What can a new Hebrew-English Siddur do to solve the problems of prayer for modern Jews?
It is no secret that the communal prayer experience of modern, socially integrated Jews in Western countries is deeply degraded. Rabbis and cantors work valiantly to engage congregants in worship with a sense of spiritual consciousness (kavanah) to little avail. National organizations and foundations create new projects and new programs to enhance the experience of synagogue prayer services, but attendance remains basically flatlined. Food service, Kiddush clubs and children’s programs bring larger numbers to the social elements of congregational experience, but with no palpable effect on the quality of participation in prayer.
From the time of World War II, there have been four attempts within the Modern Orthodox community to address the perceived deficiencies in personal and communal prayer. Now a new siddur is tackling the same challenge.
In the 1940s and ’50s the presumption seemed to be that the solution resided in comprehension of the text of the Siddur. Rabbi Joseph Hertz, then chief rabbi of England, composed a superlative English-language commentary to the Siddur, with side notes highlighting the essential ideas. Rabbi David DeSola Pool composed a new poetic and elegant translation of the Spanish and Portuguese liturgy, and of the Ashkenazic liturgy, the latter as an official Shabbat and Holiday Siddur for the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA). And Philip Birnbaum published a new Siddur with an accessible American English translation and short historical notes. A late entry in this class was the Metsudah interlinear Siddur by Rabbi Avraham Davis.
The second wave began with the ArtScroll Siddur of 1984. Its premise was that readers of a prayerbook needed intense, detailed directions as to “how to” engage in prayer, and exposure to traditional comments and inspiring thoughts. So, despite a pedestrian translation, ArtScroll made participation in the services easy, allowing the novice to participate as an aware member of the traditional community. The RCA edition, the most common Siddur in American Modern Orthodox synagogues, differs only in two ways: in its inclusion of the prayers for the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces, and in a short preface (written by me), which included, then for the first time in any ArtScroll publication, teachings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
But none of this deeply affected the quality of prayer, which remained largely sterile. Intelligent, serious Modern Orthodox Jews brought reading material with them to synagogue, or sat with discussion partners to occupy their time meaningfully.
A third approach began in the mid-1990s, after the death of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, as his melodies for the Friday evening service began to sweep away the traditional Nusach and inspire popular participation in Kabbalat Shabbat. The social and emotional power of song added a spiritual involvement, making for a more profound experience. While this addition was clearly a positive one for individuals, rabbis and lay people are still arguing amongst themselves about whether the experience is one of prayer — is it communication with God?
The fourth and newest attempt takes the form of the Koren/Sacks Siddur, bearing the approbation of the Orthodox Union. The Hebrew text is that of the Koren Siddur of Israel, which includes not only the prayers for the State of Israel and the IDF, but also a full service for Yom HaAtzma’ut, as well as one for the celebration of the Unification of Jerusalem. The Zionist provenance is therefore clear and unequivocal.
The English translation, the excellent Introduction to Prayer and the Siddur and the explanatory notes are all drawn from the 2006 siddur by Sir Jonathan Sacks, the current Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth. This provenance shows clearly in the general Modern Orthodox ideology of the work — its maximum inclusion of women, its respect for all humankind, its non-fundamentalist orientation to Biblical texts, and its willingness to draw on non-Orthodox scholars and non-Jewish wisdom.
The Koren/Sacks Siddur is further enhanced by the arrangement of the Hebrew on the left page and the English on the right, so that shifting between languages is eased. The addition of “how to” instructions in the text and a lengthy appendix of laws and customs of prayer, make this text at least as user-friendly as the ArtScroll.
Meanwhile, a substantially new edition of the ArtScroll/RCA Siddur is imminent. This new edition is expected to incorporate many of those elements that make the Koren/Sacks Siddur distinctive, including a more overtly Zionist and Modern Orthodox ideological identity, as well as other unique elements. It is a serious indication of the maturity of the Modern Orthodox community that it can intelligently create and absorb multiple tools to enhance the community’s capacity to meet the challenges of prayer.
