DOCUMENT RESUME ED 482 367 SO 035 465 AUTHOR Finkelman, Yoel, Ed. TITLE Educating toward Meaningful Tefillah. Notes from ATID. PUB DATE 2001-00-00 NOTE 28p.; Prepared by the Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions (Jerusalem, Israel) For related documents, see SO . 035 04-466 and SO 035 468. AVAILA$LE FROM Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions, 9 HaNassi Street, Jerusalem 92188, Israel. Tel: 972-2-567-1719; Fax: 972-2-567-1723; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www,atid.org/ PUB TYPE Collected Works General (020) Reports Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Jews; *Judaism; *Religious Education; Secondary Education; Spirituality; Student Educational Objectives IDENTIFIERS Jewish Day Schools; Prayer; *Torah ABSTRACT This collection of articles serves as a record of some of the deliberations of members of the Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions (ATID) (Jerusalem, Israel) The collection captures the collective thinking . that the ATID fellows and faculty members underwent as they explored methods of transforming prayer in Jewish schools into a more meaningful experience. Articles in the collection are: "Reflections on Role Models for Spirituality and Prayer" ("Devarim She-Ba'al Peh al Avobah She-ba-Lev") (Chaim Brovender); "Response" (Joel B. Wolowelsky); and "Educating toward Meaningful 'Tefillah': Some Suggestions for Orthodox Jewish Secondary Schools--Notes from the Deliberations of the ATID Fellows" (Prayer and Inwardness; Prayer as a Social Activity; Prayer for Girls and Young Women) (BT) . Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the ori inal document. Educating Toward Meaningful Jewish Prayer (Tefillah). Notes from ATID. Yoel Finkelman, Editor Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions, Jerusalem (Israel). PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY 54Ks TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 1 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office at Educational Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION BEST COPY AVAILABLE CENTER (ERIC) 1)11 This document has been reproduced as I" received from the person or organization originating it. O Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI posilion or policy. gazipu AT Notes from ATM: Ebv catins Towarb Meaninsful Ebiteb tn Yoel filikelman Directions Academy for Torah Initiatives and 711171'7 runny - (1".0 171.11 7131112 1:19171 ;MTV PEST COPY AMLABLE Athizt-zu Notes from AT1D: tbucatins Towarb Meatiitisful Tefillali Ebiteb tni Vocl finkelman Academy for Torah initiatives and Directions ltrna D1.717I anni irnmi7 fulfil 0".0 - 7111J/ 4 Copyright © 2001 by Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions. All rights reserved. 0, Cover: Page from the Hamilton Siddur (Spain, 13 century). 5 ,, , N.-74c:: from AIM: E.tocatiriS Tow,wo Tcfl1bJ Notes from ATM: Ebucatitis Towarb Meanitisful Tefillali An hivitation Educating Jewish children is a holy task. Those entrusted with the task must develop the sophistication to succeed, and to lead this enterprise to new levels of accomplishment. The Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions encourages the young educators in the ATID Fellows training program to develop a vision for themselves and the community they will lead. But that is not enough ATID also focuses on the strategies necessary to actualize and implement the theory and vision. We present these Notes from ATID: Educating Toward Meaningful Tefillah, first in this series, which is a record of our deliberations on this topic. This document captures the collective thinking which the ATID fellows and faculty members underwent as we explored methods of transforming prayer in our schools into a moremeaningful experience. We do not imagine that these policy recommendations are a panacea, nor do we believe that our findings will be appropriate for all schools. With this in mind, we have included a dissenting response to some of our proposals. We do believe that if properly implemented, they may indeed succeed in many settings. More significantly, we are convinced that these suggestions can serve as a springboard for rigorous deliberation in your schools. Each school can develop specific and implementable strategies which will improve the tefillah of the students and staff. The distribution of this essay allows ATID to disseminate some of its ideas to the community of Jewish educators. We hope to encourage further reflection and planning, in order to improve the rigor, professionalism, and success of our important endeavor. Our sincere appreciation is extended to 3 Yoel Finkelman, whose yeoman efforts, talent and sensitivity saw this project through to publication. Our thanks are also extended to Prof. Susan Handelman, who was instrumental in facilitating many of the initial discussions and deliberations of the ATID Fellows, upon which this monograph is based. ATID will be honored to help facilitate your explorations and planning by providing resources, either written or human. If this essay has served as a catalyst for your school or synagogue, we ask that you share your experiences with us by writing to [email protected]. We will use our website to collect and disseminate your contributions to what we hope will be an issues facing Jewish ongoing collaborative inquiry into the critical education today. Rabbi" _Jeffrey Oaks Director, ATID www.atid.org Notes frowi anacmivls- TowArb Reflections on Role Mobels for SpiritualiN & rramer DeVa:14M She-Ba'al reli A Avobali Slie-batev Rabbi Chaim Brovender There is no reason in the world for educators to assume that tefillah can't be meaningful. However, it is not at all clear how one learns to daven. Many of us undergo a training period which ultimately makes it possible for us to participate in some form of davening. But