Aleinu
|
|
Aleinu is a Jewish prayer found in the siddur, the classical Jewish prayerbook. Traditional Jews recite it at the end of each of the three daily Jewish prayers sessions.
According to tradition, this prayer was created and proclaimed by Joshua after leading the children of Israel into Israel, upon the death of Moses. The Aleinu praises God for allowing the Jewish people to serve him, and expresses their hope that the whole world will recognize God and abandon idolatry.
| Contents |
Text of the prayer
The following is an English translation of the first half of the current Ashkenazi version of the prayer (there is also a second paragraph, which people sometimes omit):
- It is our duty to praise the Master of all, to exalt the Creator of the Universe, who has not made us like the nations of the world and has not placed us like the families of the earth; who has not designed our destiny to be like theirs, nor our lot like that of all their multitude. We bend the knee and bow and acknowledge before the Supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be he, that it is he who stretched forth the heavens and founded the earth. His seat of glory is in the heavens above; his abode of majesty is in the lofty heights.
- (Translation by Philip Birnbaum, "High Holyday Prayerbook")
Controversial passage
The earlier Ashkenazi form of this prayer contains an additional sentence:
- It is our duty to praise the Master of all, to exalt the Creator of the Universe, who has not made us like the nations of the world and has not placed us like the families of the earth; who has not designed our destiny to be like theirs, nor our lot like that of all their multitude, For they bow to vanity and emptiness and pray to a god which helps not.
(The current Sephardi and Italki have a slightly different form of this sentence: who carry their wooden images and pray to a God who cannot give success. )
This sentence in italics is a quote from the Bible, Isaiah 45:20. "Come, gather together, Draw nigh, you remnants of the nations! No foreknowledge had they who carry their wooden images and pray to a God who cannot give success." (New JPS) However, in the Medieval era some within the Christian community came to believe that this line referred to Christian worshipping Jesus, and demanded that it be excised. In some Orthodox Jewish siddurim (prayerbooks) this line has been restored; the practice of reciting it has increased. This practice has not become mainstream in non-Orthodox Jewish denominations.
History
Ismar Elbogen, a historian of the Jewish liturgy, held that not only this line, but the early form of the entire prayer pre-dated Christianity. Rabbi Reuven Hammer comments on the excised sentence:
- Originally the text read that God has not made us like the nations who "bow down to nothingless and vanity, and pray to an impotent god," ...In the Middle Ages these words were censored, since the church believed they were an insult to Christianity. Omitting them tends to give the impression that the Aleini teaches that we are both different and better than others. The actual intent is to say that we are thankful that God has enlightened us so that, unlike the pagans, we worship the true God and not idols. There is no inherent superiority in being Jewish, but we do assert the superiority of monotheistic belief over paganism. Although paganism still exists today, we are no longer the only ones to have a belief in one God.
- (Reuven Hammer, Or Hadash, The Rabbinical Assembly, NY, 2003)
Restoration
Some Orthodox Rabbinical authorities, prominently the 19th century Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Leib Diskin (Maharil Diskin) have argued that the phrase "who carry their wooden images [...]" should be recited in communities that previously omitted it.