Rabbi Konigsburg's Blog

Often, I ask my students, "why do Jews pray?" and often, they answer, "because God told us to." Admittedly, this is an accurate answer, but when I inquire further about the reasoning behind this particular commandment, I am often met with silence. Which means that for many of them, when they come to services, they aren't really sure why they are there other than the sense of duty and obligation that requires it of them. But for those who make prayer regular in their lives, there is something deeper than just this sense of fulfilling God's commandments. For us, there is a richer purpose.

In this week's portion, Parshat B’ha’alotecha, we encounter the text of one of the few prayers of our Torah. We hear Moses' plea for God to heal his sister, who was stricken with the skin ailment tzara'at by God for having slandered her brother Moses. His pithy prayer is “Please God, please heal her, please.” This highlights one of three traditional modes of prayer: requesting things of God. Here, Moses is asking God for his sister’s healing. For others, the request from God is for forgiveness, peace, security, happiness, companionship, etc. The other two traditional modes of prayer are thanksgiving and praise. Our siddur is full of examples of these three types of prayers, and each is itself an answer to why Jews pray.

Yet, on some level, modern worshipers might wonder if their prayers actually work. Is there anyone really listening? Will my loved one be healed because of the words I prayed, or does God really need the acclamation from me? While we can’t answer decidedly about these questions, there are some seasoned worshipers who begin to recognize that prayer is less for the Divine and more for ourselves. By creating postures of thankfulness, requests, and praise, we become aware of the blessings in our lives, the holes in our lives, and values that deserve our attention.

After the silence of my students, I ask them if they think giving tzedakah, pursuing justice, or achieving peace is important. After they admit affirmatively that they are, I ask how many of them paused that day to remember those values. Usually, we are too busy in life to recognize our blessings, contemplate our anxieties, and measure our values. We spend more time thinking about what is for dinner or how long we will be sitting in traffic. However, if we can make prayer a more permanent action in our life, then perhaps we can create those meditative moments that realign us with our values and help us live lives of meaning.

Shabbat Shalom