However, the central problem has still not been adequately addressed. Effective prayer is a vibrant conversation between an individual or a community, and God. But modern western civilization has, in four separate ways, distanced us from God. The success or failure of our work is no longer palpably dependent upon nature or God’s hand in it. The industrial revolution radically altered the perception of the factors that actually have an impact on our working lives: How can you talk meaningfully to God if you work in a factory or a bank, or in a store or an office?
Similarly, the revolution in technology has created the impression that solutions to all human problems, from medical to environmental to emotional, reside completely in human hands. Are you going to ask God about your latest lab results, or why your e-mail stopped working, or what you can do about the melting of the polar ice caps? Nor is there much room for the protracted process of the divine-human partnership in a world that expects instant technological fixes to all problems.
Thirdly, we feel distanced from God because of our communal comfort. Jews in western countries live today at a happily low risk of being killed, maimed or deprived of their wealth because they are Jews. Even in Israel, many more lives are lost to automobile accidents than to war or terrorism. The synagogue recitation of Birchat Hagomel, thanking God for rescue from grave danger, is most often recited today after an uneventful international flight, bearing virtually no feelings of fear, or of rescue from truly imminent risk. Tefillat Haderech, the prayer of travelers, is a thankfully routine recitation having no relationship to actual fear of wild animals or brigands on the roads.
Even the theology of modern western Jews echoes the position of medieval Jewish rationalist philosophers in denying that Divine Providence regulates every occurrence in the lives of all persons. The mystics argued that every stub of the toe and every falling leaf was a direct message from God, demanding human response to God. But the rationalists reserved such constant, detailed Providence for the select, the perfected person such as the prophet, leaving the rest of us subject to the chance consequences of natural events or of random human choices. So we, the masses confronting evil, need to deal with nature and with our fellow humans — only tangentially with God.
So, having alienated God from our work and our problems, from our risks and our accidents — is it any wonder that people sit for three hours in synagogue on Saturday mornings with nothing to talk about with God? Prayer feels like a forced conversation with a distant uncle, trying to elicit fragments of ancient family history, yet grateful for any possible interruption.
To make prayer meaningful for moderns, we need to get God out of the decreasingly significant “gaps” of risk and chance and irrationality. We need to get God and God’s values into the truly vibrant dimensions of our lives — into our productivity and our relationships, into our daily lives as individuals, as communities and as nations. Until then, new and creative Siddurim will have only a marginal affect on the prayer life of modern, socially integrated Jews.
Rabbi Berman is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at Stern College, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University School of Law, and a 2009-2010 Fellow of the Tikvah Center of Law and Jewish Civilization at NYU Law School.
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What an amazing, thought-provoking article by an Orthodox rabbi!I was blown away--yasher koach, Rabbi, for saying "out loud" what so many of us--rabbis included--have been thinking for so long. It is bold, creative thinkers and do-ers like you that will keep Judaism and the synagogue alive in the 21st century and beyond.
Hmmm, interesting erev Shabbos remarks, a bit harsh, but not totally untrue. Reminds me of the joke about the Jew who bought a new Jaguar. Goes to the a Rabbi from each of the main denominations to ask what the proper blessing for his new car is, and the Reform rabbi asks him "what's a brocha?".
Anyway, getting back to siddurs - I'm still a big fan of the Metsudah because the Hebrew is by phrase, which makes reading it more meaningful, and easier to swallow in the translation in one movement of the eye. I find Artscroll's interlinear extrememly difficult to follow for exactly the opposite reason - my eyes don't seem to be able to decide whether to follow the Hebrew (R-L) or the english below it (L-R).
To borrow from a Hasidic (but not only a Hasidic) concept, perhaps if we are not getting much out of the prayer, the problem lies with us. I am amazed when I go to shul and see people talking or reading through the service, and then they go on to say how they don't get much out of the service, etc. With anything in life, if you are supposed to be doing one thing, but your mind and (and body) are actually somewhere else, then you're not going to get much out of it. One could say this is a chicken and egg situation - are people bored because they don't engage with the prayers, or do they not engage with the prayers because they are bored. However one answers this, I have observed one thing: that people who really make the effort to daven with kavanah get more out of it than people who don't - that doesn't mean that every time is an amazing experience. But only by really trying to engage in the prayers is there any hope of progress.
follow-up to previous e-mail - an excellent new book for someone who wants to make the attempt to make their davening meaningful is R. David Aaron's "Praying to Win." It is an excellent and inspirational explanation of the Amidah.
