I Disappoint, by Skipping E Plebnista

My recent Eizehu Mekoman article

, as a response to Rabbi Chaim Jachter’s Eizehu Mekoman article, attracted lots of attention and response, most in person but some written. Most often, people disagreed. To list some of the responses — but please read the actual article first, to see where these were already partly addressed:

1. Where I wrote, “Consider the daily recital of the ketoret ingredients, where omitting an ingredient in the actual ketoret would incur מיתה בידי שמים, so we only say it on Shabbat (and still rush through)!”
   
   This is Ashkenormativity, believing in the primacy of Ashkenazic practice, so that it reflects what “we” do.
   

2. But it is part of the Seder HaTefillah, and you’re not allowed to mess with that!
   

3. Yes, what you say is true. But once you get started, where are you going to stop. Are you going to eliminate X, Y, and Z from davening? What will be left?!
   

4. The content / theme of Eizehu Mekoman is so important, you cannot skip it.
   

5. If you cannot find the time to say it during davening, come early or stay late, you oisvorf!

A Letter to the Editor last Shabbos contained aspects of the last two ideas:

I was disappointed to see Rabbi Waxman’s article last week (“Against Saying ‘Eizehu Mekoman,’” May 16, 2024) opposing Rabbi Jachter’s earlier piece encouraging the recitation of “Eizehu Mekoman” (“No Skipping: ‘Eizehu Mekoman Shel Zevachim!’” May 9, 2024), the chapter of Mishnah describing the offering of the korbanot. In a time when our enemies deny that the Beit Hamikdash even existed and the validity of our connection to Yerushalayim is questioned daily, we need to strengthen our belief that the korbanot will any day now be brought in the Beit Hamikdash and the blood of these offerings will be sprinkled on the mizbeach. If one does not have enough time before tefillah to learn these mishanayot properly, then I suggest that one learn them — or other Torah related to the Beit Hamikdash — afterward.

The theme of the importance of saying it was something Rabbi Jachter stressed in his own article, and I think I acknowledged and addressed it myself, when I wrote “Over centuries, extra texts have accrued to this daily prayer. For each, a rabbi could compose an eloquent article as to its worth and why we should not skip it. Yet, time, focus and patience are finite resources, and something’s gotta give.”

Let’s try to address each of the numbered points.

(1) Yes, I could have specified Ashkenazim, and I fixed it in the Substack post. But that point is tangential, IMHO.

(2) Is it really Seder HaTefillah, if it is a mitzvah to learn, rather than just recite? And the Seder HaTefillah grows and (only sometimes) shrinks to fit various practical and spiritual needs.

(3) Even where you are right, where does it stop?! Slippery slopes are dangerous. But I think the question is where does it start? Tefillah is not supposed to be insensibly muttering a bunch of sounds without meaning. It is supposed to be an avodah shebeleiv. You are at the bare minimum supposed to understand the words you are saying, and then supposed to have kavana, intent. To quote my chavrusa from YU, Rabbi Barry Kornblau, in a 2019 Facebook post:

This Shabbat, my sermon noted that my upbringing in Reform Temple Beth El of Great Neck properly taught me, among other things, one basic halachah: the requirement to recite all one's prayers and blessings with feeling and understanding. One cannot do this while reciting the siddur at the speed of an auctioneer (daily amidah of 3 minutes, for example) as is routine for many Orthodox Jews; instead, one must speak slowly and enunciate deliberately - as is fitting for addressing the Master of All.

#HowFastDoYouPray #PrayerSpeedLimit

People daven too fast, IMHO, to be able to understand what they are saying. (understanding and intent, saying all the words, finishing in thirty minutes). Choose two out of three.

The current setup, with thirty minutes for davening, with all this expected content, is not acceptable. תפסת מרובה לא תפסת - תפסת מועט תפסת. If you try to grab too much, you get nothing. Either increase the time for davening — which some rabbis can push, but it depends on the requirements of the tefillah — or we should drastically trim back davening.

Personally, I not only end up not saying Eizehu Mekoman, but also skip Az Yashir. This is because I will not be rushed. I will say Ashrei at a pace that I can understand what I am saying and have focus, and if I miss, then I miss. I say the first paragraph of Aleinu by the time the Chazzan has finished both paragraphs, and then make it up while people are saying Shir shel Yom.

What should be pushed from top down is not “you need to say all these words”, but “you need to understand what you are saying and have kavana”, and this as a lechatchila, not as a bedieved.

(4) Regarding the argument that the content is so important, so you cannot skip it. Don’t we already get that with the Tamid, if we recite that?

Anyway, once we say it is not tefillah, but is Torah study, there are plenty of things that are critically important that someone should learn. But there are only so many hours in the day, and you can only convince people, the hamon am, and people who work for a living, to take on.

If you are asking people to take on a real daily study, what should it be?

(a) Eizehu Mekoman
(b) Shnayim Mikra veEchad Targum
(c) Daf Yomi
(d) Laws of Lashon Hara, so that you don’t violate
(e) Laws of Shabbat, so that you don’t violate

Which also relates to (5), come early or stay late in order to recite it.

Now, there is the personal level and the communal level.

Dealing with personal — I am comfortable with my current level of learning and how I prioritize my studies. And how it fits into davening. I come to a specific good Daf Yomi chabura in the morning. That is an hour of learning. I either pray beforehand or afterwards, at a 30 minute tefillah (longer on Mondays and Thursdays) depending on when I awake and when I need to catch my bus to Manhattan to work. Staying late on certain days is either not an option, or would replace Daf Yomi. I get carsick, so on the bus, I am not looking at a text, nor am I reciting things so as not to disturb my fellow bus passengers. I often listen to a shiur from YUTorah, e.g. Rav Schachter’s daily shiur. I don’t think I should prioritize learning Mishnayot over that. I also write a column in the Jewish Link about Talmudic biography and girsaot, and how that impacts the Daf Yomi sugya. That requires hours of research. I often study and post similar topics on this Substack. I need to prepare for the Sunday Daf Yomi shiur I give. Aside from other learning opportunities that speak to me. I don’t think that the particular perek of Eizehu Mekoman should necessarily replace that, just because “our enemies deny that the Beit Hamikdash even existed”.

If from the perspective of saying every word from the Seder HaTefillah that is printed in a siddur, I were staying late, maybe I should recite Az Yashir instead. Or the Ani Maamins. Or the Akeida.

Of course, YMMV, your mileage may vary, and so each individual needs to make this reckoning, of whether to prioritize this particular perek of Mishnayot over everything else.

Dealing with the communal level — that was what I was really discussing. If most people in the congregation are saying it, or “saying it”, at breakneck speed, and therefore not understanding it, or many of the texts and tefillot surrounding it, then that is a problem, on the communal level. Don’t just tell the one guy who will say words with kavana that he should stay later to recite it. What about everyone else who thinks they are fulfilling something but are not? The answer is either to extend davening for everyone by 15 minutes, or to cut it out.

I’ll close with a Star Trek Reference from the title. We want to be saying “We the People”, not “E Plebnista”.