Reading Levinas/Reading Talmud: An Introduction

Prayer and the End of Metaphysics

PRAYER AND THE END OF METAPHYSICS Berakhot 8a TEXT "Therefore let every faithful man pray to You upon discovering [finding]." Rabbi I;Ianina says: "In the time of finding" refers to [the finding of] a wife. For it is said: Whoever finds a wife finds a great good. In the West [Palestine1they used to ask a man who married a wife thus: matza or motu? Matza, for it is written, "Whoever finds [matza} a wife finds a great good." Motze, for it is written , "And I find [motu] more bitter than death the woman." Rabbi Nathan says: "In the time of finding" refers to the [finding of] Torah. For it is said, "For whoever finds Me finds life," and so on. Rabbi NaJ.:tman ben Isaac said: "In the time of finding" refers to [the finding of] death. For it is said, "The issues [totza'ot) of death." Similarly it has been taught: Nine hundred and three species of death were created in this world. For it is said: liThe issues of death," and the numerical value of totza'ot is so. The worst of them is the croup, and the easiest of them is the kiss. Croup is like a thorn in a ball ofwool pulled out backward. Some people say: It is like [pulling] a rope through the loopholes [of a ship], [Death by a] 51 52 1HE PRACTICE OF TALMUD-1HE READINGS kiss is like drawing a hair out ofmilk. Rabbi Yol;tanan said: "In the time of finding" refers to the [finding of a] grave. Rabbi I;Ianina said: Which verse [may be quoted in support]? "Who rejoice unto exultation and are glad, when they can find the grave." Rabba son of Rabbi Shila said: Hence the proverb: A man should pray for peace even to the last clod of earth [thrown upon his gravel. Mar Zutra said: "In the time of finding," refers to the [finding of a] privy. They said in the West: This [interpretation] of Mar Zutra is the best of all. INTERPRETATION As we in the modem Western world become more sophisticated regarding matters of theology-or, more bluntly stated, as we lose faiththose of us seeking to conserve the habits of religious life seek for more and more sophisticated justifications for those habits, among them prayer. We seek to justify our engaging in activities in which we cannot simply believe. In part, our search emerges from our Western need for system, for logical consistency, for total consistency. This insistence on totality is a hallmark of all philosophic traditions stemming from the world of Greek philosophy (regardless of whether this accurately reflects that philosophy). This tradition culminates in the totalitarianism of scientific rationalism, popularly accepted as absolute truth in contemporary society. Our need for totality has forced those of us who would conserve religious living to justify that effort in terms that "make sense," not only in relation to outside systems but also within our own system. For example, we feel bound to pray to a God consistent with our study of philosophy, consistent with our mystical speculations, our political and moral initiatives, and any other mode of action and thought we engage in. Such need for consistency is a response to our yearning for intellectual totality, not a response to our own experience. Despite the ground gained over the past century by philosophies of experience , this more dominant trend has not slowed. In this brief selection from 1Iactate Berakhot, you will find that we are not the first generation to consider this problem. The dangers of totalism were already recognized by the creators of the talmudic system that was in part created, I believe, to remain paradoxically unsystematic, an intellectually pluralistic system. The central problem in our passage emerges from an exegesis of a verse from Psalm 32: "For this let everyone that is godly pray to You in PRAYER AND THE END OF METAPHYSICS 53 the time of finding." In context, the simple meaning of the verse, though somewhat obscure, would seem to indicate that the devout ought to pray at a time when it is propitious for their prayers to be heard-that is, at a time when they might be "found" by God. Others have understood this verse as referring to the time that the devout person "finds" or discovers his sin. In either case, the psalmist might have meant: either at the appropriate times of...