Is HaRav Malkiel Kotler genuinely the author of the comment in his name?
If he is and if his kavannah is serious, then his remarks seem, at best, out of touch, if not deplorable.
If he is engaging in some last comedic wit before Elul Zeman begins, perhaps we have a new entrant in the late night talk show hosts. Did Jackie Mason secretly spend time at Lakewood?
Rabbi Berman's article, respectfully, misses the essential point.
Premising that Tefillah is communication between a wo-man and God, we need to think about communication, before we even get to thinking about God.
We thus must first ask whether, as I believe, our communication has profoundly changed, entirely aside from whether this constitutes a positive development or otherwise.
Tellingly and pivotally we must then ask whether the Rabbinic approach to Tefillah has met the challenge of the new communication.
I respectfully submit that, indeed, a great deal of personal and private communication with God is taking place in very individualistic new models.
That Rabbi Berman fails to note this phenomenon reminds me of Eli HaCohen's (shades of Rav Kotler) ignorant response to Chana's Tefillah. Rosh HaShannah will be an excellent opportunity for Rabbi Berman to reacquaint himself with this powerful message.
LeIluy Nishmat HaRav HaRoshi Avraham Yizchak HaCohen Kook (3 Elul)
Real prayer is hard work. Contempation, meditative techniques, focused attention, riding emotional waves - a serious davener is exhausted and needs a rest after a "good" davenen. No siddur will change these facts. Instead we need to educate the laity that true and honest spiritual life cannot exist without the investment in prayer.
To me prayer is asking (God, our best self, whatever) for the wisdom to see reality as clearly as possible, and the stregnth, courage, love, creativity, skill etc. to do what we are called to do in the face of that reality, or the uncertainty about reality that exists for us. I do not find many of the traditional prayers on point to that task, at least in the plain meaning of the words. In addition, the fact that we are reciting words that (in many cases) are not consistent with our present understanding, can be counterproductive to the task of increasing our willingness to see reality (a reality which may be not in accordance with our preference and desires). Speaking truths increases our ability to see new truths, while speaking things we do not see as truths decreases our ability to discover new truths.
Terrific article. This won't work for Orthodox Jews, but many non-Orthodox communities have felt the same need and have produced their own siddurim. I was privileged to work on Siddur Sha'ar Zahav, produced by the Reform-affiliated LGBT Congregation Sha'ar Zahav. In addition to the usual set of Reform services, Siddur Sha'ar Zahav offers a section titled Brachot filled with heartfelt liturgy addressing contemporary life issues.
We may ultimately need a more radical solution to how we speak to God, but in the meantime, siddurim like Siddur Sha'ar Zahav point out how great is the need.
(Disclosure: I was project manager for Siddur Sha'ar Zahav)
Two Jews, Three Synagogues. The answer is that God gave up listening to Talmudic Jews 2000 years when you crucified your Messiah. That's why when you pray you think you are talking to yourself. YOU ARE!
Leonardo, Jesus never existed except as mythical fiction. Absolutely nothing in the New Testament is true, in fact most everything is a proven absolute lie and fictional fabrication. For example why the two genealogies, fiction or why is the genealogies from the father when supposedly there was no father but the Davidic line was said to come from the father. Fiction!!!
As for the Siddur, maybe after spending a two to three billion dollars on Yeshiva and Hebrew Day Schools every year that the least a parent and concerned supporters in the community could expect is that the students finish twelve years of Jewish education fluent in Hebrew. Obviously there is a major major failure. An immigrant child thrown into any country still speaking the native language at home and among family will learn the new country's language both in school and on the streets with friends in a two to four months. A Yeshiva Day School costs could be as much as $25,000 a year for what. I know people who came to Israel as grade school children and within two to four months were completely fluent and at the top of their class.
Concerning the Siddur and Jewish education, a graduate from a modern Yeshiva Hebrew High School from the little I know, never ever had to write a paper in hebrew, never ever had to type anything in hebrew, never ever had to speak a complete sentence in hebrew. These new and specialized siddurim and the now vast resources of popular and scholarly material in english are fantastic but their success reveals a dark secret, the very real near total failure of Jewish educators in teaching their children fluency in hebrew. For that there is no excuse.
