Well of Living Insight: Comments on the Siddur

Your day, and your deeds, should be geshmak funem davnen, they should smell and taste of the aroma and flavor of your daily prayer.

We who live in community make the sacred journey every day from “I” to “we.”

The way of Jewish tradition was always one of cumulative upbuilding.

In the most literal meaning of “Israel,” I am thankful to be one of those who wrestles or struggles with God.

Yes, each day’s desire is different; so is each day’s prayer. But the words remain the same, as they have for centuries. That is their power. The kavvanah, the intensity of love and desire, that has been deposited into these words over so many generations, is never lost.

Come before God as you would to a poor person, he said. Do not expect any gifts, any riches. All God has to give you is God’s own self.

The custom of having a place to wash upon entering a synagogue is one worthy of renewal.

A sense of awe at our own creation is the starting point of prayer.

The task is to keep remembering this as we get older and to allow room for both of those sacred processes: the faithful handing down of the teaching and the reshaping of it to fit the needs of each emerging generation.