Improving and Evaluating Tefilla in High Schools

Responding to a query on the Lookjed list about experimenting with an explanatory tefilla in high schools, Zvi Grumet wrote the following:

Years ago I ran an explanatory/exploratory tefillah. It was mandatory, not optional. Some students appreciated it and wanted to stay, others found it curious and thought-provoking, while others outright hated it. That was to be expected. There were considerable limitations – we were bound by halakhic requirements as well as by time (our tefillah could not be longer than the school’s regular minyan.) The purpose was three-fold – to slow down the pace enough that students could actually pay attention to the words, to allow a few minutes for discussion of ideas related to general issues in tefillah, and to shake-up the experience so that it was not rote. Some of the activity was designed to make students think (there was unfortunately no time for discussion) while there were clearly other activities designed to create tefillah experiences.

As I wrote in a Ten Daat article many years ago, much depends on the kinds of resources (time, space, latitude, etc.) that the school is willing to invest.

I think the most poignant point in Zvi Grumet's comments is the last paragraph (sentence) - indeed, isn't it the limitations of each school's resources that really dictate the dynamic potential of their student's tefilla experience? 

Another respondent to the query was Chana Zweiter who makes a sharp comment about listening to your students to evaluate the success of your tefilla program: 

I would like to share with you comments that yeshiva high school students made after participating in our Ohr Hadash Tefila workshops. The first comment was made by a 9th grade boy during our reflection after one workshop. I asked the students, “What have you learned here about yourself? What have you learned about tefilla?” One student responded,” I learned that I could relate to tefilla better if I had more time to think about it before and after I davened. The trouble is that we don’t have that time in school.” The other comments were made by 10th grade girls. I came back to the school a few months after the workshop to assess the effect that the one workshop had on the girls’ davening. One girl answered that she kept the work sheet that we used in her siddur and looked at it before she davened. “My tefilla has really changed because I focus on it before I daven..” Most of the girls said that “you can’t just have one workshop. We are busy with so many things that the effect wears off unless you keep it up.” 

I think it’s critical to listen to these reflections when implementing tefilla programs. They are telling us how important time, reflection and an ongoing process is to tefilla. We have used the strategy of working with select groups that Rabbi Kaminetsky proposes (not yet with our Ohr Hadash program) when the object is that they become mentors for their peers, the other students. Our approach is based on the positive effects that peer tutoring can have and on a constructivist approach to education where we begin to pave the way and they learn through their own exploration and constructing. And it is based on Rav Kook’s approach to tefilla, making it meaningful by connecting it to our daily lives. We connect it to social and emotional competencies. It’s a spiral effect – the tefilla affects how they develop these skills and the skills affect their tefilla. 

To Give - To Pray

I often listen to the song לתת by Boaz Sharabi, and feel it exemplifies a tefilla.  It is used in various videos and events in Israel and captures a feeling, in song, of what it means to transcend.  I share it here to nourish your souls and hearts, and hope that we can learn to give more to our tefillot.

To give the soul and the heart,
To give,
To give when you love.
And however one finds the difference
Between taking and receiving
You will yet learn to give, to give...

To discover secrets [in secret]
To release the tangle of connection
When your heart is pinched
By every smile, every look

You are careful, you know,
And aside from you, no one hears
Walking a fine line, trying not to offend
And filling the free time

Chorus:

To give the soul and the heart
To give when you love
You will yet learn to give, to give

You learn with the years
To build buildings together
To live with all the changes.
To weave, with her, a life's story
And to get through difficult days
In distress and troubled times
To always know how to give in,
and to keep the love alive

Chorus:

To see in the midst of the fall,
That there is room for forgiveness
It=s always possible to start again
Like a new day, like the usual - to give

You will yet learn to give, to give

Postmodern Tefila Tip #2

In my ongoing reflections on how to evaluate and improve tefilla in schools, I came across an unrelated comment by Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter - aka the Sfat Emet. One of the themes that he often riffs on, no matter the topic, is based on Psalms 34: 15:

סוּר מֵרָע, וַעֲשֵׂה-טוֹב;    בַּקֵּשׁ שָׁלוֹם וְרָדְפֵהוּ.

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

The Sfat Emet denotes the difference between actively refraining from evil actions or thoughts and the movements that direct one towards goodness and effectiveness.  Accordingly, a person needs to regularly examine one's deeds and actions to remove any negative attributes toward the goal of personal improvement; such a tactic only brings a person to a neutral state.  This defensive approach to the world differs from one that seeks engagement and enactment.

