Open My Heart: Living Jewish Prayer

In the course of seven months, we've offered 55 podcasts featuring a variety of prayer practices. These programs have been downloaded nearly 30,000 times. It is time to celebrate, and to take time to envision what might come next.

This week we get to visit with Elana Arian, whose "Ken Yehi Ratzon" has closed our podcast. She shares her background, how she came to write Jewish music, her work as guest-artist in congregations and how that shapes her work, and how she came to write our closing tune.

Each week we have been blessed to hear the first moments of the composition "Open" by Judith Silver. This week we meet her, and learn about how she came to write Jewish music, and how "Open" came to be. A true blessing!

We are blessed to be invited into the personal process of listening deeply to the words of Psalm 27 to open our hearts with Rabbi Debra Robbins. Her book and its practices are so rich, it is helpful to have it modeled for us, so that we can engage with the Psalm ourselves, beginning on 1 Elul (August 8, 2021), to open our own hearts along the way.

The period of time from the start of Elul to the end of Sukkot is about the same length of time from Passover to Shavuot. The former period is given focus through the recitation of Psalm 27 (and the chanting/recitation of selichot, or penitential prayers). Rabbi Debra Robbins provides us with tools to make the practice of reciting Psalm 27 a richer, deeper, and more sustained experience in her book.

Prayer does not have to be complex, and we don't have to go looking for it up in the heavens or over the sea. Sometimes it is just in our mouths and our hearts, in simplicity and directness. Rabbi Denise Eger shares her lifelong practice of reciting the Shema at night, when going to sleep.

There are so many ways to open up prayer. The most effective, and most important, is to connect deeply to one's own life, one's own heart, and to see oneself. From that clear seeing -- or the desire to do so -- we can express our deepest desires, most overwhelming fears, greatest joys, and significant commitments. That has inspired the flourishing of prayer in the LGBTQ+ community, which does not often see itself in traditional Jewish prayers. Rabbi Denise Eger introduces us to the richness of this prayer tradition in Mishkan Ga'avah: Where Pride Dwells, A Celebration of LGBTQ Jewish Life and Ritual.

Do you think you could have an "I-Thou" connection to a tree? Well, not sitting in your house you can't! And, likely just walking up to a tree and saying "HI" won't work either. Rabbi Mike Comins offers us a practice to help us cultivate our capacity to be outdoors and really BE there, perhaps ultimately to meet it as a "Thou".

The Rabbis speak of the letters of Torah as being black fire on white fire. Rabbi David Stern understands this as the events of our life, and our ability to find space and spaciousness around them, to make meaning, and to find peace. He invites us into three meditation-based, poetry-infused prayers.

A spiritual practice requires "makom": a place, God (called HaMakom by the rabbis of the Talmud), and kiyyum, our own personal presence. Rabbi Karyn Kedar brings us through her personal practice of Makom, her personal evening and morning prayer practice.