Stand in awe, humility and gratitude before God.

 

  베더스트 인근에 집을 보러 다니다보면 입구에 몽땅연필 크기의 작은 상자가 붙은 모습을 볼 수 있다. 이를 메주자(mezuzah)라고 하는데 유대인들이 자신의 집 문설주나 대문에 붙여 놓는 것들이다. 토론토에는 적지 않은 유대인이 있고 곳곳에 회당이 있다. 그들이 어떻게 기도하는지 궁금했다. 관련듼 글이 토론토 스타(2016년 3월 14일자)에 실려 올려둔다.

 

  <Why Jews pray: Marmur>

  My 15-year-old granddaughter Leone was travelling last month with her parents and brother from England to Israel for a family celebration. They checked in at the airport without difficulty but when they reached the departure gate, an Israeli security officer discovered that Leone’s British passport was a few days short of the minimum three months’ validity required before a foreign citizen is allowed into the country.

  Despite apparent consultations with higher-ups Leone was denied entry. As she couldn’t be left alone at home, the family’s travel plans were coming to naught and their luggage was about to be unloaded. But unexpectedly, shortly before takeoff permission was granted to board the plane.

  They were then approached by a jubilant Orthodox Jewish woman who told them that as soon as she heard their plight, she started praying for them. Her prayers were obviously answered. Though many reasons for the officials’ change of mind or heart could be offered, the woman’s testimony doesn’t seem to be less plausible than any other explanation.

  Happy though I am that we could celebrate as a family together and despite my commitment to prayer I find it difficult to believe that God would pay special attention to our celebration. If God doesn’t seem to stop natural disasters or prevent wars and acts of genocide, why would God care about our private get-together?

  Though Judaism includes personal prayer in the daily liturgy, it does so almost invariably in the first-person plural. Though we pray for such blessings as health and prosperity, most of our personal prayers are about justice, forgiveness, redemption and other abstract notions. We often recite these prayers in community and never on Sabbaths and festivals when the worship service is to be dedicated to the adoration of God and to thanksgiving for the gifts bestowed on us. This prompted Heinrich Heine, the great German poet who was born a Jew, to reflect that Jews pray theology.

  Though we can never forget or ignore our own needs and predicaments when we pray, to concentrate on them might unjustly elevate narcissism to the level of faith. True religiosity bids us to praise God for the grandeur of the universe and the miracle of human existence. It’s also to remind us of our responsibility to accept and live by God’s commandments.

  Unlike my Christian friends who often tell me that they pray to know what God wants of them, as a Jew I turn to Scripture to hear God’s message. Because personal prayer is an attempt to tell God about me and my needs, it’s secondary. The central prayer in Judaism is a quotation from the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 6: “Hear, O Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal is one.” It continues as a commandment: “Love the Eternal your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” This teaching “shall be on your heart” and is to be transmitted “repeatedly to your children.”

  Though the Church has taken over the Jewish way of reading from Scripture during worship services, the readings play a much more central part in the Synagogue where the entire Pentateuch is read in many congregations in the course of a year together with passages from the Prophets and other books of the Hebrew Bible.

  If it wasn’t the woman’s prayer that enabled Leone to travel to Israel, it might have been that some official was sufficiently influenced by the teachings of Judaism to realize that to prevent her from celebrating with her extended family was wrong. But whatever the reason, I stand in awe, humility and gratitude before God.

Dow Marmur is rabbi emeritus of Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple. His column appears every other week.

·             메주자(mezuzah): 메주자란 희브리어로 ‘문설주’를 뜻하지만 일반적으로는 유대인들이 자신의 집 문설주나 대문에 붙여놓은 조그만 상자를 말한다. 이 상자 안에는 모세 오경 중 하나인 신명기 6장 4~9절, 11절, 13~21의 구절이 적힌 양피지가 들어있다. ‘너 이스라엘아 들으라 Shema Israel’로 시작되는 이 구절은 야웨가 이스라엘에 내린 절대적인 명령을 담고 있다. 이 성경귀절은 정결하게 처리된 양의 가죽에 특별히 훈련받은 사람만이 필사할 수 있다. 이는 메주자가 신성한 것이기에 사소한 실수도 용납될 수 없다는 거을 뜻한다. 일반적으로 메주자는 방으로 들어가는 문설주 오른쪽 위쪽 10센티미터 지점에 붙인다.

 “이스라엘아 들어라. 우리의 하느님 여호와는 오직 하나인 여호와시니 너는 마음을 다하고 성품을 다하고 힘을 다하여 네 하나님 여호와를 사랑하라. 오늘날 내가 네게 명하는 이 말씀을 너는 마음에 새기고 네 자녀에게 부지런히 가르치며 집에 앉았을 때에든지 길에 행할때에든지 누웠을 때에든지 일어날 때에든지 이 말씀을 강론할 것이며 너는 그것을 네 손목에 매어 기호를 삼으며 또 네 집 문설주와 바깥 문에 기록할지니라.”