Shmot [Exodus] 23:25
Pray to God.
This is not the same thing as worship, which is defined in Hebrew as a variation of service, admiration, or adoration.
Table of Contents
לסְגוֹד לַעֲבוֹד קוֹדֶשׁ לְהַעֲרִיץ לַעֲבוֹד
To adore To worship
To admire To serve
The Hebrew verb to pray is nourished by two complementary verbal roots…
תפל פלל
To fall | To overthrow |
To defeat | To plead
Liturgical poetry (piyutim) use all these words — but liturgical poetry triggers the imagination, and the imagination is intangible.
Worship, in our context, is the opposite of imagination.
The few acts of veneration we have, such as touching the Torah’s cover, or touching or talit to the Torah when saying the brachot, are socially acceptable and entirely optional.
