The Gates of Prayer: Twelve Talks on Davennology – notes on Reb Zalman’s book

These are my own gleanings from a profound book (both spiritually and practically by Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, The Gates of Prayer: Twelve Talks on Davennology (2011, Albion / Andalus, Boulder). I hope they encourage you to buy the book. I have paraphrased in order to clarify my own understanding, but there are also direct quotations from the book. The notes in square brackets are my own thoughts and responses, rather than ideas gleaned from the book itself.

Preface

Xi Traditional formula to ask a teacher: “It’s a teaching, and I need to learn it.”
Xii “my own telling of some of the things that are happening to me when I am involved in prayer before the living God”

1. An Introduction to Davennology

1 God is listening “This call, as it were, is being monitored for quality purposes.” “I truly feel—sh’viti Ha’Shem l’negdi tamid-—that I am in God’s presence right now.”
“direct access to invisible support”
2 “We are the most vulnerable beings when it comes to that space. But that is also the space where we can create a sanctuary for God.”
3 Meditation to locate my inner prayer space, always available (behind fontanelle between temples) [permanently accessible private phoneline or consultation space]
4 “It is the journey from the ego to the Self that happens in that place. Once you have felt that, no one can take it away from you.”
God is a loyal friend I can call any time, and talk about anything.
5 Ps 23 yarbitzeinu he makes me sprawl in the grass
Siddur is ‘freeze-dried’ prayer; our feelings are the water to rehydrate it. “feelings are the hot water that you have to put into the siddur. So all prayer that is devoid of feeling, feels unanswered, because it wasn’t really asked.
6 Our spiritual age it much less than our emotional or biological age.
Heschel: “If you want to learn how to pray, you have to learn with a praying person.”
Learn ‘mind-steering’ skills
7 include emotion in prayer, and stretch yourself spiritually
“And each time you get it, the getting is not only in your awareness, but also in your body. If you can put markers of feeling into your body, it’s very good. Reb Nachman of Bratzlav said, ‘Of every spiritual thing that you learn, you also have to teach it to your body.’ Why? Because awareness in the mind evaporates so quickly.”
8 “The best vessel of recollection is the ‘taste’ of them as experience in our bodies.” [Ps 34:9 Taste and see how good YHVH is.]
Pray to prepare for learning; put yourself in the presence of God.
Maintain ongoing chat with God.
[Become a channel for God]
[The aleph on my tallit: I breathe along with God breathing. I am God breathing.]
[Include God as constant companion / friend in what I do.]
9 “I’m a funnel from the environment to consciousness in my body, but everything has to go through the body.”
The body is the vessel through which all we want to do becomes possible. So we thank God for this astonishing gift.
10 “I suspect we would have a lot less depression in the world if people who feel downcast would be able to say, “Let me go and talk to God about it.’”
“’Your holy ones praise You everyday.’ Ukedoshim b’chol yom y’hal’lucha selah. But this sentence can also be read, ‘Those who are holy praise you in the everyday.’ This is a very simple, ‘blue jeans’ holiness, and that’s what God desires more than the big yontif”
“You don’t have to feel especially serene to do your practice.”
11 “When you begin with appreciation, the door opens up for more serious prayer.”
12 “I think of the God who makes Earth renew herself, who is trying to wake us up in time to prevent global warming, and who brings us into a more intimate relationship with that body in which we live and that gives us life.”
13 Fundamentalism is like an inflamed organ that makes us act out
13 – 1) think of something that needs blessing 2) bring it into your heart as a vessel to receive the blessing 3) then let the blesser be an instrument for passing on God’s blessing (e.g. as in the Priestly Blessing)
14 “Whatever blessing you need, may it come down to you. As the Torah says, ‘Put My name on the children of Israel and I shall bless them,’ says God.”
Practise steering the mind towards appreciation [find some Positive News and reasons to be hopeful!]
16 “Change the diapers of our minds.”
Group prayer makes a difference. [It changes the field conditions, even if it doesn’t change God.]
17 Prayer space needs to allow vulnerability. How to do that in the formal, public space of shul?
Share a mistake or hurt with a friend in prayer-space.
18 “If I see myself in the presence of God, then I can’t be lost.”
Rebbe Yosef Schneerson of Lubavitch (1880-1950) to Soviet prison guard with gun: “I’m not afraid of you. You see, if I had many gods to serve and only one world to serve them in, I would be afraid. But I have but one God to serve and so many worlds to serve Him in, so I’m not afraid.”