Rabbi Saul Berman wrote in the Forward this week in an ostensibly valiant attempt to understand why Jews today are not cheering wildly about their prayer experiences.
He has his theories that rope in such factors as the industrial revolution, the technology revolution, undue communal comfort and the demise of mysticism, as the culprits for the dysfunction of our synagogue services.
It's a free country and Rabbi Berman is entitled to his learned-sounding but utterly misguided opinions.
What bothers us is Berman's prevailing assumption that prayer is indeed a conversation between Jews and God.
Chutzpah.
News flash for the rabbi - that is not the case, never has been, and never will be.
Of course, we have always said that prayer is the cry out of a Jew to his or her God.
It is hubris and presumption to think that our lofty God listens to every prayer of every Jew.
We pray in the far-fetched hope that our awesome God will hear some small detail of our insignificant yammerings - not in the conviction that he is tuned in to every open Artscroll davener.
Yes. That is the truly meager assumption of the praying personality.
Still, in spite of the great odds against the effectiveness of our offerings, what is certain beyond doubt is that Jews at prayer are engaged in a collective recitation-ritual -- in which we affirm the basic beliefs of our faith aloud or in silence - in the presence of our peers.
Those affirmations are complex and cacophonous -- and eminently interesting.
And Jewish prayer would be a marvellously engrossing practice - if only someone in the rabbinate would stand up and pay attention to the content of the prayers - rather than retelling the narrative about prayer - namely that God is standing and listening to every whisper of every Jew.
How can I put this so that the average synagogue member will understand it?
Try this.
Try having lots of conversations with your pals whose content is that baseball is the great American pastime. Nothing more than that.
Not a detail about the game last Sunday in which the first Met up hit an inside the park home run and the last Met up hit into an unassisted triple play.
No details about what actually goes on out on the playing field. Try just saying to your buddy that we went to the ballgame last Sunday - and baseball sure is America's great national pastime.
That would be a blatantly silly, meaningless and utterly boring way to think or speak.
This a column which basically says that by Rabbi Berman.
While it may be rabbinic posturing to say that God hears our every prayer, I dont think it's hubris to suggest that the One Above does. The author of the Amidah, the time honored, silent, standing prayer, refers to God as the "shomea tefilla", the One who hears prayer. Rav Soloveitchik famously commented on the significance of that particular appellation as opposed to "ha-oneh tefillah", the One who answers prayer.
Rabbi Berman's comments, however, do not draw their power at all from reiterting that notion that God listens to our prayers. That's besides the point. The true power of his remarks - to this reader, anyway - seems to be the suggestion that simply re-packaging, re-translating, re-annotating and re-typsetting the Siddur will not re-invigorate the prayers, or, for that matter, the pray-er. The communal prayer experience will continue to "degrade",as he called it, if this is all we do.
Rabbi Berman does not "miss the point" at all. In fact, he may be the bravest Modern Orthodox rabbi in the world, for he seems to imply that what is really needed in our age, in addition (in contrast?) to the other work on the siddur being done, are some altogether new tefillot whose language and content will speak more immediately to the sincere, spiritual yearnings of the contemporary (orthodox) worshipper and up-grade his or her worship experience.
A courageous approach, indeed!
Of course, this could just be my inference and not at all what the otherwise brave Rabbi meant to imply. If so...then let the lightning bolts fly my way and not his.
Does G-D want change from us? For it is written in Isaiah 1 Hear the words of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teachings of our G-D, you people of Gomorrah!
Ask yourself is our world like these two cities?
Isaiah 1....What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; (PLEASE NOTE THIS) I do not delight in the blook of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. ( NOW MAKE NOTE OF THESE WORDS GIVEN US FROM G-D.) ......When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand?
Ask yourself, why did G-D ask us this, was it man,who asked this of us and not our G-D? Was this one of the errors that lead us down the wrong path? Jeremiah and others were sent to tell us we were in error, Jeremiah spoke of turning. Some thing to think about.
