Sotah 071

9:
The Amidah too is included among the liturgical and quasi-legal texts that may be said in any language. Once again, when we studied Tractate Berakhot we spent very many shiurim on this topic. I quote here just a few words of what we said then, sufficient to justify the inclusion of the Amidah in this present list of texts which may be recited in any language:

When discussing our present mishnah the Gemara [Sotah 33a] goes directly to the heart of the matter, giving the same reasoning:

10:
However, the Gemara adds a curious rider to this statement; a rider which seems to be in direct contradiction to the usage of all congregations in the diaspora which offer some of the liturgy in Hebrew and some in whatever the vernacular may be. The Gemara quotes a statement attributed to the great Amora of Eretz-Israel, Rabbi Yoĥanan:

The Gemara resolves the dissonance between the liberality of our mishnah and the restrictive nature of the statement of Rabbi Yoĥanan by attributing each to a different situation:

From this it is obvious that the Gemara is saying that public worship – the repetition of the Amidah by the cantor or prayer-leader – may be recited in any language that the congregation understands, but that the silent Amidah – the private worship of each individual – should be recited only in Hebrew! If my memory serves me correctly the very birth of modern Conservative Judaism was brought about by the opposite consideration. In the 1840's in Germany the burgeoning Reform movement held a synod in Hamburg at which far-reaching innovations were adopted. Many of these innovations left one participant, Rabbi Zechariah Frankel, uneasy, but when the synod decided that public worship need not be conducted in Hebrew at all he walked out in protest – and that, to all intents and purposes, was the moment when what is now known as Conservative Judaism was born.

Nowadays I would be very surprised in there were any devout Conservative Jew who would be concerned as to whether the angels in heaven understand Aramaic or not! (He or she would much more likely be concerned with the question of whether there were any angels at all in heaven to understand any language!) The issue of public worship in the Hebrew language has always been a cornerstone of the Conservative ethos. To our modern susceptibilities it surely makes much more sense to adopt the more liberal attitude of the Gemara in its first statement: private persons may pour out their hearts to God in any language that suits them best; the congregation as a united body offers its worship in Hebrew. The individual represents himself or herself; the congregation represents the whole Jewish people.

11:
Grace after meals was also a topic that was studied by us at length when we studied Tractate Berakhot. Of all the berakhot [benedictions] that Judaism recognizes only one is actually commanded by the Torah [Deuteronomy 8:10]:

Here the Gemara is at a loss to explain why Birkat ha-Mazon may be recited in any language. It is a statement of gratitude for the sustenance that we are vouchsafed by heaven and, as such, would seem to be strictly liturgical rather than very personal. The Gemara [Sotah 33a] can only point out that the biblical text makes no qualification concerning the blessing:

To be continued.