The Significance of Supplication

Twice a day, when the Jew addresses his Maker, the highly choreographed movements of the prayer service pause for a moment, allowing for something older and rawer to raise its head—or, more precisely to lower it. This pause and the way the Talmud chooses to explain it tell us something significant about the power of speech and prayer. It also tells us something about how Jewish law itself operates and how the relationships between the individual and the community, on the one hand, and the individual and the Almighty on the other, operate in relation to the letter of the law.

The prayer in question is today known as Taḥanun, usually translated as “supplication” from the Hebrew root meaning grace. Omitted on Sabbaths and even the most minor of holidays, Taḥanun follows immediately after the Amidah, or standing prayer, whose nineteen blessings constitute the centerpiece of the morning, afternoon, and evening services. In the Ashkenazi liturgy, it consists of the sixth psalm and an assortment of other verses. But the most unusual aspect of this prayer is the posture in which part of it is recited: with one arm outstretched, and the head resting upon it. It isn’t just the mere recitation of words, or the experience of inner devotion, but an intense physical gesture of begging for God’s mercy.

To understand fully the significance of this prayer, we must look to one of the Talmud’s most famous stories, which pits the sages against God Himself—and in which the sages emerge victorious. This tale’s connection to Taḥanun is generally overlooked because both its preface and its coda are usually omitted in the retelling. Looking at the passage in its entirety, it becomes clear that this isn’t only a story about the contest between human and divine authority, but about the power of prayer.