(8) Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. (9) Moses said to Joshua, “Pick some men for us, and go out and do battle with Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill, with the rod of God in my hand.” (10) Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. (11) Then, whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. (12) But Moses’ hands grew heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur, one on each side, supported his hands; thus his hands remained steady until the sun set. (13) And Joshua overwhelmed the people of Amalek with the sword.
Do Prayer and Ritual "Work"?
Cantor Ellen Dreskin:
I'm unimpressed by the idea that prayer is just to make you feel good or feel better. Prayer is also supposed to challenge you. I appreciate the quote, "Prayer comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable." I like that a lot. There's often too much emphasis on feeling good. It's all about changing yourself in order to change the world. When you walk out a better person, prayer works.
Rabbi Sheryl Lewart:
Prayer changes and affects the person who prays because prayer opens the heart. Prayer lets down the barriers between our intimate longings, our private pain, our anxious clutching fears, and everything else. The very interiority of a prayer experience (even a prayer as brief as "Wow") opens and exposes our tender hearts.
Rabbi Nehemia Polen:
I use an acronym to summarize my method of prayer, PRAY. The P is presence, meaning the first thing you have to do is know where you are. That could be meditation, or psalms, or even just being aware I walked into a synagogue or into a beautiful field or here I am in my body. R is resonance, whether the sound of the letters or of a niggun [wordless melody], being aware of yourself as a vocal emitter. Singers talk about their instrument -- that's the voice. A is alignment, meaning align all the different levels: body, sound, and semantic meaning of the word; what it means to you; how it relates to you at this moment. And the Y is YES! You ask if prayer gets answered. This prayer gets answered every time. When you do this, and surrender it, just let the whole thing go, the answer is yes. Immediately.
Yes, immediately. The Baal Shem Tov taught his students that every prayer is answered immediately. It's reported that his student's raised their eyebrows, so it's not as if people were crazy or stupid, but he insisted yes, every prayer is answered the instant it is uttered. That is the moment.
What we really want always is intimacy -- with God, however I understand God; with other human beings; with the universe; with my own deep self. And when I do this, I feel that intimacy immediately, and that's "yes." That's "yes."