Prayer – Using one’s being to connect with God

Divre Harav – October, 2025

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Hosha na, l’ma’an’kha Eloheinu, l’ma’an’kha Boreinu, l’ma’an’kha Goaleinu, l’ma’an’kha Dorsheinu, hosha na, “Save us, for your sake, our God. Save us, for your sake, our Creator, our Redeemer, the One who understands us, save us.” 

One of the defining features of the Sukkot service are the poems known as Hoshanot. They are alphabetical in arrangement, structured around the phrase, hosha na, please help us. They are very old poems, dating back to Temple times or shortly thereafter. Originally, they were chanted by a procession of Priests carrying palm branches and willows. They do not explicitly state what kind of salvation they are seeking. It is possible that they were general prayers for communal protection and sustenance, drawing out the theme of judgement from the High Holiday liturgy. Given that Sukkot is the time of year when the rainy season should begin, it is likely that the major concern is draught. Our custom is to take out a Torah and hold it at the Torah reading table while those who have a lulav and etrog process around the Torah and the chapel behind the leader, chanting the hoshanot.

There is a different poem for each day of Sukkot, including Shabbat when we open the ark and chant the hoshanot prayers without taking out a Torah and without processing with Lulav and Etrog. One day’s hoshana focuses on 22 attributes of God (one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet), another focuses on 22 descriptions of the Temple, another contains 22 descriptions of the Jewish people, yet another focuses on 22 descriptions of God accepting repentance and granting salvation.

Much of Jewish life falls into a very rational, head-centered, thoughtful, pattern of behavior. We study Torah, we engage in mitzvot that have an obvious connection to a notion of tikkun olam, supporting and repairing our community. But there is a deeper and richer element of Jewish life that comes from the heart, that doesn’t intuitively “make sense.” It’s the world of prayer and the world of ritual mitzvot. Strapping boxes of parchment onto our bodies with leather straps or wearing fringed tassels on the corners of clothing or waving bundles of plant matter or praying fervently for God to forgive us and extend our lives defy simple rational explanations. They appeal to the part of our souls that bypasses the head and instead dance to the rhythms of poetry.

The lives we live don’t always make sense. Sometimes we need metaphor and allusion and allegory to describe the indescribable. To understand joy intellectually is insufficient. We need to feel it in our bodies with dancing and singing. Sukkot is a holiday designed to push our bodies out of the safe interior of our solid homes into the flimsily build Sukkah and to make us act out our prayers by waving and marching with palms, willows, myrtle, and the etrog. Does it make you look foolish? Yes, absolutely! But don’t worry, you’re among friends. And what’s life without a bit of goofiness now and then. Hag sameah!

Hebrew word(s) of the Month:

  • • Lulav – palm
  • • Hadas – myrtle
  • • Arava – willow
  • • Etrog – citron, an ancient citrus fruit

Divre Harav – February, 2024

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There is something majestic about the architecture of a large sanctuary that draws one’s attention upwards towards God’s presence. A room full of people absorbs and mutes some of the sound, but the acoustics of a well designed sanctuary amplify the power of the leader’s voice. On Rosh Hashanah, in between sets of shofar sounds, I like to let the sound echo and die down before continuing on with the next set. It is a reminder that when we do a mitzvah, the effect of that action resonates through the world like the rings of waves coming off a stone thrown into a pond.

Because of pandemic precautions on keeping our distance from other people and increasing concerns about the security of gathering in a space without an emergency exit, we have been almost exclusively using our Sanctuary since resuming in-person services on June 13, 2020, after temporarily suspending services in the building the previous March 18. Our weekday minyan has used the chapel and we did hold several festival services in the chapel on Sundays when All Souls was using the Sanctuary, but for almost four years, we didn’t use the chapel on Shabbat mornings.

