What do you think about prayer?

Do you envision prayer as participation in a Sacred Drama?

Do you think of the Siddur as an instrument of holiness?

As the High Holidays approach, it is appropriate to think deeper about prayer. For when we pray, we are not just reciting meaningless words, or remembering something that happened in the past. Rather, Jewish prayer is a re-enactment and reliving of sacred events. Through the ritual of prayer we become participants in the Sacred. It is important to think of the Siddur as one would think about a script. Through reenacting these events, we live out the story of the Jewish people, our Covenant with HaShem, and participate with the angels in heavenly worship.

Dancing through History

For example, through the Mi Khamokha section of a prayer service (which comes before the Amidah), we relive our redemption from Egypt and celebrate our crossing of the Red Sea.

Renewing Covenant

The Torah Service as well serves as a reenactment of the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. Every time the Torah is removed from the ark, we have the opportunity to recommit ourselves to G-d’s covenant, and respond to HaShem’s Torah. As followers of Yeshua, the Torah is also interestingly a perfect reenactment of the life of Yeshua and the essentials of the Gospel message.

According to John 1, Yeshua is the Torah made flesh. The Torah is the symbol of our covenant with HaShem, deepened and permeated through the Living Torah, our Messiah. When we remove the Torah from the ark, it is an illustration of the incarnation. When we process it through the congregation, we each have an opportunity to reach out and take hold of the message. When the Torah is brought to the bimah and read out loud in front of the community, it is a picture of the Gospel message proclaimed before Israel and the nations. And when we raise up the Torah, it is not just a picture of the ascension, but of Yeshua’s words that, “if I be lifted up I will draw all people unto myself (John 12:32).” And lastly, when we close the doors of the ark after putting the Torah away, we are awaiting the second coming, when Mashiach will be revealed once again.

Singing with Angels

One of my favorite parts of the service is the Kedusha during the Amidah, when we rise up on our toes while reciting “Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh … Holy is the L-rd of Hosts, the whole earth is filled with Your glory!” The Kedusha is our participation alongside the angels of heaven worshiping around G-d’s throne. In ancient Jewish understanding, it was believed that angels did not have knees. So in keeping with this ancient practice, we still rise up on our toes with knees locked in imitating the angels in heaven.

According to Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks:

Shaping Theology

However, Jewish prayer (when understood as sacred drama) is more than just a reenactment of defining events. Prayer actually shapes our theology. It establishes the way we think about Torah and shapes our concepts of redemption and salvation.

The Siddur also serves as a guide for preparing the way for Mashiach, and the concept that prayer must lead to action. Repentance (teshuva) is also one of the primary tools the Siddur uses in preparing the way of HaShem. The Siddur also teaches us how to be holy.

In my own personal davening, I often prefer the Conservative Siddur, Sim Shalom, because of its traditional feel, yet intentional deviations of inclusiveness and social consciousness. For example, on pages 8-9, Sim Shalom inserts a passage from the Torah (Parashat Kedoshim) recalling our obligation to be holy:

This recitation reminds us that in Jewish understanding, Holiness is not some mystical state of being that we all hope to attain. Rather, Holiness is a lifestyle. According to Abraham Joshua Heschel:

The Siddur, in so many ways, reminds us of who we really are and what G-d expects from us. Through the Aleinu we remind ourselves that redemption begins with us, and through our concluding morning prayers we anticipate Yimot Ha’Mashiach – the days of Messiah.

Stay tuned next week as we discuss the baggage we often bring to the Siddur which keeps us from experiencing prayer as sacred drama. We will also explore how to shop for a Siddur, and practical suggestions for delving deeper into Jewish prayer.

“L’Shanah Tovah Tikateivu – May you be inscribed for a sweet New Year!”

Continuing the conversation we started at the UMJC Mid-Year leadership retreat in December, Monique and I recently led a UMJC webinar which is now posted on the UMJC website. (You may need to log-in/create a profile to view the webinar).

The interactive discussion focused on the make-up of the American Jewish Community today, identifying the spiritual needs of three primary generations - Baby Boomers, Gen X'ers, and Millennials - and what these generations are looking for in a spiritual home.

Drawing upon the conviction that Messianic communities should be vibrant spiritual homes for Jewish believers and seekers, we delved into the practicalities of creating welcoming Jewish spiritual environments. We discussed current communal models and methods, explored alternative and emergent models, and presented simple "how-to's" for transforming your congregation into a sacred community for the New American Jew.

The webinar is divided into two parts, separated (and ended) by an interactive panel discussion where attendees could either call or email in their questions. The panelists for the interactive discussion were Nathan Joiner (a rabbinic intern at Ruach Israel in Boston) and Britta Phillips (a Hazan at Beth Emunah in Los Angeles).

