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Lane Igoudin

Embodying Tefillah: Human Body as an Instrument of Righteous Living



Sefer Raziel, title page Amsterdam, 1701

The Selichot service, which opens the High Holidays period, contains two striking references to the human body:


“His is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all human flesh. . . The soul is Yours and the body is your handywork; take pity on Your labor.”  (Selichot Day 1, Shomea Tefila) 


It reminds us that the human body is no less holy than the human spirit, as they come from the same Source. It was fashioned by G-d, as we learn in Genesis, and as is said in daily morning prayers, with G-d’s intention and wisdom (“b’chochma”).


In other words, the body can be a partner to the soul in an ethical, righteous, holy way of living. 


The body will be explicitly mentioned in two weeks later, in Al Chet (“For the Sin”), a central prayer of Yom Kippur, in with some specific sins linked to its parts:


“For the sin which we have committed before You by the prattle of our lips. . . by a glance of the eye. . . by running to do evil. . . by a confused heart. . .” – transgressions committed by mouth, eyes, feet, heart, and so on.


I would like to counter this negative view of the body with a rather original writing from Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, a medieval rabbi and mystic who taught that human flesh, G-d’s “handywork” endowed with His “spirit” (to quote the Selichot prayer), can be an instrument of living according to G-d’s ways, a sort of a physical model of an embodied tefillah.


Rabbi Eleazar (c. 1165-1230) belonged to the circle of early medieval Jewish mystics known as Hasidei Ashkenaz. He is known for both his halakhic and spiritual writings. Some of the latter were included into a collection of mystical works called Sefer Raziel ha-Malach (Book of Angel Raziel), first published in Amsterdam in 1701 (see photo), and continued to be reprinted in different editions over the next three centuries. The excerpts below, re-published in The Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies (1997), are from the 1818 edition of Sefer Raziel


I apologize for the gendered language. The work was written sometime in the early 13th century, but its insights apply to anyone, an individual of any gender.


Rabbi Eleazar teaches that the precepts for the holy way of living are woven together like the eight threads of the tzitzit, each supported by multiple citations from the Torah and the prophets.


The first thread would be the eyes, “that they should not see any sin; that man should not be haughty, with the positive precept being: “And he will save him that is lowly of eyes.” 


Ears, the second thread, should “not to listen to vain words.” The opposite, given in Deuteronomy, is, “Now, o Israel, listen to the statutes.”


The third thread represents the throat: “You shall not eat any abominable thing.”  The positive example, per Rabbi Eleazar, is “to eat unleavened bread on Passover, and so forth.”


The fourth thread represents the speech organs, that “should not utter vain words. . . nor lie. . . nor bear false witness.” Guidance to right speech, on the other hand, can be found in: “And you shall teach them diligently onto your children”; “And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness.” 


The fifth represents the hands: “Put not your hand with the wicked”; “You shall not rob;” which are countered with: “You shall surely open your hand”; “And you shall bind them for a sign up on your hand.”


The sixth reprimands the feet of a ‘tale-bearer’, or one that “go[es] after other gods.” Where and how should one’s feet walk? Here Rabbi Eliazar cites: “After the Lord your God shall you walk”; and “You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you.” 


The seventh thread corresponds to the sexual organ in the following terms: “You shall not commit adultery.” This is the negative precept. The positive precepts are: “And you, be fruitful and multiply”; and circumcision.”


The final part of the body, on which “his heart should be,” interestingly, is the nose. It shouldn’t smell “anger and stubbornness and perfumes of idols, [as] is written: "And there shall cleave nothing of the devoted thing to your hand.” These are the negative precepts.

The positive precept is to smell myrtle branches on the Sabbath and so forth.”


Rabbi Eleazar then presents a beautiful description of a human body that embodies holiness:


“The righteous person is full of good deeds. One, the tefillin [is] on his head; two, his teeth utter words of Torah; three, his mouth studies the halakhot; four, his nose smells the mitzvot; five, his hands give charity; six, his innards are full of Torah, and he prays to the Holy One blessed be He; seven, his body is circumcised; eight, his feet lead him to synagogues and houses of learning, and so all his body is whole.”


And there the body and spirit are united and at peace. Shana tova u’metukah!

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Lane Igoudin, Ph.D., has written extensively for Applied Jewish Spirituality. He is the author of A Family, Maybe, his rollercoaster journey through foster adoptions to fatherhood, and his writing appeared in Forward, Jewish Journal, Jewish News, LA Jewish Home, LGBTQ Nation, and Parabola. For more information, please visit his website.

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