The fifth principle of the Jewish faith says that we should only pray to God, and we cannot pray to anyone but Him. We should not pray to an angel, a star, a constellation or a dead person, even if that person was a great Tsadiq. We must pray exclusively and directly to God. Praying to something or someone else, other than God, is considered idolatry.
It is also forbidden to pray to God through intermediaries. Imagining that these intermediaries would carry our prayer to God. For example, in other religions one would pray to a minor god, to an angel, to a saint or to a dead religious leader, so this minor god, or this angel or the spirit of this leader would take his or her prayer to a greater god. In Judaism this is also considered idolatry (‘aboda zara).
According to Maimonides, the mistake of the generation of Enosh (= the civilization that developed after Adam, and withdrew from God) was the following reasoning: Since God created the heavenly bodies (the sun, the moon and the stars) to serve the world, and these creations are “the servants of the King”, it would be appropriate praising and honoring them because by doing so we would be indirectly honoring the King (I think that perhaps it must have been also tempting for those individuals to pray to the “servants of God” because they were visible and so they seemed more accessible than the “unseen” God). These individuals, Maimonides says, started building temples and pyramids to the sun and to moon, offering them sacrifices, thinking that they were honoring the true God. At the end, Maimonides asserts, they ended up forgetting that they were serving HaShem, and they just worshipped the stars ….
As I’ve already explained, when one prays to any entity or intermediary, human or nonhuman, real or imaginary, even though one thinks and declares that his purpose is to pray to God, it is considered idolatry.
Often, people mistakenly believe that if their intentions are correct, their actions will not be considered sinful. But given the severity of the prohibition of ‘aboda zara (idolatry), a God fearing Jew must be extremely careful in these matters, and pray solely and directly to HaShem. One of the best ways to avoid making these serious mistakes is to studying the laws of ‘aboda zara and its details.
Now, do not confuse the prohibition of praying to God throughout an intermediary, with someone praying for me or I praying for someone else. Praying “for” someone else is not the same as praying “to” someone else. Praying for each other is praiseworthy. In fact, we Jews always pray to God in an inclusive way: in the first person of the plural (=WE), praying collectively. This kind of “intermediation” is an integral part of our liturgy.
The Talmud also records many cases of Talmide Hakhamim who had many merits, especially for excelling in acts of Hesed (compassion, benevolence) as Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa, or unimpeachable integrity, like Abba Hilqiya and his wife. The rabbis would come to them and ask them to pray, generally for a public matter like asking for rain, by the virtue of their enormous merits.
To be continued…
Dedicated to the memory of IDF Capt. Ishay Rosales, 23 years old, z”l
