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

About the Author

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD, has served for more than three decades as professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He is a world-renowned liturgist and holder of the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair in Liturgy, Worship and Ritual. His work combines research in Jewish ritual, worship and spirituality with a passion for the spiritual renewal of contemporary Judaism.

His many books, written and edited, include seven volumes in the Prayers of Awe series: Who by Fire, Who by Water—Un'taneh Tokef; All These Vows—Kol Nidre; We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism—Ashamnu and Al Chet; May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism—Yizkor; All the World: Universalism, Particularism and the High Holy Days; Naming God: Avinu Malkeinu—Our Father, Our King; and Encountering God: El Rachum V'chanun—God Merciful and Gracious. Hoffman also edited the ten-volume series My People’s Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and coedited My People’s Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award (all Jewish Lights).

Rabbi Hoffman cofounded and developed Synagogue 2/3000, a transdenominational project to envision and implement the ideal synagogue of the spirit for the twenty-first century. In that capacity, he wrote Rethinking Synagogues: A New Vocabulary for Congregational Life (Jewish Lights).

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.

Edition details

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