{"id":9015,"date":"2013-11-12T14:50:09","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T14:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jewishaction.com\/?p=9015"},"modified":"2025-07-30T19:11:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:11:29","slug":"can-schools-better-job-teaching-tefillah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishaction.com\/religion\/education\/can-schools-better-job-teaching-tefillah\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Schools Do a Better Job of Teaching Tefillah?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"teaching\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rafi Diamond\u2019s day school course on Jewish prayer came at a fortuitous time a few years ago. Rafi was a student at Maimonides School, a K-12 Modern Orthodox institution in Boston. He was studying the \u201cR\u2019faeinu<\/em>\u201d (\u201cHeal us\u201d) prayer for health in the Shemoneh Esrei<\/em> which includes the words \u201cbring complete recovery for all our ailments . . . [Hashem] heals the sick of His people Israel.\u201d Rafi had given no special thought to the relevance of the prayer, he says. Then a relative became very sick; R\u2019faeinu<\/em> became relevant.<\/p>\n

Rafi\u2019s lessons about the meaning of the R\u2019faeinu<\/em> prayer gave his davening<\/i> greater kavanah<\/i>, more intensity and devotion, he says. His relative recovered, and Rafi, who graduated this past June from Maimonides, says its tefillah<\/i> curriculum strengthened his prayer life\u2014which is the purpose of the high school-level prayer curriculum.<\/p>\n

\"Kids<\/a>

Kids davening at an NCSY event.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Patterned after the teachings of the late venerated Rabbi Dr. Isaiah Wohlgemuth, the Maimonides School tefillah <\/i>curriculum offers both the historical context and philosophical underpinnings of individual prayers. Additionally, it emphasizes the interpretation of the words and the structure of the siddur<\/em>. The curriculum, say many people familiar with the Jewish educational field, is considered the gold standard of day schools in North America\u2014one that offers depth and breadth, that engages adolescent students\u2019 interest, that inspires them to keep praying and understanding what they are saying after they have left the school.<\/p>\n

But few schools offer a comprehensive tefillah<\/i> curriculum like Maimonides\u2019; few devote enough time to making tefillah<\/i> part of their students\u2019 lives, the educators say. And, some say, too few schools have a special dedicated place where only davening<\/i> takes place. When school prayer is conducted in a multi-purpose classroom or auditorium or any other available room, it sends the message that tefillah <\/i>is not an exercise that deserves its own distinct place.<\/p>\n

The Difficulty of Prayer
\n<\/b>But prayer itself, and not where it occurs in a school setting, is the primary concern.<\/p>\n

\n

We often feel that davening can\u2019t go quickly enough . . . that davening is a detour. We feel we have other [more important] things to do. I think to myself, if I were sitting in front of a billionaire who could change my life in a moment, whatever I had to do could wait. Whatever I think is more important pales in comparison to actually sitting with G-d, Who controls it all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThere are very, very few good tefillah<\/i> curricula out there,\u201d says Daniel Rose, director of educational projects for Koren Publishers, which is developing a siddur<\/em>-based curriculum project \u201caimed at the US day school market.\u201d The difficulties that many\u2014children and adults, both ba\u2019alei teshuvah<\/i> and those who grew up in observant homes\u2014experience at prayer have become a subject of increasing concern in recent years in segments of the Orthodox community.<\/p>\n

Chana Tanenbaum, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, recently surveyed more than 350 yeshivah day school graduates from overseas who were spending their \u201cgap year\u201d studying in Israel. She asked them if tefillah in their schools was \u201ca spiritually uplifting event.\u201d Only 16.4 percent said yes. \u201cIn contrast, 20 percent of the same group found participation in a sports team to be fairly or extremely meaningful to their religious growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf all the activities in the school day, prayer is the one most clearly connected to religion and religious experience, yet the results of this survey indicate that the overwhelming majority of students\u201d\u2014who chose to take a year off before university studying in Israel, mostly in Orthodox institutions\u2014\u201cdo not perceive prayer as being inspirational,\u201d Tanenbaum wrote in a recent issue of HaYidion<\/i>, the quarterly journal of the RAVSAK community day school network.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo courtesy of Maimonides School in Boston<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Rabbis and educators talk about adults who know the mechanics of prayer (what to say, when to stand up and sit down\u2014in other words, what page they\u2019re on in the siddur<\/em>) but they are doing it largely from rote, from lifelong habit. They ask: \u201cWhat\u2019s the point? Is G-d listening? Doesn\u2019t He already know what\u2019s on our minds? Does He really answer prayers?\u201d<\/p>\n

