Rabbi Yaacov ben Asher writes that during different times in prayer, there are different physical postures that we take. We stand when reciting the Amidah and fall on our faces when saying the prayer of Tachanun.  (Tur, Orach Chayim 131)

Could it be that these positions reflect different approaches to God?  Standing in prayer denotes our preparedness to speak forthrightly with the Almighty as we struggle and even insist that the Lord help us.  It is, of course, true that during this service we bow down on four occasions.  Still the Talmud insists that if someone wishes to bow more often, he is stopped.  (Berachot 34a)  Perhaps this teaches us that in prayer God desires that we bring our pleas to him with honesty and candor.

Indeed, when facing challenges in life we are instructed to gather all of our energy to right whatever wrong we face.  In this sense, the human being has qualities of dynamism and majesty.  Created in the image of God, we have the power to act Godlike, to give selflessly to the other, to transcend and reach what we think are our potentials and do the impossible.  This may be the approach we take in the Amidah service as we stand before the Almighty.

In the next prayer, when we fall to the ground, we approach God very differently.  In the end, no matter how capable we may be, no matter our physical and emotional stature, we are all in God's hands.  This may be the symbolic meaning of falling on our face.  It's as if we are saying to the Almighty-please embrace us, hold us and carry us through the difficulties we face.

The Tachanun comes from the story of King David when he failed to count the Jewish people with the traditional giving of a half shekel for each person.  (Samuel II Chapter 24)  Censuses in Torah law are taken so that we can indicate how many of us are prepared to give of ourselves to God – hence, the half shekel is given to the temple.  When counting without that half shekel we are proclaiming that the count is taken for our own honor.  The prophet Gad tells David that he will be punished with war, famine or pestilence.  David chooses pestilence as that attack is in the hands of God.  David had learnt his lesson that it is better to be in the hands of God than at the mercy of human beings.

It is not easy to have this kind of trust.  Trust requires a deep openness, a willingness to develop a relationship of intimacy.  But such intimacy with a beloved or with God is difficult to achieve as one is rendered vulnerable in that one could be rejected.  Not withstanding this difficulty, David learns to trust in God and as we fall to the ground and recall this David story we try to do the same - giving in and trusting the Lord.

In the High Holiday service we follow a similar format.  Standing before God we strongly ask that He allow His awe to be felt by all of humankind (Ve-chen Tein Pachdechah).  We then add that God see to it that Israel be given all of His glory (Ve-chen Tein Kavod Le-amecha).  Precisely after these kind of paragraphs, do we recite the Aleinu wherein we fall literally to the floor.  Human strength can take us only so far.  Falling to the ground we declare, "Oh Lord, we desperately need your help".

Our service takes it one step further.  We begin reciting the prayer in which we ask God that He teach us the right words to recite.  (heh'yeh im pi'phiyot)  Sometimes life can be so confusing that we do not even know the right words.  Hence, we turn to God and we declare, the darkness is so heavy, the suffering so great, the problems so complex we are not even sure what to ask for.  Oh God, we say, give us the words.  Help us pray for what we need.

These are our feelings these days.  No doubt we must, in the spirit of the Amidah, do our share to overcome.  But for me, this Yom Kippur I will fall to the ground and say to God, "we need you desperately, we need you to intervene, we need you to give us the words and show us the way."

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Avi Weiss