Tefillah 055

42:
In the last few shiurim we have seen that the first benediction of the Amidah is both historical and national in its ambience: the God we worship today is praised as being the God of the founders of our faith; the God who sent Moses to redeem their descendents from Egyptian slavery, which event saw the founding of our people as a nation. In today's shiur we turn to the second benediction of the Amidah. This benediction is very different: it lauds God as being the mightiest power in the universe.

43:
There is no question at all that the main theme of the second benediction of the Amidah is the resurrection of the dead. In the Hebrew text which is current in our congregations today that term alone is mentioned five times in one short paragraph and there is allusion to the topic in two more expressions. This fact is usually obfuscated in most modern translations, which seek to modify the meaning of the Hebrew in order to make it conform to some contemporary concepts. So perhaps we should now present an 'undoctored' translation of this benediction.

The recurrence of the references to the resurrection of the dead seems to be almost "in your face". In order to understand the phenomenon we must first look at its history. We discussed the origins of the rabbinic concept of the resurrection of the dead in great detail when we studied the third mishnah of the first chapter of Tractate Avot. The discussion spans two shiurim starting with Avot 021, and it is strongly recommended that those who wish to review this matter in depth refer to those two shiurim.

44:
Despite rabbinic attempts to suggest otherwise by midrashic means, there is no specific indication in the Biblical text of a belief in the resurrection of the dead. The verse that comes closest to fitting the bill is Daniel 12:2, which teaches that at the time of future redemption "many of those sleeping in the dusty ground will awaken to everlasting life and others to humiliation and eternal contumely". (There is a clear allusion to this verse in the benediction itself.) However, Daniel is a very late composition, almost certainly contemporary with the conceptual innovation under discussion. (Like many of the pseudepigraphic works in the Tanakh, it may even have been composed to "justify" the new concept.)

The fact that the concept of the resurrection of the dead was an innovation of the sages can be demonstrated most effectively from the fact that their contemporaries and adversaries, the Sadducees, rejected this new belief out of hand as being completely unfounded in the Torah.

45:
In the prayer ritual of Eretz-Israel this benediction has come down to us in many versions. One matter, however, is clear from a comparison of them all: while the concept of the resurrection of the dead is certainly mentioned, it is not emphasised as it is in the Babylonian version that we have inherited. One version of this benediction in the prayer ritual of Eretz-Israel reads as follows:

46:
The sages gave names to each of the benedictions of the Amidah. We have already seen that the first benediction was called Avot, a reference to the patriarchs. This second benediction of the Amidah is termed G^evurot, which might be rendered into English as "Divine Power". This laudatory benediction describes God's power as being manifested both in the weather and in the resurrection of the dead. Perhaps the rabbinic concept will become more apparent if we think of this benediction as affirming God as the ultimate Arbiter of Life and Death. It is possible that the original topic of this second benediction was God as Master of the weather and the concept of the resurrection of the dead was only introduced into it later, rather polemically. It would therefore seem appropriate to look at the concept of "God as Master of the weather" through rabbinic eyes.

47:
The fact that in Ashkenazi lands it was decided to remove from the benediction during the summer months the phrase which describes how God "causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall" has given rise to the mistaken assumption that the phrase is a seasonal additon to the text and not an integral part of it. In fact the contrary is true: the phrase probably belongs to the earliest stratum of the benediction's composition. (In other rituals, to this day, the phrase is an integral part of the text and it is modified to apply to summer conditions, not deleted.)

48:
In the agricultural economy of Eretz-Israel in Biblical and Talmudic times the falling of the rain at the appropriate time (and, of course, its not falling at inappropriate times) were quite literally matters of life and death. In our comparatively more sophisticated times, Israel is often gripped by the fear that the current year will be a year of drought, and the question which then dominates the weather reports always boils down to "by how many centimetres has the Sea of Kinneret, our National Reservoir, risen above the imaginary 'red line'?") We can now understand the comment of a famous sage, reported in the Talmud of Eretz-Israel [Ta'anit 63d] that

Without the winter rains there can be no life and death is inevitable. Therefore, in this second benediction, when we celebrate the Deity as "causing the wind to blow and the rain to fall" this is no childish innocence: this is God as Arbiter of Life and Death, Wielder of the Ultimate and most Supreme Power. It thus becomes apparent that the other element that is intertwined with the weather in this benediction, the resurrection of the dead, is not really so discrete from it.

49:
In the Talmud of Eretz-Israel [Berakhot 4c] the following is reported:

The discussion between the two sages demonstrates that Rabbi Yonatan holds fast to the original concept of the resurrection of the dead. The idea was that when people die their body will, like John Brown's, moulder in their grave. But at the end of time – at the culmination of history – God will resurrect all the dead of all the ages and there will be a Great Judgement. This is what the sages meant when they referred to Teĥiyyat ha-Metim, the resurrection of the dead.

To be continued

I have held over this question far too long. Michael Alter asks whether I have an opinion why the name "Israel" appears four times [excluding the "Zur Israel"] in the concluding paragraph before the Shemoneh Esreh? Or whether this is mere coincidence?

I respond:

We referred to this matter in Tefillah 049. It is not clear who created this addition to the benediction. In most rituals, apart the that used in Ashkenazi circles, it is omitted entirely and the benediction closes with the quotation from Isaiah 47:4. I suspect that the multiple reference to Israel in the addition is merely for literary effect. (The reference to God rising to assist Israel is an allusion to Psalm 25:2.)

Today's shiur sees the start of an experiment. Many people have complained of problems in connection with the receipt of these shiurim because of over-zealous "SPAM killers". Starting with this shiur I shall send an email that consists only of a link to the shiur. All you have to do is to click on the link.