For some, prayer has become a ritual to be performed rather than a genuine connection with, a conversation with, the Creator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a difference,\u201d says Rabbi Mordechai Soskil, Judaic studies principal of the Maimonides Middle and Upper Schools, \u201cbetween knowing what the words mean and knowing you are standing before G-d.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many people, Jewish and not, prayer has become a recitation of words,\u201d Rabbi Hyim Shafner, rabbi of Bais Abraham, an OU shul in St. Louis, wrote recently. \u201cSeveral frum<\/i> people who take davening<\/i> seriously have commented to me, \u2018I like learning Torah and find it meaningful, but I just can\u2019t relate, beyond the level of fulfilling an obligation, to tefillah<\/i>.\u2019 In the Orthodox community we sometimes, in our punctiliousness, and probably in reaction to Reform Judaism, allow the ma\u2019aseh hamitzvah<\/i> [the act of performing the mitzvah] to overshadow the inner kavanah<\/i> [intent], and perhaps the telos<\/em> of the mitzvah\u2014connecting with G-d.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of this can be traced, rabbis and teachers say, to Jewish education\u2014kids are not adequately taught the why of tefillah<\/i>. Too few day schools, they say, offer extensive\u2014or any\u2014formalized teachings on prayer. Students, they say, are merely required to attend the schools\u2019 davening<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe play Jewish\u00a0music over the\u00a0loudspeaker as our\u00a0students enter the beit knesset<\/em> prior to the\u00a0start of tefillah<\/em>, in\u00a0order to help them get\u00a0into the proper frame\u00a0of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cToo often,\u201d says Rabbi Jay Goldmintz, headmaster of the Ramaz Upper School in Manhattan, \u201cwe just throw them into the shul and in effect say, \u2018Okay, now daven<\/i> with kavanah<\/i>,\u2019 but we never really explain what that means or how to go about it, or why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie Harary,\u00a0Inspirational Speaker, Professor at the Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University, Lecturer for Aish Hatorah, The Orthodox Union and NCSY.<\/p>\n

Ideas That Work
\n<\/b>For teachers of tefillah<\/i>, there is a growing\u2014but still limited\u2014amount of educational resources. Torah Umesorah, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, offers several of them in its catalogue, including a tefillah<\/i> workshop series and a Teacher\u2019s Guide for the Teaching of Prayer.<\/p>\n

The Ramaz Middle School has drawn up a list of \u201cstrategies\u201d to make tefillah <\/i>more inspiring. The main strategies are \u201cto sing out loud and in unison as many of our tefillot<\/i> as possible,\u201d and to \u201cfinish in as short a time as possible.\u201d \u201cLess is more,\u201d says Rabbi Joseph Schwarz,\u00a0Talmud Dept Chair and\u00a0Tefillah Coordinator at\u00a0Ramaz Middle School.\u00a0\u201cWe have found it is more effective to daven<\/i> less and daven <\/i>out loud than to daven<\/i> more . . . to oneself.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWe never say a full Chazarat HaShatz<\/em> [repetition of the Shemoneh Esrei<\/em> by the prayer leader].\u201d Instead, members of the minyan say \u201cevery word out loud in unison until Kedushah<\/em> . . . Overall, we say a little less and sing a lot more,\u201d Rabbi Schwarz says.\u00a0\u201cThe result is many more students davening<\/i> and enjoying it!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"mountain\"<\/a>

