Psalm 51/Intro. to morning Amidah “Oh God, open my lips and let my mouth declare your praise.”
God in Search of Man by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel “What then is left for us to do except to pray for the ability to pray…It is the continuity of trying to pray, the unbroken loyalty to our duty to pray that lends strength to our fragile worship..."
Questions The verse from Psalm 51 asks God for the ability to pray. How does this verse set the tone for the Amidah? If you don’t feel comfortable directing requests to God, who else might you ask to help you pray? Yourself? The community? The universe?
Prayer Lab Let’s pray the first three blessings of the weekday Amidah beginning with the introductory verse from Psalm 51. Afterward, we’ll reflect on how using those words did or didn’t affect our experience.
Studies in Torah Judaism, Rabbi Eliezer Berkovitz "Yehuda Halevi (11th cent. Toledo) said of Judaism that it was begun by God, meaning that it was not a human discovery but a religion of revelation; it commenced with God’s self-revelation… It is true that in revelation, God seeks man and in prayer man seeks God. However, man may seek God only because he knows that He may be found; and he knows that God may be found because he was first found by God.”
Questions What do you agree with Yehuda haLevi that Judaism started with God’s “self-revelation”? Do you think God seeks us? If so, how? Do you seek God in prayer?
Midrash Tehillim 55:6 "It is written in Psalm 55, “Cast your burden upon God and He will sustain you.” If a human being has a patron and he goes to him once, he accepts him. The second time, he accepts him. The third time, he does not appear to him. The fourth time, he does not even turn to him. This is not true of God. For whenever you bother Him, he accepts you."
Most humans tire of compassionately listening to others or offering their help altruistically. This midrash teaches that God never tires of us turning to God for support.
Prayer Lab Let's pray the 6th and 7th blessings of the weekday Amidah. They are the blessings that begin “Forgive us…” and “Behold our adversity…”Take a moment to share something in prayer that would be hard to share with a person because of shame and vulnerability. How does it feel to name it and ask for help in prayer?
The Meaning of God, Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan "The purpose in the various attempts to reinterpret the God idea is not to dissolve the God idea into ethics...But this interpretation is inadequate, because it fails to express and to foster the feeling that man’s ethical aspirations are part of a cosmic urge...Without the emotional intuition of an inner harmony between human nature and universal nature...the assumptions necessary for ethical living remain cold hypotheses lacking all dynamic power. They are like an engine with all the parts intact and assembled, but lacking the fuel which alone can set it in operation. The dynamic of ethical action is the spirit of worship, the feeling that we are in God and God is in us, yielding our persons to voluntary surrender to those larger aims that express for us as much as has been revealed to us of the destiny of the human race.
Questions We might summarize this paragraph by saying it makes two points. First, that ethical aspirations aren’t sustainable without a belief they are part of a bigger plan. Second, that prayer is designed to lead us to take ethical action. Would you agree or disagree? Why?
The Faith of Judaism, Rabbi Isidore Epstein The idea of cooperation between man and God explains the significance of prayer...Prayer is a method of cooperation with God enabling man to meet difficult situations. How God does His share man cannot presume to tell; but it is to the extent that we surrender ourselves in prayer, and attune our spirit to the spirit of God, that God responds to our calls upon Him, and meets us in our need."
Questions Does spending time in prayer equip you to address the challenges of the world? Does prayer make you God’s partner?
Prayer Lab Let’s pray the 11th, 12th and 13th paragraphs of the weekday Amidah. They are the blessings that begin “Restore our judges…” and “Frustrate the hopes…” and “Let Your tender mercies…”Does prayer help make God your partner in pursuing justice, eradicating evil and seeking mercy for the righteous? If you don’t believe in God, did these prayers help you consider what you need to bring justice into the world?
Prayer, Humility and Compassion Rabbi Samuel H. Dresner“Pascal, one of the great mathematicians of history, sewed into the lining of [his] coat...a scrap of paper upon which were written words...“Not the God of the philosophers, but the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” …Pascal’s phrase has a fiery meaning in our time...We stand in need, not of the philosophers’ God about which one reads in the cool of his study or speculates upon in the leisure of the lecture hall, who is distant and unconcerned...but of our fathers’ God who pursues us “down the nights and down the days…down the arches of the years,” seeking to enter our hearts and souls and lives.”
Sanhedrin 22a Simon the Pious said: "In his prayer a person should think that the Shechinah is before him.”
Questions When you pray is the Shechina something you see, hear, feel, sense…? Does imagining being in the presence of God change your experience? If you don’t believe in God can you imagine you stand before something majestic and awe inspiring?
Prayer Lab Let’s pray the 16th, 17th and 18th paragraphs of the weekday Amidah. They are the blessings that begin “Hear our voice…” and “Accept the prayer…” and We proclaim that You are Adonai…” Try to imagine the Shechina standing before you as you pray.
Tales of the Hasidim, Dr. Martin Buber"Philo [Egypt, 1st cent. CE] wrote, “He who flees from God flees from himself.”... i.e. he settles for what he is as he is--not what he might be. The prayer-mood is a conscious attempt to improve oneself by the contemplation of a greatness towards which one would like to grow...Prayer is the search for one’s higher self, one’s real self.”
Questions How does prayer helpus pursue our higher selves?
Prayer Lab Let’s pray the 19th paragraph of the weekday Amidah. It is the blessing that begins, “Grant true and lasting peace…” How does searching for your higher self in prayer bring you peace?