Prayer Posturing: How We Say It
By FLO ZIFFER
The soft whisper of a woman's
prayer as she utters her petition to
God ...
The fervent swaying of a man
as he praises and beseeches
God ...
A little hand covering the eyes
as a young child says the words of
the Sh'ma
These are some of the images
we picture as we think about prayer.
Prayer, both in what we say and in
how we say it, is a uniquely human
phenomenon. It is an expression of
our intellect and our soul. How do
Jews pray? How do our prayer
behaviors reflect the meaning of our
prayers?
Man is distinguished from all
other creatures by his ability to
communicate. Prayer, on a very
basic level, is communication. We
utiilize our human gift of speech to
communicate with God. We learn
from the biblical example of Hannah
that when we pray, we must form
the words with our mouth. It is not
sufficient to merely read with our
eyes.
Man is also distinguished from
all other creatures by his intellect.
Utilizing his superior intelligence,
man recognizes the complexity and
beauty of all creation. As he
contemplates the wonders around
him, he feels that verbal expression
alone is inadequate and declares:
. For every mouth shall offer
thanks to You,
Every tongue shall vow allegiance to
You;
Every eye shall look toward You;
Every knee shall bend to You;
Every erect spine shall prostrate
itself before You;
All the hearts shall fear You, and all
innermost feelings and thoughts
shall sing praises to Your name, as
it is written` All my bones shall
say: God who is like You?"
—Sabbath Morning Prayer
This attempt to involve our
entire being in the prayer
experience is the basis, according
to some, for "shuckling" (bodily
swaying) during prayer.
Man is distinguished from all
other creatures by his ability to
choose. A Jew, as he recites the
Sh-ma, chooses to accept the
mitzvot and live his life according to
the Torah. He covers his eyes
during the recitation of the verse
Sh'ma Yisrael to concentrate
completely on his acceptance of the
"ol malchut shamayim" (the yoke of
the heavenly kingdom).
Man is distinguished from all
other creatures by his upright
posture. He stands. The Maharal
explains that man's upright posture
is a symbol of his sovereignty over
the remainder of creation. All other
creatures crawl, swim, fly or walk
with a bent spine. Also, in four-
legged creatures, the head, bodily
organs and tail are basically on the
same plane. In man, as he stands
erect, the head is uppermost. Man's
intellect and soul reach toward
heaven.
Books On Prayer In The Jewish Religion
Compiled By JUDY SILBERG LOEBL
Gates of Wonder: A Prayerbook for Very Young Children by the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
Colorful illustrations and short simple sentences convey the meaning of prayer to preschool children. This
book and the recently published Gates of Awe: Holy Day Prayers for Young Children were written to be
used in the home, congregation or school setting and are the first in a series of prayer b000ks for young
children published by the Reform Movement. Ages 3-6.
My First Hebrew Prayer Book by Edythe and Sol Scharfstein. Most often said prayers for very young
chilldren with a brief explanation of the prayer and a translation. Ages 4-7.
Jewish Holidays and Festivals by Dr. Isidor Margolis and Rabbi Sidney L. Markowitz. A book for children
which tells in simple language the practices, ceremonies and prayers for the Jewish holidays including
Shabbat. Ages 9-13.
Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah: How Jewish Boys and Girls Come of Age by Bert Metter. An important book
for Jewish boys and girls to better understand the history and traditions of the bar/bat mitzvah. This book
includes the words and meaning of the prayers recited and a detailed explanation of the ceremony. Ages
11-13.
Gates of Shabbat: A Guide for Observing Shabbat by Rabbi Mark Dov Shapiro. Guidebook on the basic
ceremonies necessary for introducing Shabbat into the home plus background material on the origins and
purpose of the various rituals. Included are music, pros). and poetry. This book is written in the spirit of
Reform Judaism.
The Art of Jewish Living: The Shabbat Seder by Ron Wolfson. The rituals. practices, customs and
ceremonies of Shabbat as observed in Conservative Judaism. This book is a project of the Federation of
Jewish Men's Clubs and the University of Judaism.
FICTION
Yussel's Prayer retold by Barbara Cohen. The retelling of a traditional tale of a congregation that is unable
to complete the Yom Kippur service until a young boy's simple, but sincere prayer ends the day's fast.
