Chief Rabbi challenges HAFTR students to think

Translator of Siddur offers thoughts on prayer

By Michael Orbach

Issue of May 29, 2009 / 6 Sivan 5769

Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth, strode into the auditorium with a confidence that could be described as English swagger. On his first appearance in the Five Towns he asked the audience of close to 200 HAFTR High School students, "Do you find davening boring?"

No one answered so he tried again: "Are you excited by davening?"

Still no answer. "Then we have a problem," Rabbi Sacks declared.

The lecture at HAFTR was the final stop on Rabbi Sacks' American tour promoting his English translation and commentary on the Siddur, published by Koren Publishing of Jerusalem.

Describing the second exile, Rabbi Sacks spoke about the dilemma the Jewish people faced without the Beis Hamikdash. "They asked the question, 'How can we sing G-d's song in a foreign land?'" said Rabbi Sacks.

The answer, he explained, came in Tefillah (prayer): "The Jewish people became the first people to believe G-d is everywhere and therefore can give answers anywhere. That is how prayer became the first little offer to Hashem, the first Bluetooth connection to Infinity."

He said that it was his hope that his Siddur would allow the students to find a prayer they could connect to. "How can you pray without knowing what the words mean?" Rabbi Sacks asked.

The presentation ended with a brief Q and A session, where Rabbi Sacks offered to answer most questions. "Nothing about baseball," he said dryly. "I know nothing about it."

Questions from the high school students mostly concerned how Rabbi Sacks became England's chief rabbi ("Why?" he quipped, "Want to be my successor?"). At the tale-end of the presentation a nervous girl in the back row asked why Rabbi Sacks chose to include a prayer for the American military in his Siddur, the only standard Orthodox siddur so far to include it (a Siddur with the prayer is available by special order from Feldheim).

"2300 years ago the prophet Jeremiah wrote a letter to all the exiles. He said: 'Seek the peace of the city and the country to which you have been exiled and pray to G-d on its behalf. For in its peace you will find peace,'" Rabbi Sacks quoted. "When you're in America you have to pray for the welfare of America."

He mentioned the events of the previous evening, when four men were arrested by the New York City Police Department and FBI for planting bombs outside two shuls in Riverdale.

"When there are soldiers of America protecting the peace of America, we have to recognize that America's peace is your peace. Your parent's peace, your peace," and then the Chief Rabbi finished, looking at the murmuring high school students who worried about their approaching finals. "And one day, your children's."