The Way Into Jewish Prayer - Softcover

Hoffman, Rabbi Lawrence A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1580232019 ISBN 13: 9781580232012

Publisher: Jewish Lights, 2004

Synopsis

An accessible introduction to the reasons for and the ways of Jewish prayer.

The Way Into Jewish Prayer helps us to explore the reasons for and the ways of Jewish prayer. It opens the door to 3,000 years of Jewish prayer, making available all you need to feel at home in the Jewish way of communicating with God.

About this title

Review

The Way into Jewish Prayer by Dr. Lawrence Hoffman, a rabbi and liturgical expert, offers an instructive and empathic orientation to the rewarding and perplexing experience of prayer. Throughout, Hoffman stresses that "Prayer is not simply a question of what Jews say to God. It is also about the God who is at the other end, listening." He begins with a survey of the many images of God--male and female, grand and humble--that have helped Jews throughout history to believe they are not alone. He moves on to consider the pragmatic, American question of how prayer works, arguing for the legitimacy of both fixed prayer and spontaneous prayer. Then Hoffman explains the prayerful symbolism of the synagogue in sharp detail, and the application of this symbolism in various Jewish traditions: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist. Ultimately, Hoffman argues that all forms of Jewish prayer are geared toward finding the sacred in the ordinary. Prayer, he writes, is a way of making choices to "remain deeply human, warmly empathetic, on fire with courage, and alive with hope." --Michael Joseph Gross

From the Inside Flap

For everyone who wants to understand Jewish prayer, this book shows the way into an essential aspect of Judaism, and allows you to interact directly with the sacred texts of the Jewish tradition.

Guided by Dr. Lawrence A. Hoffman, rabbi and professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, The Way Into Jewish Prayer helps us explore the reasons for and the ways of Jewish prayer. Offering an invitation and a roadmap to becoming a more prayerful person, it leads us to an in-depth understanding of:

Why we pray. The Jewish paths to God and the many ways that Jews can think of a God who is beyond description: a surprising invitation to consider the images of God that have moved the greatest Jewish minds to know they are not alone.

How we pray. Fixed prayer and spontaneous prayer, the standard prayer service and the prayer of the heart: the many modes by which Jews transcend the self.

Where we pray. In synagogue and home, in sacred community and by ourselves: the Jewish paths to the sacred on which we walk each day.

What we pray. The great ideas of Jewish prayer that have sustained Jewish worshipers through time: Jewish views on the universe, human nature, human destiny, and life after death.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jewish Lights
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1580232019
• ISBN 13: 9781580232012
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208