Isaiah 1....Trample my courts no more; bring offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. (did you make note of this) New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation I cannot endure solemnassemblies with iniquity. (DID YOU NOTE THAT WORD---WITH INIQUITY,)
That is ......sin......
Isaiah 1......Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash your selves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doing from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the prphan, plead for the widow.
When we lead others, down the wrong path that leads way from G-D truth, we are leading them to their death, their blood is on our hands. We are to be priest to the Most High walking with our Ehloheem Ehmet, True G-D with out sin, washed, made clean, removed from evil.
Our actions, will speak louder than our words, put G-D in frount of all we do and say and think, a child of G-D, his will is in the law of G-D. Not in the law man, has set down!
The sinful wicked poured into the air, and there vanishing with their breath but are received into heaven and shall be sent back with thunder and lightning upon the pates ofthe wicked. Take heed, the prayers of the holy children, prayers are more to be feared as once a great person said and felt that an army of twenty thousand men in the field. Ester's fast hastened Haman's ruin, and Hezekiah's against Sennacherib brought his huge host to the slaughter, and fetched an angel from heaven to do the execution in one night upon them.
The proud---the wicked, especially the persecutors of G-D'S people. The proud and the wicked of mankind, shake off the yoke of G-D, and will not be subject to their Maker, so, it is dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Asoni Osaynoo, LORD our Maker....It is written...Psalm 95... Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. (Spirit to spirit.)
Take Heed, for it is written....Leviticus 22.....Do not profane My Holy name.
Is it not G-D alone that will lead us in the paths of righteousnes.
It is written .....Psalms 51...Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts (heart and mind): and in the hidden part (the rock, the true temple, the mt.) thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Psalm 118.....The Stone the builders rejected has become the Capstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
The Stone, is in the hidden part, the law is written on our minds and hearts, we walk in union with our Father. For it is written.....Psalm 18...The LORD is my Rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my G-D is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn or my salvation.
Psalm 140 ....Surely the righteous will praise Your name and the upright will live before You.
Dust to dust, ashes to ashes and Spirit to spirit.
G-D is not hard to find,.....it is written in Genesis 16....She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her; You are the G-D who sees me, for she said 'I have now seen the One who sees me."
She found her G-D, when she turned from sin. for it is written in Job 33...The Spirit of G-D make me, (flesh) but the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (spirit, brought forth into the kingdom of G-D)
David and others seen the G-D that sees them, for it is written.....psalm 118...The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. (Note ...in...our...eyes.)
Our eyes, can see our G-D in the hidden part, that is why Jeremiah mocked the temple when he returned from out of exile. He two seen the marvelous thing G-D has done for all of us.
Psalm 23 He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Isaiah 26 Yes, LORD, walking in the way of Your laws, we wait for You; Your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.
Our temple is our G-D within us, turn. Isaiah 25...O LORD, You are my G-D; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness You have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.
We should give thanks, for in perfect faithfulness our G-D has let us become the two sided tablets that Moses and all people in all generaions have broken. Our hearts and minds our inward parts have the law, now on both sides, above and below. We are born of flesh and now of spirit when we put sin out of our lives. For it is written in Ps. 2 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my son; this day have I brought you forth. (or begotten you, or birth you)
This day----a day is given us all, the Declare Decree is to be obeyed by all of us. David did it by what is written in Ps, 101...I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O LORD, will I sing. I will behave mayself wisely in a perfect way. O when witl thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not knwo a wicked person. whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that elleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. I will early destrooy all the wicked doers from the city of the LORD.
People’s talent to pray is similar to any other talent. Most people sitting down at a piano for the first time with an expectation to produce some nice sounds right away get tremendously disappointed. Even the most talented musicians need some practice in order to enjoy the result. For some people, those with no ear for music, no amount of practice will help. I suppose there also people who are prayer-deaf.
I thought of myself as prayer-deaf until I heard an inspired 80-years-old lay leader sing “hashkiveinu” (as supposed to all the professional uninspired Rabbis I heard previously). Since I already know Hebrew enough not to bother with translations, all I needed is practice. So I began to practice prayer, just as a person takes time to practice piano.
Changing Siddur is not going to attract people to the synagogue. Whatever formula is used, it gets better with age.
