The Timeless Tradition of Jewish liturgy

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
50—Friday, September 16, 1966

By JACOB L. CHERNOFSKY

Best Wishes for the New Year

THE DAVID AGENCY

`DAVID H. WEISBERG1

8230 W. 9 Mile Road

LI 2-3345

LI 2-3886

New Year Greetings

Davison Auto Parts

4238 E. Davison

TW 2-0100

Season's
Most Cordial Greetings

DETROIT MILL
SUPPLY CO.

871-6011
1595 Alger
Mr. and Mrs. Abe Weis-man

New Year Greetings

DORN
Fruit Cr Produce Co.

1501 DIVISION

TE 2-1758

NEW YEAR GREETINGS

DYNAMIC IRON
& METAL CO.

Buyers of Scrap Iron
& Metal Waste Materials

LU 2-1442

3800 Lonyo

HAPPY NEW YEAR

NATIONAL COAL
& OIL CO.

9141

WE 3-4444

Monica

(Copyright, 1966, JTA, Inc.)

Although each Rosh Hashana
finds American synagogue life in-
creasingly changing in form, the
major emphasis of the High Holy
Days ritual continues to be con-
gregational prayer, or, more ac-
curately, liturgy.
In all synagogues, the core of
the service remains the liturgy —
the same prayers, benedictions
and readings which, particularly
in the more traditional Jewish
houses of worship, have been in
use for 2,000 years.
It is in the field of liturgy that
Judaism has made one of its
original contributions to Chris-
tianity and other of the world's
major religions. True prayer is
acknowledged by most histori-
ans, Jew and non-Jew alike, to
be a product of the Jewish heri-
tage.
Historians are in agreement on
the major role that prayer and
liturgy have played in the life of
the Jewish people. It served as a
democratizing influence since it
was a sort of common denominator
affecting all levels of Jewry in
whatever age. Prayer, whether
congregational or individual,
served as a steady companion and
influenced the Jewish home. In
many cases it also maintained a
minimal level of literacy although
when this proved difficult arrange-
ments were worked out for read-
ers to "represent" the congrega-
tion in supplication to the Almighty.

HOLIDAY GREETINGS

Edith Eckstat, R.E.

and

Albert Wolgin, R.E.

Hair Removed Forever

WO 3-3047

WO 3-0922

1309 David Broderick Tower

Season's Greetings

EDER
FURNITURE CO.

Louis Eder
DU 1-1940
1751 FORT

Lincoln Park

New Year Best Wishes

HOLIDAY GOOD CHEER

NATIONAL
Corn Beef Co.

CHARLES M.
CLAPSADDLE

Mr. Israel Bussell

33 Vernier Road
Grosse Pointe Shores

1514 Adelaide
WO 1-3761

TU 4-3980

New Year Greetings

Happy New Year

Oakland
Waste Material Co.

Dr. McArthur Colton

Buyers of
Waste Paper - Scrap Metal - Rags

1111 Griswold, over Kinsel's

1534 Gillet

DENTIST

WO 2-1779

TR 3-2575

Season's Greetings

Best Wishes on
the New Year

KAY DANZER

Parquet Floor Co.

Flowers - Gifts

8170 Livernois

Shops iz
Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel
Statler Hotel

TY 7-9514

WOodward 1-1992

Above all, the liturgy and its for-
mal organization by the spiritual
leaders of antiquity served to
maintain a national existence for
the people particularly after the
dispersion cast the Children of
Israel to the far corners of the
earth.
Although much of the Jewish
liturgy was believed to have
come about as a substitute for
the sacrificial rites of the Tem-
ple, it is now known that formal
prayer was widely practiced in-
dependently of the Temple.

