Introverts and the Power of Solitude

Today I watched at TED talk that apparently another 1.4 million other people enjoyed by Susan Cain on the "The Power of Introverts".  It gets more intense at the ten minute mark and has a nice Jewish twist at the end.

She discusses the "transcendent power of solitude" in her lecture and it really resonated with me regarding my attempts to teach and evaluate tefilla.  While addressing that we are inherently social beings, Cain promotes reexamining how people do not often enough seek within themselves and ape and mimic "the beliefs of the people around you without even realizing that is what you are doing."  This point zeros in on one of the key modes for teaching kids how to daven: modeling.  For the lucky and determined person that figures out the key to successful tefilla, probably through deep introspection, have you asked how they gained such insights? Usually I think the best practice is to copy their outward behavior and approach.  My 7 year old shuckles (sways) like I do when I daven and has done so before he even went to school.

Cain notes that Western Society has shifted from a "culture of character" to a "culture of personality" - I think this has only enhanced young people's disenchantment with group prayer.  Whereas inidividucals might find the need to have prayerful expression, there are fewer role models on how to do, or even lead, a dynamic tefilla.

Her take away message: Go the wilderness, have your own revelations, and unplug.  Can we as educators teach our students how to do this or are school's curriculum and exceptions too rigid?

What are your thoughts?

Talking, Davening, and ADD

I came across this anecdote on the web without a proper source:

The Minsker Rabbi was very angry with his congregation because they always chattered while prayers were being said. One Shabbat after services, he noticed a small group of people standing and talking. 

“This is something I can’t understand, my good people,” the Rabbi said. “During the services you must talk, but why must you talk after services?”

In a way, talking and davening are the same skill of the tongue but are seemingly mutually exclusive in their practice - how can we teach students to focus their brains and mouths for the correct purposes? 

One great solution can be found in the Mishna in Brachot (5:1) which states the following: 

• A person must be in the proper frame of mind for davening. Therefore, one should not daven immediately after playing around or after an argument, but should wait a few moments to calm down.

I would argue that this is a great first step to make the 'switch' into a more meditative and reflective use of speech and one that I observe is often under practiced. Pause - wait to see if you can refocus on the purpose of your tefilla.  Otherwise, we are just producing a cohort of daveners with an attention deficit disorder to their own spiritual needs.  

Recommended Blog - These and Those

Over time I have become a fan of twitter as a great tool to discover tangentially related information that may not have otherwise crossed my way. A few weeks ago, I came across a collective student blog from Machon Pardes (full disclosure, I have taught on the summer program there for three summers). The blog titled These and Those has some interesting reflections from their diverse and dynamic student body.

Yesterday's entry titled "The Unattainable Prayer" was an honest reflection that I wanted to share with followers of this blog. One reaction I had was to think about this time of year, the Days of Awe, as a time to have a perfect prayer; to throw away the nonsense of shul and to really focus, dress our best, bring out the best daveners, and be honest with Hashem. If not for only a few days of the year - let's pray right! (Isn't this part of the traditional trend in the Jewish world that Jews come out of the woodwork to attend and be identified in a RH or YK service?)

Often good tefilla feels indeed unattainable - but the searching process for a great spiritual connection allows us to dabble and taste the richness of successful experiences. Wishing you all a שנה טובה!