Another note: Rabbi’s commentary, breaking up the prayer for the benefit of the uninitiated, destroys the flow of the prayer. This should be done in a prayer class, not in the sanctuary.
I would second Yaakov Chaitovsky's thoughts and add the following observation. Especially in our highly technical age, one should review the final comments of Ramban at the end of Parshas Bo and realize that we take for granted the fact and the ongoing miracle that God has given to man the ability to improve his surroundings, health and state of scientific knowledge. That development, in and of its own right, should compel us to thank God more while reminding ourselves that while God hears every prayer, God does not and cannot answer every human request. To do so would eradicate the difference between God and man.
The problem with Jewish prayer today is that no one is really interested in engaging in serious prayer. It begins with the fact that none of our day schools or Yeshivot are willing to set aside any significant time to teach the origin of the words and structure of the Siddur. More importantly, our Rabbinical seminaries bestow Semicha on their students and send them out to be pulpit Rabbis with little or no training as to the words contained in the Siddur. Let me provide a quick example of what I have witnessed. I was in the audience of a shul on Rosh Hashonah when between Mincha and Maariv, the Rabbi invited the congregation to ask questions about Rosh Hashonah. The first question was: what is the origin of Selichot? He promised to get back to the questioner. Same response later to the question: why on fast days during the year, we recite Selichot after Chazarat Ha’Shatz while during the Yomim Noraim, Selichot are recited as a separate service. Can you answer those questions?
For the last six years I have been publishing a weekly e-mail newsletter in which I trace the origin of the structure and words in the Siddur. It is available free to anyone who wishes to subscribe. The newsletters can be downloaded from www.beureihatefila.com. The newsletter is distributed to many educators around the world. Despite my providing material to help schools teach Tefila, I am unaware of any school that has instituted a program of teaching Tefila. In contrast, my alma mater, Maimonides School, Brookline, MA, the school established by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, zt”l, provided such a course. From grades seven through twelve, every student was required to spend an hour a week studying Beurei Hatefila. In 12th grade we were required to pass a comprehensive exam in Tefila in order to qualify for a Hebrew diploma. No such requirement existed for Gemara, Mishna, Chumasch or Navi. That was how important teaching Tefila was to the Rav. The course itself turned out to be the students’ favorite course. Perhaps it was because of our teacher, Rabbi Isaiah Wohlgemuth, zt”l, who exhibited great enthusiasm for the material or because we put the material to use every day.
I happen to disagree with Rabbi Berman concerning the quality of the introduction that Chief Rabbi Sacks provided to the Siddur. He missed an opportunity to provide the history of the Siddur and he failed to address many of the concerns people have about the Siddur particularly the requirement to follow a fixed text.
When our schools and our Yeshivot begin to take the field of Tefila seriously, perhaps the students will as well.
Rabbi Berman praises the Koren-Sacks Siddur for, among other things, "its non-fundamentalist orientation to Biblical texts".
I cannot understand what is meant by that phrase. Would someone please help me?
"But none of this deeply affected the quality of prayer, which remained largely sterile. Intelligent, serious Modern Orthodox Jews brought reading material with them to synagogue, or sat with discussion partners to occupy their time meaningfully."
Whew: the author makes quite a sweeping generalization. I don't know what kind of praying the author experiences, but in my experience in Chicago, there is no shortage of Modern Orthodox Jews and congregations who pray meaningfully, spiritually, lovingly and regularly. Maybe the last aspect is one key to the others. If your prayer is sterile, look inward and don't wait for someone else. No prayer book will do the hard work for you, and there are plenty of prayer books, commentaries, and Rabbis eager to help you. Find those that work for you.
"Intelligent, serious Modern Orthodox Jews" pray meaningfully, spiritually, lovingly, and regularly. Maybe those who find prayer sterile aren't so intelligent or serious (about Judaism and prayer) as they think. (Intelligence and seriousness about, e.g., business, law, medicine, psychology or anthropology doesn't substitute.) Get smarter and more serious about Judaism and prayer and you too can enjoy the spiritual benefits that so many other Modern Orthodox Jews (and other serious Jews) do.
