Hear Our Prayer!

Today's source sheet draws from Rabbi Dr. Ellie Kaunfer's teaching. My sincere appreciation to him for his deep wellspring of Torah.

Our Blessing

First Prompt:

• Take a couple minutes and write a list of everything you can remember being concerned or worried about over the past month or so, starting with today. They can be totally mundane like:
  • Did I leave the lights on?
  • There's a small hole in my shirt!
  • I'm going to be late!
  • I left the house just to remember a moment later I left ___ there
• Or much bigger:
  • My car needs repairs
  • I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills
  • My family is hurting
  • There's a leak in the roof
  • I'm exhausted all the time
  • I feel out of control
• There's nothing too big or small. Try write continuously for the whole time. It's harder than it sounds.

Now pause. Take a deep breath.

Second Prompt

• Take a couple minutes and write a list of everything you feel grateful for either today or over the past month or so, starting with today. They can be totally mundane like:
  • I got to my meeting right on time
  • My lunch was delicious
  • I have a comfortable bed
  • I like my clothes
• Or much bigger:
  • I/my family was sick and got better
  • I got a really good night's sleep
  • I had a great workout
  • My eyes, hands, legs, nose, ears, digestion, etc works!
  • I did a great job on xyz project
  • I got a great compliment
  • I gave myself a great compliment
  • I was afraid of something, but I overcame it
• Just like before, nothing too big or small. Try to write continuously for the whole time. It's harder than it sounds.

Now pause. Take a deep breath.

Below you will find a collection of sources about G-d, hearing, and prayer.

Treat them like you might pieces in an art gallery, glossing over some; picking some up and looking at them deeply, noticing what makes you notice them, noticing what feelings they bring up in you.

There's no wrong way to do this except to not pay enough attention to your reactions to the sources.

Heschel, On Prayer

We pray because the disproportion of human misery and human compassion is so enormous. We pray because our grasp of the depth of suffering is comparable to the scope of perception of a butterfly flying over the Grand Canyon. We pray because of the experience of the dreadful incompatibility of how we live and what we sense.
Dark is the world to me, for all its cities and stars. If not for my faith that God in His silence still listens to a cry, who could stand such agony?

Prayer will not come about by default. It requires education, training, reflection, contemplation. It is not enough to join others; it is necessary to build a sanctuary within, brick by brick, instants of meditation, moments of devotion. This is particularly true in an age when overwhelming forces seem to conspire at destroying our ability to pray.

Heschel, On Prayer

The essence of living as a human being is being challenged, being tempted, being called. we pray for wisdom, for law of knowing how to respond to our being challenged. Living is not enough by itself. Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. And yet being alive is no answer to the problems of living. To be or not to be is not the question. The vital question is: how to be and how not to be?

The tendency to forget this vital question is the tragic disease of contemporary man, a disease that may prove fatal, that may end in disaster. To pray is to recollect passionately the perpetual urgency of this vital question.

Prompt 3

Now, with all those texts and your two lists, feel free to respond to any, all, or none of the following prompts or ideas. Don't worry about following anything exactly or even writing beautifully. The writing is the point:

• Use any of the above texts as the inspiration for your writing.
• Write a prayer which starts or ends with the phrase "blessed/praised are You, G-d, who hears prayer"
• Write a prayer using the form "The One Who answered me in/when____ will answer me." Maybe use the gratitude list.
• Write a prayer in which you ask, specifically, in detail, for what you need and why. Maybe use the worry list.
• Write a meditation on things you can hear or see right now, or often.
• Write the prayer you wish G-d would hear, especially if you aren't sure G-d hears anything at all.
• Try experimenting with different names for G-d. (G-d, HaShem (The Name), Adonai (Master), El Shaddai (God Almighty or God of Breasts), Ribbon Shel Olam (Master of the World), HaKodesh Barukh Hu (The Holy Blessed One), Avinu Malkeinu (Our Parent, Our Sovereign), Shekhina (the feminine in-dwelling presence of G-d, who is in exile with the people Israel), Yah, The One Who Spoke the World into Being, HaMakom (The Place), to name a few!).
• Pick a quality or a character trait you need in your life and make an acrostic out of it.
• Try writing a prayer of praise for some of the things you're grateful for.
• Write a prayer for a friend or family member whom you know is struggling.
• Write a prayer you needed 10 years ago.
• Write a blessing for your younger self, your older self.
• Write a prayer for when you arrive at work or school.
• Write a prayer for a relationship in your life that needs special attention.