expected to accomplish more than any mere mortal can.
(xposted to my personal blog.)
How about a prayer of thanks for the giant gas field off Israel’s coast?
Now let’s hope the size estimates were inaccurate and goes up a few orders of magnitude.
I think that the appropriate blessing at this inauguration is “hagomel” for we, as a country, are as one has survived a great danger and it is as yet unclear if we made it–but hope is aborning.
I think a simple Shehecheyanu would do.
I said Hallel….
Off topic, but did anyone else catch Rick Warren recite the Shema? In his invocation, the (controversial) evangelical pastor came on with “The scripture tells us, ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is One.’”
Shout out to the Jews? Or is it commonly used by others too?
Forget the Shma, did anyone catch him invoking Jesus as Yeshu? Creeptastic.
dlevy-
just want to point out, he didn’t use the Talmudic aphorism, Yeshu, but his proper name, Yehshua, and he also used the Arabic, Isa. But, yes, I find him creepy in general.
Forget the Shma, did anyone catch him invoking Jesus as Yeshu? Creeptastic.
Forget Yeshua. Did anyone notice that Yeshua was followed by the Lord’s Prayer? Creeptastic indeed. I thought public recitations of the Lord’s Prayer had ended with 1960’s-era public schools. It felt like his reference to the Shema was just a way for him to invoke Jesus/recite the Lord’s Prayer and still be able to say he didn’t alienate anyone because he had included other religions.
Evangelicals right now are obsessed with Jews because they think we’re living in the End Times and part of that is all the Jews coming home to Jesus. He said the Shema to reach out to us so we would find Jesus, not as cover to say the Lord’s Prayer.
Check out number 37:
http://saddlebackfamily.com/home/bibleqanda/index.html
What’s creepy about the Lord’s Prayer? As far as Christian prayers go, the words are basically inoffensive and ecumenical.
In fact the Lord’s prayer is probably actually an original borrowing from us .. the Xians didn’t make it up out of whole cloth…
I thought Warren’s invocation was a rambling and incoherent mess. And I think it’s important to parse out some of his text, specifically:
“The Scripture tells us Hear, oh Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one.”
I officiate at and participate in a fair number of interfaith community services, so being familiar with evangelical preaching, which takes what they call the “Old Testament” and turns it around to suit their theology, I was not too surprised to hear the Shema. I think that Jews who were delighted to hear it should probably not be too happy – it wasn’t for their benefit, it was for his and his crowd.
“I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus (hay-SOOS), who taught us to pray, Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. (taken off AP)”
No surprise to hear him talk about how *he* prays in the name of Jesus. Many Christians (i.e., Evangelicals, Greek Orthodox) will not say any prayer that is not said in Jesus’ name – their understanding of the 3rd Commandment.
So since he was invited to give the invocation blessing in his capacity as a Christian minister, he had several choices depending on the parameters provided by Obama’s team. Had he been asked to deliver an interfaith prayer with no mention of a specific deity, he could have declined, which was done by a minister in my community because he could not in all good faith offer a prayer that wasn’t given in Jesus’ name. Or he could have wandered around the point by including something like, “while I say this prayer in his name … I invite us all to do so in the name of the deity of their choice.” The latter was probably not a likely option coming from an evangelical. My guess is that he was not limited by the inaugural team, so he did what he knows and believes he is supposed to do.
I believe that his reciting the “Lord’s Prayer” was not subtle proselytizing. Many if not most Christians do not understand that the Lord’s prayer is specific to Christianity; they see it as a well-known prayer that does not mention Jesus at the end, so what’s the fuss all about? I hear about this a lot from attendees at 12-step meetings that conclude with that prayer – what’s the fuss, it’s a nice prayer, etc. He assumed that everyone knows it, that it’s pretty benign, and what’s the big deal.
Same with including the variety of translations for Jesus. “See how inclusive I am? You’re one of “us” whether you speak English or Spanish or whatever.”
Did he intend to offend? Probably not. This is what he does and if it wasn’t wanted, he wasn’t the go-to guy for the job. Did the Obama team mean to offend? Probably not. Diane Feinstein may be a Jew, but these decisions are political, not theologic.
