when they told me that I didn’t have to understand the prayers in order for them to work so long as I said them in Hebrew
I am not defending OJ in general, but your objection, while philosophically valid, was misplaced. It’s ok, you were only 5 :)
Talmudic law is let’s say a “ritual law” where performance of certain acts is “fulfilled”, in a pure legalistic sense. There is a long standing argument whether mitzhot (commandments) require intentional performance to be fulfilled. E.g. if you “hear the shofar” by accident, you do not have to hear it again. Given that prayer is a ritual act the same kind of technical question arises: whether understanding the words is required for fulfilling the commandment to pray 3 times a day. This is all completely orthogonal to philosophy. There is even a talmudic expression “vile person with Torah’s permission”, which means he observes all the laws. Your objection was philosophical, while the law is purely technical and internally consistent that way.
I am not defending OJ in general, but your objection, while philosophically valid, was misplaced. It’s ok, you were only 5 :)
Talmudic law is let’s say a “ritual law” where performance of certain acts is “fulfilled”, in a pure legalistic sense. There is a long standing argument whether mitzhot (commandments) require intentional performance to be fulfilled. E.g. if you “hear the shofar” by accident, you do not have to hear it again. Given that prayer is a ritual act the same kind of technical question arises: whether understanding the words is required for fulfilling the commandment to pray 3 times a day. This is all completely orthogonal to philosophy. There is even a talmudic expression “vile person with Torah’s permission”, which means he observes all the laws. Your objection was philosophical, while the law is purely technical and internally consistent that way.