training a person to spend an appropriate amount of time in the synagogue is not the same as training him for davening itself. Convincing a child of the milmemosamminuir value, importance, and necessity of Convincitig a cliilb of tlie value, attending prayers or reciting the words is importance, anb necessit4 of not equivalent to preparing that child to be open to the inner experience of attenbin5 pramers or recitinS spiritual, soulful prayer. the worbs is not equivalent to preparinS tliat cuilb to be An individual cannot simply make a open to the inner experience conscious decision to pray properly. of spiritual, soulful pramer. Rather, the person must first become mrlimmommor intimately aware of the possibility of genuine prayer, an awareness that we are directed to engender in ourselves. We must invest serious time and serious energy to become aware that the prayer process is possible, and that we can actually join that process. Not everyone accomplishes this not even everyone who is trained from childhood to daven. But it seems to be a position that one can assume if he or she is so inclined, or if so directed by teachers and parents. Educators must not confuse the discipline of davening with davening itself. Both are necessary and both have to be taught, but we do our students a disservice if we confuse the two in our teaching. This confusion makes it impossible for students to address the real problems of their own davening. Clearly, certain discipline is necessary for proper davening. The time, place, words and their meaning are all important, as well as the community in 5 which prayer occurs. But none of these is equivalent to davening in its and are to blame for our own failure, if essence. We sell our students short, form, and do not enable our students to we concentrate only on the discover the substance of prayer. All students have the potential to pray seriously. Ironically, halakhah itself allows for this confusion. It is easy enough to become involved with the minutiae of the event, and ignore the fact that there is a spirit, an ethos, that has to be grasped. We are not only the teachers of the details of the halakhic demands and concerns (though we certainly are that as well). We must also m We ust also enable enable and empower the students to anb empower the stubents find and activate their own spiritual to titib atib activate core even in this pragmatic world. their own spiritual core. and a Nevertheless, there is a form AIME to our rigid one at that rather davening, and that form is determined by halakhic considerations. As such is of singular importance to us when we approach Hashem. Since it halakhah in some way expresses God's will by teaching us how we are to stand before Him then it would be remiss on our part to ignore that feature of the halakhah. In fact, the student should understand that the "laws of prayer" are the rules which Hashem and Chazal have commanded us, and which enable us to petition Him with great sincerity andmeaning. However, the rules will not necessarily resonate in the hearts of the petitioners, nor and teach generate a spiritual experience automatically. We must go further ourselves to find the proper attitude to prayer from within. This is not something which can be taught through traditional modes of teaching, but is a process of discovery that we as educatorsmustallowandencourage . Teachins Pravier Prayer is a natural event deriving from the human psyche, and is capable, if properly engaged, of enhancing one's personality. Prayer is implied in creation itself. If God created the world, it is reasonable that His creatures should be able to turn to and speak with their Father in heaven. It seems 6 TcfilLii Notes from ATM: E-oucminc Tow.hrb McaTlinsf0 1111111111111- universally true that people do indeed pray. We have a real need to place ourselves before the Creator of the world, and enter into a dialogue with Him. For those who have taken this step, prayer is an obvious, even a simple affair, which can be done under almost any circumstance. The fact that the halakhah prevents us from prayer in certain circumstances, in inappropriate place for example, indicates that such a desire to pray in such a place is not entirely out of the question. Given that this need is so basic, how can we teach ourselves and others to be natural about davening? How can we be honest in estimating ourselves, and protect our basic need to address our great Father in heaven? How do we become part of the community of petitioners? How do we organize our hands, our feet, our hearts and our souls in such a way that we are not simply caricatures of the praying person, but How Ca we be 'honest li genuine prayerful petitioners? How can estimAtinS ourselves, we feel that we are on the road to devotion? How do mib protect our bAsic neeb we convince that we are engaged ourselves to Abbress our 5reat fAttier in something meaningful, and not merely fp, ileAve-pi? another of the many false directions that mmlimarazglar- onemight take in life? Clearly, we must distinguish between the behaviorist success of some modern institutions and our true aspirations for prayer. For many, the answer is found in the person who becomes our role model a person who we can imitate, and who leads us in the direction of authentic tefillah. It is hard to describe this person with accuracy, but that doesn't mean that he or she doesn't exist. In fact, if we think carefully we may find him inside of us: the memory of a grandparent or parent, rebbe or teacher. We all know someone who we were sure was actually deep in conversation with Hashem.Whilewecannotprovethis,wearenonetheless certain that it is true. There can be no prayer, neither individual or communal, unless everyone who participates is confident that prayer is available to him/her. It is our role models that provide this confidence. 7