SPIRITUAL DIRECTION from page R43

Daven

Daven is the usual Yiddish word

for "to recite prayers." It carries with
it the very Jewish notion that prayer
replaces sacrifice and that to pray is,
in fact, to give a gift, to make a ver-
bal offering to God. The heart
becomes an altar.

Kavvanah

Kavvanah literally means "direc-
tion." In Judaism it refers to kav-
vanat ha-ley, "directing the heart" to

God: praying, studying, performing
mitzvot in such a way that we are
inwardly turned toward God's pres-
ence, offering our words or deeds as
gifts upon an inner altar.

Rahamim

"Compassion" and "mercy" are the
usual translations for rahamim.
Rahamim is etymologically related
to rehem, or "womb." It is therefore
fair to assume that there is some-
thing motherly about it, correspon-
ding to the compassion a mother
will always have for the child she
carried. But in Jewish liturgy, it is
also associated with fatherhood of
God: "As a father has rahamim for
his child, so may You, 0 Lord, have
for us."

Teshuvah

One of the most important and
original terms of Jewish moral
thought, teshuvah is quite inade-
quately rendered by the usual transla-
tion as "repentance." To repent is to
turn away from sin and seek forgive-
ness. It is a deeper faith, one that
emerges from struggle with the self;
that is the goal of teshuvah.

Tefillah

Tefillah, or "prayer," is the living
heart of Jewish faith, the daily out-
pouring of the soul before God. This
flow of human emotion may come
in the form of joyous exultation or
desperate plea. Prayer expresses itself
directly in the language the heart
knows best. Sometimes it is given
expression in words spoken aloud,
while at other times prayer is beyond
words, the speechless call of the
innermost self.

Mahzor

The mahzor is a prayer book for
holiday use, especially for Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The term
mahzor comes from a verb meaning
"return," which refers to the cycle of
holidays that brings us back to the
beginning of each year. ❑

piano

Rabbi Sidney Schwarz looks at
Judaism's future in Finding a Spiritual

Home: How a New Generation ofJews
Can Transform the American
Synagogue (Jossey-Bass; $25.00).

Finding that the synagogue has not
met their needs, many American Jews
have abandoned the religion of their
birth. Schwarz offers an analysis of the
American Jewish community and chal-
lenges American synagogues to satisfy
the spiritual hunger of the "new
American Jew."
He offers strategies for transforming
any congregation into a
place the Jews of today
11:\l'DINIG A
can call home. Arguing
HOME.
for the creation of a
new model, the syna-
gogue community,
Schwarz profiles four
innovative synagogues
— one from each of the
major movements in
American Judaism — that have had
extraordinary success with this new
approach to congregational life.

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...Reflections for Modern Jewish Men

(The Jewish Publication Society;
$19.95), educator and author Rabbi
Kerry Olitsky addresses the challenges
and opportunities facing Jewish men
today.
To hold a communal religious serv-
ice in traditional Jewish law, there
must be a minyan — a minimum of
ten men. Today, Jewish men gather
not just for prayer, but to explore their
Jewish identity and establish a person-
al connection with their faith.
This essay collection will inspire Jewish
men as they focus on their personal and
spiritual journeys. Rabbi
Olitsky is the author of
more than 30 books and
vice president of the
Wexner Heritage
Foundation, a premier
adult Jewish learning and
leadership program in
North America.

The Book of Blessings (Beacon Press;

$25) is a Jewish prayer book written
for those discouraged by the often-
patriarchal tone of traditional liturgy.
Removing the heavily patriarchal
image of God found in traditional
blessings, poet, translator, and scholar
Marcia Falk offers a complete new
liturgy for use in the home and syna-
gogue, during Sabbaths, holidays and
everyday observance.

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION on page R46

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