Thus, Abraham prays to God to
spare the sinful city of Sodom (one

of the few recorded instances
when the prayer is denied); Abra-
ham's servant Eliezer prays for
success in his mission to bring a
wife back for Isaac; Jacob prays
for delivery from the hands of his
vengeful brother, Esau; and Moses
prays for the Children of Israel
after their transgression over the
Golden Calf.
Ritual prayer is prescribed in the
Torah with the actual formulation
spelled out in the case of the bring-
ing of the first fruits mentioned in
the Book of Deuteronomy. The
well-known Priestly blessing is
also from the Torah.
The most comprehensive collec-
tion of Biblical prayer s, is, of
course, the Book of Psalms, whose
authorship is traditionally ascribed
to King David.
By the time of Isaiah, the litur-
gy of Israel was apparently quite
formalized for we find the prophet
warning the people that the mere
recitation of prayer will go unan-
swered because their "hands are
full of blood."
Public worship in the syna-
gogue was quite logically intro-
duced at the time of the Baby-
lonian exile. The Hebrew word
for prayer, "tefila," which re-
fers to "thought," "hope," or
"judgment," attained its true sig-
nificance at that time when
public worship provided hope at
a time of extreme despair.
The formal liturgy, largely as
we know it today, can be traced
back to the efforts of Ezra and his
successors, the men of the Great
Assembly. The men of the Great
Assembly were the prophets, sages
and teachers who followed Ezra in
laying dawn the main lines of con-
gregational and formal individual
prayer.
Additional secondary prayers
were added in the Talmudic era,
and in the period of the Gaonim
with the first complete compilation
of prayers appearing in the Ninth
Century in the form of the Siddur
of Amram Gaon. Three centuries
later, Maimonides also compiled a
complete collection of prayers.
A significant characteristic of
Jewish prayer was the fact that
most of the congregational compo
sitions were formulated in the
plural to convey the meaning that
all petitions were for Jewry as a
unique brotherhood rather than for
individuals.
With the exception of a number
of secondary prayers in the
Aramaic vernacular, nearly all
of the major liturgy is in He-
brew. This was deemed vital to
facilitate' uniformity and main-
tain ties among a scattered peo-
ple. The Hellenistic Jews devi-
ated from this practice and the
disappearance of that culture
served as a lesson to Jews of

later generations.

In more recent centuries the
liturgical tradition developed in
two main streams. These were the
Sephardic rite which originated in
Babylonia and spread to Spain;
and the Ashkenazic rite which
originated in Palestine and spread
to Northern Europe. The latter rite
evolved into two main branches—
a western branch which became
known as the German minhag, and
an eastern branch, known as the
Polish minhag. It is this last rite
which is in use in most western
countries today, although both
Sephardic and Ashkenazic rites
can be found in most parts of the
world.
Lesser known rites developed in-
dependently among the Yemenite
Jews as well as the Jewish com-
munities in North Africa, Italy
and in the Byzantine Empire.
The forms of synagogue worship
varied with the time and place in
certain instances, only readers re-
cited the Scriptures and other ele-
ments of the liturgy, while in other
cases all congregants participated.
In the Sixth Century, noise from
praying congregants in the syna-
gogue prompted Pope Gregory to
issue an edict ordering the removal
of any synagogue where the noise
interfered with services in nearby
churches.
Probably the most important
factor in the unusually lengthy sur-
vival of Jewish liturgy was the in-
sistence by the rabbinic authorities
on the fact that prayer was not to
be spontaneous but was to be fixed
and prescribed. This, more than
anything else, gave Jews through-
out the world a means of keeping

in contact with each other and a
common basis for cultural and re-
ligious - ties.

Israel's Shipping
Under the impact of Israel Bond
assistance, Israel's shipping indus-
try has grown by leaps and bounds.
Israel's merchant fleet, which to-
taled 6,000 tons in 1948, has already
passed the 1,200,000-ton mark, with
ships flying the flag of Israel ply-
ing the seven seas. ..

Holiday Good Cheer

GENERAL
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5831 West Vernor VI 2-8902

N

Holiday Good Cheer

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TA 5-7560

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Season's Greetings

New Year Greetings

FISHER
PROVISION
CO.

HANDY BRUSH CO.

2670 Howard St., Detroit 48216

Phone 825-3533

1515 Division

Holiday Best Wishes

NEW YEAR GREETINGS

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Standard Service

Famous Plumbing
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Complete Car Service
Standard Products

18335 W. 7 Mile
KE 1-9622

LO 7-6950

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NEW YEAR GREETINGS

Holiday Good Wishes

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Iron & Metal Co.

270 HALTINER
River Rouge
841-1818

FEDERAL
ALLOYS CO.

2930 DENTON

Happy New Year

SAUL KATZ CONSTRUCTION CO.

625 Lafayette Bldg.

Greetings

MITCHELL GREETING CO.

Greeting Cards — Gifts — Table Prizes

Happy New Year

May The Coming Year Be One of Peace and Prosperity For

1
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All

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A Happy Holiday to All Our Relatives
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Happy New Year to
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FO 6 9030

Best Wishes for a
Year of Health and Happiness
To Our Friends, Customers and
To the Jewish Community

SEASON'S GREETINGS

ETSOL SYNTHETIC
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3550 Russell

TE 1-7230

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