 ... Why We Pray ...
... Recommend this page to a friend. We pray because our body needs nourishment, health, safety, comfort. We pray to acknowledge our dependency upon, our appreciation of, and our gratitude to the Source of all the wants, joys and achievements of life.
We pray because our soul is lonely. A spark of the Divine fire, it has journeyed to a world heavy and dark with "matter" -- with things, forces and objects that shout forth their own reality, obfuscating their Source. So the spark yearns for home, strives to become reabsorbed in the fire. Eagerly it awaits the times set aside for prayer -- those precious daily moments when the person it inhabits ceases to commune with the world and communes with his or her Creator.
So a person praying is a standing paradox, a swaying contradiction, a self divided against itself. Both body and soul are praying. Try to understand this: The body is praying for life and existence. The soul is praying to escape life, to transcend existence.
And yet, as prayer progresses, harmony prevails. As the soul prays, climbing the heavens and shedding the husks of selfhood that encumber it with an identity and hold it distinct from its source, the body (who's praying on the same page -- there's no escaping that) learns that spirituality, too, is a need; that transcendent strivings are also a pleasure; that union with G-d is also an achievement. And the soul, who's praying on the same page as the body (there's no escaping that, either) learns that life, too, is Divine; that existence is also a way of fusing with G-d; that achievement can be the ultimate self-abnegation, if one's achievements are harnessed to a higher, G-dly end.
Why do we pray? Because the body needs the soul and the soul needs the body, and both need to be made aware that the other's need is also their own. That, ultimately is the essence of prayer: to know our needs, understand their source, comprehend their true objectives. To direct our minds and hearts to He who implanted them within us, defined their purpose, and provides us with the means to fulfill them.
Rabbi Avigdor Miller, speaking of the miracle of grain, writes that: "Hashem bestowed the grain, and that the grain is a miraculous substance, which elicits our amazement and admiration. If we respond properly to this declaration, and we recognize the wondrous process of the growth of the grain and we perceive the vastness of the miracles which the grain performs when we ingest it, the grain thereby becomes the great demonstration of Hashem’s infinite wisdom and power and kindliness. When men learn these lessons they thus fulfill the purpose for which they were created, and thus they deserve Hashem’s favor.
"The intention of gaining G-d’s favor should be emphasized and should be kept in mind while doing any mitzvah (fulfilling a commandment) and even any ordinary act. But “A man’s food is more difficult (meaning: more miraculous) that the rending of the Sea of Suf” (parting of the Red Sea).
"The sunlight travels 93 million miles to aid the plant-chlorophyll to convert the carbon dioxide of the air into starch. The sun evaporates the surface of the sea and the vapor rises to the clouds, where the winds sweep the clouds inland to be condensed and to fall as rain to nourish the grain. Every grain kernel possesses some millions of bits of information recorded on the helix of the DNA molecule with instructions how to produce the plant and how the plant should function to produce the grain. As the materials from the atmosphere and from the soil pass into the plant and are processed, thousands of complicated steps must be performed in precise sequence so that the final result is achieved. But the truth of the intricacy of the production of food is vastly more complicated and purposeful than men will ever know.
We should show "endless gratitude and wonderment and admiration for the work of him that 'gives bread to all flesh, for his kindliness is everlasting'. G-d created these miracles of kindliness in order that men should recognize Him. Thus the appreciation of food is a major means of gaining G-d’s favor. That is the reason that birkat hamazon (grace after eating) is the sole blessing that is unanimously recognized as an original Torah obligation."
A QUICKIE LESSON ON "BIRKAT HAMAZON"
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Birkat Hamazon, (blessing on nourishment), known in English as the "grace after meals" (Yiddish: "to bench"; Yinglish: benching), is a set of Hebrew blessings that Jewish Law prescribes following a meal that includes bread or matzoh made from one or all of wheat, barley, rye, oats, spelt. It is a matter of rabbinic dispute whether birkat hamazon must be said after eating certain other bread-like foods such as pizza.
Birkat hamazon is typically read to oneself after ordinary meals and often sung aloud on special occasions such as the Shabbas and festivals. The blessing can be found in almost all prayer books and is often printed in a variety of artistic styles in a small booklet called a birchon in Hebrew or bentcher in Yiddish.
Comments, questions, suggestions, and criticisms are always welcomed.  Let's keep in mind the words of Rabbi Ephraim Epstein Congregation Sons of Israel - Cherry Hill, NJ "Tefillah without Kavannah is like a Guf without a Neshama." (Prayer without concentration is likened to a body without a soul) Now this way to the … Index of Jewish Studies … there is plenty more. This'll bring us to the ... Navigator ... the heart of this site. |