Please, come on in and have a seat! The wind is kicking up a bit today so I thought I would bring a Snuggie blanket for everyone. Here is a picture of the red one I chose especially for Lorraine and Kreine. They were both kind enough to leave comments on my last post so I wanted to reward them with this colorful Snuggie. The rest of us get to wear the plain blue ones.
Please feel free to leave any kind of comment on this blog. It’s easy to do and definitely appreciated. Plus, you never know when I will “gift” you a red Snuggie image of your own!
So for this post I wanted to continue on with the theme of prayer. Last week I talked about how choosing a prayer for our goldfish “funeral” inspired me to learn more about prayer. Today’s post (ahem, confession) is really about how I discovered that slowing down and paying attention to what words come out of my mouth can make my prayers even more powerful.
When my little guy was born he had an awful case of reflux and colic. He honestly cried/fussed for over 80% of the day and night. I am not exaggerating…it really was that bad. One night (or was it early, early morning??), after trying every lullaby from my “Mom Arsenal” and functioning on only a few hours of sleep, I began to cry along with my son. After a few minutes of wallowing in my own pity party, I wiped my eyes, re-swaddled my son and began to rock him again. For some reason I started to sing Hebrew songs I learned in camp. Much to my surprise, my son began to quiet down bit. Hoping to have hit the colic-cure jackpot, I started to sing every song and prayer I knew in Hebrew. When I came to the Hamotzi (the blessing over bread), my son completely stopped crying. The Hamotzi. Seriously. The blessing over bread soothed my child. Now here is where I had my “a-ha” moment. I grew up singing the “camp” version of the Hamotzi. It goes like this:
Hamotzi lechem min haaretz,
We give thanks to G-d for bread.
Our voices join in happy chorus
As our prayer is humbly said.
“Baruch atah ado-nai, elo-heinu melech haolam, hamotzi lechem min haaretz.” Ahhhhhhmen!
After singing the blessing over 20 times (ahhh, peaceful baby at last), I decided to slow down and listen to every word I sang. As it turns out, I had been singing the blessing like this, “…..as our prayer is humblese said.” Honestly, I had been singing it like that since I was in preschool.! Here’s what my thought process sounded like in my sleep deprived state. “Huh??? Who the heck is humblese? Is he part of the happy chorus? Is he in the Torah? Is humblese another word for G-d? Why is this so hard…..OH WAIT!!! Not humblese….it’s “humbly said”! And then I lost it. I started to laugh so hard that I had tears streaming down my cheeks. My calm baby started to fuss as my body was wracked with laughter. Enlightening moment for sure!
This week at our Soup, Salad and Soul luncheon, Kreine talked about the amazing power of Rachel’s and Leah’s prayers. It made me think about my night of “discovery” and how much more powerful my prayers could be if I slowed down and paid attention to what I was saying/singing. These days I find myself trying to quiet my mind as I pray. I’m not always successful, but I definitely feel the beauty of prayer at a different level now. How lucky I am to be on this fabulous journey of discovery. And as a side note: If you haven’t gone to one of the Soup, Salad, and Soul luncheons I highly recommend it! Kreine facilitates fascinating discussions and really highlights our roles as Jewish Women. Next one is scheduled for December 23rd, 12:00pm!
Jarad wrote...
Anyway, beautiful post, as always, Dara. You bring up an amazing point, although indirectly. When I pray in Hebrew, do I know what all the words mean? No. I've read the translations, so I get the essence of it. As I am singing, however, I make that ultimate spiritual connection. Some people get it through study. I get it through being with community and singing horrendously off key - mispronouncing words the whole way through.
Lorraine Goldstein wrote...
Thank you for the red snuggie - so warm and cozy on these cold days - and one of my favorite colors to boot! (Burgundy is #1).
Love to read the posts - really gets you thinking.
Sorry I missed Kreinie's last - I so look forward to all the get togethers. She is an amazing woman, mother, teacher & friend. I cherish my time with her (& the Rabbi & Community as well).
I can't seem to "drink in" enough from Kreinie's "well"th of knowledge for the Jewish Woman. I could sit & listen to her for hours on end!
Kreinie is my definition of "A Woman of Valor".