We began meeting in the chapel again on Shabbat morning the first week in January, after installing an external exit and a camera to broadcast the service online. I’d gotten used to the feel of 25-35 people in the sanctuary. The first several times meeting in the chapel, it felt crowded, as if there were too many people impinging on my space. We need a certain amount of personal space, but we also tend to like the warmth of the presence of others. The sounds of many voices fill the space of the room, a room full of bodies absorbs and softens the sound, reducing harsh echoes. The quality of the sound and the feeling of community quickly dispel the sense of claustrophobia. This reminds me of a midrash found in Pirke Avot (5:5), that one of the miracles which took place in the Temple was that on Yom Kippur, people were packed in the courtyard like sardines, yet when the time came for them to fall prostrate upon hearing the name of God, each person had ample room to do so comfortably. The sense of being packed into a cramped space cheek to jowl gave way to a more expansive reality.

It is true that we can fulfill our role as Jews in the world without entering a synagogue. Yet our tradition teaches that whenever people gather for prayer or to study Torah, God’s presence rests on the assembly. We can pray alone, but our prayers are intensified by the music of the blended voices of a community. Here are some times that you might make a special effort to come to shul on Shabbat morning:

  • On the Shabbat before a Yahrtzeit, to say Kaddish and take an aliyah in memory of your deceased loved one.
  • When someone in your family is ill and you want their name to be included in a prayer for healing.
  • When a communal tragedy has happened and you don’t want to be alone.
  • When we are having a monthly Shabbat lunch.

A community like Ahavas Israel depends on a certain number of people we can count on every week to make a minyan, but we also count a larger group of people to come at regular intervals to fill the room with warmth, voices, and your participation. Please mark your calendar at some regular interval to join us as a part of our synagogue’s Shabbat community.

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • Kehillah, community
  • Shekhina, the Divine Presence

Divre Harav – December, 2022

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Monday through Friday, we meet for weekday morning prayers. Each day but Thursday, we meet online at 8:00 a.m. using zoom and we pray without a minyan. Thursdays, we meet in person at 7:15 a.m. in the chapel. We would like to have a minyan, although it is rare that we have one. Every day, I wake up and take myself and all of my baggage into the service.

  • • Some mornings I wake up with anxiety or worries that I’m carrying from the day before or the previous week.
  • • Some mornings I wake up with anxiety or worry because of some particularly difficult talk or conversation or meeting I need to handle that day.
  • • Some mornings I just wake up tired or low energy and don’t feel like getting moving.
  • • Some mornings I wake up with the sun streaming in the window and leap out of bed ready to greet a new day!

No matter in what state I find myself when I wake up, when I take time for a little morning prayer, I feel emotionally and spiritually centered and better able to begin my day.

If I am feeling good, I notice the portions of liturgy which remind me to be grateful. If I am feeling tired, the morning blessings remind me that God, who infuses energy into the world, will also restore me to my fully charged state. If I am worried about something I need to do, my prayers remind me that God redeems, supports and protects me. As long as I do my part by being prepared and fully present for the encounter, I’ll be OK and the outcome will lead to something positive. And if I’m still carrying anxiety from the day or week before, the liturgy reminds me that today is a newly day created for me by God so that I can let yesterday go and forget yesterday’s mistakes and start over again with a fresh slate.

Some religious traditions prefer to take one idea, such as compassion, and sit in meditation for an hour with that word in one’s mind and heart. Our tradition prefer to give us a cascade of words and ideas to throw at your soul, because what sticks today is not necessarily what will stick with us next week. Perhaps today we need to have compassion for ourselves or our partner, but next week what we need to to see more justice in the world around us, and next month we want to know that God forgives us when we don’t live up to our best selves. That which I need may be different than that which you need. We read the same prayers, but we may come away with different pieces of liturgy echoing in our souls.

Prayer is a practice. That is to say, prayer takes practice. It doesn’t necessarily work immediately. It takes time to become comfortable with the prayers, to understand them well enough that a certain pattern of words can fly by and wrap themselves around our heart. At that moment, we might experience deep satisfaction. We might stop and sit with those words for a while to puzzle out what they are trying to teach us about they way we are or should be living our lives.

I wake up each day to go to online or in-person services because the experience of praying with other people, minyan or not, is more powerful than praying by myself. Perhaps you’ll join me. 

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • Shaharit – The morning service, from the word meaning ‘dawn.’
  • Minha – The afternoon service, from the world meaning ‘gift.’
  • Ma’ariv – The evening service, from the world meaning ‘evening.’

