Davening: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Prayer - Hardcover

by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (Author), Joel Segel (With), Lawrence Kushner (Foreword by)

Experience the living taste of prayer in your heart, the deep and gentle glow of prayer in your soul.

"Many who live their lives as Jews, even many who pray every day, live on a wrapped and refrigerated version of prayer. We go to synagogue dutifully enough. We rise when we should rise, sit when we should sit. We read and sing along with the cantor and answer 'Amen' in all the right places. We may even rattle through the prayers with ease. We sacrifice vitality for shelf-life, and the neshomeh, the Jewish soul, can taste the difference."
--from the Introduction

This fresh approach to prayer is for all who wish to appreciate the power of prayer's poetry and song, jump into its ceremonies and rituals, and join the age-old conversation that Jews have had with God. Reb Zalman, one of the most important Jewish spiritual teachers in contemporary American Judaism, offers you new ways to pray, new channels for communicating with God and new opportunities to open your heart to God's response.

With rare warmth and authenticity, Reb Zalman shows you:

• How prayer can engage not just spirit, but mind, heart and body
• Meditations that open the door to kavanah, the focus or intention with which we pray
• How to understand the underlying "deep structure" of our prayer services
• How to find and feel at home in a synagogue
• How to sing and lead niggunim, the simple, wordless tunes that Jews sing to get closer to God
• and more