Prayer Without the Body

I spend a lot of time thinking about tefilla - and not just when I am trying to daven.  In the past few months, I have written about what I feel is need to teach students how to meditate and practice what it means to focus mindfulness in prayer.  Some of you have written to me about incorporating yoga into tefillot or the tefilla curriculum and I have heard your advice.

Recently I went to a session by Andrew Hahn, who is apparently known as the Kirtan Rabbi (this is his bio from the LimmudLA website where I met him: one of a new breed of artist-rabbis whose joyful music and teachings address the deepest longings of the 21st century. He holds a PhD from JTS and ordination from HUC-JIR. A long time martial arts instructor, he also teaches a Jewish form of Tai Chi. Hahn tours the country offering concerts, workshops, and Shabbatonim.).  I had a wonderful experience working and speaking with Andrew and hope to interview him for this blog.

What really stood out from our conversation - and his session on "Fear and the Amygdala" - was how disembodied our tefilla is today.  Think about how you use your bodies when you pray.   You might bow a few times, or kiss your tzizit, and some of you may shuckle (sway), but think about it in a more broad perspective, most of us are not so aware of our bodies when we daven.  One result of this approach is that the emphasis on the prayer experience is about the intellect and the mind, and not the body.  Such an approach would explain perhaps why so many people are bored (for they my seek a more emotionally charged outlet) and why others (who do connect intellectually) bring books to read while in synagogue.

Hebrew and Day Schools are producing disembodied daveners (Read more about embodied cognition here, as it pertains to literary theory). I hope to develop over the coming weeks my thesis how the current approaches and traditions for teaching davening are failing in schools and how and educators and reapproach this difficult and sacred topic by embracing a mind/body pedagogy.

Positive Psychology and Prayer

This is a wonderfully delivered TED lecture from Shawn Achor on "The Happy Secret to Better Work" - and mentions near the end about the ability to meditate, which made me think of tefilla.  Shavua tov!

Is Hebrew the Obstacle?

A reader of this blog contacted me to share some tefilla news: the local rabbi of the major neighborhood shul arose on Shabbat a few weeks ago and addressed the issue of davening.  This rabbi diagnosed the problem primarily as one of frustration with the language barrier and suggested, since Gd understands English, that the congregation experiment with the vernacular in order to increase the meaning and spirit of the community's prayers.

I fear that language is not what is holding the masses, or even individuals, from greater enthusiasm in the realm of tefilla.  But maybe I am wrong.  Try it out.  Read the Shema - do you see/feel a possibility for transcendence?  I - and this is my personal belief - think that you have to try what works best for you.  For some people, English prayers might work best, but for me, it just seems awkward.  I am of the opinion that it is nice to have a special language in which to speak to Gd even though that same language is used to order food, yell at people, and even used in comic books (all in Israel).  It is nice to travel the world and to walk into a temple or synagogue and to have a mutually common way to pray, regardless of the language in which we speak at home.  Having a special and historic channel helps me in my spiritual yearning - but I know that this doesn't work for everyone.

Nonetheless, I think it is worth revisiting whether the revival of the Hebrew language has really led to a spiritual revival in the realm of prayer.  When I tried out the English tefilla, I realized (again) that the problem is that I don't easily meditate or have a sense of how to focus on the meaning behind the words.  I personally attended Hebrew School growing up, which I credit with teaching me how to be illiterate - give me the ability to read but not understand a word. If davening is like punching a ticket and one fulfills the obligation for tefilla by simply chanting words in a particular format then there is a clear method to evaluate what is being taught and practiced in our schools.  But aren't we looking to do something more in our tefilla?  I am happy that some rabbis are standing up and acknowledging that there is a problem within our shuls - but let's be serious about educating people on how to improve the situation.

A Mediation on Shlomo Carlebach

Today marks 17 years since the death of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach - one of the most powerful influences on modern Jewish expression in the past 30 years.  I think that his influence is really taken for granted - especially in the Jewish music world but also in the realm of tefilla.

Considering that the Kabalat Shabbat service was introduced only in the 16th century and is arguably one of the most popular tefillot, it is hard to think of davening or singing in camp without a 'Carlebach' niggun.  Someone once told me, and I tend to agree, that the two most influential personalities on people "returning" to the practice Judaism in Israel are Rebbe Nachman from Bretslav (stories) and Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach (songs).  Whether this is true or not I cannot empirically prove nor do I have the time to do so. What I can say is that the Jewish content that they have created has positively touched thousands of Jews beyond their immediate circles and has generated new connections to the Jewish tradition. 

For Jewish day-school students today, the concept of a niggun is actually mainstream.  For Hebrew School students, thankfully there are other versions to "david melech yisrael" than the one with the funky hand gestures.  By the way, I also think that Debbie Friedman (who passed away almost a year ago) did much to bring non-Orthodox music into a new more meaningful era. If there was a Carlebachian influence on Friedman I do not know...

The point of this post is to first of all appreciate that the tone, tune, and variety of music has improved dramatically over the past few decades and actually engages a lot more people to participate or even dance in shul.  The second point of this post is to highlight the often overlooked meditation element to singing a Hasidic niggun.   Repeating a word allows participants to focus on the theme at that moment.  Removing words and humming or shouting a meaningful tune permits more people to feel included.  And most significant is that a niggun stretches a powerful moment - at a wedding, a brit, the welcoming of Shabbat, or a prayer for soldiers - to be longer than the one minute it actually might take to say the bracha.  This is mediation and I sadly have not and do not hear many educators of tefilla teaching their students practical steps to block out distractions and learn to elevate their focus. 

While there is indeed controversy surrounding some of the actions and stories of Reb Shlomo, his name is now a ubiquitous tag line to sing-songy service honors his memory and reminds us that, like the addition of Kabalat Shabbat nearly 500 years ago - things can change for the better.

Summer Time

We all know the old adage about the three best reasons to be a teacher: June, July and August.

Indeed summer vacation is surely one of the most special aspects of the teacher's work cycle. The summer off provides time to recharge one's batteries, learn and prepare new material, and strategize for institutional and classroom improvements - in short, it is time to reflect.

But isn't that what tefilla is all about? It is a time to reflect on the past, present and future and to verbalize our needs and wants and to change what we may not like about our situation. The same could also be said about Shabbat - having a day separate from the work week to pause from the hustle and bustle and to re-calibrate one's needs and focus. No wonder the concept of a professional sabbatical exists! Reflection is indeed a uniquely human disposition.

My thought for today is this - perhaps our davening should evoke the same emotions and mind set that each of has about summer vacation, by this I mean that tefilla presents for us an opportunity to reflect expansively about new approaches to difficult situations. Using the formula and rituals of the siddur, I can drift away from the hectic schedule of the school and meditate on my purpose and being.

Further to this point, davening at summer camps and other informal educational environments has a more natural feeling than it does in many schools. Summer is awesome! How can we make tefilla in our schools awesome? How can we bring the spirit of the summer into the classroom shul? Let's explore ideas on how to make such steps.