Photo: Benji Cheirif<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

At Hillel Torah Day School in Chicago, Aliza Rosenbaum, who teaches eighth-grade girls, instituted various innovative ways to help students connect to tefillah<\/i>, including the Tehilotai Project. The project entails having each student recite a particular perek<\/i> of Tehillim every day. Throughout the year, the student researches the meaning of her perek<\/i>. At the end of the year, the class publishes a book, where each student elucidates her perek<\/i> and its connection to her life.<\/p>\n

Few schools offer a comprehensive\u00a0tefillah<\/em> curriculum . . . few devote\u00a0enough time to making tefillah part of their students’ lives.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SAR Academy in the Bronx, known for its experimental bent, has developed \u201cDaily Thoughts on Tefillah<\/i>,\u201d a program that offers succinct insight into some aspect of prayer; and the school, during Dveykut B\u2019Tefillah<\/em> week, offers its high school students a menu of nearly two dozen \u201ctefillah<\/i> options.\u201d Each option is led by at least one staff member. \u201cWe hope,\u201d the school\u2019s student guide explains, \u201cthat by shaking ourselves out of our tefillah<\/i> routine we will all have the opportunity to re-energize our tefillah <\/i>and work on developing a sense of dveykut<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
Rabbi Joseph Schwarz is the Talmud Department Chair and Tefilah Coordinator at Ramaz Middle School.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The options include an \u201cexplanatory\u201d tefillah<\/i> patterned after synagogues\u2019 beginners services, a slower-paced davening<\/i> that offers an abbreviated service; a \u201cmusical tefillah<\/i>\u201d to which participants are invited to bring musical instruments; a service at which relevant texts are studied; a \u201cmeditation tefillah<\/i>\u201d that includes classic Zen breathing practices; an \u201cIsrael awareness tefillah<\/i>\u201d that focuses on Israel-related parts of the siddur<\/em> and a \u201cyoga tefillah<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite these various initiatives, \u201cmore is needed,\u201d says one educator.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers do not have available to them a text that guides them in teaching tefillah<\/i>,\u201d says Abe Katz, a New York-area attorney who teaches prayer to adults. \u201cThe Talmud, the Five Books of Moses and the Prophets are easy to teach because the text and the commentaries are readily available. No similar single text is available for teaching the siddur<\/em>.\u201d A student of Rabbi Wohlgemuth\u2019s at Maimonides four decades ago, Katz founded the Beurei Hatefila Institute that provides background about prayer on its web site (beureihatefila.com), in a weekly e-mail newsletter and in Katz\u2019s frequent lectures. His web site features a wide array of historical and philosophical explanations\u2014the halachot <\/i>and the minhagim<\/i>\u2014on the siddur<\/em>, the Haggadah<\/i> and the machzor<\/i>. Katz says his efforts follow in the theological footsteps of Rabbi Wohlgemuth. \u201cI never forgot his method of teaching. Rabbi Wohlgemuth instilled in me the confidence that it was possible to find the origins of the words and the structure of the siddur<\/em> if we tried.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

The simplest, most\u00a0powerful way to have an\u00a0effective davening<\/em> is to stop\u00a0before you open your\u00a0siddur<\/em> and think about\u00a0what you are about to do. It\u00a0is actually a halachah in the\u00a0Shulchan Aruch<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Menachem Nissel is the author of Rigshei Lev: Women and Tefillah<\/em> (Jerusalem, 2001) and rabbinic advisor to NCSY.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Can Kavanah<\/em> Be Taught?
\n<\/b>Can tefillah<\/i> be taught\u2014especially to students who are just beginning to develop their independent personalities and intellectual skills? How do you evaluate the success of a tefillah<\/i> curriculum? How soon do you see results\u2014during school davening<\/i>, upon graduation, years later when the students grow up?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to define success,\u201d says Rabbi Moshe Drelich, a high school teacher at SAR. \u201cThere is no one best way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a hard thing to teach [tefillah<\/i>] to teenagers,\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is a formal curriculum the solution to difficulties teaching tefillah<\/i>, \u201cor is the solution part of the [prayer] experience?\u201d asks Rabbi Binyamin Krauss, SAR principal. In other words, can kavanah<\/i> be taught outside of the actual experience of praying? Instead of offering a separate tefillah<\/i> course, SAR incorporates background about the prayers into the school\u2019s daily davening<\/i>.<\/p>\n