2. The Vocabulary of Davennology

19 “When I speak about davenen, I am talking about an inner process that goes wat beyond ordinary prayer and worship; it is something that encompasses one’s entire spiritual life. My sense is that a person can recognise that one who is davenen is actually in touch with God. Even when they are walking in the street, they are nevertheless connected to God, and are davenen; it is a constant element in their lives.”
[A constant ‘Divine-in’! a permanent love-in with the Divine.]
21 Be open to the teacher’s template
22 Kavanah: aim; no ulterior motive; focus; fervour [and God-connection]
23 Train by meditating on single words and phrases
Hitbonenut / contemplation: must take us from general contemplation state to concrete intuition and specifics that evoke idea, feeling and even action
26 Hitbodedut: “flight of the one to the One”
“How could I be alone? God is with me; I am not ” “That element of being in such a connection with God was called hitbodedut.”
“All we need to be aware of is that we know we are getting the attention of God, and God will listen to what we have to say.”
27 Talk to [and with] God—don’t just think the words.
T’fillah / prayer: ha-tofel kli heres ‘to fuse together broken pieces of pottery’
28 Four worlds davenen
Amidah (and Torah service) in atzilut
Grace in the moment provides inspiration to leave siddur and contemplate
[Exercise: read a prayer, alone or by a leader, notice what catches your attention, & watch where it takes you. Remember that is God speaking and inspiring – what are you hearing, feeling, learning? Share with group.]
29 “a dinner table is considered an altar”
30 “my criticism of a lot of modern spirituality is that there is no longing in the method”
“The niggunim that ‘ask’ these questions are what you call ga’agu’im, ‘longing’ niggunim, and they are very beautiful.”
31 Brachach / blessing. b’reich = kneel
Brekhah = pool, channel of water flowing down
32 Bentsch – benediction
Blessing comes from God, not the person [So why have human intermediary? What does that add? Why can’t God do it directly?]
Brachach formula on e.g. an apple identifies God as doing it nowe. creates the apple
[Making a brachach helps remove any resistance I might have to the shefa, the Divine light to flow through me and my action. When I make a brachach, I open a channel to receive Divinity.]
33 “I want to be in touch with the divine will, to allow it to inhabit me, to be imminent and indwelling within me.”
[Brachach à I ask permission to use / borrow. I have the owner’s endorsement in my activity.]
“I am admitting that I don’t own it [the material object], that it isn’t mine. Instead, I recognise God as the owner; and by saying the brachah, I am receiving permission to use it.”
Shul – a good word: in prayer time at shul, we’re always learning
34 “The minyan supports me in my davenen even if I space-out in the middle.”
35 Private & public, solitary & communal, prayer strengthen each other.

