Q&A: On the Lengthiness of Prayer
On the Lengthiness of Prayer
Question
I don’t remember in which post you quite rightly complained about the lengthiness of prayer; I was reminded of it on Yom Kippur.
And then I saw that Maimonides addressed the issue on Yom Kippur, under the heading of burdening the congregation:
“These additions of reciting psalms or prayers, such as the prayers of Rabbi Saadia, of blessed memory, and others, consisting of homiletic and ethical material before the prayer of repentance—all this is very fine and desirable in order to awaken concentration. Our sages, of blessed memory, already said: ‘The early pietists would wait one hour and then pray.’ But this is desirable for an individual, or for individuals, who can do this in their homes. In synagogues, however, it is in my opinion a mistake, because synagogues are for the many. And if there were there even one person who was old, weak, or in pain from circumcision, and he was delayed even a moment from the communal prayer because of the addition that had been inserted into it, he would be harmed by this. Yet all such people are included under the name ‘the congregation’ as the weakest among them, and one must strive to make things easier for them in every way, and not add to them any burden in the service of God.” Responsa, vol. 2, no. 261
Regarding liturgical poems:
“And this is not like the liturgical poems, which add subject matter and bring in many things unrelated to the prayer; and in addition to this they have their meter and melody, so that prayer departs from the category of prayer and becomes a kind of amusement. This is the greatest cause of the loss of concentration, and of the masses becoming lightheaded and chatting in the middle of prayer, because they sense that these things being said are not obligatory. In addition, these liturgical poems are sometimes the words of poets, not Torah scholars, so that it is not fitting to supplicate in their words or draw near to God through them, while removing from use the words composed by the prophets and those who were on the level of prophets—peace be upon them all—and which are according to the will of God.” Responsa, vol. 2, no. 254
Answer
I don’t see a question here. But because of how precious these words are, they will remain here.
Of course—this was meant as support for your point, showing just how much all these additions are a burden on the congregation. The only question was where your post was; I wanted to add this there.