A-Z OF JEWISH VALUES -

D FOR DECORUM & DEVOTION

It’s Friday afternoon in Broughton Park. Mrs. Rochel Rabinowitz looks out of her window. It’s quite a clear sky for February. The sun has descended to the treetops.

Time’s up: Shabbes has to be brought in. Babies are crying, the phone is ringing, but the clock dictates that Rochel has to drop everything she’s doing, ignore the phone and make Shabbes. And so she does, lighting the candles on her own – her husband and sons are at schule and they will come home to find the table laid with a white tablecloth and best cutlery and the candles alight in the silver candlesticks.

Her next door neighbour…Ernest Goodman, is home early from work –His wife Verity, is still at work. It was his turn to pick up their daughter from school – he waves at Rochel through the window, though they’re on different sides of the Jewish fence, they’re good friends. Verity is very involved in Jackson's Row. After work she’ll go to the 6 o'clock service – before that she’ll meet with her friends and the Rabbi at Starbucks for a coffee and a chat….

There’s a lot for Ernest to do. Some housework, phone-calls…. When his wife gets back, it’s 7.30. They’re almost ready but they can’t start yet. A son has to be picked up from Karate lessons at 8 o’clock. Ernest jumps into the car, whilst Verity heats up the food and puts the finishing touches to the chopped liver and the dessert.

Next door the Rabinowitz’s finished dinner an hour ago, but they’re still at the table singing Zemiros with great gusto.

Ernest gets back at 8.15. they make phone calls to parents to wish them good Shabbas and at 8.30 they get started. The whole family is gathered round the table. Candles are lit, kiddush is made.

Both families are devoted to their tradition. The difference between them, as far as Shabbat is concerned is that the key principle for the Rabinowitz’s is the exact timing of Shabbat as defined by Halachah; even if only one person is home it has to start at the correct time. For the Goodman’s it is when all the family are together.

It’s not laid down as any rule, though it can be found in books and pamphlets produced by the Reform movement; it is how most Reform Jews – indeed most Jews behave.

As one member of my cheder class put it when we were discussing this – if you start Shabbat late I think it’s all right as long as you keep a full 24 hours, and then she corrected herself, 25 hours, there’s that extra hour to show keenness.

The Rabinowitz’s are frum – religious.

The Goodman’s take their religion seriously.

The difference between them is an age-old difference between what’s called Keva and Kavanah.

Keva means fixed. Kavanah means dedicated. Both keva and kavanah are necessary one is not superior to the other. To do a mitzvah according to kevah is to do it right. To do it with Kavvanah is to do it with your heart and soul in it.

Another illustration of Keva and Kavanah is in services. (Here timing doesn’t always seem to matter so much). The morning service may have started quite a while before Mr Rabinowitz arrives. And people drift in. But there are certain standard prayers, particularly the Amidah that have to be said, no matter what time you arrive. So wherever those on the bimah are up to, you would stand even if everyone else is sitting face the Ark and – well you’ll probably have to rattle through it at quite a pace to catch up.

In the Goodman’s schule, everyone starts together at a set time, and they all read together….

The operative value is kavanah rather than kevah.

It’s part of what Reform call decorum. Although the real value from any Jewish point of view is another word beginning with D – devotion.

Kevah and Kavanah, Decorum and Devotion. Devotion is preferable to Decorum, because Decorum can be just as rule-bound, just as fixed and rigid, just as empty of content as Kevah. (Kevah says start on time….) Decorum start from rules; Devotion starts from you and I and the spirit we bring to it.

We take time over the words of prayer and care to pronounce them clearly and distinctly. And the Reform way is for most of it to be said by everyone together. And we say the prayers with reference to the meaning. Some things are left out of the service: and it’s not always only to save time.

A good example is the Aleinu prayer we’ll be saying next. One line is omitted. This is unacceptable to the Orthodox because of keva – the prayers are fixed and not to be altered in any way.

In the Singer’s prayer book the Aleinu begins:

“It is our duty to praise the Lord of all things, to ascribe greatness to him who formed the world in the beginning”

Next come the words we leave out:

“since he has not made us like the nations of other lands and not placed us as like the other families of the earth, since he has not assigned a portion to us as to them nor a lot as to all their multitude.”

The Sephardi Aleinu goes even further and adds; for they worship vain and worthless things and pray to a god that does not save’.

We edited that out. We praise the universal God, and to make distinctions like this in our prayers seems to go against the grain.

Kavanah demands that we pray what we believe.

Kavanah demands that we understand what we say – and that we’re prepared to act on it.

With the Sharm el Sheikh Summit beginning this week the Aleinu has a ring of urgency about it: ‘ we put our hope in you…soon let us witness when the wicked of the earth shall turn to you…when all shall meet in understanding… so that your reign of goodness shall come soon and last forever.”

Everyone shall accept the duty of the building of your kingdom – we say – and if we mean what we say, if there’s real kavanah there – we’ll put it into action. Our values, our attitudes, in everyday life will reflect it. Our Shabbat will really be a Shabbat, for the benefit of our families our communities, others whom we welcome in. Our work will be sanctified for higher purposes by the weekly day not just of rest but of re-charging spiritual batteries. Our observance of tradition will be one of content as well as of form, of decorum and devotion.