Photo Credit:
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

For Maimonides, at the heart of prayer is the prophetic experience of the individual in conversation with G-d. For Nahmanides, by contrast, prayer is the collective worship of the Jewish people, a continuation of the pattern set by the Temple service.

We can now appreciate the astonishing synthesis of Jewish tradition – because, remarkably, each prayer (with the exception of the evening prayer) is said twice. We pray once silently as individuals, then out loud (the reader’s repetition) as a community. The first is prophetic, the second priestly. Jewish prayer, as it has existed for almost 2,000 years, is a convergence of two modes of biblical spirituality, supremely exemplified by the two brothers – Moses the prophet and Aaron the high priest. Without the prophetic tradition, we would have no spontaneity. Without the priestly tradition, we would have no continuity.

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The sedrah of Tetzaveh, in which the name of Moses is missing and the focus is on Aaron, reminds us that our heritage derives from both. Moses is a man of history, of epoch-making events. Aaron’s role, though less dramatic, is no less consequential. The priestly dimension of worship – collective, structured, and never changing – is the other hemisphere of the Jewish mind, the voice of eternity in the midst of time.


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Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was the former chief rabbi of the British Commonwealth and the author and editor of 40 books on Jewish thought. He died earlier this month.