Deaf People Signing Davening

Deaf people can find it extremely difficult to daven in the traditional way. As one individual has reported: “Saying every word of the Amidah out loud in Hebrew takes me more than 20 minutes. It is physically tiring, mentally draining, and the sounds I make sometimes disturb others. Hebrew is not my natural language. I think and communicate in sign language.”

The ideal would of course be to pray using sign language. But is this halakhically acceptable? The general understanding – among the deaf community and the halakhic community at large – is that it is not, that prayer requires verbalization and without it, the prayer is halakhically invalid. It is thus not uncommon for deaf people to stop davening altogether, since whatever they do won’t count regardless.

But is this indeed the case? Does halakha, in fact, require deaf people to daven verbally, or would it be acceptable for them to pray in sign language? A close look at the sources reveals, in my opinion, that it is not only permitted, but actually preferable, for a blind person who struggles with verbal articulation to daven through signing. In addition, because a direct translation of the words of the Amidah can be laborious and unnatural in sign language, a full word-for-word translation is not required; it is enough to convey the meaning and content of each blessing.

This starts from appreciating that intention (kavanah) is at the heart of prayer. The Talmud defines prayer as avoda she’be’lev, service of the heart, and Rambam rules that prayer without kavanah is not prayer. As such, halakha will often make allowances for the sake of kavanah. Some examples of this are: permitting a person to raise his or her voice on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to help concentration; allowing a sick or traveling person to pray while sitting or walking; and permitting a person to eat before praying if needed to properly focus on his prayers.

It is true that halakha requires that a person verbalize her prayers. However, in the case of a deaf person, this requirement often is such a burden and hardship that trying to satisfy it can totally destroy the person’s kavanah, even to the point of not having the minimum intention required to fulfil the obligation. We would thus expect that halakha would permit – or in truth, require – a person to forgo this verbalizing requirement and to pray using sign language so that proper kavanah can be achieved.

Some would argue that the need to verbalize prayer is essential to fulfilling a person’s obligation, and thus it can never be put aside, even when basic kavanah is at stake.

Even were a person to take this position, there are multiple reasons why signing would still be acceptable:

1. When verbalizing is hard or impossible, thinking the words (hirhur) can count as speech according to many poskim. Shulchan Aruch, Rema and Taz rule that in cases of illness or difficulty a person may think the words of prayer rather than saying them out loud, and some poskim are explicit that a person actually fulfils his obligation in this way.
2. There may not be a requirement of “speech” per se for prayer. Rather, speech is required only to give outward expression to a person’s thoughts; it is a way of externalizing our thoughts and making them real. This understanding can be found in early authorities, including Orchot Chayim and Rabbeinu Manoach.
3. Sign language may be considered a real form of speech. In a responsum of the halakhic status of deaf people, Rav Asher Weiss argues that when a deaf person can speak fluently and expressively through sign language, he should be defined as a person who “speaks but does not hear” and thus not in the halakhic category of cheresh. Only when it comes to the halakhic speech act required for vows, Rav Weiss states, is it clear that verbal, auditory articulation is necessary. Similarly, Ran and Rosh write that any language a community actually uses, even if it is adopted arbitrarily and by convention, is defined halakhically as a “language.” While these authorities are defining the status of the person or of the language, and not the act of speech itself, there is good reason to think that the same logic can be applied in our case. Thus, a deaf person signing the Amidah is, halakhically, speaking the words.

Once we have established that a deaf person may use sign language, the next question we must address is whether he has to translate every word of the Amida literally. On this the halakha is clear: When praying in other languages, the main requirement is to express the meaning of each blessing. An exact word-for-word translation is not necessary. This can be seen in the Gemara’s statement and Shulkhan Arukh’s ruling that if a person, instead of reciting the blessing of homtzi, said in the vernacular “Blessed is the Master, the King, of this bread,” he fulfils his obligation.

In our case, there may be a desire to use a different phrase when the original wording feels inappropriate. For example, instead of signing the literal “Shema koleinu” (hear our voice), it is fine to sign “Pay attention to our prayer” or any clear equivalent that keeps the idea of the blessing. Metaphors about hearing and speaking are simply because “the Torah speaks in the language that people use” (dibra Torah ki’lashon benei adam). When using sign language these metaphors can be expressed with the natural images and gestures of that language.

Additionally, if signing the word-for-word text of the prayer results is an unnatural, laborious or redundant translation in sign language, a person may translate the sense of the words instead. It is critical, however, that the major theme of the brakha be maintained, as well as repeated at the end, and that other requirements (such as mentioning God’s Kingship), when relevant, are adhered to.

In practice: A deaf person may daven in sign language (conveying the meaning and structure of each brakha) when it enables proper or better kavanah. This is actually the preferred way to daven when verbalizing the prayer would result in little to no kavanah. As we have seen, prayer is a service of our hearts, and Rachmanah liba baei, God wants our hearts.