Me in the Minyan? Prayer & Baseball

In my wanderings and travels I always like to peruse people's bookshelves - perhaps a lost art with the trending rise of kindles and e-books.  I recently came across Pray Ball! The Spiritual Insights of a Jewish Sports Fan by Rabbi James Gordon and it sparked my interest in others ways to approach the teaching of tefilla.  He describes his creative outreach approach to managing his synagogues demand to preserve the daily minyan: the Take Me Out to the Minyan incentive program.

In the first chapter, Gordon makes his ideological connection between davening and baseball:

Many parallels exist between a minyan and baseball. Each activity demands a basic number of participants. According to the American League, which follows the Designated Hitter's rule, ten players are needed. A minyan requires a minimum of ten Jewish men. In both baseball and a minyan, each participant individually plays an important role. However, to be effective in either activity, all participants mus participate as a group and give their maximum "team effort".  Similar to praying (davening) and playing baseball, the more spirited the group, usually the more successful the group. Finally, in a best-of-both worlds scenario, minyan and baseball become one and the same when - as in Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore and the New York's Shea Stadium - there is, I have heard, a daily minyan during the seventh inning stretch in one of the concession room

The book is filled more with general Jewish wisdom mixed with his affection for sports (especially Chicago teams) than tips for tefilla, but I think Gordon's opening points touches on the core issues that is often neglected to be discussed/emphasized to young people - the present tension between the individual needs/desires and the group. He cites God's assurance to Abraham in Genesis (to be numerous as "stars of the heaven" and "the sand on the seashore") and the movie Field of Dreams to drive home this point. He concludes with the following:

Our Sages teach that these two analogies are symbolic of the importance of individuality as wells our connection to the community.  Like the stars, we as individuals must strive to succeed and shine bright. Like the sand on the seashore, we must be cohesive and work together as a community. 

The importance of striving to be like stars and sand is extremely applicable to both baseball and davening.  When we play baseball, a sport played sometimes on sand and at times under the stars, it is important for each individual to try his hardest to achieve greatness as both a hitter and fielder.  It is even more critical  however, for him to bond with his teammates in order to become a team player. Ultimately  this is the only way to succeed.   

When we pray, as individuals, we must each focus and daven with all our might. However, our Sages still teach us that the highest level of prayers is achieved only when we gather together as community with a minyan. 

Why Do You Go to Shul?

Quote from the TabletMag article on the appointment of Jack Lew as the new US Secretary of Treasury:

‘If I wanted to work on Saturday, I have this 24/7 job. I come to shul to pray.’

Praying with a Whole Heart and a Clear Mind

Rav Yosef Karo, one of my favorite people from Toledo (Spain), wrote in the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Cha’yim (98:1) the following:

The one who prays must wholeheartedly concentrate on the meaning of the words which he utters with his lips. He must imagine that he stands in the presence of God. He should remove all other thoughts [from his mind], until his consciousness and concentration are completely absorbed with his prayer. He must imagine that if he were speaking before an earthly king, he would carefully compose his words and concentrate on them so as not to falter, all the more so  [when speaking] before the King of all kings, the "Holy One, blessed be He", who sees to the very heart of all thoughts. This was the practice of the early pious people and men of good deeds. They would meditate in solitude and concentrate on their prayers until they achieved a transcendent spiritual state wherein their soul overpowered their body, thus approaching a state of prophecy...

How do you teach this to kids?  Again, I find it interesting that meditation is a key word that is appearing in tefilla tips from Rabbis of every generation, but I am not hearing this word (nor concept) reverberating much amongst contemporary educators. 

Hocus Pocas, Shortcuts, & Davening

The following in an anonymous submission from a davener:

The nature of prayer is a complicated one, because there is lots of bunk.  For me the philosophy of prayer is quite simple:

Prayer is for us not for God, it impacts our outlook and framework.  By virtue of the change we make on ourselves we can influence how we are cosmically treated.  This is perfectly rational, good prayer is good as an end, not a means.

Therefore, hocus pocus does not work. Iyun Tefilah does not work. Kishuf  (magic) does not work. Prayer on behalf of others does not work. (Although if they ask for prayer on their behalf it may.  The concept of tzadik ben tzadik is that you associate with someone ask for their advice, it too is an end in and of itself.)

