Home Home / But I'm Not in the Mood for Prayer; Moodiness & Mitzvot (2004)

Outline

April 2004

But I'm Not in the Mood for Prayer; Moodiness & Mitzvot (2004)

Vayikra Prayer
View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

RELATED CONTENT

Outline

Shemoneh Esrei (1967)

I. סמיכת גאולה לתפילה – prayer not an abstract philosophical exercise; but request of intimate knowledge [Hassidic: just as can't philosophize by praying, you can't pray by philosophizing]. _______ Knowledge means experience – or History. Thus גאולה looks to תפילה. II. ד' שפתי תפח – prayer to prayer – כוונה – עבודה שבלב. III. Structure – 3 parts – 1st 3, middle 12 (or 13), last 3. A) 1st 3 – שבח – servant homage to master b) 2nd group – בקשה – servant requests, petition, (eliminated שבת ויו"ט)
Prayer

Outline

הערות בעניין התפילה

תפילה – מחלוקת רמב"ם ורמב"ן – ריה"ל. מנין התפילת – חול, שבת, יו"ט, יוה"כ. אבות תקנום: כנגד תמידין (פנימיות וחיצוניות) [כוונה והלכה]. זמני תפילה – זריחה ושקיעה קובעות mood. שחרית: הודאה ללילה שעבר: התחדשות גוף ונשמה, רחמים בעבר. מעריב: בטחון ללילה הבא, רחמים בעתיד. (כל שלא אמר אמת ויציב שחרית) [חסד (שחרית, גומל חסדים טובים, מידת הרחמים) vs אמונה [שומר עמו ישר' לעד מדת הדין]. מנחה – יצחק. אברהם = זריחה (נשיא אלקים אתה בתוכנו). יצחק = שינוי ע"י פלשתים וכו'. וכי יעקב = מעטים ור
Prayer

Synagogue Sermon

Doing God's Thing (1969)

The fashionable idiomatic exhortation, “do your own thing,” is one of the most formidable slogans of our day. It defines the New Left in politics, the New Morality in conduct, and the New Generation in everything from art to drugs and theatre to hygiene. This inelegant expression is new, one of the many products of the contemporary semantic experimentation and inventiveness. But as so often happens with neologisms, new words or terms represent ideas that are really quite old and well known.What it means is that every man must seek to satisfy his own self and not some other. The greatest virtue is to express yourself rather than to submit to the will of another. Values should be autonomous, self-generated, self-satisfying; not heteronomous, obedient to some other person or group that lays down values for you. This orientation, therefore, rejects any way of life in which the individual is not the center of all his concerns. Hence, all the old standards and criteria, whether in conduct or morality or art or politics, are now brought into question and usually rejected in favor of “doing your own thing.” Naturally, religion with its insistence upon God’s authority as Creator, is considered passe; unless, of course, “doing the religion thing” satisfies one’s personal whim or inclination, in which case religion turns into a form of idiosyncratic psychopathology.As Jews, can we see anything positive in this new attitude? The answer, I believe, is: Yes. There is in it an emphasis that we must relearn for our times. Since the days of Karl Marx, who complained about the “reification” or reduction of man into a “thing,” into an object for exploitation rather than a subject possessed of individual dignity and integrity, modern thinkers have been aware of the dangers to the individuality and personality of men. Our society tends to de-personalize human beings. To the extent, therefore, that this new approach seeks to preserve individuality and enhance the uniqueness of each huma…
Vayikra