September 15, 2006

“Prayer clarifies our hope and intentions.  It helps us discover our true aspirations, the pangs we ignore, the longings we forget.  It is an act of self-purification, a quarantine for the soul.  It gives us the opportunity to be honest, to say what we believe, and to stand for what we say.  For the accord of assertion and conviction, of thought and conscience, is the basis of all prayer.”    

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.