Prayer in Judaism | Connections 11/2/09

by rabbifink on November 2, 2009 · 3 comments

Prayer is something so basic to all faiths and religions. Jewish ideas of prayer are decidedly different from other cultures. It is very important to learn about the Jewish approach to prayer.

I began the class by announcing that this was a topic I longed to discuss for a very long time. I finally felt that the time was right.

We asked all the basic questions about prayer. We asked some advanced questions about prayer.

Using ideas from Rabbi Chaim Volozhin and others we pieced together a rational approach to prayer that made sense to us.

It was a very exciting class with outstanding participation and a very alert listening audience.

I really recommend giving this class a listen.

All audio classes are available by clicking podcasts on the top of this page. Or just click here.

You can also subscribe to all classes in iTunes by clicking here.

Enjoy.

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Tagged as: Classes, Pacific Jewish Center, podcasts, prayer, Ramchal, Shiur, tefilla, Torah, Venice

  • http://twitter.com/makeforyourself YC

    Great class as always
    Is there another reason for prayer for non-bakasha/request amidahs (Shabbat, Yom Tov, every Musaf)? They make up more than 18% of them

    I was thinking
    1) Perhaps the 2nd, 5th and 7th blessing on shabbat (and during the week) are requests and would fall in line with the themes of the class
    2) Other dimentions of prayer include:intimacy with the Divine (Yaakov- Vafiga) and dialogue with God (Yitzcak’s Sicha)

  • http://finkorswim.com rabbifink

    Glad you enjoyed, thanks for listening!

    And great points, as always.

    The first 3 and last 3 blessings of every amida are not requests. They frame the tefila putting us in the right mood for our “requests” – which we said in the class are not really requests anyway.

    Similarly, the Shabbos and Yom Tov tefilos put us in the right frame of mind for the proper execution of Shabbos and Yom Tov mitzvos.

    And yes, I believe the Sh’A even says that we daven quietly to create intimacy with the divine. But there still needs to be meaning behind the conversation that creates intimacy. In other words, it would be useless to jibber jabber emptiness in the hope of creating dialogue and intimacy with the divine…

    • http://twitter.com/makeforyourself YC

      Just seems to of our 3 “thank you” blessing only the middle one is thanks, the other two seem like requests:
      *Accept the service/prayer (and post-churban includes restoring the Temple service)
      *Prayer for peace

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