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Why Pray?

6/22/2011

 
Worshiping God with prayer is a Jewish invention. Yet, many Jews today are baffled to answer the most basic question about worship: "Why pray?"

To begin to answer that question, let's look at how prayer has developed in Jewish tradition.

After the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, the ancient Hebrews could no longer worship God by offering sacrifices. The Torah demands that the Temple is the only legitimate place for offering sacrifices to God, and so Judaism might have died along with the Temple. Instead, the ancient Hebrews kept their devotion to God alive by developing a new form of worship, one composed entirely of words of prayer.  Later, with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, worship by sacrificial offerings ended for good and prayer was established as the primary spiritual practice of Judaism. 

Since its invention, however, Jewish worship through prayer has gone through many changes and Jews have understood prayer in many different ways. The prayer service may have begun as a way to perpetuate the rites of the Temple and maintain a national/communal link with God, but in time the ancient rabbis turned prayer into a personal and spiritual act. The rabbis developed a philosophy of prayer that included the heartfelt qualities of intention and deepening a personal attachement to God. 

The rabbis also made daily prayers part of their system of mitzvot—the sacred obligations of fulfilling God's will. So, performing prayers also became something that a Jew would do simply "because God told you to." 

Later, kabbalah turned prayer into an act of mystical unification of the cosmos. By reciting daily prayers, a Jew would rise higher on the ladder toward ultimate attachment to God and effect restorative changes within the divine realm. Jewish mystical tradition transformed the meaning of prayer. To the kabbalists, prayer was not just a way to serve God; it was an act that turned the praying individual into God's partner in the repair of the world.

Of course, worship services are also social gatherings. By praying together, the community affirms its highest aspirations to its values and to God. Many Jews today put the experience of gathering together as a community as the most important reason for participating in prayer.

There is yet one more reason why Jews pray. Prayer is a tool of personal transformation. Like yoga and meditation, Jewish prayer can be viewed as a practice for personal development and honing a sense of personal equanimity, peace, self-awareness, and, ultimately, happiness. For many of today's Jews, this understanding of prayer is bringing a new sense of spirituality and meaning to their prayer practice.

What makes the most sense to you? Why do you pray? Or, if you don't, which vision of prayer would be most likely to draw you into the practice?
Reb Rachel link
6/22/2011 01:37:35 pm

When people ask me "why pray?" they often frame the question in terms of the praise our liturgy lavishes on God. Why does God "need" to hear this praise, they wonder -- is this some kind of sign of lack of divine self-esteem? How could we pray to a God who "needs" this from us? My response is generally this (and I think it's an answer to your question, too) -- I pray not because God needs it, but because I do. When I pray modah ani every day, I remind myself to experience gratitude. When I thank God for the beauty of creation, I remind myself to notice that beauty and appreciate it.

Praising God, and offering prayer of various kinds -- these activities carve grooves into my heart and mind. Over time, my spirit naturally comes to flow through these grooves of gratitude, wonder, questioning, appreciation, thanks. I don't know if God "needs" that... but I know that having the practice has certainly changed me.

Reb Jeff link
6/22/2011 03:23:45 pm

Rabbinic Judaism definitely does not accept the simplistic notion that our prayers "feed" God, or that God somehow needs our lavish praise to burnish the divine ego. That idea is roundly scorned by all. The answer you give is essentially that of Rambam -- we pray in order to effect change within ourselves, not to somehow change God. Praying refines our own souls and deepens our understanding.

I love the image of "carving grooves into my heart and mind" by praying. I strongly agree that this is how prayer is intended to work on us -- slowly, like the way that trickling water gradually wears away a stone. It happens through repetition over a long period of time.

The primary motivation I find for daily prayer is the idea of a "personal development practice." For me, it's like yoga or meditation, as I say in the post. It's something that I do (even when I don't want to) because I know that, in the long run, it will help me become happier and better able to deal with life's challenges.

In a curious way, though, I do think that God "needs" our prayers, but not in the sense of ego-gratification or nourishment. I believe that Judaism teaches at the most basic level that our lives have a purpose. God put us here for a non-trivial reason that we cannot fully comprehend. Our prayers that connect us to God help to fulfill that purpose. We can sense this sometimes in life in moments when we recognize that our lives matter against the background of seeming randomness. Those moments, though, are rare. Our job is to continue seeking God with the promise that, in so doing, we will serve a role in a Creation that is beyond our ken. Yes, God "needs" us to fulfill the purpose for which we were created.

In that sense, I do believe, too, in the idea that we are obliged to pray because "God told us to," although not in the mechanical manner of checking off items on a list of mitzvot. We are obliged because that is the way that the universe is bent. Prayer is one of the primary ways of conforming ourselves to the shape of reality.

Susan Le Gresley
6/22/2011 11:45:04 pm

I think the fascination of prayer is like a glacier. Constantly moving, gouging rock away and taking the earth with it. Internally stressed, growing and receeding with the season. And the blue of Heaven's crystal sea. Joining in prayer is like becoming part of the flow of the glacier, until the fulfillment of the prayer reaches the point of giving up it's treasure - when the ice melts in our hearts.

yewtree link
6/23/2011 02:19:57 am

I like the Kabbalistic explanation of prayer, and the personal development one - but usually when I pray it is a wordless communion with the deep silence, and it is because I epxerience an inner compulsion or need to connect with the Divine.

Alane Wallace
6/23/2011 10:34:39 am

God doesn't need your prayers, you do. I never saw it that way.

Dave
6/23/2011 12:17:03 pm

Thank you Rebbe Jeff and Rachel for those insights A nice concise and easy to read piece


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