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Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

This is an archive of diverse thoughts on the significance and practice of Jewish prayer as a spiritual practice in general but also as expressed in certain specific contexts.

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Resources filtered by LANGUAGE: “English”” (clear filter)

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Ὑμνεῖν με δεῖ τὸν θεόν | “I Must Praise God,” excerpted from the Discourses of Epictetus

A short discourse on the necessity for prayer by the Stoic philosopher, Epictetus.

Categories:

Second Temple Period, Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

1st century C.E., 39th century A.M., Antiquity, Stoicism

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Morrison David Bial and Epictetus the Stoic

A Brief Account of the Jewish Prayers, by Isaac Abendana (1695)

This is one of the earliest essays on Jewish prayer to appear in English, “A Brief Account of the Jewish Prayers” (Isaac Abendana, 1695). The essay was published in the 1695 issue of Abendana’s The Jewish Kalendar, an annual periodical in which was typically appended an article on Jewish history and practice of interest to the work’s main audience: Christian Hebraists. Besides a survey of the topic, included in the essay is a translation of the blessing from the Amidah, “Shomeah Tefillah” noting the variations between the Ashkenazi and Sefaradi liturgical customs.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

17th century C.E., 55th century A.M., Christian Hebraism

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Isaac Abendana

On the Legitimacy of Jewish Women’s Prayer, by Leah Horowitz (ca. 1790)

This is Leah Horowitz’s introduction to her Teḥinah Imahot, an argument for the legitimacy of Jewish women’s prayer. While the accompanying prayer is written in Aramaic with an accompanying Yiddish translation, the introduction is written in Hebrew.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

18th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Feminism, Jewish Women's Prayers, תחנה אמהות teḥinah imahot

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Moshe Rosman (translation) and Leah Horowitz

📄 Sourcetexts on Jewish Prayer and Spirituality, compiled by Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman

A few select source texts on prayer and davvenen of importance to Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer, Davvening

Tags:

Breath, Community, Music, Silence, sourcesheet, Words

Contributor(s):

Levi Weiman-Kelman (translation)

Thoughts on Family Prayer, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1840)

“Thoughts on Family Prayer,” an essay by Grace Aguilar, was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 131-150. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 143-163.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, family prayers

Contributor(s):

Grace Aguilar and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

On Composing Prayers Outside of the Prayerbook, an introduction by Isaac Leeser to “Two Short Prayers” (1851)

Thoughts on petitionary prayer literature (teḥinot) and Jewish women’s prayer literature in the mid-19th century United States of America.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, English vernacular prayer, Jewish women, teḥinot in English

Contributor(s):

Isaac Leeser (translation) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Jewish Science and Health — chapter 3: Prayer, by Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein (Society of Jewish Science 1925)

Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein’s explanation on the efficacious use of Prayer as appears as chapter 3 in Jewish Science and Health: Textbook of Jewish Science (1925), pp. 43-56.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer, Visual Meditation

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., affirmations, entering magical territory, imagination, Jewish Science movement, personal prayer

Contributor(s):

Morris Lichtenstein and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Emma Goldman on “Everybody’s Right to Beautiful, Radiant Things” (1931)

A teachable moment in the life of Emma Goldman to reflect upon whether our practice is liberating or in need of liberation.

Categories:

Sefirat ha-Omer, Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., political and religious anarchism, first person, Freedom, Humanist, Jewish liberation, liberation, liberation from mitsrayim

Contributor(s):

Emma Goldman and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

ספר רפואת הנפש, פרק ב׳ — תפלה | Sefer Refuat haNefesh — chapter 2: Prayer, by Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein (Society of Jewish Science 1934)

A brief explanation of the role of prayer in the Jewish Science movement of Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein and his wife Tehilla Lichtenstein, co-founders of the Society of Jewish Science, in Yiddish with an English translation.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., entering magical territory, Jewish Science movement

Contributor(s):

Unknown (translation), Morris Lichtenstein and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Gebet im Judentum | Prayer in Judaism, by Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck (1935)

Rabbi Leo Baeck’s essay on prayer “Gebet im Judentum,” was published in the “Judentum und Gebet” issue of Bne Briss (September/October 1935), top of page 82.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., דע לפני מי אתה עומד Know Before Whom You Stand, Stoicism

Contributor(s):

Leo Baeck, Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

Das Gebet Als Äußerung Und Einfühlung | Prayer as Expression and Empathy, by Abraham Joshua Heschel (1939)

Abraham Joshua Heschel’s essay “Das Gebet Als Äußerung Und Einfühlung” published in Monatsschrift Für Geschichte Und Wissenschaft Des Judenthums, vol. 83 (1939).