3. What is Jewish meditation?

37 “the niggun is supposed to create and affective atmosphere into which you can enter when you are contemplating something”
“May the words of my mouth etc …” “I invite God to witness my meditation.”
38 Re-membering is one of the most important elements of Jewish meditation
38-9 “So much of Biblical meditation is found in the phrase uttered by Moses, v’yadata hayom v’hashevota al l’vavecha, [line in Aleinu] ‘Know it today’—be aware of it, fully encounter it today—‘and make it settle in your heart.’ And what it that that I should ‘know today and put in my heart’? ‘That Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh is Elohim.’ (Deut. 4:39) That Creation is only God in the shape of Creation. How do I know that? Because atah har’eta lada’at, ‘You have made Yourself visible to me.’ (Deut. 4:35)”
39 “I can see God in every person and every object.”
Enter the Sanctuary vulnerable, open to be ‘recalibrated’ by the God encounter – otherwise time in shul is not going to help me.
40 “God wants the Divine Presence to take up residence in my lonely place, where I am most tender, most precious, vulnerable and sensitive.”
41 ‘Daydream’ with God in mind, or on a verse or story. “What’s so wonderful about daydreams is that they also get into the heart, and then they go into the body.”
42 “Nobody else knows what’s going on in my mind, but I need to open my mind to God; I want so much to be known by God in this way.” “Dear God, do now let my resistance to You stop You from coming into my heart.”
“all of spiritual direction is really learning how to reduce one’s resistance to God.”
43 “inner work of checking-out one’s motives, values and wishes: Why am I doing this? What do I want?”
44 “Every generic method that helps us carve-out more inner space is good.”
44-5 “the examination of conscience means that I have to go into places that make me anxious. … But how am I going to change if I don’t go into anxious places? This is an important part of inner work, and if you don’t do this in the presence of God, then a lot of your spirituality will be like ‘whipped cream on garbage’.”
45 “Doing Buddhist meditation in a tallit in a prayer shawl doesn’t make it Jewish. But doing it in the Presence of God at least adds a Jewish dimension to it.”
“I make a window for God to look into me as I’m meditating.”
46 “It is a mitzvah to place oneself in the Presence of God. It is a mitzvah to work on moral transformation.”
“What do I care what the outcome will be? I only care that I’ve been assigned to do this, and I want to do it right. I want to do a good day’s work, as it were.”
[K’doshim-Leviticus: when God follows instructions with ‘I am the Lord your God’, and ‘I am holy’, this identifies the instruction as a mitzvahe. it will bind us to God, and make us holy.]
[Imagine the worlds as production companies in my prayer and actions. Credit them all at the onset to include them in kavanah of the day. That’s davenen!]
47 “the Torah says that we should not take a bribe because it ‘blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous’. So I ask myself, ‘Who is the one who bribes me the most?’ ” “The ‘operating system’ of a person’s morality can also harbour a ‘virus’, and that haws to be eliminated.”
Say the bedtime prayer and review the day – cheshbon hanefesh “consulting our values”
48 A mitzvah opportunity is God inviting me towards Them.
49 Follow after God: tap into the heart of divine compassion [plug into the matrix]
Tap into halachah [suitably upgraded]
50 Revelation happens in the continuous, eternal present
The Sh’ma reminds us we can receive daily updates and commands
The siddur is like computers receiving a popup message saying ‘update available’
52 Yirah is the state I am in when I know I am being seen (ra’oh = to see)
Light a candle before davenen – reminder of a sacrificial offering [and making a sacred time-space]
52 “Where can we go from Your Spirit; where can we hide from Your Presence” Ps 139:7
“If a person is going to hide himself, will I not see him?” Jer. 23:24
53 God can always see me, but it’s important that I take the step to share all of me with God.
54-5 Story of a Chasid of the Tzanzer Rebbe. Local rabbi says to him, why do you travel so far to see your rebbe? You could visit me. Hasid says in Tzanz he learns to read minds, and says, “I know what you’re thinking—sh’viti ha’shem l’negdi tamid.” Rebbe is delighted to catch him out, and says no. Chasid says, “That’s why I go to Tzanz, because my Rebbe is always thinking sh’viti …”

4. Gratitude and self-examination

57 Modeh Ani “I’m grateful that You have entrusted me with another day of life. Sometimes. I put it this way: ‘Dear God, I see that You want to be [me] for yet another day? Okay, I’ll do my best to give You a good ride.”
[Prayer of any kind, including complaint against God is an implicit acknowledgement of God’s existence & relevance.]
[Teach, lead, daven, with your own spiritual mentor as your ally.]
59 “commitment [to God] demands a deep unitary awareness”
Essence of Jewish meditation is (Deut 4:39) “YHVH is God, in heaven above, and earth below, and nothing else exists”
60 We speak to YHVH because They are heart, compassion and personal Thou. Elohim is an It, difficult to relate to personally.
61 Don’t let the meditation event, or your success or failure in it, become the focus.
[Faulty eyes can have an operation, so one is short-sighted and the other is long-sighted, but the brain can adjust to this.]
63 Halevi—‘I wish!’ ‘If only!’—after each phrase of the Sh’ma
“Mattan Torah and Kabbalat Torah—the giving of the Torah on God’s part, and the receiving of Torah on our part”
64 “the daydream is about meting in the tryst of prayer, and the yearning for one another after parting, and another daydream of being united again. If the embrace were continual, it wouldn’t be delicious. For each time it is renewed, that feeling rushes back in with intensity.”
Share with God our loneliest place
‘I want x’ – how does that fit with Torah?
“How do we take hold of the mind’s steering wheel? That is where kavanah comes in.”
[Choose a sacred word or phrase and repeat it, e.g. kadosh more than just three times.]
67 “Do [an activity] in such a way that the quality will reach the level of sh’leimut ha’avodah, of wholeness in the service of God. When that is there, then every form of meditation is okay, because what you are doing is making yourself transparent to God … There isn’t anything that I don’t want to show to God.”
69 “How is my spirituality leaking away from me? When I recognise the flaw, I can factor it in to my decisions.”
70 Feasts, Festivals and sefirot: 1 Yom Kippur / Keter; 2& 3 Rosh Hashanah / Chochmah & Binah; 4 Pesach / Chesed; 5 Shavuot / Gevurah; 6 Sukkot / Tiferet; 7 Purim / Netzach; 8 Chanukah / Hod; 9 Rosh Chodesh / Yesod; 10 Shabbat / Malkhut.
71 Judaism sanctifies organic time
72 We know when davenen has gone well.
Hard to be sure of anyone’s true motives, even our own.
73 Cheshbon hanefesh at end of day = change to examine my motives. Can also pray for people I encountered [insurance policy in case I’ve done harm?] and consider correction I may need to do tomorrow.

