- The Rabbis explain in the Talmud that the original 3 ancestors created the 3 prayer services.
- They also thought the 3 services were based on the daily sacrifices in the days of the Temple.
TEFILLAH - PRAYER IN JEWISH TRADITION
• The basic formula for a blessing (6 very important words!)
Baruch Atah Ado-nai, Elo-henu Melech Ha’Olam...
Baruch:
The reflexive voice, ‘You are blessed...’ (by whom?)
Why not in the active voice? ‘Let us bless...’
Berech = knee, implied idea that we bend in prayer, acknowledgment of God
Any time you find the letters bet-resh-chaf in that order in any word in Hebrew, it’s meaning relates to ‘blessing’
Atah:
‘You’, i.e. ‘Blessed are You’
The first Name of God is the most personal - we do not distinguish in English the formal vs. the informal ‘you’, but many other languages do
Informal address - most personal outreach possible, as though we’re talking directly to another
Ado-nai:
‘My Master/Lord’ - Printed books tend to use abbreviations for this Name of God although it is not equivalent with pronouncing God’s mystical 4 letter name Y/H/V/H - That name, only pronounced by the anicent priests, and only 1x per year, we no longer say, but we keep it alive - only pronouncing it differently.
The opposite of the informal ‘You’ - This is the most formal address. God as a 3rd party, authority figure, to Whom we offer our ‘leap of faith’ and ‘leap of action’ (Heschel).
Elo-henu:
‘Our God’ - The first 2 Names reflect an individual’s point of view, now, we recognize Ado-nai as a collective, as a people.
The blessing leads us in an expanding outward focus - seekign a balance between the value of the individual and the group identity.
Elo-henu sometimes appears with ‘v’E-lo-hey Avotaynu’, God of our ancestors - suggesting that Elo-henu represents not only a body-politic in the present but also a community in time -- connecting past, present, and future.
Melech ha’Olam:
‘Sovereign of the Universe’ - Melech is the Hebrew word for ‘King’ or ‘Ruler’.
‘Olam’ is not an easy word to translate - It is usually translated as ‘universe’ or ‘world’, i.e. in spatial terms - God rules over an identifiable ‘territory’. However, the word ‘Olam’ also suggests other realities.
‘a/l/m’ - What is hidden, mysterious (Beyond the knowable)
‘Elem’ - Youthfulness (Spark of life)
‘le’olam’ - Eternity (Time)
After we say these six words, our tradition then adds any number of blessings...
Hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz
Who brings bread from the earth
Boray p’ree hagafen
Who creates the fruit of the vine
Asher natan la’sech’vi vinah le’hav’cheen beyn yom u’vayn lailah
Who enabled the rooster to distinguish between day and night
• The longer blessing formula, used in a case when we recite the blessing over doing a mitzvah, a holy act/commandment, like: lighting Shabbat/holiday candles, putting on a tallit/tefillin...
Baruch Atah Ado-nai, Elo-henu Melech Ha’Olam asher kidshanu be’mitzvotav ve’tzivanu...
Blessed are You Ado-nai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who made us holy with the commandments (mitzvot) and instructed us to...
• The standard Jewish daily & Shabbat prayer services
Shacharit - Morning, Weekdays - Torah reading only on Monday and Thursday
Minchah - A Minchah is a ‘grain offering’, 1 Kings 18:36, “[Elijah’s prayers] at the time of the minhah (evening) offering.”
Ma’riv - Evening service, no set evening Temple sacrifice
Shabbat:
Friday evening - Kabbalat Shabbat + Ma’riv
Saturday morning - Shacharit followed by Musaf (Additional offering on holiday) additional service
Saturday afternoon - Minchah
Saturday night - Ma’riv + Havdalah (Separation into new week)
• Core Structure of a standard weekday/Shabbat morning service
Morning blessings - Re-awakening, I’m alive!
Verses of Psalms/songs - Open the heart, relationship
The Shema and its blessings - Opening the mind, the thinking/reasoning self, process -- creation - revelation - redemption
The Amidah - Ancient series of blessings that is the core of every standard prayer service throughout the year.
