Finding Your Voice in Your Tefilla

Rabbi Kenneth Brander, Dean of the Center for the Jewish Future at YU, gave a class last week on "Tefillah - Preparation, Redemption, and Transformation".  I recommend this twenty minute listen because I think he draws a worthwhile parallel between Shabbat and Tefilla.

For many educators, Shabbat is both the most special time and concept to engage students to their Jewish identity.  R Brander elaborates on several dimensions - pointing to the songs sung on Shabbat and halachot involved in their preparations.  He raises honest points - that "it is hard to connect in Tefilla"  and shares a personal tragedy and how tefilla helped him through such a challenge. Further he stresses the need to make the special connection between prayer and the structure of  Shabbat which "re-calibrates our lives and purpose".  Tefilla, he argues, has a cosmic redemptive moment that is similar to Shabbat - I feel this way but I am not sure that my students do.

Finally, R. Brander ends the shuir speaking about finding one's own voice in tefilla - and I think this is the most powerful part of the lesson.  How can we address the challenge to allow each student to find their own individual voice "within the symphony we create with HaKadosh Baruch Hu".  He warns against imitation but I fear that this is often our standard pedagogical approach.

To Hop Shuls or Not to Hop?

I once heard a rabbi speak disparagingly against the Internet saying that one does not discover something "accidentally" as one would flipping the pages of the Times.  Well, this post will prove him wrong and validates the literally hours I spend tangentially following ideas and leads.

Jewcy apparently has a Religion and Beliefs column titled "Shul Hopping" by Joe Winkler, a shrewd and skeptical writer.  This article shares his concerned voice about davening in a person's home, what he calls a "DIY (do it yourself) Prayer Party.

I also enjoyed a previous installment of Shul Hopping "Synagogues of the Bourgeois: with the following honest reflection:

What emerged as clear is that apparently my soul yearns for Romantic prayer, a singsong prayer that taps into the essence of my being. I chafe at the hint of formality or rigidity, but I must realize that we each tap into different aspects of prayer. If God represents both our Father and our King, then part of prayer entails acting as if we stand before a king. You do not yell, even in supplication, at a King. You do not dress down, or engage in idle chatter, or scrimp on the expenses of a sanctuary for a King. You act with decorum; you follow the prescribed guidelines, and feel the majesty of the King of Kings. For me, though I tend to relate to God as a father, why should I pass judgment upon those who also feel his august presence? But the biases, I realized, bore deeper than this.

And this amusing comment:

I noticed that despite the differences between Orthodox and Conservative shuls, certain customs or characteristics persist. For some reason, no matter the religious venue, no one sits in the front row. People, as they stagger in, mostly sit in the back and next to the exit. We fear the front of shuls the same way we fear the front of an assembly in school, or the front of the classroom. Additionally, I felt shocked to find out that we eat the same Kiddush food. The same Kiddush food winds itself through Chasidic, to Modern Orthodox, to Conservative shuls: egg salad, chopped liver, pound cake, tuna salad, marble cake, more marble cake, Tam Tam-like crackers, seven layer cake, jelly cookies, gefilte fish, and tiny cups half full of bad kosher grape juice or wine. Also, one bottle of cheap alcohol. Strangely, I assumed, if the Conservative denomination can make changes in Jewish Law, can they not make changes to Kiddush? Is this uniformity of Kiddush the manipulations of a secret society, an unspoken rule or custom? Also, and I cannot believe this shocks me, but reading from the Torah takes time and is mostly boring everywhere, no matter the type of synagogue.

I hope the Joe will continue to wander and would love to see his review of my shul.  As always, comments are welcome.

Guest Post: Is Music Transcendental?

The Transcendental Power of Music

Remembering Harry Chapin, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and Debbie Friedman, their lives and their music, enables us to become better human beings.

By Rabbi Yehoshua Looks / Jewish World blogger  Published 09:22 12.02.12

Music can be transcendental and it enables us to become better human beings.

We sing our prayer, we sing around our Shabbat and holiday tables, and our first communal activity when leaving Egypt was to sing after G-d performed the miracle of parting the sea. There is a dispute between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Nechemyah in the Talmud, fifth chapter of Tractate Sotah, concerning whether Moses initiated the song and the people repeated line by line, or whether it was sung in unison. We are left with a question: Do we draw and maintain our inspiration from our leaders or form them as a community?

I was a child of the sixties. There were causes to believe in, causes to fight for – like civil rights – and causes to fight against – like the Vietnam War. There were leaders we believed in: John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy – especially Bobby – all assassinated, depriving a generation of its potential greatness.

