When I type I make a lot of mistakes.
I struggle to type without errors.
Word processing is the best thing that ever happened to my typing.
Technology has finally caught up with my level of inaccuracy and my skill as a typist.
(I made ten! errors in the last paragraph.)
My typo of the word "praying" comes out " prying".
I
sometimes feel it is a good mistake. Praying is prying myself loose
from the everyday world and prying my self out of my thoughts and
focusing them on Eternity and Infinity, on reality.
How many of you go through the day thinking that all of this is just an illusion?
This
world is not reality, as much as it presses in on me, as much as I feel that I
am dependent on the next breath of air, of my rib cage expanding again,
and the food and the space I live in, the need to create order. All of it
is just a lie and a test to see if I can see, feel and experience what
is beyond this world to the reality of forever. Can I pry myself out of this space and be with Hashem?
Write about mistakes that turned out okay in the end.
Write about prying something loose.
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Monday, April 08, 2013
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Show, Don't Tell on Rosh HaShannah
בס"ד
We spend a lot of time the new year in synagogue.
We crown Hashem King.
We ask him to remember our covenant with our fathers Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaacov.
We blow a shofar.
At home, we eat a festive meal with symbols of the kinds of things we want in the new year.
The idea of eating something sweet will bring sweet things into our lives is a bit strange, though. What does it mean? Where did our rabbis learn this idea?
Yaacov and Rachel communitcated through symbols or signs. We learn this in the midrash. They suspected, rightly! that Rachel's father Lavan, would switch the sisters just before the wedding ceremony so Yaacov gave Rachel signs so he would know that he was marrying her. But Rachel taught her sister Leah the signs before she married Yaacov, so Leah wouldn't be embarrassed and humiliated in front of everyone.
Have you ever seen a couple that just met?
They can't stop talking to each other. They are on the phone all the time, talk non-stop when they are together, ignore all their family and friends.
Five year, ten years, twenty years later, the same couple don't talk like that. Often they can know exactly what is going on with the other through a glance, or a tip of the head, or slight movement of the hand. At some point, a relationship moves beyond words to a higher level of communication. This is the kind of relationship that Yaacov and Rachel had.
And this is the kind of relationship that we are showing Hashem that we have with Him when we use symbols on Rosh HaShannah: we're so close to You, we don't have to use words. We can have these foods on the table and we know that You will understand the meaning behind them, because we have this special relationship with You.
On Rosh HaShannah we want to renew our special relationship with the Creator of the Universe and we want Him to see us a close and unique. We want Him to look at us as individuals. So we use signs and symbols that only an initmate will know.
Show, don't tell!
We spend a lot of time the new year in synagogue.
We crown Hashem King.
We ask him to remember our covenant with our fathers Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaacov.
We blow a shofar.
At home, we eat a festive meal with symbols of the kinds of things we want in the new year.
The idea of eating something sweet will bring sweet things into our lives is a bit strange, though. What does it mean? Where did our rabbis learn this idea?
Yaacov and Rachel communitcated through symbols or signs. We learn this in the midrash. They suspected, rightly! that Rachel's father Lavan, would switch the sisters just before the wedding ceremony so Yaacov gave Rachel signs so he would know that he was marrying her. But Rachel taught her sister Leah the signs before she married Yaacov, so Leah wouldn't be embarrassed and humiliated in front of everyone.
Have you ever seen a couple that just met?
They can't stop talking to each other. They are on the phone all the time, talk non-stop when they are together, ignore all their family and friends.
Five year, ten years, twenty years later, the same couple don't talk like that. Often they can know exactly what is going on with the other through a glance, or a tip of the head, or slight movement of the hand. At some point, a relationship moves beyond words to a higher level of communication. This is the kind of relationship that Yaacov and Rachel had.
And this is the kind of relationship that we are showing Hashem that we have with Him when we use symbols on Rosh HaShannah: we're so close to You, we don't have to use words. We can have these foods on the table and we know that You will understand the meaning behind them, because we have this special relationship with You.
On Rosh HaShannah we want to renew our special relationship with the Creator of the Universe and we want Him to see us a close and unique. We want Him to look at us as individuals. So we use signs and symbols that only an initmate will know.
Show, don't tell!
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Prayer: Rosh Hodesh Av
בס"ד
On Rosh Hodesh Av when the most difficult time in the Jewish calendar begins and the mourning for the destruction and loss of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem intensifies, we continue in our daily prayers to remember that we are promised, in the merit of our forefathers, that Hashem will redeem us and reveal Himself and His Name with love.
Exercise:
Use one or all of the following words in a piece:
King Redeemer
Shield Helper
Father Merit
Rescue Protect
He brings a redeemer to their children's children, for His Name's sake, with love. (From the siddur)"We see that the culmination of Zeuchut Avot=merit of the Fathers- is in the redemption or the coming of the Messianic Age." pg. 116
On Rosh Hodesh Av when the most difficult time in the Jewish calendar begins and the mourning for the destruction and loss of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem intensifies, we continue in our daily prayers to remember that we are promised, in the merit of our forefathers, that Hashem will redeem us and reveal Himself and His Name with love.