"But none of this deeply affected the quality of prayer, which remained largely sterile. Intelligent, serious Modern Orthodox Jews brought reading material with them to synagogue, or sat with discussion partners to occupy their time meaningfully."
Whew: the author makes quite a sweeping generalization. I don't know what kind of praying the author experiences, but in my experience in Chicago, there is no shortage of Modern Orthodox Jews and congregations who pray meaningfully, spiritually, lovingly and regularly. Maybe the last aspect is one key to the others. If your prayer is sterile, look inward and don't wait for someone else. No prayer book will do the hard work for you, and there are plenty of prayer books, commentaries, and Rabbis eager to help you. Find those that work for you.
"Intelligent, serious Modern Orthodox Jews" pray meaningfully, spiritually, lovingly, and regularly. Maybe those who find prayer sterile aren't so intelligent or serious (about Judaism and prayer) as they think. (Intelligence and seriousness about, e.g., business, law, medicine, psychology or anthropology doesn't substitute.) Get smarter and more serious about Judaism and prayer and you too can enjoy the spiritual benefits that so many other Modern Orthodox Jews (and other serious Jews) do.
"But none of this deeply affected the quality of prayer, which remained largely sterile. Intelligent, serious Modern Orthodox Jews brought reading material with them to synagogue, or sat with discussion partners to occupy their time meaningfully."
Whew: the author makes quite a sweeping generalization. I don't know what kind of praying the author experiences, but in my experience in Chicago, there is no shortage of Modern Orthodox Jews and congregations who pray meaningfully, spiritually, lovingly and regularly. Maybe the last aspect is one key to the others. If your prayer is sterile, look inward and don't wait for someone else. No prayer book will do the hard work for you, and there are plenty of prayer books, commentaries, and Rabbis eager to help you. Find those that work for you.
"Intelligent, serious Modern Orthodox Jews" pray meaningfully, spiritually, lovingly, and regularly. Maybe those who find prayer sterile aren't so intelligent or serious (about Judaism and prayer) as they think. (Intelligence and seriousness about, e.g., business, law, medicine, psychology or anthropology doesn't substitute.) Get smarter and more serious about Judaism and prayer and you too can enjoy the spiritual benefits that so many other Modern Orthodox Jews (and other serious Jews) do.
We are like a beggar at the gate the door, were the angel with the fire sword will not let us pass.
We first must get on the path that leads to the gate or door, by putting sin out. Ps. 101:1-8 is how David did it, a man after G-D'S own heart.
Walk in the light of Jacob as it is written in Isaiah 1. Remembering Jacob name was changed to Israel....the reason being....Jacob, has turned from sin and now was the mirror image of Israel our G-D.
Walk has a lot to getting to our place of worship and praise.
Is it not written in Psalm 51 the desire that G-D wants us to have?
Psalm 51:....Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts (heart and mind) and in the hidden part ( through the door to the rock the dwelling place of our G-D, up to the mountain) .....thou shall make me to know wisdom.
The hidden part, our place of worship. The G-D of Abraham,the G-D of Isaac, and the G-D of Jacob were brought forth into the family of the G-D head hear on earth and praised their G-D on earth as well as in heaven above.
When we enter down the path to the gate it opens only to the spirit of mankind, for flesh can not enter in and defile the holy hidden part.
That is why it is written in Job 33 The Spirit of G-D made me (flesh below) but the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (above, in spirit).
when one is brought forth it is written .....Isaiah 9...For to Us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the governament will be on his shoulders. It is a declared Decree Ps. 2 were you can read David was brought forth, or beggotten , by the breath of the Almighty, into the family of G-D. For this reason it is written.... "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be exalted, ye everlasting doors", and straightway the doors of seven places fly open. The first place is of love, the second fear, the third of mercy, the fourth of prophecy through the clear mirror, the fith of prophecy through the hazy mirror the sixth of righteousness, the seventh of justice.
It is written we must turn, Jeremiah 31 tells us about the ones that will not turn and desire truth on their inward parts or find the hidden part. These people are also found in Exodus 4, for it is written.....And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also thes two signs, neither harken unto the voice, that thou shalt take of the water or the river pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.
it is also said in the chapter Exodus 4.....That they may believe that the LORD G-D of their fathers, the G-D of Abraham, the G-D of Isaac, and the G-D of Jacob, thth appeared unto thee. The three patriarchs welcome us into the family of G-D.
