Well of Living Insight: Comments on the Siddur

The fundamental work of liturgical prayer, then, is to create conditions of heart, mind, and soul in which the siddur words we utter might flourish.

Come before God as you would to a poor person, he said. Do not expect any gifts, any riches. All God has to give you is God’s own self.

Prayer, then, is about listening as much as it is about speaking. “Let your ear hear what your mouth is saying!” the rabbis teach regarding the proper way to recite the shemaʿ. If “prayer itself is of the essence of divinity,” the whole process of prayer is a holy one, taking place inside us and around us.

“Uttered faith must come out of a surplus of silence,” wrote Heschel.

In the most literal meaning of “Israel,” I am thankful to be one of those who wrestles or struggles with God.

We put it into words so that we, our conscious selves, can be part of it, not because God needs those words in order to hear what is in our heart.

A sense of awe at our own creation is the starting point of prayer.

I do not know a God who wants or cares about ritual forms and mumbled words any more than one who wants a great parade of dead animals served up upon the altar.

We ask ourselves to enter into authentic relationship with the words of the siddur. We invite them not only to speak for us but also to speak to us,