Why does a kohen always get called up first? Is that fair?
Later in this prayer the leader says, "Kohen, come near." A kohen is a descendant of Aharon, the first priest. The order is kohen first, then a levi (from the tribe of Levi), then everyone else. It has nothing to do with who knows the most or who is the best person in the room. So the question is fair.
The Mishnah (the first written collection of the rabbis' laws, about 1,800 years old) lists this order among rules made "for the ways of peace." The Gemara first looks for a source in the Torah. Rav Mattana points to Devarim 31:9: Moshe gave the Torah to "the kohanim, the sons of Levi." Everyone already knows kohanim are sons of Levi, so the verse must be putting the kohen first. A teaching from the school of Rabbi Yishmael reads "you shall make him holy" (Vayikra 21:8) as: open first, bless first, and take the best portion first.
Then Abaye asks Rav Yosef: "For the ways of peace? But this is from the Torah." Rav Yosef answers: "It is from the Torah, and it is for the ways of peace." Abaye is not satisfied, since the whole Torah is about peace. He gives a different answer, from his teacher Rabba. At a meal, the person who breaks the bread may let his teacher reach first. In the synagogue, he may not, because people would come to quarrel. Rashi spells out the quarrel: others would say, "I should read first too."
So the rule has two layers. The Torah source gives the kohen a special place. The rabbis' reason, as Rashi explains it, is why the kohen may not hand that place to someone else: with a set order, nobody has to compete for rank in front of the whole room.
Mishnah Gittin 5:8,Gittin 59b,Rashi on Gittin 59b,Devarim 31:9,Vayikra 21:8Why ask God to remember people who lived thousands of years ago?
Av HaRachamim asks God to "remember the covenant of the strong ones." As Machzor Vitry explains, the strong ones are the Avot, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. So the plea leans on something they did, not something you did. It is fair to ask how that is your credit.
Notice the word covenant. A covenant is a promise God made, and the Torah says God keeps it. Devarim 4:31 says Hashem "will not forget the covenant of your fathers, which He swore to them." In Vayikra 26:42, God says He will remember His covenant with Yaakov, Yitzchak and Avraham. When Moshe begged God not to destroy the people after the golden calf, he said, "Remember Avraham, Yitzchak and Yisrael, Your servants, to whom You swore" (Shemot 32:13).
Machzor Vitry uses Devarim 4:31 to say the merit of the fathers is still standing. Then it adds that this is not like the teaching in Tractate Shabbat, which says the merit of the fathers ended. That teaching is real. In the Gemara (Shabbat 55a), Shmuel says the merit of the fathers has ended. Rabbi Yochanan says no: God still shows kindness because of it.
Tosafot (medieval French commentators printed beside the Gemara) bring another answer from Rabbeinu Tam, Rashi's grandson: the merit of the fathers ended, but the covenant did not. So in prayer we mention the covenant, the word this prayer uses. The hard question in Zochreinu goes through his answer and the others.
So the sources do not agree. Machzor Vitry says the merit still stands. Rabbeinu Tam says the promise stands even if the merit ended. Neither settles how much a promise to the Avot counts next to your own deeds.
Machzor Vitry, Order of Shabbat 165,Devarim 4:31,Vayikra 26:42,Shemot 32:13,Shabbat 55a,Tosafot on Shabbat 55aWhat does it mean to "cling" to God? How do you hold on to something you cannot see?
The congregation answers with Devarim 4:4: "You who cling to Hashem your God are all alive today." The verse before it is about Baal Peor, an idol some Israelites followed in Moshe's time. Every man who followed it was destroyed. The ones who held on to Hashem are still here. In that setting, cling means stay loyal, and alive means survived.
But the Gemara asks a sharper question (Ketubot 111b). Rabbi Elazar quotes this verse to comfort Rabbi Yochanan, who is worried about ordinary people who never learned much Torah. Then the Gemara stops itself: can anyone cling to the Divine Presence? Isn't it written that Hashem is a consuming fire? Its answer is practical. If you marry your daughter to a Torah scholar, do business for scholars, or support them with your property, the verse counts it as if you clung to God.
Another voice reads the word "today" differently (Sanhedrin 90b): of course you are alive today. The verse means that even on a day when everyone else is dead, you will be alive, and just as every one of you is alive now, every one of you will be alive in the World to Come.
Even the word cling is argued over. In Sanhedrin 64a, one teaching says Baal Peor's followers were "attached" like a lid sealed onto a jar, while those who "cling" to God are like two dates stuck lightly together. Another teaching there says the opposite: "attached" is a loose bracelet on an arm, and "cling" means really stuck. Rashi explains that for the second teaching, cling is the higher praise.
Devarim 4:3-4,Ketubot 111b,Sanhedrin 90b,Sanhedrin 64a with Rashi