Should we Jews – indeed all those who are not Christians – be offended? Well, that’s a good question. For all the babble about “Judeo-Christianity” the bottom line is that “Judeo” gets tossed in whenever the Jewish presence is wanted or needed; this is still a country deeply steeped in Christianity. The three main inaugural ministers were Christian males; hard to believe that no Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, women, etc. were available for any of the three slots. And at least Obama mentioned Jews along with a list of other faith communities (including non-believers – you should hear what the atheists are saying on other blogs – many of them are not amused). So perturbed, maybe. Offended? Yeah – a little bit – but mostly because we still have a long way to go.
In the meantime – God (or Whoever one thinks does such things) bless America.
Just fyi, the Shema appears in the New Testament as well; it’s not unusual for Christians of all stripes to invoke it in certain liturgical contexts.
“he didn’t use the Talmudic aphorism, Yeshu, but his proper name, Yehshua”
Do we really know Jesus’s name was “Yeshua”? “Yehoshua” seems a lot more likely.. and it’s not like the Hebrew Christian church (j4j, etc.) that constantly repeats that name are in any sense educated/reliable about Judaism/Jewish history
Sure, we can parse the Sh’ma and the Lord’s Prayer, but I’m having the most trouble with these words:
“Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the Earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.”
Practice what you preach much, Rick?
Unfortunately, ML, Rick *is* practicing what he preaches.
His message is: do wrong, then ask for forgiveness. As if mercy obliterates the wrongdoing. As if it is okay to “fail to treat our fellow human beings…with…respect,” simply because there is a ticket out. That ticket is belief…in the right god.
Note that he says “when” – and not “if” – we fail.
Thanks for the heads-up, Rick. We’ll be looking to you to fail to respect humanity.
cW–
‘yehoshua’ and ‘yehshua’ are the some name pronounced differently depending on era and region. Of course we don’t know how his name was pronounced any more than we know if he was at all. But as far as I was taught, ‘yeshu’ is an intentional misrepresentation of his name meant disrespectfully. I don’t know, maybe there are manuscripts that have his name represented correctly? I have no idea, but the tradition that it is an offense has to come from somewhere, you know?
I checked out the Sh’ma in the Christian bible after hearing the prayer, and learned that it does appear there.
In Mark 12:28 – “Then one of the scribes came near and heard the Sadducees arguing with one another. He saw how well Jesus answered them, so he asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of them all?”
Mark 12:29-31 – Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one,and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’The second is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
So, if Jesus told them the the most important commandment is that the Lord is ONE, I’m not sure why it doesn’t appear more often or why this isn’t an affront to the Christians who believe in the Trinity. But what do I know?
penk writes:
Or he could have wandered around the point by including something like, “while I say this prayer in his name … I invite us all to do so in the name of the deity of their choice.” The latter was probably not a likely option coming from an evangelical.
The evangelical minister who gave the benediction at the Democratic Convention did basically this. The transcript says “Now, I interrupt this prayer for a closing instruction: Because we are gathered in a country that continues to welcome people of all faiths, let us personalize this prayer by closing according to our own tradition. On the count of three, end your prayer as you would usually do … one, two, three __________ (”in Jesus’ name”) AMEN!”
I was puzzled by it at the time, but now I understand why he was doing that. Thanks, penk!
chillul Who? writes:
Do we really know Jesus’s name was “Yeshua”? “Yehoshua” seems a lot more likely.. and it’s not like the Hebrew Christian church (j4j, etc.) that constantly repeats that name are in any sense educated/reliable about Judaism/Jewish history
We know that the name Yeshua existed — see Ezra 3, etc.
Justin writes:
But as far as I was taught, ‘yeshu’ is an intentional misrepresentation of his name meant disrespectfully.
Hebrew Wikipedia says that this isn’t historically correct, and “Yeshu” is just a variant that came about by phonetic shifts and whatnot, but the claim that “Yeshu” is disrespectful is made both by Hebrew-speaking Christians (who use “Yeshua” exclusively) and by some Jews (who won’t say “Yeshua” because it’s the name of an avodah zarah but consider “Yeshu” an acceptable alternative).
Yud-Shin-Vav-Ayin is the Aramaic Peshitta spelling of his name. Except I think they pronounce it “Isho`”. (The furitive patach is specific to Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic.)
Other note: Steg (dos is nit…) made a terrible pun on a post about this subject on his blog.