Dear Dr. Berger:
I would like to respond to Dan Rosen’s request for materials that may improve the spiritual involvement of his students during Tefila. For stand alone articles, I would recommend those written by Rabbi Dr. Jakob Petuchowski. Perhaps the best introduction to Tefila that I have read comes from the introduction to her book: B’Eis Ishan V’A’Ira by Rabbi Dr. Dalia Marx. She creates a very simple but powerful metaphor for prayer, particularly for the fixed text. She compares reciting the fixed text to a walk in the garden. Although the garden may look the same each day, if you look more closely, you will find subtle changes that occur on a daily basis. Her message is that although we are reciting the same text every day, it is our responsibility to focus on understanding a different part of the Tefilos each day. We become spiritually involved when we learn something new about that section of the prayers and keep it in mind each subsequent day. I sought and was granted permission to translate her introduction into English. It is available here: [
beureihatefila.com].
I recognize that because both those authors are aligned with the Reform movement, you may feel awkward introducing their works in an Orthodox institution but you could justify it by emphasizing that they were both professors of Jewish Liturgy.
A more traditional way to raise your students spiritual involvement in prayer is to teach them about the origin of the prayers. It is fair to say that the Orthodox Jewish approach to spirituality has always been that spirituality will flow from an intense study of Jewish texts. That same rule should be applied to Tefila.
Here is an example. Teach them the first page of the first Siddur, Seder Rav Amrom Gaon. Why? Because Rav Amrom Gaon provides a definition for the Siddur. It is a guide to reaching the goal of reciting 100 Brachos each day. Ask your students: why would Chazal want us to recite 100 Brachos each day? It is an important question because all of our Tefilos are structured around Brachos. You cannot appreciate the Tefilos of the Yomim Norain; i.e. become spiritually involved, without understanding that the theme of the day is played out in the silent Shemona Esrei and in Chazaras Ha’Shatz. You should also know that at its earliest stage, the Shofar was sounded only during the silent Shemona Esrei, with each person sounding the Shofar on his own, and that the original Bracha for each set of Tekiyos was the three middle Brachos of Shemona Esrei.
It is hard for me to see how you can expect your students to become spiritually involved in the Tefilos without their first understanding the Tefilos.
Abe Katz
Founding Director
The Beurei Hatefila Institute
www.beureihatefila.com
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2015 09:33AM by mlb.
