Prayer program, version always available point yours
From the March 2002 Beit Tikvah Newsletter

For the contemporary Jewish seeker, Jewish prayer presents a significant number of obstacles. To begin with, there's the language. With American Jewry now comprised of the fourth, fifth and sixth generation of immigrants, for the most part Jewish language and prayer literacy has not been a priority, for a variety of logical and well-charted * historical and sociological reasons.

Then there is the wording itself. While we are blessed with an inspiring and inviting Reconstructionist prayer book series – KOL HANESHAMAH - it remains that concretely masculine God –images abound, providing both gender and theological hurdles.

Dare I mention the length and complexity of our prayer forms? To the (minority of) Jews who are engaged in a daily prayer practice, the order of Jewish prayer is as familiar as the ranking and order of sections in the daily paper. But that doesn't mean anything if there's no impulse to crack it open in the first place. Let's see if this newspaper analogy can illustrate a potential opening to connection with prayer.Do you ever turn to the comics first, even when there's clearly important news staring at you from the front page? Maybe the sports pages command your attention daily, or perhaps just during the season your favorite team sport is highlighted. How we read the paper may well be a kind of Rorschach for you spiritual inclinations vis a vis the siddur specifically, and prayer services in general.

You may come to synagogue for targeted occasions or holidays. The draw may shift for you if you know that a certain person is speaking, or leading. You may not enjoy attending morning services, and focus your participation on evenings. Or the words of the morning service, and the rhythms of the music, appeal to you more. Then there are those times when a prayer, or prayerful words, spontaneously erupt from your lips, or resound in your mind.

But there are those pesky words again! How can they eve provide meaningful and ongoing appeal to you, when there are a) so many of them, b) they appear in Hebrew, and c) you don't know why they're where they appear in the first place!

And then, there is that crucial barrier, that inner voice that we carry, reciting – "they" are religious, that "we" are something else; "they" really pray; we (take your pick) recite, sing, chant, repeat, follow, mouth syllable we don't understand …… in imitation of prayer.

I submit to you the following daring, or seemingly contradictory, assertions:
- you already know how to pray;
- it is appropriate, and even beneficial, to do so, whether or not you are certain that you believe in God, know what God is, reject the God-concept, or don't believe in "organized religion";
- learning set Jewish prayer forms can offer a pathway for spiritual growth – even if you are already engaged in outwardly non-Jewish forms of spiritual engagement
- there's no better time to take this on than .. anytime (external crisis optional)
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Over the past two years, students in a range of Adult Education offerings at Beit Tikvah have learned about the structure of Shabbat prayer services, and specifically of the Torah services, in 4-weeks of Saturday classes following morning services; explored the language and meaning of prayer and blessings throughout the 2-year, 30-session Jewish, Alive & American class. taken "Synagogue Speak" on Sunday mornings during the Kesher school. Our children in the Kesher School learn the words, melodies and meanings of specific prayers, and then get a chance to lead them during our monthly Family Services.

But most concretely, those who come to services are getting the best "education" available about prayer, about personal and communal connection, and about the vitality and relevance that is available to each and every one of us through the medium of prayer.

Make it a choice, among the many that are available to you, for Friday night or Saturday morning. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how much there is to "choose" from between the covers of this simple form. It's the earliest version of plugging in to the cosmos ever invented.

*See Rabbi's Book Column