CyberTorah

Rabbi Graff and I have realized that we have emphasized Shabbat prayer but far less daily prayer. This makes sense, given the amazing Shabbat community that gathers every week at Kol Emeth. This has left a gap, because Shabbat prayers, and especially the Amidah (the silent prayer), focus on gratitude and dwelling with the Divine. The idea is Shabbat is a day of rest where we leave behind our hopes, strivings, and brokenness.

Yet when that is the only Amidah one encounters, it leaves behind a large area of human experience. We are creatures that hurt, that strive, that experience brokenness. The prayer par excellence of Judaism must give voice to those aspects of the self as well. If we only encounter its Shabbat mode, we are left without a liturgical structure to express those elements of who we are.

Now we have done this for a good reason. Kol Emeth sees good attendance at our Shabbat and holiday services. Hundreds of us engage at least monthly in those experiences. By contrast, daily minyan is wonderful (and evenings on zoom – please join!) but much less well attended. Put another way, our community does make time for Shabbat. Yet finding time for regular prayer during the week is far more challenging due to scheduling and the busyness of the week.

I want to offer something that you can say in 3-5 minutes each day on your own. This modified weekday Amidah will develop over several weeks. I invite you to experiment with it. I believe it will help provide a space and location for some of the worries and hurts and striving that make up your week. I believe this regular practice will help set and hold a meaningful intention as the day begins.

Most of us have intentions at the beginning of the day which are hard to maintain as we experience the challenges that the world throws at us. Those intentions fray as the day goes on. Since we are struggling to hold onto our values and hopes for the day, our stress levels rise. This leads to all kinds of challenging behavior, including overeating, shortness of temper, and other self-destructive behaviors.

The Amidah is meant to be a moment as the day begins in which we set those intentions and remind ourselves to hold onto them. We remind ourselves of our past, our connections to family and to the divine, and we open our heart before the Most High. Then it is customary to say that prayer once more somewhere in the middle of the day. We reset the intention, remind ourselves of our brokenness but also of gratitude and connection, and then are prepared for the rest of the day.

For this week I offer the following exercise prior to inviting you into some liturgy:

Set aside 3-5 minutes at the beginning of your day. Set a timer to create the space.

After starting that timer, take 3 long breaths and then sing Oseh Shalom: God who makes order on high, provide us here also with wholeness and order. Call to mind 3 or 4 things for which you are grateful.

Then take 3-5 more long breaths and just breathe until the timer expires.

Try that each morning. See if it impacts the way your day feels and helps you feel more centered and whole. Next week I will add some more liturgy to help develop this practice.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi David Booth

Ps: Here are the lyrics for Oseh Shalom:

Oseh shalom bimromav            עוֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם בִּמְרוֹמָיו הוּא יַעֲשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם

Hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu                                                              עָלֵינוּ
V'al kol Yisrael                                                                    וְעַל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל
V'imru: amen.                                                                           וְאִמְרוּ: אָמֵן.

Translation: May the one who creates peace on high bring peace to us and to all Israel. And we say: Amen.

Here is a singalong version as well!