5. Keva and Kavanah

75 “If you want your prayer to be answered, you have to invest in the prayer pool, in the God-field.”
77 “We sing melodies that arouse echoes of our ancestors in us. Values accumulated by them awaken in us as we sing those melodies. Without history as an anchor, we are bound to lose our place in the present.”
“Tradition—and you can observe this in the siddur—is what gives the tree structure, substance, and strength, but the vitality is in the growing edge [beneath the bark]. Every religion needs to have a renewal every year, a new growing edge. But it also needs the substance of its history and tradition [shown in the rings of wood]. If a tree only had the growing edge, the first wind would knock it down. We have to have a past and a present in order to have a future.”
15:2 “Zeh eli, this is my God, v’anveihu, the one with whom I have my personal relationship, or the God of my forebears, Elohei avi va’aom’menu, whom I will exalt.”
78 Parable of prayer discipline: Story of watchmaker who charged less to repair watches that were wound every day, even if they were wrong, than the ones that were neglected. [Wind my ‘prayer-watch’ every day.]
Having deep structure practice of the siddur [provides foundation for innovative, inspirational moments]
79 Hiddur mitzvah – add love and devotion, & beauty to the mitzvah
80 “the prayers of the siddur wouldn’t even exist if someone hadn’t gotten enthused and prayed spontaneously, ‘God, You were King before there was a world’ [line from Adon Olam]”
[‘King’ was a meaningful local human being in ancient life. Not so now. Who can we look up to and respect now as a God-metaphor? For me, that would be a trusted elder, mentor or teacher, or maybe a therapist. Whoever they looked up to was even more advanced and trustworthy than themselves. Project and idealise for this exercise: provides a basis for yearning, aspiration, surrender, listening to wisdom outside ourselves.]
[All God names are relational. The name I use invokes that face of God, and also evokes that reciprocal part of myself, e.g. Teacher-Pupil, Parent-Child, Leader-Disciple, Judge-Defendant/Lawyer, Healer-Sufferer, Ruler-Subject.]
81 “There are some people who want an abstract monism, but alas, it doesn’t exist. People who want an organismic monism have more to work with. … We are all connected in a kind of share-flow that goes from organ to organ.”
82 “let’s come together to enlarge and charge-up the God-field”
[Sh’viti – can’t mean staying out of the body. Must see God in and through the world, and stay grounded, practical, and physically present.]
83 Bahyah ibn Pakuda (11^th century) “Prayer without kavanah is like a body without a soul.”
“I accept that I am an integral part of the whole and don’t wish to act like a ‘rogue cell’, a cancer cell in the greater body. I want to collaborate with all of life, and be in harmony with the will of the Creator. This is the most basic kavanah.”
84 “I am doing this for God’s sake … I am integral to the universe … I want to live in such a way that I should be totally in harmony with existence.”
85 Four worlds stacked on each other in prayer: “Here are the words that I am saying; Here is the translation of what I am saying, Here is the deeper level of meaning, Here is the loving and devotional meaning; Here is the mystical meaning.” “Kavanah is the ability to keep steering our consciousness while being aware of all those layers.”
“We ask ourselves, ‘Is my body ready?’ Then we do Birkot HaShachar. ‘Is my heart ready?’ Then we do P’sukei d’Zimrah. ‘Is my mind ready?’ Then we do the Kriyat Sh’ma and its blessings. Finally we come to the Amidah. So that is the way in which we attune, bringing all these things together.” [So the Torah service happens when we have prepared ourselves in all 4 worlds, and arrived at Atzilut, which echoes our Omer process in preparing for Shavuot reception of Torah.]
86 Sometimes the action trumps any kavanah.
87 Sometimes we need to put the siddur It’s a like a long speech that we’ve prepared and set down on paper. But God might say to us, “I love you. Put this piece of paper down. What is really on your mind?”
Ps 145:18 God is close to those who call out in truth.
90 Let the siddur flag topics for prayer, rather than being prescriptive or dogmatic.
[Know which of the 4 worlds is more your style, but learn to daven with all of them.]
91 Over time, those who really know how to daven can ‘enchant’ a place, and we can feel that energy and lineage [the investment that previous daveners made, from which we reap the interest]
Shabbat: “If you can’t go into the fairytale, at least once a week, your life is going to be too dry.”
92 Dalai Lama says we should have a “secular ethic”, the karmic idea that actions have natural consequences – the scientific principle of verifiable cause and effect.
94 Jewish generational conditioning to make things better for everyone.

