The Glass is Not the Water ....

This is the first of what I think might be a series about prayer. I'm still buzzing from the meditative part of my experiences at the Cantors Assembly convention. I've always been intrigued by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and its training for rabbis and cantors. At the CA convention I had the opportunity to spend 6 hours experiencing the mix of meditation, Chassidic texts, and self reflection that form the core of IJS programs.

My personal meditations this week have centered around the nature of prayer and the meaning of service. Tefillah and avodah are frequently used to mean the same thing; service of the heart. Prayer in the place of animal sacrifice. But they are, in fact, two different but related actions. And for my money, prayer is the more elusive of the two.

We pray with words, with music, with silence. But the words and the music and the silence are not the prayer. It's a little like a glass, one with no ripples or imperfections, filled to the brim with water. When you look at it, you see the water, but you could not have the water, you could not hold it without the glass. Prayer is something that exists beyond words or music. It lives within the intention to pray, even when that intention is subconscious. We use the words in the same way that we use the glass, as a container.

It's understandable that we might mistake one for the other. That we might put such importance on the words that we miss the prayer. Saying the correct words, saying them correctly or rapidly or with practiced proficiency, these are the outward symbols of prayer. But they are not prayer. In the synagogue I serve -- and I dare say in most synagogues -- there is a tension, maybe a competition, between the "Chick-Chock" davenners -- the ones who mutter their words as rapidly as possible on both the exhale and the intake of breath! -- and the "Every Syllable Matters" guys, who sound out every single vowel and consonant with exquisite precision, even if the davenning lasts long into the night! But it never occurs to either of these groups to stop and just 'live' with a word or a phrase and let that be the prayer they pray. They fall into the trap of imagining that the glass is the water!

Our relationship to the language of prayer could use a little re-focus, a new definition, a prayer make-over! But it requires that we believe that prayer is more than an obligation. We have to decide that prayer matters.

More on this thread next blog!