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    Words of Wisdom: From the Torah to Today
    Words of Wisdom: From the Torah to Today
    Words of Wisdom: From the Torah to Today
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    Words of Wisdom: From the Torah to Today

    By Evan Moffic

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    About this ebook

    Discover the wisdom and traditions of the world's oldest religion. What do Jews believe about God? How can Jewish wisdom help people of all faiths live with greater happiness and fewer regrets? 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEvan Moffic
    Release dateMar 6, 2013
    ISBN9781513005751
    Words of Wisdom: From the Torah to Today

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    Words of Wisdom - Evan Moffic

    Chapter 1: How Prayer Lifts the Ordinary into the Extraordinary

    Prayer means that, in some unique way, we believe we’re invited into a relationship with someone who hears us when we speak in silence. Anne Lamott

    We often think of prayer as asking for things. As Chicago comic Emo Philips once joked, When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

    While humorous, this view of prayer belittles it. In Judaism, prayer is not primarily about asking God for things. It is about remembering what things in life are most important. Just as mission statements highlight the purpose and values of an organization, the prayers we say proclaim the values by which we strive to live.

    One of the foremost of these values is gratitude. Prayer helps us rejoice in what we have, rather than focus incessantly on what we do not yet have. Toward this end, in Judaism, prayer is directed not so much at God as it is at ourselves. When we pray, we look at our lives from an elevated perspective, from what the philosopher Spinoza called the point of view of eternity. To use a familiar metaphor, prayer lifts us out of the trees so we can look at the forest.  

    Prayer Gives Us A New Language

    Prayer also helps us express feelings that everyday words cannot. When I officiate at a funeral, I always notice the mourners during the recitation of the 23rd psalm. As we say the words, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, faces turn downward. Tears often begin to flow. The words of prayer evoke emotions that ordinary language cannot.  

    At its best, prayer gives us access to a range of emotions we often overlook. Prayer connects us with the entire spiritual, emotional and intellectual library of our faith. When we pray with resolve, feeling the words shaping us, we are dancing. We are moving to the words of our sages. Do we really need to dance to these words? Can they really make difference in our lives?

    Well, as one rabbi put it, Neither the computer nor the cellular phone has changed the fact of mortality or the want of wisdom. In an age of high technology, we need to be reminded of what truly matters. Prayer is that reminder. It reminds us that our lives are measured by holiness. Prayer gives us a glimpse of something higher, and helps us become what we are capable of being.

    Proof for the Power of Prayer

    Something magical happens in our home on Friday night. The bustle of the week stops. The noise of dinner time fades away. The iPad powers down (at least for a while).

    What changes everything, however, is the moment we put our hands on our children and say a blessing over them. The blessing is short, personal, and changes every week. Its impact, however, is almost always the same: a smile, a hug, and a relaxed look of joy.

    It’s not the words themselves that are magical. It is the words together with the mood and the people.

    The old saying goes A family that prays together stays together. While experience and reflection make that statement seem simplistic for me, the truth is that prayer creates a unique feeling of kinship and joy. It helps children feel connected and secure, and it reminds adults that there is more to life than constant activity. Prayer puts life in perspective.

    How Prayer Works

    Some might object that the purpose of prayer is not to make us feel better. It is to speak to God. This view of prayer is far too limiting. In fact, the Hebrew word li-hit-palel means to pray, and it falls into the category of what linguists called reflexive verbs. That means that the direct object of the verb to pray is ourselves. When we pray, we are shaping ourselves.

    Prayer can also make us make better decisions. Malcolm Gladwell talked about the way we make decisions in his book Blink. We usually make decisions about people, about purchases or about what to say in the blink of an eye. In other words, we do not think much about it. We act by instinct. Where do these instincts come from? How are they developed? We develop them through education. We learn them from our parents. And we can hone them in prayer.

    Prayer is not always literal. In Judaism, for example, when we say, for example, that God heals the sick, we are not envisioning God as a cosmic physician. We are reminding ourselves of the sacredness of life and of the relationships that matter most. We are reminding ourselves that we are meant to live, and that our words and actions can help heal others. God heals through us.

    One of the core principles of a life of faith is that life is a gift. This truth is embedded in Judaism. The Hebrew word for Judaism is "yehadut, which shares its linguistic root with hodaot, the Hebrew word for thanksgiving." In other words, Judaism means thanksgiving. Giving thanks is one of the core ways we express our faith.

    Prayer is the primary way we do that. We thank God for our breath, for a functioning body, for life and for teaching us how to live. Among our most religious acts is saying thank you.

    Prayer Connects Us To God

    The 19th century English poet Matthew Arnold described God as the power greater than ourselves that makes for righteousness. By describing God as a power, Arnold suggests that God gives direction and energy to human existence.

    By seeing that power as greater than ourselves, Arnold acknowledges that God is not limited by the natural world. God both exists in the world and transcends it. In other words, we can experience God in our lives, but we can never say precisely what God is.

    I love this approach because it forces us to be humble. God cannot be captured by any one creed or set of beliefs. God is too big for that. Yet, God is not so big and mysterious as to be irrelevant. God’s relevance and power are made real by our acts of righteousness.

    Does God hear our Prayers? Yes, but only if we hear them too.

    Chapter 2: The Bible Is For Everyone

    So long as the Jewish people never stop learning, the Jewish heart will never stop beating. Jonathan Sacks

    A great rabbi once said that When I pray, I speak to God. When I study, God speaks to me. Study, learning, engaging with the Bible, is the next step to finding God.

    The Bible is not just for pastors, priests and rabbis. It is for everyone. Studying it enriches our lives. It connects us with our past, present and future. The hardest part is usually beginning. We can come up with any number of excuses. We don’t have the time. We don’t know enough to start. Yet, if we want to study and gain knowledge, we can find the time. And we can start wherever we are most comfortable.

    How do make our study more meaningful and exciting?

    1. Use commentary: In Jewish tradition, we never study only the biblical text itself. We study with the interpretations of the great teachers of Jewish history. Some might say this prejudices our point of view. Shouldn’t we encounter the text with fresh eyes?

    I would argue that we benefit from the wisdom and insights of generations past. We can and will arrive at our own interpretations and conclusions. Yet, rather than prejudice us, the insights of great teachers will spark our own ideas and lead us to a deeper encounter with the text.

    2. Study with a partner: Good partners will not only hold us accountable for taking the time to study. They will engage us in conversation and debate. They will notice things we did not. As the Book of Ecclesiastes says, Two is better than one.

    3. Set a fixed time for study: What gets scheduled is more likely to get done. If we find a consistent time for study, we can fall into a regular pattern. In Jewish tradition, the Sabbath has

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