How to Do Things with Kavanah: J.L. Austin and the Communicative Activity of Performing Mitzvot

Paul Franks

Philosophy & Jewish Studies

Yale University

Questions

• What is kavanah in mitzvah performance, especially Jewish prayer?
• (as opposed to other halakhic contexts where Kavanah matters, e.g., laws of Shabbat, korbanot, etc.)
• How is it connected to the action aspect of prayer?
• (doing things)

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Mitzvot as Communicative Actions

• Mitzvot are commanded actions, involving I-Thou relationship between Hashem and Am Yisrael
• This is what is new at Sinai
• אָֽנֹכִ֖י֙ ה אֱלֹקיךָ אֲשֶׁ֧ר הוֹצֵאתִ֛יךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֣֥ית עֲבָדִ֑͏ֽים׃
• I am Hashem your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves
• Rabbis instituted berakhot before mitzvot, making reciprocity explicit: I-Thou relationship between Am Yisrael and Hashem
• Mitzvot are thereby also addressed actions
• Some but not all mitzvot are speech acts, e.g. prayer
• All mitzvot are communicative actions
• Austin’s work on speech acts can help

John Langshaw Austin �(1911-1960)

• Classics and philosophy at Oxford
• Distinctive Oxford version of ordinary language philosophy
• Second World War intelligence leadership
• Saturday group at Oxford
• Harvard lectures
• Posthumous books

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Invade Mecum�Intelligence Guide to Normandy Invasion�1943-44

Austin, “A Plea for Excuses”

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“You have a donkey, so have I, and they graze in the same field. The day comes when I conceive a dislike for mine. I go to shoot. I draw a bead on it, fire: the brute falls in its tracks. I inspect the victim, and find to my horror that it is your donkey. I appear on your doorstep with the remains and say-what? ‘I say, old sport, I'm awfully sorry, &c., I’ve shot your donkey by accident’? Or ‘by mistake’?

Then again, I go to shoot my donkey as before, draw a bead on it, fire – but as I do so, the beasts move, and to my horror yours falls. Again the scene on the doorstep-what do I say? ‘By mistake’? Or ‘by accident’?”

The 1955 William James Lectures at Harvard

Speech (or Communicative) Acts�[to which I add Communicative Intentions]

• Locutionary Act: the conveying of communicative content

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• Often expressed through indirect speech, e.g., she said that . . . I should shoot the donkey. Note that this could be paraphrased or translated into another language.
• Locutionary Intention: to convey that . . .

Shoot the donkey!

Perlocutionary Act

• “Saying something will often, or even normally, produce certain consequential effects upon the feelings, thoughts, or actions of the audience, or of the speaker, or of other persons and it may be done with the design, intention, or purpose of producing them; and we may then say, thinking of this, that the speaker has performed a perlocutionary act”
• What is the perlocutionary aspect of shooting the donkey?
• Intended consequence: I kill the donkey
• Perlocutionary intention: to kill the donkey . . .

The Innovation: Illocutionary Act

• “To perform a locutionary act is in general, we may say, also and eo ipso to perform an illocutionary act, as I propose to call it. To determine what illocutionary act is so performed we must determine in what way we are using the locution:
• asking or answering a question,
• giving some information or an assurance or a warning,
• announcing a verdict or an intention,
• pronouncing sentence,
• making an appointment or an appeal or a criticism,
• making an identification or giving a description,
• and the numerous like. It makes a great difference whether we were advising, or merely suggesting, or actually ordering, whether we were strictly promising or only announcing a vague intention, and so forth.”
• Illocutionary Intention: to perform a communicative act in a way that involves or requires a specific variety of uptake

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Three Kinds of Prayerful Kavanah

• Locutionary kavanah: the intention to mean what is said: i.e., to say words that one understands and to intend them as one understands them
• Perlocutionary kavanah: the intention to accomplish or contribute to accomplishing something by saying something: i.e., to fulfill an obligation, or to achieve some spiritual or religious outcome, by saying some words
• Illocutionary kavanah: the intention to do something communicative in saying something: i.e., to fulfill Hashem’s commandment, to address Hashem, to praise Hashem, to petition Hashem

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What Kind of Kavanah?

