Julian Ungar-Sargon

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Daf Ditty

A wide-ranging commentary on the daily page of Talmud.

1803 Sephardic prayer book, Jewish Museum of Switzerland

Sotah 33: וּתְפִלָּה בְּכׇל לָשׁוֹן

jyungar May 1, 2023

For the source text click/tap here: Sotah 33

To download, click/tap here: PDF

One of the examples presented by the Mishna (32a) of things that can be said in any language is tefilla – prayer. The Gemara simply explains that since prayer is a heartfelt request from God, a person must be able to express it in any way that he desires.

The Gemara raises an objection to this by pointing to a statement made by Rav Yehuda that a person should not pray in Aramaic, since the heavenly angels cannot understand that language; Rabbi Yoḥanan teaches that if a person prays in Aramaic, his prayers are ignored by the angels since they do not understand Aramaic.

We explore the halachot of praying in the vernacular and the approach of the Chasm Sofer.

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Julian Ungar-Sargon

This is Julian Ungar-Sargon's personal website. It contains poems, essays, and podcasts for the spiritual seeker and interdisciplinary aficionado.​