BACKGROUND AND WISDOM ON PRAYER/TEFILLAH
Keva is the fixed verbal order of prayer. Jewish Catalog,2
Kavannah – the inner participation of the total personality of the pray-er in the davening. Jewish Catalog, 2.
When it might otherwise be impossible or inappropriate to dance, one can served God by dancing “in imagination”. Rabbi Nahman of Breslov used to say he could dance without moving a limb.
Public worship is a means of giving a people that collective consciousness which unifies its life and integrates all of its individuals into an organized totality. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan
When a person prays, he/she should think deeply about the meaning of the words he/she is expressing…and banish from his/her mind all distracting thoughts for clear and pure concentration. Shulchan Aruch
Jewish prayer is a means to an end. The end is achieving an altered state of mind, and by doing so, reinforcing ourselves in resisting evil and doing good in our daily lives. Arnold S. Rosenberg
The early Jewish spiritualists (“pious ones”) of the first centuries would meditate on each Amidah an hour before and one hour afterwards. Mishnah Brachot 5:1
Through everything you see, become aware of the divine. If you encounter love, remember the love of God. If you experience fear, think of the fear of God… Chasidic teaching
Those who ‘hold fast to God’ partake of the eternal life even in their earthly life because they have made themselves a dwelling place of the Shechinah. Ramban
A person should be so absorbed in prayer that he/she is no longer aware of his/her own self…Chasidic teaching
By being integrated into the divine, the individual becomes able to hear the still, small voice of God, to perceive the divine revelation that is within ourselves.Arnold S. Rosenberg
Prayer is a natural part of human existence…we pray every day of our lives without knowing it. Burt Jacobson
Every worshipper is like a musical performer, going about the task of saying words that are hallowed by tradition, but able to do so with newly discovered meaning each time. Lawrence Hoffman
Prayer helps us keep alive our vision of the kind of world we want by reinforcing the idealism that is part of our heritage. Burt Jacobson
Prayer is a way to ease our minds and our hearts. In true worship we can give our burdens over to God. Worship is a massage for weary souls. Burt Jacobson
A person should make ladders for himself/herself by which he/she can sometimes go up to heaven. The niggun (wordless melody) is one such ladder, especially when you sing after experiencing the joy of a mitzvah, and with a broken heart. Rabbi Kalonymous Kalman Shapiro of Peasetzna
Every cry of agony from a pained heart is prayer.
Every longing you have had for a better life has been a prayer.
Every dream you’ve ever had for a better world is a prayer.
Every time you look for guidance from the still, small Voice within, you are praying.
Every time you feel a sense of awe or gratitude, you are worshiping.
Every time you celebrate beauty and love, you are worshiping.
Every time you surrender to the flow of life, you are worshiping.
When you realize that you are part of Something greater, that there is an ineffable mystery to existence, then you are worshiping. Burt Jacobson
You should accustom yourself to serve God with niggunim (melodies) and with joy and with dancing and hand-clapping, and especially during Torah study and prayer you should greatly rejoice. Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav
Louis Jacobs Hasidic Prayer Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1993.
Quoting Rivka Schatz, p. 17:
Contemplative prayer became the spiritual message par excellence of Hasidism. A Hasid who did not pray with the aim of divesting himself of corporeality, detaching himself from this world, and rising above nature and time in order to attain complete union with the divine "Nothing", had not really achieved anything of spiritual value.
(6) Therefore let every faithful man (chasid) pray to You upon discovering [his sin], that the rushing mighty waters not overtake him.
Louis Jacobs, p. 26-27:
This verse was used to summarize the aim of Hasidic prayer. 'This' represents the Shekhinah. Man should consider that whatever happens to him happens, as it were, to the Shekhinah...His purpose then, in praying...should be so that the Shekhinah will lack no more.
'Zot' - the lower 7 Sefirot: Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Malchut -- Alef/Tav - "represent the Shekihnah in its relationship with the whole Sefirotic realm as well as with the whole of creation..."
"The purpose of prayer is to elevate these spiritual forces inherent in the letters, to bring them back to their Source and by so doing restore all creation to the divine 'Nothing' whence it came. When this takes place all is blessed unity.
p. 32 - "In later Hasidism all these ideas are somewhat softened or even overlooked entirely...many of these were only intended for the spiritual supermen of 'those times'...