Q&A: Who Builds Jerusalem in Grace After Meals
Who Builds Jerusalem in Grace After Meals
Question
Hello
As someone who denies providence (I do not reject it categorically, but claim that it simply does not occur at all), I omit all the requests in the Amidah prayer. But in Grace After Meals there is a problem: Grace After Meals contains requests which, if omitted, make it impossible to fulfill one’s obligation, so apparently the only option before me is to avoid eating bread. Is there a possible change of wording for mentioning Jerusalem and the kingdom of the House of David in a non-petitionary form, or in such a situation should one avoid eating bread?
Answer
I didn’t understand. And in the Amidah, how do you fulfill your obligation?
In any case, if this is your clear outlook, you are under no obligation to avoid eating bread. You are coerced, since you cannot recite the blessing honestly (as the Talmud says in Yoma: “The seal of their God is truth,” and He hates those who lie about Him).
Discussion on Answer
According to your view, that in the past God did intervene in reality — then it is permissible to ask that He return and intervene, and to cry out, “My God, why have You forsaken me?” (Psalms 22)
Regards, Akiva Hanania HaLevi Schreyer
Of course it’s possible. But if this is a deliberate policy, there’s no point in it. It’s like asking Him to revoke the prohibition on pork. It is possible and not far-fetched, but there is no point in it.
Ackerman,
So there is no difference except for the ability to avoid it. But even in the Amidah you do not fulfill your obligation, because you are changing the established text.
As I wrote, in my opinion there is no obligation to avoid it.
Maybe part of the “deliberate policy” is that when enough people pray, or want it enough, or hope, or something like that, then the Master of the Universe will go back to intervening in reality and “watching over” things.
Indeed there is no difference, and unfortunately I cannot fulfill my obligation in the Amidah, but there is nothing to be done (even if I were to say the words, I still would not fulfill it).
In any case, what should one say after eating bread? The first two blessings only, or nothing at all, or words of thanks in a free formulation?
Say whatever you can.
I have the same question, but for the same prayer itself, because apparently the city is built, and there is also the blessing about restoring His Presence to Zion. If we say that “Who builds Jerusalem” refers to the Temple, then what would “restore His Presence to Zion” mean? So if we agree that “Who builds Jerusalem” means the city itself, then for the most part it already exists, even if the Temple is the important part. And maybe “restore His Presence to Zion” means the building of the Temple. Then you are asking for something that is not naturally possible, like asking to see an elephant with wings or a flying carpet.
The site is thought-provoking.
The possibilities of interpretation have not been exhausted. Building the city includes active Torah and other institutions as well (the Sanhedrin, monarchy), and also the Temple. The Divine Presence is supposed to return after the building of the Temple.
In the Amidah I do not fulfill my obligation, except that I have no way to avoid becoming obligated. In Grace After Meals I can avoid entering the obligation in the first place, and that is why I asked.