As a child I used to loathe praying. It was all in Hebrew, a language I did not understand, it took a long time and it seemed meaningless. My antipathy for prayer extended to the synagogue. Going to the synagogue on Saturday mornings was a real chore. I made sure…
Category: Praying
The Secret of Successful Prayer
A man came to the rabbi and said, “Rabbi I have decided to become an atheist.” “Why?’ asked the rabbi. “Because I prayed so hard and long for God to help me buy my dream home and I still have not been able to do so. That’s proof that there…
Praying towards Contentment
How often do we think about other people? Do we really take an interest in anyone other than ourselves? Everything around us – the media, the economy, our jobs – encourages us to be selfish and egocentric. Yes indeed, the world we live in can sometimes be a very dark…
Has Maimonides’ view on prayer informed traditional religious practice?
By Levi Yisroel Brackman – In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art in Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London Introduction There is a view commonly held among scholars that the Maimonidean rationalist approach to religion is incompatible with traditional practice.[1] This dissertation…