Black and white illustrations. Ages 4-7
Even Higher retold by Barbara Cohen from the story by I.L. Peretz. A skeptical visitor finds out where the
rabbi really goes during Rosh Hashanah, when the villagers claim he goes to heaven to speak to God.
Colored illustrations. Ages 5-9.
Ms. Loebl is director of the Agency for Jewish Education Resource Center.
L-4
FRIDAY, NOV. 8, 1991
Standing upright is, therefore, a
significant prayer posture. It is the
posture for our essential daily
prayer, the Shmoneh Esrei. It is
significant that this prayer is also
known as the Amidah (standing).
The Shmoneh Esrei is the prayer
of 18 benedictions which serves as
the core of every prayer service.
Our tradition explains that the 18
benedictions correspond to the 18
vertebrae of the spine. As we recite
the Amidah, we bow both in the
beginning as we acknowledge
God's power and at the close in
humble thanksgiving.
Speech, intellect, free will and
posture are four factors which make
man unique in all creation. Prayer,
its content and behaviors, is an
activity which derives from this
uniqueness.
Flo Ziffer is a teacher at Akiva
Hebrew Day School.
What Prayers Mean
For Young Adults
By RABBI LOUIS FINKELMAN
When I look back over my own
attempts to pray, I know I have been
inconsistent. The enterprise of
prayer seems sometimes urgent,
and other times peripheral, to my
life; each different type of prayer
becomes more important or less
important at different times.
Sometimes reciting the
traditional prayers, alongside the
other people in my synagogue, is
meaningful and comforting, and
establishes my connection with the
Jewish people in its ancient quests.
At other times, reciting the
traditional prayers is like being on
automatic pilot.
Sometimes a private moment of
contemplation helps me feel the
presence of the Eternal, and
evaluate my own concerns in the
perspective of values beyond me; at
other times I just do not have the
patience to try. I think of that ebb
and flow as my own private
seasons, alternating dry seasons
and springs.
But recently I have started to
wonder if the ebb and flow is also
related to our journey through life.
Perhaps prayer means different
things for young people than for old;
perhaps there are specific ages
which are best suited for growing
the abilities to pray. If so, we suffer
a great loss by not trying to pray in
our adulthood; we may never learn
how to be an adult at prayer.
I wrote "learn how to be an
adult at prayer" because only a few
prayers occur spontaneously:
"Please don't let that car hit me."
Most demand skills. We Jews
are sometimes more comfortable
talking about the skills of the
synagogue service, the order and
language of the prayer book.
Sometimes we are too shy to talk
about the inner skills of prayer,
patience, introspection, honesty,
gratitude. As a consequence, some
people who have, in general,
excellent religious educations, have
not ever learned the inner skills of
prayer.
Youth is a superb time to learn
them. It is a period of emotional
intensity, when people hope and
feel strongly enough to want to pray.
It is a period of flexibility, when
people feel the opportunity to
change their own lives. And yet
sometimes we throw away the
opportunity to use those special
assets of youth in the enterprise of
prayer. Too often, we assume that
prayer belongs to the very young,
the very old, and the very religious.
That assumption is present in the
practice of some congregations,
which do not make the effort to
respect their young adults. It is
present in the explanation that some
Jews give for not being members of
a congregation, "since their
children are grown."
Most young adults will get on
with the business of life without
thinking about prayer, as if prayer
were irrelevant to the business of
life. "No, I do not pray," some
people say; "I am not religious," as
if that were an explanation. As if
religious people had a sort of
monopoly and were the only ones
allowed to benefit from prayer. But
the inner experience of prayer can
enrich and temper every aspect of a
person's life, whether the person is
religious or not.
Most of the young adults whom
I interviewed, as I wrote this article,
did not attend services as often as
they used to, but they still pray.
Some said they pray when they feel
tension before a test or when they
worry about problems, or when they
feel guilty; others have favorite
prayers which they learned to recite
as children and still recite regularly.
Most of them felt that this is not a
fully adequate way of dealing with
their need to pray.
Rabbi Finkelman is director of the
B'nal Birith Hillel Foundations of
Metropolitan Detroit.