Sunday, December 25, 2016

Tefilla in Aramiac Part 1 - Vi-al Hapurkan

I was asked by a special Jew why we say the word הפורקן in Aramaic as opposed to the rest of our tefillos that are in Hebrew. The zchus of this learning of the klal should be for he and his family. 

This question opens up a Pandoras box and makes one wonder about the tefilla we say on Shabbos יקום פורקן מן שמיא and other tefillos said in Aramaic. Hopefully more about that in the future. In the meantime - ועל הפורקן:

It is Hebrew and means to "lighten a burden":


Rav Soloveitchik similarly explained that since geulah only applies to Hashem, Chazal substituted the word פורקן meaning "lighten a burden".