The higher spiritual atmospheres are teeming with negative angels and other entities. These create obstructions to prevent our prayers form reaching their intended destinations. Sin comes to us in many forms.
Abraham it is written of him...."The seed of Abraham My friend" Walked before Me blamless. Isaac it is written ..."And by the arm of his strength" had fear and love. Jacob, was given a new name Israel, it is written..."So Elohim created man in His own image" When we turn form sin.
Remember the words in Genesis 30....That the Shechinah said to her husband....."Give me children, or else I die" That is why it is written in Job 33....The Spirit of G-D made me (below flesh, death) but the breath of the Almighty gives me life (above, spirit everlasting life) Jacob was given a new name, when he truned from sin.
"But none of this deeply affected the quality of prayer, which remained largely sterile. Intelligent, serious Modern Orthodox Jews brought reading material with them to synagogue, or sat with discussion partners to occupy their time meaningfully."
Whew: the author makes quite a sweeping generalization. I don't know what kind of praying the author experiences, but in my experience in Chicago, there is no shortage of Modern Orthodox Jews and congregations who pray meaningfully, spiritually, lovingly and regularly. Maybe the last aspect is one key to the others. If your prayer is sterile, look inward and don't wait for someone else. No prayer book will do the hard work for you, and there are plenty of prayer books, commentaries, and Rabbis eager to help you. Find those that work for you.
"Intelligent, serious Modern Orthodox Jews" pray meaningfully, spiritually, lovingly, and regularly. Maybe those who find prayer sterile aren't so intelligent or serious (about Judaism and prayer) as they think. (Intelligence and seriousness about, e.g., business, law, medicine, psychology or anthropology doesn't substitute.) Get smarter and more serious about Judaism and prayer and you too can enjoy the spiritual benefits that so many other Modern Orthodox Jews (and other serious Jews) do.
Excellently thought-out and written article. The crux of it lies in the part towards the end, which enumerates the four reasons people no longer connect with prayers. There are no atheists in foxholes and we are too comfortable.
THE THREE BEST WAYS TO IMPROVE WHAT YOU GET OUT OF PRAY IS TO:
LEARN FLUENT HEBREW !!!!! LEARN FLUENT HEBREW !!!!! LEARN FLUENT HEBREW !!!!!
LEARNING HEBREW IS THE ONLY WAY TO GET SOMETHING OUT OF HEBREW PRAYERS. THE MECHANICAL MOUTHING LIKE A MONKEY OF WORDS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND IS ABSOLUTELY REVOLTING AND AN INSULT TO INTELLIGENCE. MECHANICALLY READING SO FAST THAT EVEN IF YOU DO KNOW HEBREW THERE IS ZERO COMPREHENSION AND ZERO EMOTIONAL INVOLVEMENT IS A WASTER OF TIME.
Learning hebrew will not do it! Stop the lie, and the deceit, that this hebrew is what was given-----IT IS NOT! and that is the truth. Much of the holy hebrew has been lost.
Sinners speaking hebrew, are still.....a chzer bleit a chzer!
Remember Dybbuk G-D forbids! We need Coh Ach that comes only from , Go ah lee........Psalm 19...May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 105....Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name make know among the nations what He has done. our Ahdeer.
When we pray in the name of Ahdeer, there is power in His name. The same power that set His Glory---His Kavod-- in the heavens, is the same power available to the holy children, that were brought forth after the Spirit of G-D made them, when these children put sin out, the breath of the Almighty, brings them forth into the family of G-D in the mirror image of their G-D of All That Is. For it is written,,,,,Job 33: The Spirit of G-D made me(flesh, below death) the breath of the Almighty gives me life.( born of spirit above everlasting life,) The power is now in the name, you are given "Immanuel". " Eemanooel" G-D with us. G-D, You never forsake us. G-D, You never are not with us. Thank You for Your marvelous plan, "G-D is with us."
Very nice site!
we need no prayer books, to pray, only G-D can enter in our hearts and minds, He knows! Is it not written.....Joshua 22....The LORD G-D of gods, He knows......