Making Prayer Real: Leading Jewish Spiritual Voices on Why Prayer Is Difficult and What to Do about It

by Mike Comins

Overview

Fresh, Useful Perspectives on the Spiritual Dynamics of Prayer

"Better music, better sermons and better prayer books can only go so far. Many innovations have been tried around the world, and no doubt, synagogue leadership will continue to think creatively about improving services. But deep and lasting change will only come when each of us takes ownership and responsibility for what only we can really guide—our inner lives."
—from the Preface

Join over fifty Jewish spiritual leaders from all denominations in a candid conversation about the why and how of prayer: how prayer changes us and how to discern a response from God. In this fascinating forum, they share the challenges of prayer, what it means to pray, how to develop your own personal prayer voice and how to rediscover meaning and God's presence in the traditional Jewish prayer book.

CONTRIBUTORS:
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson • Rabbi Aryeh Ben David • Rabbi Anne Brener, LCSW • Rabbi Sharon Brous • Maggid Yitzhak Buxbaum • Rabbi Mike Comins • Rabbi Elliot J. Cosgrove, PhD • Rabbi Lavey Derby • Cantor Ellen Dreskin • Rabbi Diane Elliot • Reb Mimi Feigelson • Rabbi Tirzah Firestone • Rabbi Nancy Flam • Rabbi Karen Fox, DD • Dr. Tamar Frankiel • Rabbi Ethan Franzel • Rabbi Elyse Frishman • Rabbi Laura Geller • Rabbi Neil Gillman, PhD • Rabbi Shefa Gold • Rabbi Elyse Goldstein • Joel Lurie Grishaver • Rabbi Nadya Gross • Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD • Melila Hellner-Eshed, PhD • Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD • Rabbi David Ingber • Rabbi Zoë Klein • Rabbi Myriam Klotz • Rabbi Jamie Korngold • Rabbi Lawrence Kushner • Rabbi Naomi Levy • Rabbi Richard N. Levy, DD • Rabbi Sheryl Lewart • Jay Michaelson • Rabbi Linda Motzkin • Rabbi Debra Orenstein • Rabbi Nehemia Polen, PhD • Rabbi Marcia Prager • Rabbi Jeff Roth • Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi • Rabbi Rami Shapiro • Rabbi Jonathan P. Slater • Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz • Rabbi Ira Stone • Rabbi Michael Strassfeld • Dr. Linda Thal • Rabbi Abraham Twerski, MD • Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg • Rabbi Zari M. Weiss • Rabbi David J. Wolpe • Rabbi Shawn Zevit

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683361879
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	01/01/2010
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Rabbi Mike Comins, the founder of TorahTrek Spiritual Wilderness Adventures (www.TorahTrek.com) and the Institute for Jewish Wilderness Spirituality (www.ijws-online.org), is the author of A Wild Faith: Jewish Ways into Wilderness, Wilderness Ways into Judaism and Making Prayer Real: Leading Jewish Spiritual Voices on Why Prayer Is Difficult and What to Do about It (both Jewish Lights). He studied classical Jewish texts at the Pardes Institute, earned his MA in Jewish education from Hebrew Universityand was ordained in the Israeli rabbinical program of Hebrew Union College. He was a founding member and the first director of education at Kehilat Kol Haneshama in Jerusalem. He lives, teaches and writes in Los Angeles, and serves as a scholar-in-residence for schools and synagogues around the world.

Rabbi Mike Comins is available to speak on the following topics:

• Finding God in Nature: Buber, Heschel and the Kabbalah on the Experience of Divinity in the Natural World
• How the Jews Lost Nature and Why We Need to Get Her Back
• Making Prayer Real: Why Prayer Is Difficult and What to Do about It
• Prayer, Teshuvah and Coping with Loss
• The Spiritual Dynamics of Traditional Prayer

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction: The Problem with Jewish Prayer

Part I The Spiritual Dynamics of Prayer
1. The Efficacy of Prayer
2. What Is Prayer?
3.Yearning
4. Gratitude
5. Kavvanah
6. Engaging the Body
7. Listening for God: Silence and Meditation
8. Discerning Divinity
Part II Beginning to Pray
9. Advice For Beginners
10. The Power of You
11. Blessings
12. Cultivating a Personal Prayer Voice
Part III Growing and Healing through Prayer
13. Teshuvah: Personal Change, Communal Responsibility
14. Coping with Loss
Part IV Embracing Traditional Jewish Prayer
15. The Spiritual Dynamics of the Siddur
16. Learning the Siddur
17. Overcoming the Hebrew Barrier
18. Best Practices
19. Between Traditional and Personal Prayer
20. Advice For Beginners Redux
Part V Building a Prayer Practice
21. Starting a Daily Practice

Conclusion: Letting God In
Notes
Waiting for You at www.MakingPrayerReal.com
Glossary
Resources
About the Contributors
Index of Contributors