October 13, 2006

“However, prayer is no panacea, no substitute for acion. It is, rather, like a beam thrown from a flashlight before us into the darkness.  It is in this light that we who grope, stumble, and climb, discover where we stand, what surrounds us, and the course which we should choose.  Prayer makes visible the right, and reveals what is hampering and false.  In its radiance, we behold the worth of our efforts, the range of our hopes, and the meaning of our deeds.  Envy and fear, despair and resentment, anguish and grief, which lie heavily upon the heart, are dispelled like shadows by its light.”    

Background

"The most striking finding of our study in connection with God and the synagogue is that, for the most part, the Jews we interviewed do not make any straightforward connection between the two.... They told us time and again that they do not come to synagogue expecting to find God there..." (The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America by Steven M. Cohen and Arnold M. Eisen) 

At Micah we take very seriously our search for God and the Sacred.  We are thus incorporating into our Shabbat Evening Services a short text by Abraham Joshua Heschel from his inspiring book Man's Quest for God followed by a very brief private discussion with those sitting around you in the sanctuary.  The Heschel texts will be also be posted here each week.