Twelve Principals of Jewish prayer
Jewish prayers have been around for almost 5 millennia and have been gathered in a book called the Siddur. By 3BC the Siddur was well established and remains the same till today with very little changes. Jesus being a devout Jew would have most certainly partook in praying out of the siddur.
Jewish prayers always connects the heart and the mind; they are inseparable. The written prayers are not just utterings; there is great focus with specific content. These prayers were to be highly respected. They were never to be spoken by rote and, at any time during the prescribed reading, you could go into private prayer. One cannot appreciate the depths of Judaism apart from the Siddur.
Prayers in Judaism are mostly corporate prayer, but not always. There were several people noted in the Hebrew Scriptures with individual prayers like Abraham, Moses, Hannah, Solomon, Samson, Elijah Hezekiah, to name a few... However, prayers were mostly spoken as ‘Our G-d’ and ‘us’ or ‘we’.
The following are 12 specific principals of Jewish Prayer:
1. There is never any trace of magic, incantation, or vain repetition in Jewish prayers.
Gnosticism has reared it’s ugly head in the New Age movement: if I have gnosis (knowledge) with this knowledge I find liberation - world is subject to magic... Many today are influenced by Guru’s, yoga and repeated mantra’s (contemplative prayer) to evoke power.
You will NEVER see mantra in Jewish prayers.
2. Jewish prayer is always the matter of the outpouring of the soul, not the manipulation of forces characterized by an attitude of praise and worship.
Three things characterize Jewish prayer: Adoration, Petition, Thanksgiving.
3.Typically, Jewish prayer is always in the plural... “Our Father”... give Us” ... even when we pray individually, just as Jesus taught... “Our father....
Orientation is predominantly in the plural as a representation of part of the community, or to put it in a christian saying, part of the body. The Greco-Roman view is very individualistic. In north america this is rampant, we pride ourselves in being individualistic. This was very alien to Jesus’ Jewish world and Jesus’ prayers.. you pray not just for yourself; although it is appropriate to pray for yourself at times, but predominantly you pray as part of a community. You are seeking the well being of the whole community; or body.
In psalms David prays personally, he asks G-d to deliver ‘me’ and this is appropriate. Personal needs have a place in prayer, but they are secondary to the community in Judaism.
In the christian circle, it is backwards. We tend to put ourselves first and community second. Not that this is bad, but it betrays the lack of sense of community and community was very important in the early church. The image of reconciliation was very important. To be put outside the community literally meant death as it were; spiritual and physical..
Sever punishment was to be cut off from your family and community. That is why the prodigal son in Jewish context is so beautiful. The emphasis is on the Father welcoming back his prodigal. A father rushing out to embrace his son shouldn’t have done. But he did more than this, he put on his son his robe, then prepared a feast. All this is done so the community would witness that the father was accepting the prodigal back in basically saying ‘he is okay, he is one of us’.
We, as Christians also tend to think of atonement almost exclusively as pardoned for sins, a judicial view of atonement. This was not the primary picture of atonement to the Jewish church; the first church and the apostolic church. It was one of many, but not the main one. Paul seldom uses that metaphor when he talks about atonement. Atonement means ‘to be come one with’. The primary image to the Jewish church was reconciliation; which means to come back into council with. Paul uses this in Eph 4: you once were estranged... you are now part of the family... This gets lost in the west because we think of my own soul salvation....my little relationship with G-d... even with discipleship... we think of my own relationship; I need to grow more. To become a disciple with Jesus meant become a part of my community. Of course there were times of individual prayer, but it was primarily a group activity. Worship and prayer was a group activity.
4. The Great, the preeminent overriding focus of all Jewish prayer was this: The kingship of G-d, G-ds sovereignty, G-d ruling and reining as king over His created universe. The sages and rabbis were not impressed by the demands of material needs as they were consumed for the desire to see all of mankind submit to the kingship of the G-d of Israel.
They looked, longed, and earnestly petitioned for G-ds righteousness to prevail; the wicked to be put down, justice to roll down. They also longed for the day G-ds name would be known to all the nations and together all would stream up to Jerusalem for the feast of tabernacles. All the other feasts will end in the messianic age. No need for redemption (Passover) or revelation (Pentecost), but always be thanksgiving and tabernacle (Sukkot). note: 3 pilgrimages. They always had this intense desire to see G-ds kingdom at work. To see G-d ruling victoriously in the lives of his people and the world he created.
