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By Daniel D. Stuhlman, DHL
If we think of davaning as an obligation, we leave ourselves open to “speed davaning” and “catching up.” If davaning is just an obligation, one could just hurry to mumble the words and complete the motions. We should look upon daily prayer as a discipline. As a discipline we have an opportunity to vary how we concentrate on aspects of prayer based on mood, time, or surroundings. The experience could change often. As a discipline we have to be regular participants and learners. Everyday we have an opportunity to make the experience special for ourselves and the people around us. Sometimes the experience is better than other days just as some days we arrive at shul in different moods and stages of wakefulness. The more often we davan, the more the words and feelings become part of our inner selves.
As an old text, the words of prayer are not always understood. The meanings could change based on what we know or feel. Sometimes regular attendees of the daily and Shabbat minyan say the words of prayer, but have little conception of the meanings and connotations of the words or the prayers. One’s teachers could have made you memorize every single Hebrew word and its translation, but that is not the way to understand and feel tephilah.
Tephilah is both the communication with God and with your inner self. Tephilah is a way to change yourself, to get going in the morning, to put some divine meaning into the routine of life, or to understand personal struggles.
Tephillah thanks, affirms, praises, requests, and connects us to God. Prayer is more than the liturgy of the siddur and the minhag of the service. Tephilah happens on the personal, communal and divine levels. Sometimes these levels happen to us all in the same service and sometimes we only experience some. We recite the words so that we can hear ourselves and yet not disturb our neighbors. We shake or sway to get the body to participate in the words. The lexical meanings of the words are but one part of the experience. Anyone can be taught the words; it takes a real expert to understand the spaces between the words. When one finishes the amidah, the silence before the hazzan starts the repetition is part of the prayer experience. This silence, called meditation by some, is the silent time when you allow the mind to open up to God’s message. It is the time we wait for an answer.
Silence gives us a break from the words, song, and chatter around us. We not only have to say the words of the liturgy, we have to listen to the answers. Silence is a gift to ourselves indicating that we are more than our social life. Silence is a partner with the liturgy and the social experience of the minyan. Silence banishes external distractions and helps create an inner calm. This inner calm or meditation becomes a partner to establish a clear communication with God and our inner self.
I look forward to listening, visiting, and talking with you after services, at kiddish, in a class, or online. If that is not possible, silence will be sufficient.
As an old text, the words of prayer are not always understood. The meanings could change based on what we know or feel. Sometimes regular attendees of the daily and Shabbat minyan say the words of prayer, but have little conception of the meanings and connotations of the words or the prayers. One’s teachers could have made you memorize every single Hebrew word and its translation, but that is not the way to understand and feel tephilah.
Tephilah is both the communication with God and with your inner self. Tephilah is a way to change yourself, to get going in the morning, to put some divine meaning into the routine of life, or to understand personal struggles.
Tephillah thanks, affirms, praises, requests, and connects us to God. Prayer is more than the liturgy of the siddur and the minhag of the service. Tephilah happens on the personal, communal and divine levels. Sometimes these levels happen to us all in the same service and sometimes we only experience some. We recite the words so that we can hear ourselves and yet not disturb our neighbors. We shake or sway to get the body to participate in the words. The lexical meanings of the words are but one part of the experience. Anyone can be taught the words; it takes a real expert to understand the spaces between the words. When one finishes the amidah, the silence before the hazzan starts the repetition is part of the prayer experience. This silence, called meditation by some, is the silent time when you allow the mind to open up to God’s message. It is the time we wait for an answer.
Silence gives us a break from the words, song, and chatter around us. We not only have to say the words of the liturgy, we have to listen to the answers. Silence is a gift to ourselves indicating that we are more than our social life. Silence is a partner with the liturgy and the social experience of the minyan. Silence banishes external distractions and helps create an inner calm. This inner calm or meditation becomes a partner to establish a clear communication with God and our inner self.
I look forward to listening, visiting, and talking with you after services, at kiddish, in a class, or online. If that is not possible, silence will be sufficient.