Whether you are a leader or a lay-leader within your congregation, we encourage you to watch this webinar for many practical suggestions for how you can transform your congregation into a spiritual and meaningful community.

Balance. Something we are supposed to always have, yet often lack. Yinon is our understanding of Jewish life - progressive, yet traditional. Empowering, yet leading. This understanding also extends to the participation of men and women in Jewish ritual life.

I have long been an advocate for the spiritual empowerment of women within Judaism, and have been especially vocal in support of women being ordained as rabbis within Messianic Judaism.

And although I agree women should be empowered within ritual life, I am at the same time growing more aware that men are disappearing from ritual life. And not just in Judaism. We are also seeing other faiths address this issue. For example, I was recently made aware of a book called, Why Men Hate Going to Church, written from a Christian perspective.

The reasons are complex and are far more complicated. However, I and others are convinced that finding balance is the key. The answer is not to stop empowering women. It should not be a choise of one over the other. The answer will be in finding ways to empower men as men, and women as women - to reach our fullest potentials TOGETHER as being B'tzelem Elohim - created in the image of G-d.

Our quote of the day is taken from a recent interview on Jewcy with Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein, one of the rabbis of Congregation B'nai Jeshurun in New York City - by far one of the most vibrant and successful synagogues of our time.

I am a product of the feminist revolution, so the fact that women lead most of the activities of our congregation never bothered me. I have always thought that the people who want to get involved, will get involved. I never paid attention to whether those people were men or women. But suddenly, I began to hear people talk, and began to listen to others and even pay attention to what it was in front of my eyes. Also recently, I participated in a conversation at NYU on gender and education. Speakers said that finding a male educator, a male teacher in New York, would be very soon like finding a diamond in the street. They are that rare.

… Well, I started a men's group, not because the men asked, but because I noticed these things ... I should say that creating a men's group at my synagogue, a very politically progressive synagogue in New York, was very politically incorrect. I thought someone would cut my head off.

So, before starting the group I went to talk to a feminist friend. I told her I wanted to start a men's group, and asked her opinion. She said, I love what you are doing. Why, I asked. She said, In the beginning, feminists chopped the testicles off men. That was a necessary act of war. Afterwards, when we achieved some equality, we sat and cried. Where are the men? They oppressed us, so we castrated them. So I like that you are trying to celebrate the differences without imposing power.

Abraham Joshua Heschel says it is a fact that in certain places prayer is of consequence. The leaders, the community, approach prayer as if it matters, not as a gimmick for Jewish continuity, not for social purposes, to bring kids within Yiddishkayt. Prayer as prayer matters. If prayer doesn't matter, then why are we doing this? Why are we wasting our time if these words and these prayers don't matter?

BJ's rabbis believe [that prayer] must be first experienced emotionally and spiritually, rather than understood intellectually and analytically. Consequently, even though many members have only limited knowledge of Hebrew and many do not come from observant backgrounds, there is little instruction or step-by-step explanation of the liturgy at services. Increasing Jewish literacy is important, but it is a separate activity from prayer that is "of consequence." "Learning," Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein explains, “is understood with your mind. Prayer is understood with your soul.” Or, as Rabbi Roly Matalon put it, "Tefillah is not a class." Their goal is for congregants to be so moved by the experience of prayer that they will be inspired to study and take advantage of the panoply of educational opportunities offered by the synagogue.

Instead of didactically instructing the congregation, the rabbis see themselves as "spiritual cables" who, through their own emotional involvement in prayer and their Kavanah (intention in prayer), model, inspire, and guide the prayer of the congregation. Rabbi Roly explained the importance of rabbis genuinely praying with their congregations by referring to a passage in Heschel's Man's Quest for God:

Such an atmosphere [of prayer] is not created by ceremonies, gimmicks or speeches, but by the example of prayer, by a person who prays. You create the atmosphere not around you but within you. I am a congregant and I know from personal experience how different the situation is when the rabbi is concerned with prayer instead of with how many people attend the service; the difference in a service in which the rabbi comes prepared to respond to thirty centuries of Jewish experience and one in which he comes to review the book of the month or the news of the day.

The rabbis own engagement in prayer is most obvious in the physical, at times ecstatic, worship that is part of most services. They are bodily and emotionally involved with the liturgy: the rabbis close their eyes often, they clap, they move to the music while pounding out the beat on the bimah with their fists, and at times they lift their arms in a Hasidic gesture of simultaneously raising the level of excitement and transporting the congregation to a higher level.