Jewish Prayer

Jewish prayer is, and can be, many things:
 Many times it is our way of saying “Thank You.” to HaShem. Why? Because of His gifts, His miracles that surround us, the Blessings that He bestows upon us.
 It can be a song. A song of praise. A song from our heart is a song of praise. A melody that tells HaShem what a wonderful world.
 A story. Like the stories in our Jewish books – all of our books! Stories of our ancestors, our Kings, our adventures and misadventures, the lives of our tzaddakim. And, of course, stories of the wonders of G_d!
 A prayer can be our asking for a little red wagon when we are children, for a soul-mate to live our lives with, for the health of our loved ones, for parnassah, and for our Nation and our State of Israel.
 It is sometimes simply our talking to G_d, in private, alone at night, sitting in shule while you meditate, crying at the Kotel (Wall), and telling HaShem how much we love Him and respect Him.
 Tefelah – Jewish Prayer – has a root with the original(?) meaning: “think”. Don’t you ‘think’ about the great things, the unusual thing, and the unexplained things that you perceive in your world? Don’t you ‘think’ about why you are sometimes are lonely (even when you are surrounded by your fellow Jews), or sad, sick or home-sick for your parent’s home, you mother’s cooking? Don’t you ‘think’ about the bad things that you see happening in this world? Don’t you ‘think’ about the cruel things that you see or hear about – and you want to cry out to G_d: “WHY?”
 Those are prayers too. Prayer is also a way to show our feelings.
 Prayer is also those written poems and prose that we find in the Siddurim. Beautiful thoughts and feelings in wondrous forms – written by our rabbis, our teachers our poets and our prophets. Written for us, years later, to find and ‘think’ about. And written in Hebrew and Aramaic so we can ponder on just what inflection the author had in mind… and what it mean to us today.




So do you ask: Why do we pray? Or do you ask: Why should I pray? Our ancient ancestors did not “pray” – they took their best, their best sheep or cow, or grain – their very best and offered it to HaShem as a “sacrifice”. So too, when we rise early to go to a Minyan and ‘pray’ we are making our own “sacrifice”, our own offering.

The Talmud says that “Prayer is greater than sacrifices.” Even Moses, our greatest prophet, was answered by G_d only after he had prayed. And so, we open our heart to G_d, in prayer, to become (more) pure, (more) wise, (more) kind and “good” to become MORE G_d-like. And we pray to share ourselves with all Israel, sharing in their joys and their sorrows. We pray to be a part of Shalom.



Yisrael Betzalel ben Avraham
17 Tammuz 5769
CA Bamidbar