A couple of thoughts from davening this morning:
1. Tallis gadol and tefillin will not be worn at Shacharit tomorrow for Tisha B'Av but at Mincha. I have written before about how the act of gathering the tzitzis from the four corners of the tallis gadol near the end of the second blessing before the Shema and holding them together while reciting the Shema is very meaningful for me, because I feel myself integrating the different parts of myself into one whole that is an image and likeness of the Oneness of G!d that we proclaim in the Shema. I wonder if not being able to do this tomorrow morning will intensify the feeling of destruction and alienation of Tisha B'Av - that, just as we don't have the Beis HaMikdash to connect us to G!d - so we don't have tefillin and tallis gadol either, at least for Shacharit. I will report back (likely on Friday) whether this intuition proves correct.
2. The first blessing begins with a misquote of Isaiah 45:7, talking about G!d's creation of both light and dark, and peace/wholeness and evil (in Isaiah)/everything (in the prayer). We say with the seraphim from Isaiah's vision in Isaiah 6, "Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh" - and the seraphim have six wings. We say with the voice Ezekiel heard, "Blessed is the glory of G!d from its Place" - and the voice is accompanied by the sound of the four wings each of the chayot that he saw in the first chapter. And the blessing ends with the chatimah blessing G!d for creating the Lights - of which there are two great ones, in Genesis 1 - the sun and the moon. Six, four, and two - in contrast to G!d being One. The blessing seems to go out of its way to emphasize the multiplicity of creation in contrast to the Oneness of G!d. And then, in the second blessing, we pray to be gathered from the four corners of the earth - and it ends blessing G!d for blessing the people Israel with love - ahavah - which has the same gematria (13) as One - echad (also 13).
My thoughts during davening today.
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