6. Blue Jeans Spirituality

95 All four worlds are lived experience here and now
96 “There is a wonderful line in the the daily davenen that says: … ‘the holy ones praise You every day.’ But I read it as, ‘Those who are holy in the everyday, praise You.’ The real praise for God is not the holiness that people have in their holy places, but in the everyday.”
97 Has a button on his mezuzah which, when pressed, says, “Wake up as you cross the threshold.”
[Create physical sh’viti]
99 “’Log-on’ to this grateful frame of mind again, and be connected through the ‘inner-net’ to God.” “Long-on” to God.
Service to others must also be service to God.
100 “When I can say, ‘This is occurring in the presence of God’, that is the first part. The second part is to realise that I can’t do it all myself. In order to do it right, in order to do it with full energy, I can’t do it by myself. I have to be ‘plugged-in’ to God, and that’s what we call d’veikut, ‘cleaving’ …”
“I am deployed to do a task.”
Has a computer screensaver: “We don’t know how we will serve our God until we get there.”
Ring tone that sounds the shofar.
102 “This is how it is when I fulfil a mitzvah; I am sending a secret message to God. … I am winking at You, Ribbono shel Olam; I hope you like what I am doing.”
105 “Most people get the siddur and expect it to live for them, when really it is like a freeze-dried experience; you have to add the water of your own kavanah to bring it to life.”
“The scriptural rule about prayer is this: If you need something, talk to God about it.”
Rabbinic prayer is keva.
106 “For many people, shuls today have become lifecycle facilities …”
107 Prepare your body for prayer, even before you enter the synagogue service, or a study session. Enter the shul or study session silently. Create receptivity.
108 Set intention before
Before you pray, say ‘I accept upon myself the commandment to love my neighbour as myself.’
109 “Look around you and open yourself to loving as many people as you can see. If you are feeling judgemental about some people, say, ‘Dear God, whatever judgements I have bout this person, please remove them from me, and remove the need to have a judgement about them, so that can live more fully.”
“It is organismic to be able to think of other people in a good way: to fargin people is the greatest realisation.”
1) What I find hard in another person, I must find in myself. 2) Pray to better this in myself. 3) This therefore offers betterment for the other person (and greater compassion & understanding from me).
110 Let a melody in shul carry me.
Daven close to each other, so we burn brighter like logs on a fire; get close to each other’s fervour. [This is the essence of singing niggunim together, as well as why we benefit from praying together.]
Do personal, inner work, in shul when needed.
111 Reflect on what it was like to be Moses, Abraham, Besht [Zalman!] relating to God.
“Very often, the rabbi may not even know that he or she [or they] is a conduit, but something is going to sneak through because you have already made the channel. [Open the channel to hear God even the channel won’t know it.]
112 “I can be a monist in my head, but I can’t be a monist in my heart. In my heart, I have to have an other whom I love. That is where I am in the I-Thou”
“Part of the divine grace is that God will wear any mask that will allow me to communicate with Him.”
113 “check out the images that will allow you the most heartful exchange with God.”

