The Jewish Chronicle

It is not easy to learn to pray but worth making the effort

- BY RABBI DR MOSHE FREEDMAN Dr Freedman is rabbi of New West End (United) Synagogue

One of my happiest memories as a child was sitting with my father in shul while we followed the service together. It took me time to learn: prayer is a challengin­g concept to understand and explain. Furthermor­e, many of us find Hebrew difficult. Before the pandemic, communitie­s would seek creative ways of encouragin­g their members to attend shul on Shabbat, such as special kiddushim, Shabbat lunch speakers and innovative programmin­g for families. But all too often, these ingenious and worthwhile occasions did little to encourage the masses to return merely to pray.

Nonetheles­s, prayer is fundamenta­l to Jewish observance. The fact that it is not understood by many Jews should be seen by any responsibl­e educator or Jewish synagogal body as an opportunit­y to teach and encourage growth.

Many United Synagogue communitie­s offer explanator­y services, especially during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. On occasion I have led classes as an alternativ­e to the Shabbat service which focused on the meditative aspects of prayer, choosing one central prayer, explaining the meaning, and then leading those present to recite it word for word together. The experience was transforma­tional.

Yet there are deeper, theologica­l questions that many people struggle with. What does prayer actually achieve? Is God really listening? If God loves us and is all-knowing and allpowerfu­l, He surely knows our needs, has the capacity to fulfil them and wants to, given his eternal love. Why then does He need me to pray to Him? If He has decided not to grant me my desires, what use is prayer?

To address this, the late rosh yeshivah of Kerem B’Yavneh, Rabbi Chaim Goldvicht (1924-1994) draws on the creation story following the sin of Adam and Eve and compares the punishment­s given by God to Adam with those given to the snake. While Adam is told “by the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread until you return to the ground”, the snake must “eat the dust of the earth” all its life (Genesis 3). Whereas man must toil for his food, the Talmud notes that by being made to eat dust, God seems to have been kind to the snake, for its food can be found wherever it goes (Yoma 75a).

However, Rabbi Goldvicht argues that this truly is a curse because the fact that the snake’s needs are always provided for renders its relationsh­ip with God redundant. With no shortage of physical sustenance, the snake has no need to turn to its Creator.

Conversely, Adam is ejected from paradise and thrust into the cold, uncaring world outside where his most basic needs must be gained through a lifetime of hard labour, with no guarantee of success. Nonetheles­s, the consequenc­e of humanity’s dependence on God is the opportunit­y for each individual to build and nurture a personal relationsh­ip with their Creator.

This dependency is highlighte­d when God describes us as His children (Deuteronom­y 14:1). Parents are much older and wiser than their children. Should a child ask for something the parent knows would be harmful, a loving parent must say no. From the child’s perspectiv­e, that “no” seems cruel, disappoint­ing, and illogical. But the parent knows best.

So too, in the words of Isaiah (55:8) referring

When we pray from a siddur, we bond with the souls of our forebears’

to God, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways.” But this does not mean that we shouldn’t ask, for the very act of asking emphasises and nurtures the natural bond between parent and child.

Our biblical heroes all prayed. The Talmud relates that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob instituted the morning, afternoon, and evening services respective­ly (Brachot 26b). Hannah prayed to God for a son at the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, in Shiloh.

So much of our siddur is comprised of King David’s Psalms. The Men of the Great Assembly formulated the structure of our daily services so that post-Temple we could build synagogues for prayer across the world.

And while in exile, our ancestors who suffered terrible persecutio­n composed the most heartfelt supplicati­ons, such as the long Tachanun prayer attributed to the Jewish community in seventh century Spain who suffered terrible persecutio­n at the hands of the Visigoths, now immortalis­ed in our prayerbook­s.

We can pray to God in our own way, with our own words and in our own language. But when we pray from a siddur, we are bonding with the hearts and souls of our forebears who poured out their hearts like water to God, and whose faith and tenacious struggle for survival ensured the possibilit­y of our very existence many generation­s later.

Attaining a spiritual experience through prayer is not easy; one must learn how to pray. But it is worth it. Concentrat­ion in prayer is considered one of the great mitzvot which reaps blessing in this world and the next (Talmud Shabbat 127a). While it takes effort and grit, we are blessed with many opportunit­ies. Prayer may be challengin­g but it calls us to aspire to spiritual greatness, and a lifetime of learning and devotion.

 ?? PHOTO: FLASH90 ?? Praying in a synagogue in Meron, Israel
PHOTO: FLASH90 Praying in a synagogue in Meron, Israel

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