Toward an Understanding of Jewish Biblical Prayer Part 2 - The Path of the Prophets

all right so this is part two and I know where you guys are stuck we know the Jewish prayer traditionally is read from a sedur what's that about how can we talk about a spontaneous eruption from the heart a moment of being present and real If all we're doing is reading from words that other people wrote for us that's the most inauthentic thing possible and so this is part two of prayer and it's just as important once again prayer is not about begging God for Stuff the Kazan the leader of Jewish prayer is called a Kazan because the word stem from the word kazone which means Vision meaning the leader of Jewish prayer as he's reading the words of the prophets of Israel he's setting up a vision for us for us Listen to This Dana to Reign ourselves to refocus ourselves to take ourselves out of the monotony of daily living it's to reconnect us to our true destiny to what our soul really wants if it's a beautiful family if it's wisdom if it's health and wellness if it's to rebuild Jerusalem to be Eng gathered from the Exiles that we shouldn't forget what we really want that that's why coming to Israel living in Israel just walking in Israel is a prayer because it realigns ourselves it changes our priorities I was just with the family the other day they invited me to celebrate a bar mitzvah with them and they hosted it at this IDF base look at [Applause] this it was incredible seeing these Jews from the other side of the world and the unity and love they felt for the modern-day macbes dancing in the land that changes who they are leit palel is a reflexive term anytime a word in Hebrew begins with leit it means it's doing something to usit laes means I'm putting on my clothing leit palel which means to pray means that I'm doing something to myself I'm not trying to necessarily change God but what I have in prayer is I'm changing myself I'm realigning myself I'm refocusing myself I'm doing something to myself if I have a prayer experience and I'm the the same person I was before the prayer and I'm the same guy after my prayer it means that I didn't really accomplish the purpose of prayer because the goal of prayer is to transform yourself here's the key to understanding the goal of Jewish prayer when ysep was sold into slavery the Torah mentions that he was sold on a spice card and the midash asks why does it matter if he was sold in a spice card why does the Torah go out of its way to tell us that he was sold in a spice c what does it matter if he was going down on a donkey or if he was riding a cow why do we need to know that he was sold in a spice cart so the midash ansers that yosf knew that usually on that trail the isites of that time brought sulfur down to Egypt and they were trading in Sulfur and sulfur smelled disgusting but this time he was on a spice cart and that was quite unusual he saw something out of the ordinary and Yosef that understood he wasn't being sold down into Egypt he was being guided into Egypt he saw a spice cart in his life and that's a phrase we all need to incorporate into our own lives because all of us have SP spice carts that are happening all the time people that we meet things that we encounter things that are out of the ordinary hints at where we should be directing Our Lives what we should be doing with our lives sometimes it's by the rabbis that we meet sometimes it's the people we encounter sometimes it's the Torah that we learn sometimes it's an intuition that was given to us a thought that we had that came in a certain time in order to guide us in a certain direction the goal of Jewish prayer is to open ourselves up for that encounter that we should enter into a relationship a dialogue the fundamental claim of the Torah is that the world may look chaotic but it's not chaotic we can tap into a certain order we can actually communicate with the universe itself that the creator of the universe through the universe will talk with us guide us that we don't have to Pioneer our own way through that we'll be guided in life in the directions we're meant to go that's the goal of ultimate prayer to realign ourselves to enter into the flow of the universe itself that we should then be guided by Divine inspiration in our own lives that's why sometimes we need a blueprint a map to give us the vision of what we really want and when we enter into that Vision when we refocus and realign our priorities and take ourselves out of the monotony of daily living then we enter in to a potential relationship where life becomes marvelous life becomes a lot higher than the life of just reacting to what happens to you during your day you start being a proactive creator of your life you participate in creating creating your own destiny Guided by the master of all Destinies and opening yourself up to that relationship is truly the purpose of Jewish prayer and you combine those two a spontaneous authentic conversation from your heart with the guidance and the map and the vision given to us by the prophets of Israel in the Psalms and in the amida combining those two together every day is a road map to how to live a divinely inspired and guided life and that ultimately is the goal of Jewish [Music] prayer hey friends so I just finished recording that last two-part series on Jewish prayer if you enjoyed it you can check out more on our podcast on www.the landof israel.com and don't forget to subscribe to our new YouTube channel thanks so much and if you have any questions just shoot us an email contact us at the landof israel.com shalom [Music]