7. The Shul and T’shuvah

[Shul is not where we seek God-space or holiness, but where we bring ours. BYOH ‘Bring Your Own Hoiliness’! Having said that, it is worth remembering that group intention, like the bonfire, builds holy intensity; and we can also benefit from the history of holy intentions in a place.]
116 Personal inner space of vulnerability and honesty—we share with friends and with God. Cultivate this, and activate before shul.
117 “Instead of a ‘smoke break’ or a ‘coffee break’, I want to have a God break.”
118 “a form of meditation in which I take something from our mythic history” e.g. Pesach story
119 Contemplation moves us from head to heart
“Yir’at Ha’Rom’mut, the awe that comes from the vastness and the greatness, from the immensity of things.”
120 Use melody for unlocking and entering meditation.
‘Yeshivah rock’ – “Those rock melodies are easy to catch for celebrations, but have no meaning by themselves.”
Plan the focus of contemplation. [NB often includes God] [God-connection is a natural, God-given superpower we can all access.]
121 [Inclusivity mustn’t equate to lowest common denominator.] More sophisticated and deeper needs must also be met.
122 “melodies are made to get us to the place of t’shuvah”
“this world is a world in which we are meant to learn by our mistakes; there is no other way to learn. Biologically, we an learn only from mistakes.”
123 “Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav put it this way: If you believe you can spoil, you must believe that you can fix.” “fixing is simply part of the ongoing work of spirituality”
124 ‘Sorry’ S’lichot begins Elul; m’hilah, correction, putting it right; kapparah, full atonement and deeper bonding [at-one-ment].
Dig for the motive that led me to make the error.
125 “if I have to go an apologise to someone, I am not going alone; God is going with me. I have to sense that I won’t be able to make any of these amends unless I have divine help.” [Take God consciously with me when I apologise.]
My apology will be fallible [not perfect] [as with all my repair work]

8. Spiritual Maturity and Socialised Meditation

127 Don’t rush through, or away from, a nigun.
“On any level of spiritual work it is important not to rush. It is important to be really there, and not to think of what comes next, to distract oneself from the present moment. I think that’s another meaning of kavanah.”
128 “to expect that this won’t be a roller coaster in matters of spirit—forget it!”
[Oral: assiyah and some yetzirah. Anal: yetzirah and some b’riah. Phallic: b’riah and some atzilut. Latency: atzilut of spiritual enlightenment of caring practically for others.]
129 “there are some folks who go from place to place, continually looking for a holy chocolate fix. … You need discipline, a kind of spiritual potty training. … Some people get fixated on very strict observance in religion. Most fundamentalists are fixated …”
130 Phallic: need metaphor, symbols, myth and meaning.
131 Story of rebbe who poses as a peasant to collect wood and build fire, without payment, whilst praying s’lichot, for a sick old woman—he is said to be in heaven, if not higher.
132 “a concern for other people is considered a great way of service to God”
[All these stories demonstrate listening for a person’s fullest context, and addressing the core need/concern, not necessarily expressed.]
133 A soul’s journey is not hierarchical [we just need to visit different, important, places], and a soul is not a static thing.
“Booting the right software”- prepare to daven with a nigun, a story, or a memory of a theophany.
134 Give theophanies a name/label so that you can recall them [Like the ‘Friends’ episodes!]
[Recall how your favourite prayer leaders davened; and perhaps also those who davened in way that didn’t work for you.]
135 “The book doesn’t turn you on; it’s your task to turn on the book.”
“’log-on’ to the longing”. There’s ‘baby-longing’ and mature longing
“you should also daven in the vernacular, even if you know Hebrew, and even if you are fluid with the siddur.”
136 Prayerbook Hebrew is formal and high-brow; we must also use personal, immediate language.
T’khinnes-prayer books in Yiddish for women, had everyday titles for prayers e..g for husband away on a business trip: gave permission for ordinary prayers
137 “it is okay to address God directly for these things”
Focus on siddur prayers that fire me up and speak to me.
138 Zalman: any number can be a minyan.
Give yourself a time limit to daven.
140 Do an I-Thou
Dyad: address God in the other.
141 ‘socialised meditation’ “we can get to places where neither of s could go alone”
142 Choose a sacred topic and create a sentence, taking turns to continue each other’s turn
143 [Jewish year gives us a chance to access, express, process, different parts of personal and collective psyche.]
144 Find something to challenge the Freudian / spiritual stage [or kabbalistic world]. And let others help challenge you out of your fixed place.
145 [Feel your spiritual biorhythms and be responsive to differing calls—in different worlds—at different moments.]

