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From: Russell Hendel <rhendel@saber.towson.edu>
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 00:24:57 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: RE: Lying in PRayer

A short comment about lying in prayer. I heard that some people(Rabbi
Goren?) advocated changing the "blessing of the new moon" prayer that
says "Just as I dance but CANNOT TOUCH THE MOON" (In light of the
astronauts landing on the moon it was suggested this be changed).

Thus we see that change is OK if the statement in the prayer is
blatantly false.

By contrast the Nachem prayer makes SUBJECTIVE statements which are not
blatantly false. Sure things are better now for Jerusalem. But lets face
it, alot of powerful forces want us to give it back--it is still
dangerous to walk in certain parts of Jerusalem, and we have an Arab
Mosque on our Temple. It therefore is ADMISSABLE to say that "Jerusalem
is still in ruins".

If anything we COULD change the prayer (to everyones satisfaction) but
NOT by omission. We could simply say "God, EVEN THOUGH WE NOW HAVE OUR
OWN STATE NEVERTHELESS comfort us...for Jerusalem is still--FOR ALL
PRACTICAL PURPOSES--in ruins..."

In other words we can change the prayer by ADDING phrases without taking
anything away.

Comments?

Russell Jay Hendel; Phd ASA
Moderator Rashi is Simple
http://www.RashiYomi.Com/
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