Holy Holes

There is a wonderful prayer that is part of the traditional morning liturgy. Since we are typically in synagogue on Friday night (if at all), we don't hear this one.  I'll quote it in the translation from Vol 5 of "My People's Praybook" (A great series of books, by the way. It is a really good read for those with an interest in liturgy and  the whole series is coming soon to the Temple library thanks to the work of Mort Brenner, Abbe Cohen, and the Library Committee.)

Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Ruler of the world, who formed humans with wisdom and created a system of ducts and conduits in them. It is well-known before your Throne of Glory that if one of these should burst or one of these get blocked, it would be impossible to survive and stand before you. Blessed are You, Adonai, who heals all creatures, doing wonders.

Herewith, five reasons why this is a wonderful prayer

1. It speaks to the scientific "roots" of spiritual awe. Science and religion are conventionally imagined to be in opposition. They are often imagined to be fighting over a pie of fixed size. Given that scientific knowledge keeps expanding, it would follow that religion's domain would shrink. However, this premise of a zero sum game seems to me to be flawed. Deeper knowledge of almost any aspect of the universe can be awe-inspiring. Those of us who are basic researchers - those of us who are not designing the next drug or building the next computer - are propelled out of bed in the morning by just this sense of amazement. This sense of wonder does not require any specific commitment to any precise definition of Adonai. The Divine "Throne of Glory" feels to me like poetic metaphor but the ducts and conduits are real and wondrous.
   
2. It speaks to our fragility. Part of the wonder of the ducts and conduits is that they all work. Bad things happen when they do not. The translation I gave above seems to refer to catastrophic failure. I think that another translation better captures the daily sense of this daily prayer: " You know well that should even one of these stay opened, or one of those stay closed, we could not stand before you." We don't need to be stricken with anything life-threatening to understand the thrust of this prayer of thanks. A simple bit of stomach flu can open and close enough to make it difficult to stand before anyone.
   
3. The prayer has an interesting history in the Reform liturgy. If you are asking, with a bit of distaste, what stomach flu and the ducts and conduits of the body are doing in the Sinai News, you may be channeling our 19th century forbearers in the Reform Movement. According to David Ellenson, their "Victorian sensibilities…did not allow them to feel comfortable with a detailed liturgical allusion to bodily functions." Many early non-Orthodox prayer books omitted the whole prayer. Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise kept the prayer but had it thanking God who had "created man with wisdom".  The Gates of Prayer that we use moved back toward the more physiological, saying "who has made our bodies with wisdom, combining veins, arteries, and vital organs into a finely balanced network." However, there is no mention of any bursting, blocking, opening, or closing. (see, for example, p87 of the Gates of Repentance). The drafts of the next Reform prayer book bring back the full Talmudic version as one of the options.
   
4. The Hebrew is interesting…even if you don't speak Hebrew (which I don't). The "system of ducts and conduits" is "n'kavim n'kavim chalulim chalulim" - two words, each repeated. Apparently, the same word can act as noun and adjective so "n'kavim n'kavim" is literally something like "hole-like holes". Even better, in English we could render this as "holy holes", capturing a sense of the sacred in the most mundane aspects of our existence. I also like a translation offered by Rabbi Waldorf “"conduits upon conduits and orifices upon orifices, a awesome, mighty array of ducts and openings."
   
5. Finally, the prayer reminds me to say "thank-you". Note that the prayer raises the possibility that the "finely balanced network" might not work properly. When that happens, we hope that someone will be able to help to get the system back in order. Often, time is of the essence. That is certainly the case when it comes to heart attacks. After a couple of incidents at Temple in the past couple of years, we realized that we were not well-prepared for medical emergencies. Mike Klau took the lead in stocking some emergency items at Temple and began to investigate the possibility of installing an automatic external defibrillator. Bob Thurer then took on that project. By appealing to some of the MDs in the congregation, Bob has now raised the funds we need to purchase the device. I am told they are designed for use by lay people and that any of us can operate one if need be. Let us hope we never have the need but I am grateful to Mike and Bob and all those who contributed. It is far better to be prepared.

By the way, you may not see Bob and Shari Thurer around too much in the immediate future. Bob is about to take up the position of Chief Academic Officer of Harvard Medical School's outpost in Dubai. He will be over there about two thirds of the time. We wish him well and look forward to welcoming him when he is on this side of the world.