9. Dancing for God & Being with God

148 a chazan used to be called an “omed kinstler, meaning an artist at the prayer stand”
“dance for God when nobody else is looking”
“it is important that people should also approach davenen in a way that transcends words, spending time with niggunim and movement”
149 “We have always taken from the music of the land, as much as some would like to deny it.”
150 “We all have ways of entering the sacred space.” [How do I mark my sacred threshold?]
“I feel that when people say, ‘How come God doesn’t answer my prayer?’ it is because they hang up too soon.” [In Hero’s Journey terms, stay long enough to acquire the boon-bounty to take back with you.]
151 When visiting other traditions’ prayer space, say, “It is my custom that in the presence of God I always wear one of these (pointing to the kippah); I hope that won’t offend you.”
152 Praying with other traditions expands God.
“I come here in a way that wants to honour your place and what you do.”
153 Reading a texts of a spiritual teacher: “While you are reading him, he is your spiritual ally. You are ‘booting’ his software … It is good to find such spiritual allies, such rebbes in books; you will gain a lot from those apprenticeships.”
154 Shabbat is hope: physical rest, sensory and emotional waves of Friday evening, mental flexing of Saturday morning, spiritual beauty of Shabbat afternoon, seuda shlishit and z’mirot, Saturday night of melave malkha, food, songs and stories.
157 Learn about body movement
158 Stay inside yourself when dancing with-for God
159 Answering prayer. Story of little girl who believes “God listened, but He said No” to her request for a doll. “In this formulation, what you’re asking is not going to be best for the whole.”
God can be very real for us, even when we are outraged at God’s response. For example, Ps 22:2 “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” Jer. 20:7 “You seducer, God.”
160 “If I were to try and measure people’s moral sense, I would find that almost everyone has a little bit macular degeneration. … ‘socialised meditation’ is so important; because unless we have friends with whom we can really talk, from whom we don’t have to hide, we won’t be able to socialise our spirituality.” [That’s why I need to find or create a spiritual buddy group.]
“Before every Rosh Hashanah, I have a conversation with three of my friends, whom I ask: ‘What did you see in me this year that you think I need to shift?’ Of what distortions might I be unaware? In Ps 19:13-15 it says: ‘Who knows his own error? From the hidden things, clean me up. Then I can become whole, complete; I will be cleansed from great sin.’”

10. Elements of Davennology

161 Pray at dawn and dusk – the change of light, mingling of day and night.
162 Before davenen [even with a siddur or regular synagogue service], consider whether you need a particular focus for that occasion. [That can become a lens, touchstone, for our experience.]
163 Be open to what arises.
“There are moments in davenen when you feel: ‘Yes, it is for real. This is for real.’ That’s a secret in davenen.”
[Prayer, and our relationship with God, might be a private matter. But that doesn’t mean we should never talk about it, or that we couldn’t benefit from talking about it. There is a very real risk that we remain unskilled, unconfident, resistant, disappointed, unmotivated, under-nourished in prayer unless we seek guidance, support, mentoring, and peer buddying.]
164 Siddur is poetry, metaphor, inspiration; it’s not literal. “the words do not have to be taken literally”
165 music should be part of our enculturation to Yiddishkeit
167 Designate a space at home for davenen
Bond with your tallit by making your own
168 Add your own kavanah to making ritual objects. Makes a difference when we put our own energy in it.
[Sign off from God for one activity, then then sign on with God for the next one.]
169 Theological explanations and prayers only work when I’m involved in the implications.
170 Understand a prayer at many levels, like many instruments playing together in a score
Bedtime prayer “I forgive anyone who has hurt or angered me, in this incarnation or any other, and let no one be punished on my account.”
172 [God need us to make deposits in shared bank account.]
Community must invest in davenen account
“I don’t like to talk about ‘having faith’. In Judaism, faith is something you do, it is a verb. When I’m faith-ing, then it’s real. When I stop faith-ing, then there is no faith; it doesn’t exist.”
171 “With every mitzvah that I do, with every prayer that I make, I enlarge the space in which God can dwell.” “In my heart I will build a sanctuary.”
173 “I want to be loyal to the purpose that created me.”
“I affirm that I am standing in the presence of God. I affirm that this is for real for me. I faith You take that away, and the whole matrix collapses. I have a sense that God cares about what I do, that God creates me, and my life is significant. I have no proof of that, but I am faith-ing it.”
174 Light shabbat candles and add our own prayers. Add tzedakah.
175 When the month of Av comes (month of mourning), there is less joy, but there is always some
Call-response: praise, bless, and harmonised response ‘Halleluyah’

