Rosh Hashana 35

Today's daf is the last of Masechet Rosh Hashana.  It is a short daf, with only amud (a), and it expands upon the conversation regarding when we are obligated to pray for ourselves and when a shaliach tzibur can pray on our behalf.

The rabbis try to unpack who is obligated to pray on regular days compared with who is obligated to pray on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.  One of the major points of agreement is that people can say "And in your Torah it is written" without saying the following list of blessings and still meet their obligations.  The rabbis concede that average people may not learn a long list of prayers by heart.

We learn a bit more about the establishment of prayer as a fundamental requirement of Jewish observance.  Rabbi Elazar tells us that we should always "arrange our prayer in our minds" before praying.  This may refer to only Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and or it may refer to prayers all year.

Rav Yehuda always arranged his prayer first in his mind and then prayed. However, we are reminded, Rav Yehuda was different, for he was busy with Torah study and would pray only every thirty days.  

Praying only every thirty days?!  I know many, many people who would jump at 'observance' if that meant that one was busy with Torah study rather than prayer.  Clearly, prayer was not yet a fundamental part of Jewish ritual life.  Prayer is jarringly different from sacrifice, offerings.  The ritual is different, the smells and tastes and sounds and physical activity levels are different.  Offerings are visceral.  They would force us to wake up.  Prayer, on the other hand, can evoke sleep in the most devoted person, for the physical component of prayer is limited and constricting.  How did our rabbis manage to convince the community to pray three times each day?  Especially when Rav Yehuda was not praying?

We end the daf with a conversation about people who were not praying for themselves for they were working in the fields.  There is a debate: should those people be 'covered' by the shaliach tzibur, for obviously they were working in the fields against their wills?  Or should those in the field be obligated to say the prayers themselves?  Should people be punished for our lack of observance to halacha? Or should we be considered victims of 'circumstances beyond our control' and allow the larger community to take responsibility for us?

This debate exists today as well.  Should we accommodate the needs of our fellow Jews who work on Shabbat?  Or should those who are in 'circumstances beyond their control' be called to task?  Who should be allowed to determine whether those circumstances are truly beyond our control?  And how would that be determined?  One person might find it easy to stand up to a teacher or boss who expects our participation on Shabbat; another might find that kind of interaction devastating.

The conversation is taken one step further by adding conditions of the priestly blessing.  Apparently, no-one can be behind the priests while they recite their blessings.  The sides are alright.  But those in the fields who are obviously working because they are in circumstances beyond their control are included in these blessings.  Rabban Gamliel suggests that those in the city who do not go to synagogue are a different story.  They are obligated to prepare the prayers and to pray on their own.  

This suggests that there was a difference between the city and the fields when it came to compelling one to work.  Was this about antisemitism, which could go on in the fields but would be frowned upon in a city?  Or is this about the social status of those who work in the fields?  Or perhaps the financial need of those who work in the fields?  When using the Talmud to explore social norms and mores of this ancient era, it is amazing to sniff out clues.