6 | APRIL 1 • 2021 

essay
This Year, I Learned the Beauty of Praying Outside
F

riday night. We are 
standing in a paved 
plaza beside Riverside 
Drive in Manhattan; the air 
is crisp, the fresh snow is 
sparkling like 
diamond dust 
in the setting 
sun. We are 6 
feet apart and 
masked. We 
join the chazan, 
chanting the 
Friday evening 
prayer, welcoming the Sabbath 
as the sun disappears over 
the Hudson River. “Come my 
beloved towards your bride to 
welcome the Sabbath.”
Suddenly, I’m choked up, no 
longer able to sing. My eyes 
fill with tears and emotions. I 
have sung these words almost 
every week of my life — that’s 
about 2,500 times — but 

tonight these very familiar 
words feel new and deeply 
moving.
Perhaps it is the beauty of 
praying outside.
Kabbalat Shabbat, the prayer 
welcoming, or literally accept-
ing, the Sabbath, is a relatively 

new prayer service. It was 
added in the 16th century by 
the Jewish mystical Kabbalists 
(note the repeating root) in 
the holy city of Tzfat in the 
Galilee. They got into the 
habit of leaving the city and 
walking out to the nearby hills 

and orchard. Out in nature, 
they sang and meditated about 
God’s glory as manifest in the 
universe and in history.
This new service was an 
instant hit and has become 
part of the prayer book canon. 
But for most urban dwellers, 
it is a rare occasion, maybe 
on a high school weekend 
trip, Shabbaton or retreat, to 
practice it outdoors as the 
Kabbalists did.
Early in the pandemic, our 
congregation shifted to out-
door services. We thought this 
would work during the sum-
mer. None of us envisioned 
the weekly service continuing 
outside through the bitter 
New York winter. But it did.

PRAYING TOGETHER
I have come to see communal 
praying as a bit like therapy. 

Esther 
Sperber
JTA

A park bench blocked off with barrier tape during the corona lockdown

GETTY IMAGES/JTA

PURELY COMMENTARY

continued on page 8

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