11. Preparation for Davenen

180 “First of all, it is always necessary to say before davenen: ‘This is what I intend to do.” If you look in the old siddurimg (and even some not-so-old siddurim) you will find the words: ‘Hineni mukhan um’zumman, ‘I am ready.’ That is to say: ‘I feel myself invited to do this davenen, and so I’m stepping into it willingly.”
My prayer contribution is just one tile in the full mosaic of prayer, of the community, of the people of Israel, of the world. And when I’ve removed hatred from my heart, and included everyone in my love, then I’m ready to pray.
“we have to check out what might be obstructing our way before we enter the davenen.”
181 Keep notes during weekday davenen.
“A lot of davenen has to do with attunement.”
182 Read inspirited, spiritual texts.
Identify the practical matters you want to take to God in davenen.
183 “Make a list of all the things you want to pray for.”
Make notes for prayer intentions.
184 Connect to a happy memory, inspiring person or thought, memorable service, nigun
185 “The idea was not to bring God here, because God is already here, but to make myself present to God.”
Which worlds or prayers do I need more of today?
“It’s good before the davenen to be really deliberate about this, and to say, ‘Today I need to pay attention to these particular highlights’.”
“Another thing I shouldn’t say, but I’ll say anyway: decide what you are going to skip on the days when you don’t have time for the whole thing. If you don’t decide beforehand, you’ll feel a lot of pressure to finish it all, or you’ll skip in an uneven way. Better a little bit with real intention, real kavanah, than a whole lot without kavanah.”
186 “make sure you leave time for the end” “it is important to collect what you discovered on the way up. That’s where you get your action directives for the way, from these moments of inspiration.”
Prophesy comes from paying attention.
Reinforce intuition-prophesy with sensation, feeling, reason, action.
Taking intention seriously à a guided life.
Keep a tzedakah
187 Maimonides: better to give little by little, because you increase the mitzvah with your action. “You’re always there in it.”
We struggle with pride till our dying moment.
189 Give tzedakah as you remember insights of
Put away prayer objects lovingly
It is God who brings what we need; people are simply the agents.
190 “Minchah is that kind of ‘interruption’, where we say, ‘Ribono shel olam, I’m in the middle of my day, a crazy day, and I’m in a telephone booth, but I just wanted to tell You I love you with a quick Ashrei and Amidah.’. Or you might send up a few ‘arrow prayers’ at that time as well.”
191 “the weapon of a Jew is prayer”
“These are called ‘arrow prayers’ because they don’t take very long, and they go directly to the heart of God.”

12. A Dialogue on Davenology

194 One person’s awareness can affect another’s.
We need ritual, done with God-consciousness.
195 The Jewish avant garde at the growing edge.
196 “How do we give our tzedakah? Are we giving it with the right motives?”
Do t’shuvah before study [or anything!]
198 “pray with self-involvement” – siddur prayer can be elevated when we become personally involved [This 2^nd type of domain is the focus of conversation.]
Relationship with God must constantly be renewed
God, You are so generous – this gives me the confidence to ask for more, for this thing now
197 Besht teaching about Moses at burning bush. Hebrew can be interpreted to mean ‘take the lock (shoes) off your habits (feet)’.
199 “A child wants to eat an apple. The father says: ‘You will get the apple after dinner, now now.’ So the child starts reciting the blessing over the fruit. What can the father do? He doesn’t want the child to make a blessing in vain, so he gives him the apple. So too, when we make the blessing, God has to forgive us.”
“Sometimes the d’veikut is more manifest, and we feel the grace of God surrounding us. Sometimes the d’veikut shows in a certain sense of absence and longing.”
“In my life, I have experienced times of longing that have brough me so much closer to God than when I was relaxed in the presence of God.”
“If you don’t daven during the week, you are not in the process of living with God.”
200 Many blessings are a private wink to God. An arrow prayer sent to God. Making myself transparent to God, & involving God in this moment.
[Reb Zalman told me to go to my soul’s root to know what I should do. Today, I realise that God is my soul’s root (route!). That changes and clarifies everything!]
201 Jewish meditation is different from Buddhist meditation with a bit of Judaism thrown in.
202 Put myself in the presence of God, seek what is God’s will for me, remove obstacles to that, make myself God’s agent, work to God’s standards.
[Get practised at logging onto God quickly, and spending short, purposeful time with Them.]
203 “Mitzvot demands the consciousness of intentionality.”
204 “But machshavah means more than mere thought. It means scheming, weaving together on the level of reason, and the level of feeling, and the level of intuition; it is feeling it in your body then when you actually do that kind of thinking, it is connection to the mitzvah.”
“Ask God, ‘How can I get rid of my concepts so that I can know You.’”
[Holy mantras are sacred self-talk!]