Jewish prayer covers a wide range of activities: chanting, singing, reading Torah, mumbling, quiet, and each of these serves a different purpose.
On weekday mornings, when there is a lot of material to cover and a whole day in front of us, including trains that do not wait and morning meetings, there are vast swaths of mumbling and quiet. To me, these tracts without singing point to the meditative qualities of prayer. There are times when we need the quiet, the focus, the opportunity to meditate.
Just a few days ago there was an article in the New York Times about meditation that pointed to the health and behavioral benefits that might come from meditation. Of course, the study that it references was dealing with Eastern meditation, rather than Western.
Nonetheless, I know from personal experience that there is much to be gained in those quiet moments of prayer. Join us for our morning meditation (and the singing and chanting as well).
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