Q&A: God
God
Question
Hello Rabbi Michi,
1. Should we direct our prayers and requests toward God so that they may be fulfilled? Does God still intervene in history and in our reality today, such that we can address requests to Him?
2. Which books do you recommend for reading and study about prayer? (That is, books that explain the words of the prayers and their various intentions.)
Thank you in advance!
Answer
- Search here on the site. I’ve written about this quite a bit.
- I’ve already written about this too. In general, you’ll see there that I recommend books like Popper’s The Open Society and Its Enemies, or books on quantum computing (at stages when it’s permitted to read). If you find a good book on the study of prayer that could improve my own prayer, maybe you can recommend it to me too. I don’t know of any. But maybe others here will come and recommend some. Is that what you meant?
Discussion on Answer
A. Say the sacrificial passages before the prayer service (and of course everything that comes afterward).
B. Pray with Sephardim (in Sephardic synagogues the custom is to keep quiet).
C. Make a window for the ark.
D. Don’t read anything during prayer.
E. Remember that it’s not you doing the Master of the Universe a favor; He is doing you one.
Y.D., you get a like from me
Rabbi Wolbe, in his book Alei Shur, talks a lot about the subject of prayer.
I also, unfortunately, am weak when it comes to prayer; it feels too routine to me.