Divre Harav – January/2022

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In a small congregation in a pandemic world, it is not easy to get a minyan. Yet we have done exactly that, nearly every Shabbat and holiday, since October 23, 2020. Thanks to a remarkably dedicated core of Shabbat regulars and to group of people who have answered the minyan call when we were in danger of falling short, we reestablished our Shabbat minyan.

Our minyan regulars who could be counted on weekly, semi-weekly, or monthly, included Rhonda Reider and Mike Halpern, David and Karen Reifler, Stuart Rapaport, Jim and Patti Flood, Harry Krishef, Lennox Forrest, Elisabeth Rosewall, Dovid Ben Avraham, Connor Hess, Robin Turetsky, Sandy Freed, Mark Silverstein, and Marisa Krishef.

Those who responded to the call to make up for a projected shortfall in our minyan or just showed up to surprise us occasionally were Ken Strauss, Jason Cook, Grant and Taylor Winkelman, David Alfonso, Jan and Bill Lewis, Leigh Rapaport, Jim Siegel, Ed Miller, Barb Freed, Diane Rayor, Barb Wepman, Judy Subar, and Toby Dolinka.

Our weekday Zoom minyan remained strong for about 18 months and then began to taper off. But we still have a core group of about nine who continue to participate, even without a minyan. We are grateful for Judy and Buddy (of blessed memory) Joseph, Karen and David Reifler, Cliff and Jean Shekter, Stuart Rapaport, Fred Meyerson, Binyamin Mehler, Sandy Freed, Harry Krishef, Rhonda Reider, Sol Krishef, Marc Silverstein, Esther Bookbinder, Marni Vyn, Cathy Winick, Dale Kramer, Barb Christiaans, and Mike Halprin for being part of the every-day minyan core, for being semi-regular participants, or for pitching in to make a minyan when we fall one or two short.

Our online minyan was an important component in our efforts to maintain a community during the worst of the pandemic. The halakhic basis for a zoom minyan is rooted in the notion that a person leaning into a window can be counted in a minyan taking place inside the room. In other words, they are counted as physically present, even though they are separated by a wall, as long as they can hear and be heard, see and be seen.

Constituting a remote minyan in which the participants are not physically together was a concession to sha’at ha-dhak, exigent circumstances, a crisis situation. Early in the pandemic, when we keenly felt a sense of isolation, the zoom minyan was vitally important to provide connection and spiritual nourishment.

It is clear to me from my work on the Scare Resources Allocation Committee at Spectrum Health, an extension of my work on their ethics committee, that we are still in a serious situation. Hospital have reached crisis levels of demand and are instituting new measures to allocate the scarce resources of beds and staff fairly. Nonetheless, I have been looking to establish an objective criteria for establishing the end of of the sha’at ha-dhak. As the positive test rate for COVID-19 continue to climb to unprecedented levels (the 7-day average at the beginning of December was above 23% in Kent County), we continue to do what we can to slow the spread. Even though we know that vaccinated people who contract COVID are less sick and much less likely to die, we don’t want to become a vector for spread among the unvaccinated.

I am proposing that the next time that the positive test rate in Kent County goes below the level at which the CDC recommends masking at indoor gatherings (currently, 8%) that we end the sha’at ha-dhak. At that point, our online morning service will no longer constitute a minyan, even if we have 10 or more Jewish adults participating. We will try to resume a daily minyan once a week if we can get at least 10 people to commit to regular attendance. However, we will continue to offer zoom services for as long as we have a group of people who wish to participate. Members from Holland, Big Rapids, metro-Detroit, Texas, and Arizona, who are unable to attend an in-person morning minyan, have found value being able to join with other for morning prayers, even when we are unable to say Kaddish.

אבינו מלכנו … כלה דבר וחרב ורעב ושבי ומשחית ועוון ומגיפה ופגע רע, וכל מחלה וכל תקלה וכל קטטה וכל מיני פורעניות וכל גזירה רעה ושנאת חינם, מעלינו ומעל כל בני בריתך

Our Father, our Sovereign … end pestilence and sword and famine and captivity and corruption and iniquity and plague and evil harm, and every disease and every mishap and every quarrel and all kinds of calamity and every evil decree and senseless hatred, from us and from all of your covenanted peoples.

