Detailed halachic analysis supporting Regents Prayer through ten points; The detrimental damage caused by silencing American youth's prayer; Need for G-d in education.
Excerpt from the Lubavitcher Rabbi’s טילש”א Letter
On the Question of the Regents Prayer
By the Grace of G-d
24th of MarCheshvan, 5723
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Greeting and Blessing:
...the following is in reply to your request to state my views on the question of the Regents Prayer which became the subject of a controversy when the U.S. Supreme Court declared it, not unanimously but by a majority opinion, to be unconstitutional. I reiterate my views in writing, although I stated my position at greater length at a public gathering some months ago.
I want to make it quite clear at the outset that my views are based on the following aspects of the problem:
(a) The question relates specifically to the non-denominational Regents Prayer, which reads:
“Almighty G-d, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country.”
(b) The procedure of the recitation of this prayer being that the students read it together with the teacher.
I am approaching this question from the viewpoint of our Torah (though I firmly believe that this position coincides with the best interests of the United States in general).
It is important to bear in mind that the question concerns a vast number of children in the Public Schools who do not receive any other religious training or instruction in the morning; the majority of them not even in the afternoon, and many of them not even in Sunday school. This assertion will be borne out if we compare the statistics about the number of children attending afternoon classes of religious instruction plus those attending Sunday school, (both forms of instruction being very minimal), with the number of children in the Public Schools; the enormous proportion of children receiving no religious instruction whatso-ever will at once be revealed.
The following factors have to be considered from the view-point of the Torah and Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law):
1. Prayer as a Divine Commandment.
According to all our authorities, it is a positive commandment to pray to G-d daily. The text of the prayers has, of course, been formulated and ordained, but the law also provides that under certain circumstances (e.g. where personal safety is a factor, and distractions of a similar nature) — a short prayer should be recited and the commandment is fulfilled thereby. (I have discussed the matter from the Halachic viewpoint in my letter to Rabbi J., which is available in Hebrew). Accordingly, the Regents Prayer is a valid prayer, especially as it contains two basic elements of prayer: acknowledgment (praise of G-d) and request.
2. Submission to the Kingdom of Heaven (Kabbolas Ol Malchus Shomayim).
Recognition of the Divine Authority and obedience to it, is also one of the imperatives of the Torah, which is to be fulfilled every day. This is the basic purpose of our daily reading of the Shema.
While the actual reading of the verses and portions of the Shema is required for the fulfillment of the precept, the element of “Submission to the Divine Authority” contained therein can also be expressed in any appropriate form (as this point has been more fully treated in the said Hebrew letter).
Thus, those Jewish children who do not recite the Shema daily could, at least, fulfill that part of it which expresses recognition of the Divine Authority — by means of the Regents Prayer.
3. There are certain precepts which are incumbent upon Jews not only every day, but every moment of their life, such as the belief in G-d, the love of G-d, reverence of G-d, etc., (as enumerated and explained in Sefer haChinuch, in the Introduction).
Precisely in the case of a very great number of children of the Public Schools and their parents, Jewish and gentile, it is likely, sad to say, that many days, weeks and months might pass by without their giving a thought to G-d in some personal way, not to mention any thought of love and reverence for G-d.
(The widespread disinterestedness in religion and religious education among parents of Public School children seems to be borne out by the fact that so many children of the Public Schools receive no religious instruction whatever, as mentioned above. Some parents attempt to defend their neglect of religious instruction on financial grounds, but this excuse is not supported by their way of life, in which matters of much lesser importance are given priority).
Therefore the Regents Prayer, expressing as it does the acknowledgment of, and dependence upon, G-d, and that the welfare of this country and of the parents, children and teachers depends on G-d’s benevolence, offers in many cases the only opportunity for the children to make some personal “contact” with G-d every day.
4. The hope expressed in some quarters that the banning of the Regents Prayer will somehow be compensated eventually by the introduction of more religion into the home, is very doubtful, in the light of the prevailing parental attitude, in those circles as mentioned above, towards religion. Be this as it may, it is certain that the immediate result of outlawing the Regents Prayer is that hundreds of thousands of children have been precluded from mentioning G-d’s Name — in many cases the one and only opportunity they had of ever mentioning G-d’s Name every school day of the week.
5. As for the argument that the Regents Prayer has little religious value because it would tend to become mechanical and would not reach the heart of the child reciting it, the same argument can be
