The Commentator

Issue date: 10/8/07 Section: Opinion

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Prayer is a central component of contemporary Judaism, Orthodox and otherwise. It is the most major external behavior in Judaism regularly practiced. For many Jews, it is their main source of identity. They attend the three daily services and go about their secular lives as normal. Others only affiliate with Judaism on the High Holy Days, and solely through prayer. But if tefilah is so important, then why are we, at Yeshiva University and elsewhere, so bad at it?
Though the problems with tefilah are slightly different at YU, I'd prefer to discuss Modern Orthodox tefilah. The average Modern Orthodox minyan, in my experience, is composed of two major elements: Talkers, and Learners. The Talkers are people who come to shul out of religious or social obligation, and spend their time talking. They typically fall prey to puritanical saints who make it their task in shul to shush these people to death. You all know what I'm talking about. I'm sure that everyone has experienced an amusing battle between an arrogant talker and a disruptive shusher, arguing with each other in the middle of davening. The problem with Talkers is obvious - in the context of tefilah and the decorum of a shul, they are pretty obscene. Their talking does not only betray their poor understanding of tefilah and its awesome nature, but disrupts the atmosphere of the shul for others who daven.
Then there are the Learners, individuals who are typically of a more pious nature, who come to shul and never talk. Indeed, they are those who have "flipped-out", and they attend their minyanim with a gemara in one hand, and a siddur in the other. The siddur is to keep your lap warm, while the Gemara lies on top of it. These people are also familiar to us. They have their gemara open during all of Birchos haShachar, and often during Kaddish and Chazaras haShatz.
Thus, one who has not yet chosen a camp in their shul can easily get confused. One group of people doesn't value the act of davening as clearly evidenced by their blatant disrespect via their talking. The other group is more interesting though, they communicate the feeling that they are above the davening, and that true religious piety is achieved by learning during davening. Thus, the tefilah problem is not one of people who are less religious, and people who are more religious. While it should be noted that there does exist a third camp of well educated and pious individuals who daven beautifully, they are certainly not a majority. Something is therefore fundamentally wrong.

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