Jewish Life With Prayer

Life with Prayer

This week we reviewed more about holidays and focused on what life is like in a synagogue and how the prayers work. Again, part of conversion requires you to live and practice Judaism. It may be conservative, but the program encourages you to get involved as much as possible.

My Shabbat this week was okay, but not perfect. We did, however, have a Shabbat dinner with Jewish friends, which we don't do all the time. Then on Saturday we stayed home to pack (for an upcoming move), we played music, and before Shabbat was over I used my cell phone for Words with Friends....and I blogged.....I'm getting there.

For this week's class we spent the second half of the day in the synagogue at the University. Since this is a new experience for most of the the class we talked a little about things like the dress code, rituals and prayers. The dress code for women includes keeping shoulders and arms covered, and pants or a knee length skirt. For men, typically no shorts are allowed. On High Holidays people mostly wear white because of the purity, renewal and cleansing aspects of the holiday. Jewish prayers rituals in the synagogue include a kipa (the common yamulka term is actually Yiddish) for men. No Jewish law requires a kipa but it's a cultural custom, and a form of respect as is removing a hat in presence of authority. Another common ritual during prayer is wearing a tallit with tzitzit. And there is a right and wrong way to wear it!

Photo courtesy of jewfaq.org

Photo courtesy of jewfaq.org

Normally, strict Orthodox men wear this, my boyfriend not being one of them. In fact, he hasn't stepped foot into a synagogue in years, only on some High Holidays according to him. The prayer on the tallit is the top and should be draped over your shoulders and not like a scarf. More info on biblical and cultural reasons for wearing this during prayer can be found at jewfaq.org.

Keva & Kavvanah

Lastly, we talked about Keva and Kavvanah. Keva is basically the routine of prayer. Keeping prayer constant is a way to practice, much like the old phrase "practice makes perfect". Kavvanah is basically the intention of meaningful prayer. Our Rabbi explained that some believer the danger with prayer is if you can't do something well; then you think you shouldn't do it at all. Jewish prayers are certainly more complicated than I can explain at this point. Some Rabbis believe there is a balance of keva and kavvanah to be had. Jewish prayers are routined (keva) with laws, fixed times, and fixed ways. However, the point of prayer is not to go through the motions, but to show inner devotion (kavvanah). One of the most popular interpreters of Jewish prayer is Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. He wrote this on kavvanah:

"How grateful I am to God that there is a duty to worship, a law to remind my distraught mind that it is time to think of God, time to disregard my ego for at least a moment! It is such happiness to belong to an order of the divine will. I am not always in a mood to pray. I do not always have the vision and the strength to say a word in the presence of God. But when I am weak, it is the law that gives me strength; when my vision is dim, it is duty that gives me insight" (Man's Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1954, pp. 64-68)."

Not ever living a life with prayer is--for obvious reasons--a huge life-changer for me to begin learning and practicing. What I'm learning is why prayer is such a huge part of Judaism (or any religion for that matter). I didn't see a reason for any part of organized religion until I began studying Judaism. Like everyone has been saying to me all along, Judaism makes the most sense, and the important thing is that I have a connection to it. For me, like Rabbi Heschel said, is that I'm grateful there is a law to remind myself to de-stress and appreciate life.

We haven't been to synagogue yet so I have no idea what to expect or how prayer will fit in to that for us. I do know that my boyfriend always says the Sh'ma every morning and night. This is something he has always done. This is one of the prayers I will also need to know and speak in Hebrew.