One problem many day schools face: \u201cthere is no time\u201d to devote to a separate tefillah<\/i> course, Rabbi Krauss says. For a school with a dual track of secular and religious studies, there are too many other mandatory subjects to be taught. \u201cOur school is not unusual [in this predicament].\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

I have a little notebook that I\u00a0keep in my purse. When I hear\u00a0about someone whom I want to\u00a0daven<\/em>\u00a0for, I jot it down. I take the\u00a0list out when I\u00a0daven<\/em>. It jogs my\u00a0brain; reminds me that these\u00a0are things I want to address. I\u00a0always keep the book with me.\u00a0It keeps\u00a0tefillah<\/em>\u00a0on my mind\u00a0throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Rebbetzin Yael Weil<\/strong>, an educator for more than two decades, who currently lives in Teaneck, New Jersey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Difficulties in teaching\u00a0tefillah<\/i>\u00a0are probably more common in the Modern Orthodox community than in Chareidi circles, Rabbi Krauss says. \u201cChareidi kids grow up taking\u00a0tefillah<\/i>\u00a0seriously. I don\u2019t think you have [Chareidi] kids . . . to the same degree . . . asking the type of questions that our kids do\u201d\u2014 questions about the relevance and efficacy of prayer. \u201cIf our kids don\u2019t understand something, they will stop doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTefillah<\/i> is a very sophisticated undertaking,\u201d says Rabbi Goldmintz. \u201cMost of us become most conscious of having kavanah<\/i> as adults, for it is then that our vulnerabilities, needs and understanding of the world become most pronounced and we are therefore able to see prayer as something to embrace. Most adolescents are just not there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a hard thing to teach [tefillah<\/i>] to teenagers,\u201d says Rabbi Soskil, \u201cbecause not all kids are ready to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are, after all, teenagers. The school, Rabbi Soskil says, has a more modest goal: to teach the students the basics of tefillah<\/i>, to give them a taste of its beauty, to give them the tools they will need later. The school has realistic expectations, Rabbi Soskil says\u2014\u201cnot every kid, not every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Students at Hillel Torah\u00a0Day School in Chicago\u00a0participate in a\u00a0\u201cTehilotai<\/em> project,\u201d in\u00a0which each student can\u00a0\u201ctake ownership\u201d of a\u00a0perek<\/em>\u00a0of Psalms by\u00a0creating artwork and\u00a0explanations of the\u00a0perek<\/em>\u00a0that speak to her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Some months ago, three seniors sat in a meeting room at Maimonides and discussed how the tefillah<\/i> curriculum has affected them. It broke her out of the practice of saying the words from rote, said Miriam Chava Kramer. Moshe Beiser said he discovered a \u201cpattern\u201d in the words of the siddur<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Before, \u201cI didn\u2019t get the meaning,\u201d said Rafi Diamond, who had found solace in the R\u2019faeinu<\/em> prayer when his relative was ill. After, \u201cI found more meaning in the text.\u201d Diamond said he recited that prayer again with special kavanah<\/i> when two bombs exploded near the finish line at the Boston Marathon this past spring, killing three people and injuring more than a hundred. \u201cBecause of what I learned [about prayer], it added meaning to the words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Lipman is a frequent contributor to<\/i> Jewish Action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teaching tefillah can be a hard task across school. A new approach might bring greater connection to our students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":9017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,109,68,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-faith","category-family","category-inspiration","issues-winter-20135774"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCan Schools Do a Better Job of Teaching Tefillah? - Jewish Action<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Teaching tefillah can be a hard task across school. 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