Jewish question?

Question

Why are Jewish people so fierce about praying in Hebrew? Cant God understand any language? The reason I say this is because my Jewish co-worker told me that for Jewish folks they believe that prayers in english or any other language are invalid and so you wouldnt be communicating with God. What is with that?
For atheists: Yes I know you dont believe in God.

Answer 1

LOL I like the atheist add in! I wonder the same thing

Answer 2

Well Arnold yes of course God understands all tongues. I have a Orthodox Jewish friend in Israel who told me to learn Hebrew because the Messiah will be speaking it when he comes to Jerusalem. But I have heard him pray in English many times. I am a student of Hebrew and I say some prayers in Hebrew . But mostly I pray in English and I have also prayed in Spanish while visiting Costa Rica. I think your Jewish co worker is only being true to what he believes is pleasing to God. There is however no scriptural support in the Bible that mandates prayer in Hebrew so live and let live.

Answer 3

I was raised Jewish and we never thought that. God hears everyone's prayers in any language.

But I think I know where this comes from. For many years, from ancient times up until the establishment of Israel in the late 1940s, Hebrew was a 'dead language'. Like Latin. In Judaism, the highest life is being a scholar. Spending years learning about the Torah and the Talmud, writing commentaries and arguing with other learned men about the old books. This study was always done in Hebrew. So Jewish people came to sort of believe that Hebrew was the language God speaks.

But if you ask any Jew (well, any -I- know) he will tell you that Judaism is not the 'one true faith', it is just -our- faith, and God doesn't love just Jews, he loves everyone about the same. Today there are probably Jews who believe God thinks they're -special-, but most Jews believe it's wrong to think that.

Of course these days Jewish is both a faith and a nationality. And Israelis -do- think they're special, and that God loves them more. But so do American fundamentalist Christians. This is nationalism and politics, not religion.

Answer 4

The Talmud states that it is permissible to pray in any language that you can understand; however, traditional Judaism has always stressed the importance of praying in Hebrew. A traditional Chasidic story speaks glowingly of the prayer of an uneducated Jew who wanted to pray but did not speak Hebrew. The man began to recite the only Hebrew he knew: the alphabet. He recited it over and over again, until a rabbi asked what he was doing. The man told the rabbi, "The Holy One, Blessed is He, knows what is in my heart. I will give Him the letters, and He can put the words together."

Even the more liberal movements are increasingly recognizing the value of Hebrew prayer. My grandmother told me that fifty years ago, you never heard a word of Hebrew in a Reform synagogue. Today, the standard Reform prayer book contains many standard prayers in Hebrew, generally followed by transliteration and an English translation. I have heard several Reform rabbis read from the Torah in Hebrew, also generally followed by an English translation or explanation.

There are many good reasons for praying in Hebrew: it gives you an incentive for learning Hebrew, which might otherwise be forgotten; it provides a link to Jews all over the world; it is the language in which the covenant with G-d was formed, etc. To me, however, the most important reason to pray in Hebrew is that Hebrew is the language of Jewish thought.

Any language other than Hebrew is laden down with the connotations of that language's culture and religion. When you translate a Hebrew word, you lose subtle shadings of Jewish ideas and add ideas that are foreign to Judaism. Only in Hebrew can the pure essence of Jewish thought be preserved and properly understood. For example, the English word "commandment" connotes an order imposed upon us by a stern and punishing G-d, while the Hebrew word "mitzvah" implies an honor and privilege given to us, a responsibility that we undertook as part of the covenant we made with G-d, a good deed that we are eager to perform.

This is not to suggest that praying in Hebrew is more important than understanding what you are praying about. If you are in synagogue and you don't know Hebrew well enough, you can listen to the Hebrew while looking at the translation. If you are reciting a prayer or blessing alone, you should get a general idea of its meaning from the translation before attempting to recite it in Hebrew. But even if you do not fully understand Hebrew at this time, you should try to hear the prayer, experience the prayer, in Hebrew.

Answer 5

G-d considers any sort of prayer, whether uttered in any language or in the heart.

However, G-d gave His Torah in the Hebrew language. The view of Judaism is that the language of Hebrew is holy. In fact, the traditional name for the language is not "Ivrit" (modern name for Hebrew) but "Lashon HaKodesh" (the Holy Tongue).
That being the case, in Judaism it is best to pray in Hebrew with the traditional words of the liturgy. A translation of those words will lose some of the original meaning.

Nevertheless, no one is opposed to translating the Hebrew of Jewish prayers (the prayer book is called a Siddur) in order to further people's understanding of the Hebrew.

Answer 6

Hebrew is the language of the Temple and the Law of Moses. It is entirely appropriate for prayer to be respectful of this language and offered using it.

I don't believe that HaShem (G-D) disregards the prayers of those who pray in other languages, but when the third Temple is in use, the language used to address the G-D of Avraham, Yitzak and Yaacov will be Hebrew.

It is interesting to note that for nearly 2000 years, the "holy" language of the christians was the same language used to address the gods, goddesses and despots of Rome, which was LATIN.

Christians used the language of the oppressors of Israel to address Israel's G-D and called it holy invocation, spurning Hebrew.

Answer 7

Sometimes I pray in my mind without even speaking a language, I'm sure God hears me.

Every culture and human have their own way of praying to God. However they do it, isn't what matters because God knows whats really in their heart. And no I don't mean prayers like bombing a building in the name of allah, however you spell it.
The way your friend feels about praying in hebrew, would probably be equivalent to you not wanting to call God by the name of allah, in your prayers.

Answer 8

it's true that god doesn't understand English, but I'm not sure about Hebrew. It's been around a long time , so he's probably picked up at least a few words of it. As usual, all religious views are distorted by the religion that invented it.

Answer 9

I am a Muslim but I think it's okay. Translations sometimes lose exact meanings, and if you are supposedly repeating the supposedly exact words of God, then God cannot refuse your prayers because your words are God's words.

Answer 10

Funny, Muslims not only pray in Arabic, they don't want the Koran translated to any other language. And many Christians believe that only people of their sect will get to heaven. I guess we're all pretty egocentric.

Answer 11

They are just very nationalistic..God chose them as his chosen people and they are supposed to not intermarry with other races, and they are just very Jewish for lack of a better word.