Kavannah Initiative: Radical Exploration in Jewish Prayer
Starting again in Oct. 2010!
Are you bored, confused and intimidated at services?
Do you find yourself sitting there thinking, "I don't believe any of this."?
The Kavannah Initiative is an intellectual open discussion group for people who want to figure out what prayers actually mean to them.
Fall 2010 Session
October 13 - December 8, 2010
Wednesdays at 5:30 pm
About the Kavannah Initiative:
This Fellowship meets once a week for 8 weeks and goes through the major prayers, unlocking their history and struggling to figure out what they actually mean to us today.
How participants describe the Kavannah Initiative:
"A course that does not explore THE meaning of Judaism and prayer, but rather your OWN understanding of Judaism and prayer."
"I would say it is a group of spiritual people discussing God and prayer in a completely open non-judgmental environment, with the guidance of a wonderful open-minded rabbi. I would say we were all part of a learning process, and that each session stimulated us to think about how and why we think the way we think about prayer/Judaism/God. "
"It was a time during the week we could talk about God and prayer and religion in an open and serious environment. I liked thinking about these things that usually I am too busy or scared or confused to think about on my own."
"A relaxed, open, non-judgmental setting to discuss personal thoughts on prayer/G-d/religion/etc. while being able to hear what other people thinking. You can really meld the history and tradition as well as others' views into your own beliefs to obtain a greater understanding of what being Jewish means to you."
Prayers Written by Participants in the Kavannah Initiative - Spring 2010
Dear…
I don’t really know how to finish that sentence, I know you know that. But to you I pray that one day I will figure it out.
I pray for my family, my abilities, their faith, my faith, our happiness, our unity, Israel, Palestine, Khmer rouge deaths and survivors, the Penn Soup Kitchens, all of the soup kitchens, fighting racism, feminism, poetry, for all those voices to be heard, spines and diamonds, broken hearts, futures, landmine survivors, the victims of Agent Orange, finding something I love to do, trusting myself, trusting someone else. And Please, most importantly, give strength to those who need it. Help them find their way. Help me find my way.
Life is good. I have many blessings in my life and I am grateful for them. I have been provided with comfort and happiness. I have been supported by my family and friends. I have built meaningful relationships that have impacted my life. I have built meaningful relationships that have impacted other lives. I have an education, the potential to do well, and the potential to do good. I can realistically realize my potential now and in the future. My past has been full of excitement and happiness, but my future is even fuller.
Life is not always perfect or easy. I have experienced disappointment, anxiety, and sadness. At times I have let myself down, but at times I have also let others down. I have wasted energy and potential. I have turned away when I should have looked straight ahead. I have experienced pain and I have lost. Life is not perfect and it never will be. But I have learned from the imperfections and the mistakes in order to build the best life possible.
I am part of something bigger. Sometimes I don’t want to be. Sometimes I need to be. No matter how I feel I am. And with community comes responsibility. I have a duty to my friends, I have a duty to my family, I have a duty to my people, I have a duty to all people, and I have a duty to the world in which I live. I have duties to all these things, but I also have a duty to myself. I can do well and I can also do good for those I know and those I don’t.
I pray to be happy and healthy.
A Prayer For The City
The City of Philadelphia is currently facing many challenges. The Mayor and City Council are trying to balance a $150 million dollar budget hole. 25% of Philadelphia’s residents live in poverty. Philadelphia Public Schools are failing our students and leaving many of them unprepared to be successful in life. Crime is rampant in certain parts of the City. Blight creates eyesores in our neighborhoods. The City is losing its tax base while the costs for services are going up. If the status quo does not change, Philadelphia will decline into a City where people do not want to live. Blessed are you, Lord, our G-d, King of the Universe, who gives our elected officials, public servants, municipal employees and residents the ability to work together, to save our city.
Please help me know who I am and who I want to be, Help me help others, and help me help myself. Help me believe in myself and my friends, Help me have confidence in my decisions. Help me have faith, I waiver sometimes. Help me know you through knowing myself. Help me help others know and understand your greatness and power. Keep me and those I love safe and healthy. But most of all, help me make myself happy.
OK, so here’s my prayer. For something. For peace. For life. For love. For family for friends for home for happiness. Here is my prayer for something.
For something bigger than big. For something more. Here is my prayer for health. Here is my prayer for wisdom and beauty. Here is my prayer for the ability to see the unseen. To feel the unfelt. To hear the undheard. Here is my prayer.
Here is my prayer for a place to call home. For me. For another. For everyone to have. Here is my prayer for a universal happiness, composed of individual happinesses, none of which step on the toes of another. None of which compromise the well being of another. None of which stand entirely alone or entirely dependent.
Here is my prayer for the earth and the birds and the fish and the rocks and the knowledge that there is something more. Here is my prayer for the lightening storm and the rainfall and the morning symphonic warm up of the bird orchestra in the woods. And here is my prayer for a window to hear them through. And a slumber to be awoken from. And ears to experience and a soul to feel.
Here is my prayer for the feeling of something more. And here is my prayer for the faith to believe. Against all odds yet found in the beauty of every moment. Here is my prayer, I guess, here is my prayer.
Blessed art thou, forces that be, sovereign over all creation, forever breathing life into your worldly inhabitants. Help us to achieve, on this day and all days hence: good health in order to pursue our dreams, yet the humility to recognize our mortality; confidence of mind and body to express ourselves, but not the arrogance to violate the individuality of others; appreciation for the freedoms we enjoy, but not ignorance of the sacrifices made on our behalf; laughter enough to make us ache, love enough to flood our hearts, all while cognizant of the inevitability of sorrow and tears. Let us cherish every smile, savor every taste, hold on to every kiss, and linger on each breath, for we know not when our last will be. Amen.
Dear G-d, calm the fires of my spirit, that I may place my daily troubles in a greater perspective.
I pray to nature
To open my eyes to the beauty around me
To take me back, when I need it, to a place where a warm breeze embraces me, summer wildflowers engulf me in color, clear streams trickle past, the earth emits its musky fragrance, and a grand world humbles me
I pray to Love
To open me up to the love of others in every small way
To let me listen to people, share warmth with friends and family, extend kindness to enemies and strangers, empathize with fellow humans, and realize the treasure each relationship is
I pray to the energies and forces in the universe and within me
To let me have agency over my own life
And to let me give up control to the ways of the world I can’t understand, to remind me to stop and breathe and live.
Hello Darkness my old friend
I've come to talk to you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left it's seeds while I was sleeping
and the vision
That was planted in my brain
Still remains
within the sound of silence
-courtesy of Simon and Garfunkel
...and so you see, you ethereal, obfuscating pal of mine, the seed I am currently pondering is prayer. I'm supposed to pray to you, but based on Dictionary.com's definition, I have nothing to petition for. I only want that my family remains healthy and to win the lottery twice, but can yo really intervene? Should I then be thanking you instead? I feel that appreciation only comes from action, and the time spent saying thank you would be better doing thanks. Maybe prayer is suppsoed to be absolution of my sins, but if you exist in my interpersonal realtions my direct resolution of confluct is my absolution. The Vision, You, still reamins, and your eternal, intangible, unidentifiable presnece that looms over my consience is why I should pray. I must pray to remind myself that I had no control of my entrance into the world that existed without anyone's will compelling it to exist, and so the very existence of life, and the joy and chaos related to it, exists without anyone's desire or control. I remind myself to acknowledge you as the spark of the life that still burns and to appreciate my flaming existence.