Melech, Ozeir u'Moshia u'Magen מלך עזר ומושיה ומגן
King Helper Savior and Shield
"There are four levels of Siyata D'Shmaya ( heavenly help)"
pg. 116-117 [From Jewish Meditation by Aryeh Kaplan, Schocken Books, pg.117]
Melech, a King, Who remains in His palace providing help from afar; Ozeir, a Helper, Who can be readily approached for assistance-an initial acknowledgment of our close relationship with Hashem; Moshia, a Savior, always close enough to rescue us, even at a moment's notice (as when a drowning person is plucked from a raging river); and Magen, a Shield, Who protects us from harm when there is not even a moment available for a savior's assistance.
Exercise:
Use one or all of the following words in a piece:
King Redeemer
Shield Helper
Father Merit
Rescue Protect
Thursday, July 05, 2012
Prayer 14 Tammuz
בס"ד
A Jewish woman today will usually tell you she never has enough time to pray the way that she wants to.
Know this: Prayer is above time.
For example, we learn that Avraham Avinu prayed for Stoam, and those prayers preserved the Jews in exile in Egypt.
Prayer is not about time. It isn't about quantity.
It's about quality.
If we want to be with Hashem, He will find a way for us to do this.
Our main objective is to want the closeness, no matter how much time we have to devote to prayer.
The Maharal teaches that when we pray with sincerity, we give up our very being to Hashem, because we recognize His greatness and our inadequacy. Humility lets us see Hashem's total power over everything in world and when we are in this place, then He can make up any lack we have.
Exercise:
David HaMelekh says in Tehillim: Ani tefeelah I am prayer.
How are you prayer?
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
Prayer 13 Tammuz
בס"ד
The Ramhal tells us that prayer is a means of getting closer to Hashem.
Hashem and His blessings do not change, but our experience of Him and His abundance depends on our state.
Just like a dirty window lets in less light, or a window with the shutters closed or the blinds pulled down lets in no light, so with us and the effort we put into our prayers allows Hashem's light to come in to our lives.
Exercise:
How clean is it?
How wide or tall is it?
How far away from the window are you standing?
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
About Prayer 12 Tammuz
בס"ד
I'm starting a new series of exercises and meditations about prayer.
The source of these ideas are in a book I recommend :
Praying with Fire: Igniting the Power of Your Tefillah A 5-minute Lesson-A-Day by Rav Heshy Kleinman, published by Artscroll Mesorah.
How does prayer work?
Most of us think of it in one of several ways: thanks, connecting, requests.
Gving thanks and connecting are pretty clear.
But requests is a little problematic from the stand point that hashem is running the world, and He's One and perfect, so how can we ask for anything, to change the way things are if He's already got it all locked up and going the way it should be. This world is an expression of His will, right?
Isn't it chutzpah, or ungrateful to pray to have things differently?
What is prayer doing?
Prayer, sincere and heartfelt, avodat halev, a work of the heart, changes us.
Once we have prayed, we are different people.
And then Hashem can relate to us differently, and change outcomes, situations because we have worked on ourselves and we deserve something new, different than what had been up until we prayed.*
"the new person who emerges from the spiritual growth is deserving of a new level of Divine Blessing." pg. 73 ibid
Exercises :
Write about how the experience of prayer changes you.
Write about one thing what you would like change through prayer.
* Sefer Halkrim, Maamar 4, Ch. 18
I'm starting a new series of exercises and meditations about prayer.
The source of these ideas are in a book I recommend :
Praying with Fire: Igniting the Power of Your Tefillah A 5-minute Lesson-A-Day by Rav Heshy Kleinman, published by Artscroll Mesorah.
How does prayer work?
Most of us think of it in one of several ways: thanks, connecting, requests.
Gving thanks and connecting are pretty clear.
But requests is a little problematic from the stand point that hashem is running the world, and He's One and perfect, so how can we ask for anything, to change the way things are if He's already got it all locked up and going the way it should be. This world is an expression of His will, right?
Isn't it chutzpah, or ungrateful to pray to have things differently?
What is prayer doing?
Prayer, sincere and heartfelt, avodat halev, a work of the heart, changes us.
Once we have prayed, we are different people.
And then Hashem can relate to us differently, and change outcomes, situations because we have worked on ourselves and we deserve something new, different than what had been up until we prayed.*
"the new person who emerges from the spiritual growth is deserving of a new level of Divine Blessing." pg. 73 ibid
Exercises :
Write about how the experience of prayer changes you.
Write about one thing what you would like change through prayer.
* Sefer Halkrim, Maamar 4, Ch. 18
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