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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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Ὑμνεῖν με δεῖ τὸν θεόν | “I Must Praise God,” excerpted from the Discourses of Epictetus by Rabbi Morrison David Bial

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

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=1295

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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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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "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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