• Mishnah Berakhot 2.1:
• הָיָה קוֹרֵא בַתּוֹרָה, וְהִגִּיעַ זְמַן הַמִּקְרָא, אִם כִּוֵּן לִבּוֹ, יָצָא. וְאִם לָאו, לֹא יָצָא
• If someone was reading the Torah, and the time of reading [the Shema] arrived, and if they focused their mind [kiven libo], they fulfilled [the obligation], and if not, they did not.
• Mishnah Rosh ha-Shanah 3.7:
• מִי שֶׁהָיָה עוֹבֵר אֲחוֹרֵי בֵית הַכְּנֶסֶת, אוֹ שֶׁהָיָה בֵיתוֹ סָמוּךְ לְבֵית הַכְּנֶסֶת, וְשָׁמַע קוֹל שׁוֹפָר אוֹ קוֹל מְגִלָּה, אִם כִּוֵּן לִבּוֹ, יָצָא, וְאִם לָאו, לֹא יָצָא.
• Someone who was passing behind a synagogue, or their house was close to the synagogue, who heard the sound of the Shofar or the sound of the Megillah: if they focused their mind [kiven libo], they fulfilled [the obligation], and if not, they did not.

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What Kind of Kavanah in Kabbalistic Kavanot?

• Preparatory Declarations:
• הִנְנִי מוּכָן וּמְזוּמָן
• לְקַיֵים מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה שֶׁל סְפִירַת הָעֽוֹמֶר,�כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בַתּוֹרָה

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• Behold I am prepared and ready to fulfill the positive commandment of counting the Omer, as it is written in the Torah . . .
• לְשֵם יִחוּד�קֻדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא וּשְׁכִינְתֵּיהּ�בִּדְחִילוּ וּרְחִימוּ,�וּרְחִימוּ וּדְחִילוּ,�לְיַחֵד שֵׁם יוּ״ד הֵ״א בְּוָא״ו הֵ״א�בְּיִחוּדָא שְׁלִים�בְּשֵׁם כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל.‏
• For the sake of the unification of the Holy One Blessed be He and His Shekhinah, in reverence and compassion, to unify the name YUD HEH with VAV HEH in perfect unity, in the name of all Israel.

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What Kind of Kavanah in Kabbalistic Kavanot?

Reb Chaim Soloveitchik on Kavanah

• On one hand, Rambam says that prayer requires Kavanah
• Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Tefilah, 4:15
• כָּל תְּפִלָּה שֶׁאֵינָהּ בְּכַוָּנָה אֵינָהּ תְּפִלָּה. וְאִם הִתְפַּלֵּל בְּלֹא כַּוָּנָה חוֹזֵר וּמִתְפַּלֵּל בְּכַוָּנָה.
• Any prayer that is without Kavanah is not prayer, and if one prayed without Kavanah one should repeat and pray with Kavanah.
• On the other hand, Rambam seems to limit the requirement for Kavanah
• Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Tefilah, 10:1
• מִי שֶׁהִתְפַּלֵּל וְלֹא כִּוֵּן אֶת לִבּוֹ יַחֲזֹר וְיִתְפַּלֵּל בְּכַוָּנָה. וְאִם כִּוֵּן אֶת לִבּוֹ בִּבְרָכָה רִאשׁוֹנָה שׁוּב אֵינוֹ צָרִיךְ.
• Whoever prayed and did not focus their mind should repeat and pray with Kavanah, and if they focused their heart in the first blessing [of the Amidah] nothing more is needed.
• Solution: There are two kinds of Kavanah – which?

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General and Specific Requirements

• מצוות צריכות כוונה?
• Do mitzvot in general require Kavanah? Or only those where the specific mitzvah involves Kavanah? A big debate . . .
• Both tanaim and amoraim take positions on either side of the issue
• The Shulhan Arukh (Orah Hayyim 60:4) decides: there is a general requirement
• Austin helps us say:
• The general requirement is for the illocutionary Kavanah to perform an act responding to a divine command – to be aware that one is performing a communicative action
• In specific cases – e.g., the first paragraph of Shema, the first blessing of the Amidah – there is also required locutionary Kavanah, and in some cases there is also required perlocutionary Kavanah
• לְמַ֘עַן֮ יֵדְע֣וּ דֹרֹֽתֵיכֶם֒ כִּ֣י בַסֻּכּ֗וֹת הוֹשַׁ֙בְתִּי֙ אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל בְּהוֹצִיאִ֥י אוֹתָ֖ם מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם אֲנִ֖י הֹ אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃
• In order that future generations may know that I caused the children of Israel to live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt—I am Hashem your God. (Vayikra 23:43)

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