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Essays on Prayer as Praxis, Needing Proofreading

Contributor(s):

Abraham Joshua Heschel and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

On the Good of Prayer, an essay by Lilian Helen Montagu (March 1939)

An essay on the praxis of prayer as contained in “Club Letter №3” (March 1939) written by the Hon. Lily H. Montagu (1873-1963) and found in the Private Collection of Hannah Feldman, London. The essay was published in, Lily Montagu: Sermons, Addresses, Letters, and Prayers (ed. Ellen M. Umansky, 1985), pp. 51-54.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer, Davvening

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., British Jewry, Essays on Prayer as Praxis, Liberal

Contributor(s):

Lilian Helen Montagu and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

“Prayer,” by Abraham Joshua Heschel (1945)

The essay, “Prayer,” by Rabbi Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel, then Associate Professor of Jewish Philosophy at Hebrew Union College, published in Review of Religion vol. 9 no. 2, January 1945.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Essays on Prayer as Praxis, North America, why prayer

Contributor(s):

Abraham Joshua Heschel

“The Spirit of Jewish Prayer,” by Abraham Joshua Heschel (1953)

“The Spirit of Jewish Prayer,” by Abraham Joshua Heschel was a speech given at the Fifty-Third Annual Convention of the Rabbinical Assembly of America which took place at the Breakers Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey from Tammuz 9 to Tammuz 14, 5713 (June 22 To June 27, 1953). The speech was subsequently published in the Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly of America v.17.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Judaism, communal prayer, Essays on Prayer as Praxis, דע לפני מי אתה עומד Know Before Whom You Stand, North America, Private Prayer

Contributor(s):

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Introduction [to the Siddur], by Rabbi Dr. Israel Wolf Slotki (1964)

An introduction to the Siddur, by scholar and translator Israel Wolf Slotki (1884–1973).

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., introducing Jewish prayer, introducing the Siddur

Contributor(s):

Israel Wolf Slotki and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

“On Prayer,” by Abraham Joshua Heschel (1969)

Rabbi Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel’s speech, “On Prayer,” delivered at an inter-religious convocation held under the auspices of the U.S. Liturgical Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 28, 1969. His talk was printed in the journal Conservative Judaism v.25:1 Fall 1970, p.1-12.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Essays on Prayer as Praxis, North America, personal prayer, Private Prayer, private worship, why prayer

Contributor(s):

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Prayers that Hurt: Public Prayer in Interfaith Settings, by Rabbi Chaplain (Captain) Arnold E. Resnicoff, USN, Ret. (1987, 2009)

Suggestions for chaplains on offering public prayers in interfaith settings.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., interfaith prayer, prayers of military chaplains

Contributor(s):

Arnold E. Resnicoff

Meaning What We Pray, Praying What We Mean: The Otherness of the Liturgy, by Rabbi Dr. Joshua Gutoff (1989)

A discussion of the nature of truth and belief in Jewish liturgical prayer, suggesting that fixed liturgy is less a vehicle for conveying theological or philosophical outcomes than a practice for developing an emotionally religious personality. Shabbat musaf is used as an example. “Meaning What We Pray, Praying What We Mean: The Otherness of the Liturgy” by Rabbi Dr. Joshua Gutoff was first published in Conservative Judaism, Vol. 42(2), Winter 1989-90, pp. 12-20.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer, Davvening

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Conservative Judaism, Essays on Prayer as Praxis, liturgical theory, why prayer

Contributor(s):

Joshua Gutoff

Kavvana: Directing the Heart in Jewish Prayer, by Rabbi Dr. Seth Kadish (1997)

A comprehensive treatment on the praxis of Jewish prayer.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer, Davvening

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English Translation, reference works

Contributor(s):

Seth (Avi) Kadish

Blessings and Ethics: The Spiritual Life of Justice, a dvar tefillah on berakhot by Rabbi Dr. Joshua Gutoff (1997)

An article looking at the questions of why there aren’t brakhot for ethical mitsvot, in which an approach to the function brakhot as part of a spiritual and imaginative discipline is proposed. At the same time, it is argued that all ethical practices are first exercises in listening.

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., ברכות brakhot, Essays on Prayer as Praxis, liturgical theory, liturgy and ethics, צדקה tsedaqah

Contributor(s):

Joshua Gutoff

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To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain the sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments. Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. It is all we can offer in return for the mystery by which we live. Who is worthy to be present at the constant unfolding of time? Amid the meditation of mountains, the humility of flowers—wiser than all alphabets—clouds that die constantly for the sake of beauty, we are hating, hunting, hurting. Suddenly we feel ashamed of our clashes and complaints in the face of the tacit greatness in nature. It is so embarrassing to live! How strange we are in the world, and how presumptuous our doings! Only one response can maintain us: gratefulness for witnessing the wonder, for the gift of our unearned right to serve, to adore, and to fulfill. It is gratefulness which makes the soul great. --R' Abraham Joshua Heschel, "The Holy Dimension" in Moral Audacity and Spiritual Grandeur, p.341

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Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)

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