There are no shortcuts.  It also explains certain halachot, like necessity for thoughtfulness before wearing tefillin and certain rishonim who argue one should not pray in the improper frame of mind.  Further, the gemara says there are three keys that God maintains, the key to parnash, to child rearing and to tchiat hameitim.  These are random events that are totally beyond our control, everything else is in our control.  Rav Schachter tells the story of when he visited the Steipler for a bracha when he and his wife were having difficulty having a child. The Steipler said OK. Then R Schachter asked for a bracha for success in learning, and the Steipler said what on earth can I offer you. Sit and learn and you will be successful, don’t sit and learn and you won’t. This is similar to the gadol offering the “segula” of washing the dishes and making the beds for a good marriage.

Bottom line, humans clamor for shortcuts and are inherently superstitious.  That is the very definition of avodah zara.

Freedom to Pray at/on the Kotel

Some of you may have noticed a rise in the public discourse regarding the Woman of the Wall's monthly push to change the status-quo of prayer sections at the Kotel plaza.  Some people are calling it "a prayer for equality" and the NY Times recently featured the topic and how the Israeli Supreme Court might review the issue.  This is an apolitical blog and seeks to stretch and inspire new thoughts on the topic of tefilla.  To that end, I wanted to share this issue with the readers and note the following parallel.

The argument made by many of the advocates for change regarding the prayer policies at the Kotel is that it is religious discrimination at singular place of religious significance to the Jewish people, not just orthodox Jews.  The Woman of the Wall's homepage features "liberators" with a juxtaposed picture of the 1967 IDF paratroopers with three woman with there tallitot and siddurim. The headlines have noted that woman have been arrested for wearing a tallis - attempting to point to the absurd nature of the current policies.

It is interesting to note that the same population of Jews are not applying the same logic and argument to those who feel that the Israeli police do not let them pray or wear at tallis at holy Jewish spot.  Those who want to pray ON the Kotel, to go up to Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount) are dully checked for any prayer paraphenalia before ascending and watched closely by a police escort to prevent and outward davening (I myself have been up on a field visit and had my benchter taken from my wallet by the police).

Even though a Jerusalem Court ruled this past October that Jews should be permitted to pray on the Temple Mount, the Israeli police enforce a Muslim ban on Jewish prayer, "citing security concerns".  Interestingly that this is a similar concern that the Israeli police have regarding changing the status-quo at the Kotel plaza. Indeed Jerusalem religious institutions do not deal well with change (one only has to read about the "Immovable Ladder" outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher) - and I admire these women's determination to push their agenda through civil disobedience, but hope to see some similar expression of legal practicality to equal expressions of tefilla in the same arena.

This is Your Brain on Prayer

The argument put forth by this Huffington Post piece from October 2012 is that that people who daven have greater brain activity.  Originally aired on the "Through the Wormhole" and narrated by Morgan Freeman, the study pushes the idea that the tefilla experience (even just mediation) causes a neurologically experience that stimulates the brain more so than those who do not daven.  This is good news but not something that I would personally use to motivate my students as I remember a study that argued doing a crossword puzzles daily prevents a person's mental decline with age.

This does remind me of an obscure article I read that argued that the tefillin is used on specific acupuncture points that causes mental clarity.  I will leave it the readers to decide on the usefulness of these studies. (H/T @szberger on the first article).

The Pope Tweets Davening Advice!

If you hadn't heard, Pope Benedict XVI joined the twitter-verse two weeks ago and sent out his first personal tweet recently:

Now I am not sure if it is kosher to follow the Pope, but I do find it fascinating to ponder that this is not only the leader of the Catholic Church and official head of state of Vatican City, but he is impermeable to error (according to the doctrine of Papal Infallibility). It is truly awesome (for a Christian believer) to think that the closest that God could be in the flesh of a human and is live tweeting advice!

But on a serious note regarding tefilla, that the Pope took time to tweet to a busy Mom about finding time to pray I think reflects that this is a top trending issue!

As a teaser, I will lead you to the Holy See's twitter handle to see his own answer to his own tweet. I will humbly write more in the coming days about mindfulness as better strategy to find time to daven.