Jewish Prayer

This is a beautifully written and scholarly book, which despite its brevity manages to be moving as well. It very short at 61 pages but is nevertheless full of substance. Liturgy as an academic subject is not one of my greatest strengths and prayer is something that I am working on. I was delighted to stumble across this book. Because it will be useful both metaphorically in learning to prayer and as a student useful more practically in studying the history and the theology of the siddur (Jewish prayer book) and the prayers.The first chapter is on the question of what is Jewish prayer. Three chapters that examine problems, theologically speaking with three main forms of prayer, follow this: Requests (does God answer prayers), doxologies (why does God need us to state His praises?), and finally prayers of Thanks-giving (Mainly focusing on Berakot blessings).These three chapters although concerning Jewish liturgy will be of interest to any Monotheistic groups as the same theological issues are raised there. The next three chapters are much more specifically focused on Jewish Prayer and Prayers and on the synagogue. Firstly there is a chapter on Hebrew as the language of prayer. As someone who has spent a not inconsiderable amount of time studying Non-Orthodox Judaism I found the discussion about the differences between Frankel (the founder of the Historical School of Judaism) and the other early pioneers of what was to become Reform Judaism enlightening. I should perhaps note that it is in this chapter where the book shows its age most. Published in 1955 a lot has changed in the interim (The Liberal and even more so the Reform movement have increased their use of Hebrew and the state of Israel has become much more firmly established as a reality in the lives of a majority of Diaspora Jews.The penultimate chapter is on the techniques of prayer. This chapter focuses on a concept called KaVNaH, which could be, very loosely translated as intention or concentration.The final chapter looks at the role, history and function of the synagogue.As I say this is a beautiful and slim book little more than an afternoon's reading however I am certain that it is one that I shall return to time and again.

VERY TRADITIONAL BOOK, BUT EASY TO READ AND UNDERSTAND.