Introduction
In the previous
post, The
Psalms are not prayers, we saw how Rav Saadia Gaon held the unusual
view that psalms may not be used as prayers and that, like the Torah
itself they are meant only to be studied but not prayed. Psalms
are not liturgy. According to Rav Saadia, the psalms were used as a
strictly controlled and regulated ritual during Temple times, but never
as liturgy (supplications or prayers). On this view, the psalms were
never an ‘early prayer book’ as was claimed by the Karaite Jews. It is believed
that Rav Saadia formulated his unusual and limited view on the function of the
psalms, in reaction to the Karaites, who had rejected the Rabbanite siddur
and used the psalms as their prayer book instead.
In this article, however, based extensively on the work by Professor Uriel Simon[1], we explore another unusual view of the psalms. This is the view held by R. Moshe Ibn Gigatila, who believed that that the psalms are indeed prayers - but nothing more than prayers. And because they are just prayers, they are not profoundly holy nor do they carry any prophetic or spiritually subliminal innuendo.
