Doing good deeds or praying – which is more important?
Ask the rabbi.
Rabbi Raymond Apple
PRAYER VS. GOOD DEEDS
Q. Aren’t good deeds more important than praying?
A. Both are needed. Praying keeps us in touch with God and reminds us that we are expected to be His partners in perfecting the world.
His principle is “olam chessed yibbaneh”, “The world is built through kindness” (Psalms 89:3). His kindness enables all of us to live; our kindness expressed in our good deeds enables us to use our lives to enrich others.
But if God is good and kind to all His creatures (Psalm 145:9), how come that some creatures happen to be poor and disadvantaged? Why don’t we say, “God, it is You who made these people’s lives bitter – why don’t You solve their problems?”
It could be that His answer is, “I have appointed all My children as my messengers to work with Me and help the others to become rehabilitated!”
The sages say, “Just as God clothes the naked (Gen. 3:21), so should you clothe the naked. Just as God visits the sick (Gen. 18:1), so should you visit the sick. Just as God comforts the bereaved (Gen. 25:11), so should you comfort the bereaved (Sotah 14a).”
God does not necessarily work a private miracle for everyone who is in crisis, but He uses each of us as His representatives to do the mitzvah.
Like an agent whose act is legally the act of his/her principal, so our kindness is God’s. Through doing kind deeds, we become truly human – and our humanity becomes truly Divine.
BOOK OF THE PROPHETS
Q. How can the second section of the Bible be called Neviim (Prophets), when the first section (Torah) is a record of the Father of Prophecy, Moses?
A. If we are to be honest, the third section of the Bible (Ketuvim) also contains prophecies, so it is not only one of two sections but the whole Bible is a Prophetic work.
Abravanel explains that the Biblical names Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim reflect authorship and not necessarily content.
The first section presents the highest level of prophecy as found in Moses. The second and third sections are on a lower level of prophecy.
It should also be pointed out that the phenomenon of prophecy in the Bible is not cheap exhibitionism, i.e. gazing into a crystal ball to ascertain the future. The word “navi”, a prophet, indicates a forthteller of God’s word, not necessarily a foreteller or prognosticator.
Thus King David is a prophet whether or not he predicted future events and his Psalms are often works of prophecy.
