Does Your Prayer Service Induce Boredom, or Is It Engaging and Uplifting?
Source: Gleanings. Summer, 2014. Volume 1, Issue 3
What Jewish educator has not struggled with the challenges inherent in helping learners to find tefillah (prayer) a compelling experience? In this issue of Gleanings, outstanding teachers and leaders of tefillah, including graduates of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education, The Rabbinical School, and H. L. Miller Cantorial School and College of Jewish Music of The Jewish Theological Seminary, portray successes in this important field. Each writer focuses on different dimensions of the tefillah experience. They attend, variously, to the nature of the prayer community; the relationship between tefillah and music (in synagogues, day schools, and congregational schools); the kinds of music that can touch us; and the place that deep understanding of the words of the siddur (prayer book) has in touching our souls.
This issue contains the following articles:
- Tefillah as Compelling Experience—Challenges and Successes
Deborah Miller - Educators as First Responders: The Liturgical Interpreters Project
Sarah Tauber and Jonathan Lipnick - Knowing Too Much and Not Enough: The Prayer Quandary
Elie Kaunfer - Prayer-ful Students
Nancy Parkes - Slow It Down, Speed It Up
Israel Gordan - Engaging the Worshipper Through Music: Walking the Line Between Novelty and Tradition
Mike Weis - A New Model for Prayer in a Pluralistic Day School
Carol Rubin - Engagement with Tefillah
Oren Kaunfer