A thought on פרשת משפטים
"...v'ovad'tem es HaShem Elokei'chem..."
"...and you shall serve HaShem your Lord..." (23:25)
This commandment instructs us to serve HaShem, closing with the promise that he will bless our bread and our water. The verse does not stipulate how we are to serve Him nor does it offer us a scope or context about what it means to "serve" Him.
The Ralbag analyzes this and explains that "service" (in the wording of our verse, we can also translate the word ovad'tem as "you shall work for") of HaShem does not mean servitude or servile labor, since we know that HaShem is Omnipotent and needs nothing done by us. He does not need our labor.
The word here does not mean "serving" in the consecrated avoda of the Bais HaMikdash since that sacred labor was done by Kohanim alone, whereas our verse is referring to the entire Jewish nation.
The Ralbag concludes that the "serving" here is of a very different form. We serve HaShem by turning to Him alone and asking that He take care of us and fulfill our needs. In the same way that a servant or slave works and labors, and turns in supplication to his master, begging for sustenance, so too does a Jew recognize that we are indentured to the One Above, and to Him alone can we turn when we are needy. Thus, as Chazal have said in other instances, the "service" of this verse is the "service of the heart", the investment we make in working on our prayers. This is why, he adds, the verse appears to make an association between "serving Him" and then His blessing our bread and our water. This teaches us that the work we are asked to do involves turning to Heaven with our prayers for sustenance, and this is the pact that HaShem promises: He will respond to such prayers accordingly. When we ask that He fill our needs, He will do so.
The Ralbag goes a step further. In some places in the Chumash, and in the TaNaCh, another word, a synonym, is used instead of avoda. Sometime the Torah refers to work as sherus (for an example of this see Devarim 18:5 - l'amod l'shares - to arise and to serve). Chazal have explained that this word refers to the task of singing which was to be done within the Mikdash. Whereas the overt form of "serving" there (the avoda) involved action, physical effort, the inner form of serving there involved avodas avoda or sherus of singing. Now, the Ralbag writes, it is no coincidence that sherus means singing and the word for song is shir. Since we have established that uttering prayers of thanksgiving and prayers of supplication are a deep form of avoda, meaning that prayer is actually synonymous with avoda in our verse, then it follows that singing, which is in its ideal form a lofty means of praying, is also synonymous and homonymous with that form of avoda called sherus.
It turns out then that, with these insights of the Ralbag, when we think about davening, we should view it as a means of working to show our service of HaShem. When we sing with praise and fervor, this is also a means of working to show our service of HaShem.
"...and you shall serve HaShem your Lord..." (23:25)
This commandment instructs us to serve HaShem, closing with the promise that he will bless our bread and our water. The verse does not stipulate how we are to serve Him nor does it offer us a scope or context about what it means to "serve" Him.
The Ralbag analyzes this and explains that "service" (in the wording of our verse, we can also translate the word ovad'tem as "you shall work for") of HaShem does not mean servitude or servile labor, since we know that HaShem is Omnipotent and needs nothing done by us. He does not need our labor.
The word here does not mean "serving" in the consecrated avoda of the Bais HaMikdash since that sacred labor was done by Kohanim alone, whereas our verse is referring to the entire Jewish nation.
The Ralbag concludes that the "serving" here is of a very different form. We serve HaShem by turning to Him alone and asking that He take care of us and fulfill our needs. In the same way that a servant or slave works and labors, and turns in supplication to his master, begging for sustenance, so too does a Jew recognize that we are indentured to the One Above, and to Him alone can we turn when we are needy. Thus, as Chazal have said in other instances, the "service" of this verse is the "service of the heart", the investment we make in working on our prayers. This is why, he adds, the verse appears to make an association between "serving Him" and then His blessing our bread and our water. This teaches us that the work we are asked to do involves turning to Heaven with our prayers for sustenance, and this is the pact that HaShem promises: He will respond to such prayers accordingly. When we ask that He fill our needs, He will do so.
The Ralbag goes a step further. In some places in the Chumash, and in the TaNaCh, another word, a synonym, is used instead of avoda. Sometime the Torah refers to work as sherus (for an example of this see Devarim 18:5 - l'amod l'shares - to arise and to serve). Chazal have explained that this word refers to the task of singing which was to be done within the Mikdash. Whereas the overt form of "serving" there (the avoda) involved action, physical effort, the inner form of serving there involved avodas avoda or sherus of singing. Now, the Ralbag writes, it is no coincidence that sherus means singing and the word for song is shir. Since we have established that uttering prayers of thanksgiving and prayers of supplication are a deep form of avoda, meaning that prayer is actually synonymous with avoda in our verse, then it follows that singing, which is in its ideal form a lofty means of praying, is also synonymous and homonymous with that form of avoda called sherus.
It turns out then that, with these insights of the Ralbag, when we think about davening, we should view it as a means of working to show our service of HaShem. When we sing with praise and fervor, this is also a means of working to show our service of HaShem.
Wishing you a good Shabbos filled with the avoda of prayer and of singing. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 7:01 PM
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