Divre Harav – October/2021

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Jewish Prayer 103 – Framing the Shema

Jewish prayer 101 and 102 covered the Shema (November, 2020) and the Amidah (March, 2021). You can find the articles on my blog, EmbodiedTorah.org or on AhavasIsraelGR.org by searching or scrolling down to the older articles.

Once you are comfortable with the words of the Shema (English or Hebrew), the next step is to enrich the Shema with some context by adding framing prayers. The frame places the Shema in the context of a daily prayer practice and forms a bridge between engaging with God and Torah through study (the Shema) and engaging with God directly through prayer (the Amidah).

Gratitude is central to a prayer practice. The quality of thankfulness doesn’t necessarily come naturally. It is something which needs to be practiced, day in and day out, to remind ourselves to be grateful. The morning and evening Shema provide two touchpoints in the rhythm of our day to practice gratitude. We are grateful for creation, we are grateful for God’s love, we are grateful for Torah and mitzvot, leading to tikkun (repair) and redemption, and we are grateful for peace and security. The outline of the entire Shema unit is as follows:

  • Blessing of creation – Yotzer or  (morning) or Ma’ariv Aravim  (evening).
  • Blessing of God’s love towards us – Ahavah rabah or Ahavat olam.
  • | Three paragraphs of the Shema:
  • | Shema/Ve’ahavta – Command of our love for God/Tefillin/Mezuzah.
  • | Vehaya im shamoa – Theodicy/Tefillin/Mezuzah.
  • | Vayomer – Tzitzit/Mitzvot
  • Blessing of Redemption – Ge’ulah.
  • Blessing of peace and protection – Hashkivanu.

As you build your own prayer practice, you might draw upon the words of the Siddur to offer some words of gratitude to focus your thoughts before the Shema and to reinforce the message of the Shema afterwards. Leading into the recitation of the Shema are two blessings. The first connects us with nature. The version preceding the morning Shema focuses on the light of the rising sun. The version before the evening Shema, as we watch the sun set, focuses on the darkness.

Praised are you, Adonai our God, King of the universe, creating light and fashioning darkness, ordaining the order of all creation. You illumine the world and its creatures with mercy; in Your goodness, day after day You renew Creation. …. The good light God created reflects God’s splendor; radiant lights surround God’s throne. … Praise shall be Yours, Adonai our God, for Your wondrous works, for the lights You have fashioned, the sun and the moon which reflect Your glory …. Praised are You, Adonai, Creator of lights.

Blessed are You, Adonai, our God, King of the Universe, who word brings on evening, who alternates the seasons, and arranges the stars… God creates day and night, rolling the light away from before darkness, and darkness from before light …. Blessed are You, Adonai, Who brings on evening.

The second blessing before the Shema  is based on the central idea of the Shema, the instruction “You shall love Adonai your God ….” The blessing just prior to this passage asserts that the loving relationship is mutual, that it is because of God’s love for us that God gave us Torah and mitzvot.

Deep is Your love for us, Adonai our God, boundless Your tender compassion … Praised are You, Adonai who loves God’s people Israel.

Following the Shema is a blessing connecting the mitzvot embedded in the Shema to redemption. In the morning there is no break between blessing God the Redeemer and engaging with God in prayer. In the evening, as the day is ending, there is an additional blessing for peace and protection.

Your teaching is true and enduring. Your words are established forever. Awesome and revered are they, eternally right; well ordered are they, always acceptable. They are sweet and pleasant and precious, good and beautiful and beloved …. Praised are You, Adonai, Redeemer of the people Israel.

Lie us down, Adonai our God, in peace; and raise us up again, our Ruler, in life …. Shield us; remove from us every enemy, pestilence, sword, famine, and sorrow …. Blessed are You, Adonai, who guards the people Israel forever.

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • Yotzer Or – Creator of light
  • Ma’ariv Aravim – the One who makes the evening 
  • Ahavah Rabbah – A great love
  • Ge’ulah – Redemption
  • Shomer – Guardian