5. In Jewish prayer G-d is always addressed in direct speech seen as personal... He is not some force in the universe, not some pantheistic cosmic force; He is personal. When you pray, you speak to Him; you address him directly. Isn’t this a mind boggling thing? What right to we, the little mud balls that we are, have to speak to the king of the universe? talk about chutzpah! What is even more amazing than that is that G-d earnestly desired to hear and be close to us.
Most people don’t hear from G-d because they don’t listen. Most have little faith that He is going to speak back. You might be surprised in your prayers, in your time together if you could do a very un-western thing...sit for a little while and just study your scriptures and listen to hear if G-d says something to you. Don’t be surprised if some things come to you that are negative. That may be coming to your mind as G wants you to deal with it. If you persist in study, which, by the way, is know as the highest form of worship, an affirming word from G-d will come and He will bring a scripture to your mind.
Jewish prayer addresses G-d directly, G-d is personal.
6. G-d is powerful in Jewish prayer... he is the Melech Ha Olam!! The King of the Universe.
You see in the ministry of Jesus various incidence where G-d is directly doing battle with the local deities. For example the12 plagues of Egypt related to their deities. Did you know when Jesus was on the sea of Galilee in the boat lying down asleep and a storm came up? This was known as baal the god of the sea - tribal deity. The disciples cried out to Jesus in distress and Jesus says why are you upset? Then Jesus turns to wind and says “sheket”... shut-up!
G-d has for some reason chosen this group of people, the Jews, who are the least of people to be the bearers of his redeemer. And although He is the G-d of the whole universe, He is uniquely related to these people, but never forget, the G-d of Israel is the G of all. He is the king of the universe.
7. Jewish prayer reminds us of these things when we pray: We affirm who he is. We praise Him for who He is and we petition Him to be who He is in this world.
8. Jewish prayers pray scripture. Psalms, the Shema (Hear O Israel : two text from Deut and one from Numbers), is recited twice daily as well as many other prayers of praise and blessings.
9. Jewish prayer is considered a daily duty. In the morning and in the evening... but also throughout the day you would pray. One Favorite verse is psalm 16:8 I have set the Lord always before me. continually before me.... There is a constant recognition of G-d. All of your life is to be G-d centred.
10. It is disciplined prayer that you engage in as well as extemporaneous prayer. in other words, you pray prescribed prayers. Many Christians from Protestant background don’t understand this. They say it is just rote; but it would be just like saying poetry cannot be emotional. This is the same in prayer. Of course prescribed prayers can be meaningless, but they can also be full of meaning; depends on how you pray them. Celebrating the Lords supper done every year and can be meaningless; but it can be done every month and have deep meaning. It all depends on your heart condition.
Don't you find it to be the case in your prayers that even though you may not pray prescribed prayers, that in fact you end up saying pretty much the same things every time you pray? Do you find yourself saying the same phrases; same ideas; same people; same issues? They tend to come up again and again; could make a person self conscious...makes me self conscious... One way to get beyond that.... start praying some of the jewish prayers.. pray the psalms... do you ever get self conscious reading the psalms? Again and again you can read it and it could be full of meaning and full of life every time. I may read the same psalm once a month and find that G-d has something new to show me every time.
11. The key to discipline prayer as the key to all Jewish prayer is “Kavanah” A term which means “intention... focus... sincerity”. To pray with kavanah is to pray with great focus on what you are saying and to whom you are speaking with.
Have you ever have seen Jews pray? The bowing is an aid to concentration. A Jew is intensely focused on what they are doing and to whom they are speaking. They are not to be distracted. Jewish prayer is devout and filled with Joy. We are not approach G-d right when we wake up as our mind is still groggy. The sages write that we need to wait at least an hour so our minds will be fully aware and awake before we come before the Holy G-d.
12. Jewish prayers have always been and continue to be prayed in Hebrew. There have been very tempting occasion to change that in the history of judaism; thankfully it has never been changed and since it hasn’t, it has established a historic link from generation to generation. Doesn’t mean that you can’t pray them in english, but think about this: G-d chose the Hebrew language to speak to His people. I would encourage you to at least learn to read Hebrew; it’s easier than you think.
All this being said, I would encourage you to pray the scriptures. We live in dangerous times and the enemy is seeking to devour the church. Do not be blown about by every wind of teaching that comes your way promising an ‘encounter’ or a ‘deep experience’. The Holy Spirit gives us all that we need and G-d Himself gave us the instruction book. Follow it... not the literature authored by those engaging in mystical practices under the guise of Christianity.
