I'm normally not big into omens and superstition, and yet, this has me mildly disturbed.
When the Torah is taken out, there is a prayer that is recited on weekdays after the 13 Middos are recited. There are two versions of this prayer -- one for the Three Festivals (Pesach, Sukkos and Shavuous) and one for the Yomim Nora'im. The YN version has a line "m'chol li al kol avonosai..." Translated, this reads as "forgive me for my sins."
On the second day of Rosh HaShannah, however, when saying this prayer, I mis-spoke. Instead of saying "m'chol..." I said "m'chok..." which has a *very* different meaning. Of course, I caught my mistake as soon as I said it and re-said it properly.
I think that I might have dismissed that if it occured alone. However, I also (independently) came across the following mishna over Yom Tov (Berachos 5:5).
ה,ה המתפלל וטעה, סימן רע לו; אם שליח ציבור הוא, סימן רע לשולחיו, ששלוחו של אדם כמותו. אמרו עליו על רבי חנינה בן דוסא, שהיה מתפלל על החולין ואומר, זה חיה וזה מת. אמרו לו, מניין אתה יודע. אמר להם, אם שגרה תפילתו בפי, יודע אני שהוא מקובל; ואם לאו, יודע אני שהוא מטורף.
Someone who prays and makes a mistake, it is a bad omen for him. If he is a messenger of the congration (i.e. the chazzan), then it is a bad sign for those who sent him (i.e. the congregation), since a messenger is like the person himself. It was said about R. Channina ben Dosa that he would pray for the sick (and afterwards) say "this one will live and this one will die." They said to him "how do you know this?" He said "if the prayer flowed easily from my mouth, I knew that it was accepted; and if not, I knew that it was torn (i.e. rejected)."
I think the combination of the two, however, has me feeling uneasy, which, as I said, is unusual for me, as I'm not usually into omens and the like.
I'm curious as to what you all think. Do you think I should be worried about the coming year? Or am I just building this up in my head over nothing?
The Wolf
17 comments:
Superstitious narishkeit. Even if you had not corrected the word, your intent in prayer is far more important. All you did was slip up on someone else's formula for prayer.
Take a chill pill!
Worry about sins, not syntax.
The Halachos and story you quote have to do with a Tzibur and a special Tzadik. Both would have a special relationships with Hashem which an regular individual would not. Thus I would explain your mistake as a mistake on your part, not some Hashgocho Pratis that made you do it.
If every accidental misreading or misspeaking during tefilla were a portent for evil, we would not be having this discussion--the world would have been de-populated long ago.
You're fine--unless you cross a black cat. That would be bad.
Do you think I should be worried about the coming year?
-Yes
Or am I just building this up in my head over nothing?
-Yes
Even though it means nothing use it as an excuse for good.
e.g. Give tdakah (mavirin et roah hagezarah) or the like.
It was nice knowing you, buddy!
Worrying won't help. If you're concerned this is the time for an appeal. Do what's in your power, let G-d take care of the rest. (But if you really believe in the power of prayer I understand why you're uneasy, yet the belief in the power of prayer should also make you realize that you can undo whatever it is that you are uneasy about.
Shana Tova.
give me a break, the rabbi of my shul often serves as shliach tzibur, and speaks with a bad stutter, tripping badly over many of the words. His congregation seems only to be getting stronger and bigger.
And I find it hard to believe that your davening is generally flawlessly pronounced. Chill out. There must be something else weighing on your mind.
"V'diglo alai ahava" - (Shir Hashirim 2:4)
Please don't worry.Just remember what the greatest man who ever lived said,"If I had a dime for every time I messed up a word,I could have gotten out of the keholoshe business"-----Moshe Rabbenu
m'chok ess ahvonasigh
Don't worry about it... one year I had bad omens straight out of the Gemara happen and drove myself nuts for no reason... at most, read it on a spiritual level
Maybe R Channina's comment was interpreted wrongly. Maybe the prayer ran easily because he thought it would work, and didn't run easily when he thought it wouldn't work.
As for your situation, I think it has something to do with the time Google put those non-tznius ads on your blog. I'm not a Rav, but I think that if the blog got you in trouble, then the blog can get you out of trouble.
Ichabod Chrain
Of course you should be worried - we should all be worried. The sabbath year is over, and now we're going to be called to the carpet for our bad economic stewardship and financial mismanagement - not yours in particularly, I hope - but all of us in our communities together for our failures to take the steps necessary to make ourselves self-sufficient and corruption/fraud/ponzi-scheme free.
Any thing that might cause a Jew to give up is a message from the soton.
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