A Book Club for Your Ears
Chayei Sarah 5785 - Wandering in Conversation
Va’ani Tefilati - By Yael Bettenhausen and Rabbi Josh Warshawsky
“And I, I am a prayer to you, God, in my time of need.” What does it mean for each one of us to be a prayer? Prayer is strangely one of the hardest things a Jew is asked to do. It is amorphous, uncomfortable, strange, foreign. And at the same time it has the potential to be powerful, inspiring, meaningful, cleansing, life-affirming!
Prayer ignites us to act. Instead of proceeding in a state of numb acceptance, prayer rouses us out of our indifference, it resurrects our outrage, our anger, our longing, our faith, our strength.
Rabbi Naomi Levy wrote, “Prayer is not an end in itself. It is a beginning. An opening up. A hardened heart beats with renewed passion, a dream is revived, a hope is rekindled, a soul starts to believe, a body soon begins to stir. Prayer ignites us to act. Instead of proceeding in a state of numb acceptance, prayer rouses us out of our indifference, it resurrects our outrage, our anger, our longing, our faith, our strength. There are those who dismiss prayer as palliative, a substitute for action. But they could not possibly be more mistaken. A prayer that leads nowhere is a prayer in vain. True prayer inspires us to become God’s partners in repairing this wondrous, imperfect world.”
I am always searching for ways to deepen and renew my own prayer experience and the experiences of those who are praying beside me. Which is why I am excited to share with all of you that I am starting a new virtual podcast club at my synagogue, Congregation Agudas Achim in Columbus, Ohio.
It’s like a book club - for your ears!
Every week we will be listening through an episode of The Light Lab podcast and gathering together on Thursday mornings at 8:30am ET to discuss and reflect.
I would be so honored if you would join us on this journey, the zoom room is open to everyone! You can listen and engage wherever you are. This podcast, created by Eliana Light, Cantor Ellen Dreskin, and myself, has been such a labor of love to explore, and I am very much looking forward to listening back and experiencing our learning together again with all of you. Our first podcast club meet is tomorrow morning November 20th at 8:30am ET!
Click on this button to listen to the first episode, and the Zoom button to join our Zoom meeting tomorrow.
This week, we read about Isaac as he goes out to pray in the fields…
ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה
״And Isaac went out walking/meditating/conversing in the field”
That word lasu’ach comes from the same root as sicha, “conversation.” Prayer is a conversation, it’s an engagement. Let’s jump into it together and see what emerges.
Shabbat Shalom and hope to see you soon,
Josh Warshawsky