A thought on Parshas Korach
""...va'yiplu al peneihem...""...and they fell over their faces..." (16:22)
Upon hearing the allegations made by Korach and company, Moshe and Aharon lowered themselves, covering their faces by laying head over arm, praying. Our sages derive from this imagery that we too lower head upon arm during select times in our own prayers. Why is this done and what does it express or symbolize?Rabbeinu Bachya offers three observations. Firstly, we signify our awe in the Presence of the Divine at those key moments of supplication. Secondly, we display our anguish and sense of lowliness when poised in that position. Thirdly, frozen in this crunched posture, we attempt to still our senses and stifle our sensations.
He elaborates: Men are accustomed to wrapping themselves in a talis, covering face and head, during special moments of intense prayer. We commune with Above not by facing the skies nor by holding head up high but by making our selves enshrouded and hidden, then we proclaim HaShem's majestic greatness by displaying our minute anonymity in His great universe.
Further, he writes, the lowered, covered stance signifies that a person feels blinded and confused, unable to navigate on his own, as if paralyzed with frailty, and needy of direction and support. Shutting out the senses and quelling all sensations expresses that we seek only to be vessels of HaShem's ratzon, awaiting His word and guidance to fill us and to illuminate us. We are still and we are quiet as we wait with hope and faith.
Rabbeinu Bachya then observes a difference between the Jewish prayer posture and that of the Christian world (he lived during the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry when the Moorish influence had waned and that of the church was on the ascent.) He says that those people do not know why they fold or clasp their hands, but it is similar to our own kavana. They try to symbolize with their steadfast hands that they have no personal strength to help themselves, and instead turn to Heaven with a gesture of being powerless.
We Jews, however, stand very still and keep our legs and feet together when we pray our Amida. This is a fuller means of symbolizing that we are immobilized and "unplugged"
without Divine will. Our steadfast stance communicates our realization that we are unable both to protect ourselves from trouble and to bring ourselves benefit without HaShem to empower us.
Covering our eyes, our faces, our heads, our entire selves, serves profound spiritual purposes during various forms and stages of praying. May our words, our thoughts, our feelings and our gestures be acceptable before Him always. Good Shabbos. D Fox
Upon hearing the allegations made by Korach and company, Moshe and Aharon lowered themselves, covering their faces by laying head over arm, praying. Our sages derive from this imagery that we too lower head upon arm during select times in our own prayers. Why is this done and what does it express or symbolize?Rabbeinu Bachya offers three observations. Firstly, we signify our awe in the Presence of the Divine at those key moments of supplication. Secondly, we display our anguish and sense of lowliness when poised in that position. Thirdly, frozen in this crunched posture, we attempt to still our senses and stifle our sensations.
He elaborates: Men are accustomed to wrapping themselves in a talis, covering face and head, during special moments of intense prayer. We commune with Above not by facing the skies nor by holding head up high but by making our selves enshrouded and hidden, then we proclaim HaShem's majestic greatness by displaying our minute anonymity in His great universe.
Further, he writes, the lowered, covered stance signifies that a person feels blinded and confused, unable to navigate on his own, as if paralyzed with frailty, and needy of direction and support. Shutting out the senses and quelling all sensations expresses that we seek only to be vessels of HaShem's ratzon, awaiting His word and guidance to fill us and to illuminate us. We are still and we are quiet as we wait with hope and faith.
Rabbeinu Bachya then observes a difference between the Jewish prayer posture and that of the Christian world (he lived during the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry when the Moorish influence had waned and that of the church was on the ascent.) He says that those people do not know why they fold or clasp their hands, but it is similar to our own kavana. They try to symbolize with their steadfast hands that they have no personal strength to help themselves, and instead turn to Heaven with a gesture of being powerless.
We Jews, however, stand very still and keep our legs and feet together when we pray our Amida. This is a fuller means of symbolizing that we are immobilized and "unplugged"
without Divine will. Our steadfast stance communicates our realization that we are unable both to protect ourselves from trouble and to bring ourselves benefit without HaShem to empower us.
Covering our eyes, our faces, our heads, our entire selves, serves profound spiritual purposes during various forms and stages of praying. May our words, our thoughts, our feelings and our gestures be acceptable before Him always. Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 11:06 AM
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