From a young age, next to a love of classical music (especially opera), the popular music that spoke to me was folk. Harry Chapin, Phil Ochs, and Peter, Paul and Mary all reflected the shifting moods and priorities of the times. They weaved the social conscience of our youth into melodies that we could sing along with. We dropped in along the concert trail with our friends, then with our wives, and then with our children. Harry Chapin moved us with stories of ordinary people, urging us all to adopt the causes he believed in, particularly hunger in America. After his tragic death at age 38, his widow, Sandy, said that "Harry was supporting 17 relatives, 14 associations, 7 foundations and 82 charities. Harry wasn't interested in saving money. He always said, “Money is for people,” so he gave it away."

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach spoke to a generation of Jews through his stories and his music. Rav Shlomo was a complex individual and there were troubling aspects to his life, but his empathy for humanity and his generosity were undeniable; so much so that despite all the money he made from concerts during his lifetime, he died virtually penniless.

This past week marked the first yahrtzeit of Debbie Friedman. She came out of the Jewish summer camp movement, drawing inspiration from folk music, combining it with Jewish texts. Like Rav Shlomo, her music has become a liturgy unto itself, crossing denominational lines.

Last week, at a memorial concert in New York City, Cheryl Friedman remembered her sister: “Debbie was gifted beyond measure. But, first she was a good person. She gave and gave selflessly, often to her own detriment, for the enrichment of our People and Judaism… Her consistent message brought people together from every corner of the Jewish world and beyond. We respond to a messenger who lives what she speaks – what she sings. That is why Debbie’s impact was so profound. Her values were reflected in her music – and in her life.”

Where are the Harrys, Rav Shlomos and Debbies of today? We remember them through their music and are transported to another place. Their words are words of hope and love. Let us not lose sight of their message, the positive in their lives, and their melodies. May they continue to touch our hearts and minds, inspiring us to leave the world a better place, as they did.

Shirah (singing) is referred to ten times in the Bible. All of them are times of great emotion. How are we to express our joy, happiness, sadness and thanksgiving if not in song? Shirah brings us closer to G-d. It makes us like the angels. Nine songs have been sung. The tenth, Shir HaGeulah, the song of redemption, is referred to by the prophet Isaiah (26:1), "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah..." I await that day with great anticipation.

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Rabbi Yehoshua Looks is Managing Director of HaOhel Institutions in Jerusalem, now launching a new venture, Threshold, fostering Jewish Educational Entrepreneurship.

Song as Prayer: Shed their Tears

A follower of the blog suggested this Yael Meyer song "She Their Tears" as a modern tefilla.

Here are the lyrics:

As I walk above the pavement

I can feel you walking with me carrying me

And I hear above the silence all these voices screaming loudly at my ear

Shed their fear

Shed their fear on me

Living in a world of lies is not

amongst the holy sites I site from here

Grant me strength to dissipate the dark that

haunts and pierces deeply like a spear

Shed their fear

Shed their fear on me

As I walk above the pavement

I can feel you walking with me carrying me

And I hear above the silence

All these voices screaming loudly at my ear

Go Daven at the Super Bowl?

Have you ever searched for a place to daven when travelling?  Or googled the name of a city and synagogue to find a minyan starting time, perhaps to say kaddish?  The website GoDaven with its slogan "minyanim everywhere", and revamped from when I last surfed it many years ago, offers a database of  davening information for the Orthodox travelling.  Not sure what parameters qualify for orthodox, but I will let the controversy brew there for itself.

There was also advertising for a "temporary minyan" (now past) at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, i.e. at the Super Bowl. If you are planning to be there, "be prompt" the site warns, it will be 10 minutes after the half ends.  Can anyone report on the attendance there?  How was the kavana?  Mazal tov to the Giants.

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!

The Best Digital Siddur?

The following is a guest post on the Hirhurim - Musings blog by Rabbi Michael J. Broyde titled: Building a Better Siddur: An E-Siddur for the Twenty-First Century.

Considering how many people I see fidgeting on the phones in shul, either using them as a siddur or a distraction from the tefilla, I think Broyde's piece here gives a good review of the maven's needs for today.  My favorite line from the post is the following:

An e-siddur can create a prayer environment much more esthetically pleasing than any printed prayer book ever can be, if only because it can give you the right prayers in the right order every day, with instructions tailored to its owner’s current location and customs, while changing every day with the changes of the Jewish calendar.

Sounds to me like an educator in the classroom.