The Koren Ani Tefilla Weekday Siddur, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
Philosophers speculate about Gd. Scientists argue about Gd. Theologians theorize about Gd. We as Jews do something simpler and ultimately more profound. We talk to Gd. We bring Him our thanks and our hope, our fears and our dreams. That conversation is what we call prayer, and Jews have engaged in it ever since the days of Abraham.... Every time we pray we become part of the long dialogue between earth and heaven that has lasted now for almost four thousand years. Prayer was our ancestors' source of strength, and when we learn to pray it becomes ours also (p. xiii)....
Prayer matters. It changes the world because it changes us. It brings the Divine Presence into our lives and gives us strength we didn't know we had. It is to the soul (the mind, the self, our inner life) what exercise is to the body. Like exercise, it is important that we do it daily at set times, and like exercise, it makes us healthier (though in a different way) and more highly charged with positive energy. Prayer aligns us with the creative energies that run through the universe, the energies we call life and love, the supreme gifts of Gd (p. xv).
"The Spirit of Jewish Prayer," Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1953)
... prayer has the power to generate insight; it often endows us with an understanding not attainable by speculation. Some of our deepest insights, decisions and attitudes are born in moments of prayer. Often where reflection fails, prayer succeeds. What thinking is to philosophy, prayer is to religion. And prayer can go beyond speculation. The truth of holiness is not a truth of speculation - it is the truth of worship (p. 161).
There is a specific difficulty of Jewish prayer. There are laws: how to pray, when to pray, what to pray. There are fixed times, fixed ways, fixed texts. On the other hand, prayer is worship of the heart, the outpouring of the soul, a matter of kavannah [spiritual intention]. Thus, Jewish prayer is guided by two opposite principles: order and outburst, regularity and spontaneity, uniformity and individuality, law and freedom (p. 164).
How grateful I am to God that there is a duty to worship, a law to remind my distraught mind that it is time to think of God, time to disregard my ego for at least a moment! It is such happiness to belong to an order of the divine wilL I am not always in a mood to pray. I do not always have the vision and the strength to say a word in the presence of God. But when I am weak, it is the law that gives me strength; when my vision is dim, it is duty that gives me insight (p. 167).
"Introduction: Entering the Siddur," Rabbi Edward Feld, Siddur Lev Shalem
... Opening the prayerbook, I enter into the common life and experience of the Jewish people. The words I come across here constitute the community by tying us to a common past and creating a shared present. These words are the lineaments of the Jewish people, a vocabulary giving voice to the Jewish soul.
... To enter into this ancient vocabulary is not always easy. Immersed in our own lives, filled with our personal concerns, we may find it difficult to connect to these words, which seem to come from an ancient world so different from our own -- one whose language and metaphors are puzzling or alien. As we pray, we may resist and argue with the words that confront us; we may feel the liturgy irrelevant, distant.
... Praying these words that are not ours expands us, transforms us, allows us to see the world in new ways. We may have begun praying with our own self-concern but we can conclude the moment of prayer with a greater sense of fullness for feeling connected -- connected to a community, connected to a world, connected to the Divine, thankful for our existence, and committed to acting responsibly. In this sense, formal prayer is not simply an expression of the self. Our prayers may leave us with an enhanced sense of self -- different for having prayed -- connected now to a larger whole.
"Praying," Mary Oliver
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.
Raayonot al HaTefilla, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
Prayer is a vital need for the religious individual. He cannot stop the thoughts and emotions, deliberations and troubles which surge through the depths of his soul, his hopes and aspirations, his despair and bitterness - in short: the great wealth that is concealed in his religious consciousness. It is impossible to halt the liturgical outpouring [of these feelings]. Prayer is essential. Fresh, vibrant religious feeling cannot exist without it. In other words, prayer is justified by virtue of the fact that it is impossible to exist without it (p. 244).
"Pray," IKAR (Jewish community in Los Angeles), ikar-la.org
Each week, we come together to celebrate Shabbat in prayer. Our kavannah – our intention – is to nurture and inspire, to challenge and to agitate. We know and believe that really good, heartfelt davening can change who we are and how we see the world. It can illuminate the darkest corners of the soul, it can stretch open the narrowest passages of the heart. It can make you cry and it can make you dance. It can awaken you to a deep sense of purpose, give expression to your loneliness, your grief, your yearning and your gratitude. It can connect you to God, it can connect you to community. It can connect you to yourself.
And, most importantly, it can surprise you.