What's The Rush Already ??

Shalom:

I have been to a few Friday evening services where the Rabbi seemed to try and get through the passages extremely quickly, as though there were a fire behind the altar and he (or she, as the case may be) were trying to get through quickly and get the congregation out of the building before it spread any further.  Another analogy?  OK, she is going so fast it is as though she has a cake in the oven that is burning.  Enough already!  We get the point. 

So!  What's the rush?  Last Erev Shabbos I was privileged to attend my very first Erev Shabbos in the home of one of the members' home.  It was a pot-luck supper before services but, even then, the gentleman who led services (it was at his home) seemed in a hurry to get through.  It seemed that everyone wanted to get home early that evening for something or the other.

Way back in my youth I remember that there was an old black Christian pastor who used to remark about the white Christian churches who started at 11:00 sharp and quit at 12:00 dull, "You know, those folks don't realize that sometimes the Holy Spirit don't get there until 2 or 3 O'clock in the afternoon."  Maybe we could take a hint from that old gentleman.  Reading in TaNaKh I remember that some of the celebrations of the High Holy Days went on at the Temple for days, some of the regular Shabbos services lasted from Friday evening until Saturday evening, not for an hour or so but for 24 hours straight.  Those folks knew how to just praise G-d.  To them, HaShem was not just a name in a book, a word that one said during a prayer.  He was a living G-D, The Living G-D of Israel, a very personal G-d, a Personal G-d who cared about Israel, a G-d who cared about everyone in Israel and Judah, right down the the smallest baby.  If only we could get back to that rapport with Him.

So, when we say our prayers to G-d, why not emphasize the words as though they came from the heart every time?  When we say, "Magnified and Glorified", why not mean it?  When we say, "Holy G-d", why not mean it and emphasize the "Holy" as though even the word itself was holy?

Just a thought...

Shalom.

Yaakov On