Q&A: Prayer in the Holy Tongue and Prayer in a Foreign Language
Prayer in the Holy Tongue and Prayer in a Foreign Language
Question
Hello and blessings,
Why is someone who prays in the Holy Tongue considered to have fulfilled his obligation even if he does not understand it, whereas someone who prays in a foreign language fulfills his obligation only if he understands that language?
With blessings,
Benjamin Gurlin
Answer
Hello Benjamin.
For now I’m not deleting, in the hope that the lessons have been learned from the past.
Simply put, someone who knows another language should not pray in the Holy Tongue if he does not understand it. The permission to pray in the Holy Tongue when one does not understand it applies only if he has no other option. The Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 101:4, does not address at all the law of someone who does not understand. For a survey of the opinions, see here: https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3964222,00.html
The commonly accepted reasoning in explaining this is that the Holy Tongue has an essential status, unlike other languages, which are conventional. Therefore, in other languages everything depends on understanding. If you understand, then you have expressed what you wanted. In the Holy Tongue, the very utterance of the words expresses something even if you do not understand. In any case, this is preferable to not praying at all. And with communal prayer, that is a different discussion.
Rabbi HaNazir discusses this in Kol HaNevuah, Book One, First Essay, sections 25–26.