From: waldo@cybernet.cse.fau.edu (Todd J. Dicker)
Subject: Re: Prayer (was Re: Re^6: Atheism and Intelligence)
Organization: Cybernet BBS, Boca Raton, Florida
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 17:23:03 GMT

arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee) writes:

> In article <cJmkwB2w165w@cybernet.cse.fau.edu> waldo@cybernet.cse.fau.edu (To
> >I try to look beyond the literal meaning of the prayer.  "Blessed are
> >You, raiser of the dead," is not taken any more literally than prayers 
> >asking for rain.  The phrases we add during the winter to bring rain 
> >perform an important function in attuning ourselves to the cycle of 
> >nature, to contemplating the frailty of life and our need for life 
> >sustaining processes, and bring our thoughts to Israel where the rain is 
> >supposed to fall.  We don't really expect that it will rain because we 
> >added the phrases, but it is the EFFECT of saying the phrases that shapes 
> >our mind and spirit while we pray.
> 
> Here's a hypothetical.
> 
> Imagine that the standard prayers do not ask for rain.  Imagine instead that
> they request a dry spell (but that weather conditions in Israel stay the same
> 
> What would the explanation for the prayer look like?  Maybe something like
> this:
> 
> "You miss a great deal if you look only at the literal words of the prayer fo
> dryness in Israel.  While it's certainly true that a dry spell is the last
> thing farmers need, we must remember that we are not really asking God for a
> dry spell--God decides what weather to send according to his will, and doesn'
> change his mind just because some human demands otherwise.  So we don't expec
> worse weather merely because we pray to God for dry weather.  However, by
> praying for a dry spell, we impress upon ourselves the concept that it is God
> that is responsible for all sorts of weather, wet or dry, and if this is the
> season for dry spells, then God made it so, and he has his own reason for doi
> so.  Thus we praise God for making dry spells in Israel, even if it's the dry
> season and Israeli farmers need more water, because the prayer's effect is to
> help our mind and spirit by recognizing God's rule over all things, not to ma
> our crops parched.
> 
> I can't help but feel that such explanations are added after the fact, and th
> anything, even things opposite to what we actually do, could be explained awa
> just as easily.
> --
> "On the first day after Christmas my truelove served to me...  Leftover Turke
> On the second day after Christmas my truelove served to me...  Turkey Cassero
>     that she made from Leftover Turkey.
> [days 3-4 deleted] ...  Flaming Turkey Wings! ...
>    -- Pizza Hut commercial (and M*tlu/A*gic bait)
> 
> Ken Arromdee (arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu, arromdee@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu)

-----
Not even close, and your suggestion that the body of literature on 
tefillah, which dates back to the formation of the liturgy and contains 
commentary by some of those who composed the prayer service and those who 
altered it from time to time is a half-hearted, after-the-fact 
explanation is ridiculous and ignorant of the complexity and thoroughness 
of said literature.

You're way off the mark, bud.
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