Reflections on the DIVINE Dialogue
Three steps back, a perfunctory nod to the left followed by one to the right, a few mumbled words facing forward and you’re but two words away from shlepping through yet one more Shemoneh Esrei. Those two words are V’eemru ahmain, and at this point Shlomo Zalman Auerbach z”l suggests that one reflect on the kind of Amidah he just davened.
Reflect?
Most of us, nebach, were mentally past the last two words before we even uttered the first two. So now with but two words to go to the finish line we’re supposed to slam on the brakes to bring the express to a halt and reflect, as if we were philosophers, on the davening we just blew through at warp speed.
What’s so important about these two words anyway?
If people actually understood that they were addressing melachim (one good and one bad), and asking them to say AMEN to the nineteen pit stops that served as way stations during their five minute trek across the expanse of their spaced out universe, they might be too ashamed to finish the Shemoneh Esrei.
More specifically, we are asking the melachim to sign off on our ruminations over the stock market in Boreich Aleinu, our reflections on the Yankees in Shema Koleinu, the deal that slipped through our fingers in Re’ay, and the deal we hope to make today in Modim, to name but a few of our imaginative wanderings.
Okay, so most of us are somewhere else when we’re davening Shemoneh Esrei, and we’re not that picky about it either. Apparently, anyplace will do, the only criteria being that we wind up “there” as opposed to “here.”
The irony, of course, is that those who are focused on their davening are also someplace else. Proper d’veikus and kavanah means going to another planet. Those who do it right aren’t here during that time either.
It’s quite unbelievable when you think about it. We call it Tefillah B’Tzibur but everyone’s “there” in one form or the other, except for the two malachim. They’re here, and they are waiting for those last two words. The good news, however, is that they aren’t all that makpid.
If your mind took you to a place where you talked to Hashem, they will answer your Amen with one of their own. But if you drifted off to a place (or rather places) where the whole world talked to you, fugetaboutit.
You’ll get another chance to change addresses at Mincha.
