The Wholeness of Prayer: How We Worship Together

“And you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove illness from your midst.” (Exodus 23:25)

The early commentators taught that this verse refers to communal prayer. The word va-avadtem — “you shall serve” — is in the plural, while “He will bless your bread” shifts to the singular, meaning each individual within the community. This is because, when people join together, each one shields and atones for the other. (See the Ba’al ha-Turim.)

On the basis of this idea, I offer an interpretation of a passage from the prayer Nishmat Kol Chai (“The breath of every living thing”), recited on Shabbat and festivals. The prayer first declares: “Even if our mouths were full of song as the sea… we could not suffice” — that is, no individual could offer even one in a thousand of the praises God deserves. It then continues: “Therefore, the limbs You apportioned within us… they shall give thanks.” But this seems puzzling: the prayer just acknowledged that we cannot suffice — so how will those same limbs succeed in giving thanks? And then the prayer adds what appears to be a reason: “for every mouth shall praise You, and every tongue shall swear allegiance to You.” This explanation seems circular — they will give thanks because they give thanks?

The answer lies in understanding the people of Israel as a single unified body. No individual, on his own, can offer adequate praise — “not even one in a thousand.” But when the entire sacred congregation is bound together, each member cleaving to the others and all of them cleaving to the Lord our God, the living King of the universe, they can together accomplish what God desires and what His honor requires.

It is well known that the Jewish nation as a whole has the nature of a single person — and “Israel” is that person’s name. The great Torah sages who stand close to God represent the mind and soul of this collective body. Others represent the mouth, singing praises like King David, peace be upon him. Still others are the masters of hands — those whose strength lies in action — and others are masters of the heart. So it is with every limb of the body.

When all are bound together, then even if I personally cannot concentrate in prayer as I should, I pray with the intention of the great leader of the generation. Likewise, I study with the intention of the great scholars; I perform mitzvot with my hands with the intention of those whose hands are capable and pure. And so it is for everyone.

Through these two principles — first, that each of us does what lies within our own reach; and second, that we connect ourselves to one another and become, together, a single whole — the praise of God rises beautifully from below to above.

This is the inner meaning of the Nishmat passage: Yes, “we cannot suffice” as individuals. Yet “the limbs You apportioned within us” — meaning the limbs of the entire nation: those with minds, those with hearts, those with hands — and “the spirit and soul You breathed into our nostrils” — that is, the great ones of Israel, who are called our “nostrils” (our most prominent feature), as the Sages taught in the Talmud (Tractate Ta’anit 29a): “the one with the nose is sought out” — which Rashi explains as “a person of stature and bearing; another interpretation: the great one of the generation” — and within them resides the spirit and soul of all Israel — and “the tongue You placed” within our finest speakers: “they shall give thanks,” because they are able to give thanks as agents on behalf of everyone. For indeed, “every mouth” — each of our individual mouths — “shall praise You, and every tongue shall swear allegiance to You.” Since we consent to our great ones and appoint them as our emissaries, they can fully suffice.

(Chatam Sofer, 1826)