In my humble opinion, one of the significant differences between liberal democratic values and Judaism is precisely this point - the obligation to refrain from harmful actions versus a command to be an active participant in society.  There are rules in society about what you cannot do, or when you can drive or vote, but no obligation except to pay taxes.  In Judaism, while there are negative commandments (thou shall not), there are many active mitzvot that propel are person into the world to do good, and hopefully spread peace.

With this Sfat Emet dichotomy in mind, I wish to frame tefilla education according to skill based vs. spiritual development.  Often students are taught just the skills in order that they know how to appropriately act if they were to arrive in a synagogue.  There needs to be more emphasis on what can motivate and excite our young people to be agents of positive prayer.  Bringing students to a parve spiritual state just isn't doing it.

We Pray Just to Make it Today

What would it take for a Jewish singer or religious leader to produce a video like Minister Stanley Kirk Burell did in 1991?  Check out Minister Burell's, aka MC Hammer, hit song Pray: 

"Pray" apparently placed in the Top Ten charts in both the US and the UK - I am NOT sure there is any evidence that this encouraged more people to pray or attend prayer gatherings. 

One serious comment - performance is a key aspect to understand the agency of tefilla and all educators struggle to identify how teach the technique to preform prayer and the mindset to imbue meaning into it. With pop culture, and especially music performers, there is a natural grace and energy that connects with the audience, particularly in live performances.  How can educators harness the energy of the concert hall and even the ipod into a minyan?

Silence and Speech in Davening

I often read the Kvetcing Editor (@The Chavia) - a fascinating blog and authentic Jewish voice - and yesterday came across a post titled "Talking in Shul and the Sudlikover Rebbe".  Check it out to see the jumps in the article and the tangential information.  The key passage that struck me was cited from an anonymous blogger - A simple Jew - in the form of several challenging question:

If we are given 22.5 hours a day when we are permitted to speak with others, why must we encroach on the 1.5 hours that are set aside solely for our conversation with Hashem? Isn't it He alone who provides for all our needs? If we really believe Hashem hears the words we say, how could we ever even think of speaking to others when we are standing before Him in His house? We need to stop speaking to others when we are speaking to Him!

I try to do this in my own personal tefilla - but how scalelable is it for a community or minyan?

Tebowing & Tefilla

It is very interesting to see the mainstream media outlets commenting on the topic of prayer. It just so happens that the lightening rod for the new tefilla trend is none other than Denver Broncos starting quarterback Timothy Richard Tebow (#15).

Like football or not, it is very interesting to see how people react to prayer in the public sphere.  Additionally since the quarterback is in such a central position, it is fascinating to see how people in 2012 are encountering a proud Christians openly praying in an otherwise post-modern arena.  (Some columnists ask, what if Tebow was a Muslim?)

There is a lot to talk about here: such as, Does God Care Who Wins Football and what strength is taken from those that employ public prayer to further their professional goals.  On the meta-level, we can see how such prayer elicits a powerful reaction to the extent that it has become a trending topic on ESPN, the twitter world, and even the nightly news.  Do people today know how to handle people of faith outside their natural sanctuary? Are there people rooting against Tebow so as to prove that his prayers powers don't work?  (See the Saturday Night Live skit). Perhaps we will see this Saturday.

I don't have more to add on this topic, except to say, isn't the alienu prayer a bit like the Tebow bow? 

I Am My Prayer

The #1 goal of this blog is to start a conversation on the state of prayer today and gather resources to help educators grow professionally; it hasn't been very easy.  A lot of the resources online and in books on the topic of tefilla are either limited to a specific age group or population and there doesn't seem to be so much cross pollination.  There are only few national leaders or educators that have picked up the banner to improve and evaluate the pedagogical framework of tefilla today.  I appreciate those who have participated in the conversation here, but I pray that more people will spread the word, share, and help connect tefilla minded educators and individuals to collaborate.

For me, one of the most powerful sentences in our liturgy is the following from Psalms 69:14:

ואני תפילתי לך ה' עת רצון

One translation of this pasuk is: But as for me, let my prayer be unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time. (An aside, it was fascinating to see the greater context of this verse which it is not usually read in - I recommend the jump).

Today I'd like to offer an alternate translation: But I am my prayer, to you Hashem, at a propitious time.  The key idea being that I am a prayer - the life I live is an expression of tefilla. Too often people compartmentalize their prayer and their actions, and think their spiritual world does not or cannot flow into their professional lives.  One thing to consider is that we, with our power of prayer, have the ability to make an עת רצון  - a favorable time to daven whenever we want and it isn't always dependent on the season or location and thus carry our prayerfulness whenever or wherever we are.

The reveal here is that this blog is an extension of my own personal tefilla, and not just a professional endeavor. I always pray that my tefilla will go higher and higher, and now add to it that as a collective, we can push the professional field of tefilla teachers and leaders to have a greater impact.