Nov

10 2019

Tefilah Lab: Amidah, Part 1: Introduction and The Avot v'Imahot

7:30PM - 8:30PM  

Monmouth Reform Temple 332 Hance Avenue
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
908-510-5136 efamilant@gmail.com
https://monmouthreformtemple.org/

Contact Elliott Familant
908-510-5136
efamilant@gmail.com
https://monmouthreformtemple.org/

Tefilah Lab is an experimental, experiential exploration of Jewish prayer and meditation sponsored by Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls. The first session of this new year will start a series on the Amidah.

If you were a cultural anthropologist and were studying a group of people, how would you choose which behaviors to study? Well, one logical basis would be how frequently a behavior was done and how long the behavior has persisted. A behavior that was done, say three times a day, every day, and one that had persisted for two millennia would be worthy of study, would it not? This, in fact, characterizes the recitation of the Amidah, the central set of prayers of Judaism. The fact that these prayers are said so often and have been said for so long among Jews, indicates that there is something important, some would suggest, spiritually powerful about these prayers. For this reason, they will be the focus of a series of sessions in Tefilah Lab this year. We will be going prayer by prayer, analyzing the meaning of each prayer. But beyond this, we will try to find each prayer’s emotional core, it’s spiritual significance, that facilitates our own personal transformation. As usual, we will do this through a combination of discussion, psychological analysis, and meditation exercises. In this first session, we will discuss the background and structure of the Amidah and focus on the introductory prayer and the first prayer of praise, Avot v'Imahot.

 

This session, like all Tefilah Labs, is opened to the public and is free. For more information, contact Elliott Familant at efamilant@gmail.com.

Sponsor: Monmouth Refom Temple