Tefila Intentions

What is Prayer?

This past weekend I had the rare opportunity to talk with my brother, face-to-face. And in the middle of a conversation, he turns to me, and asks “What is prayer?” I was too overwhelmed in the moment to respond coherently. Too many answers popped into my head. Prayer is a shout, and at the same time it’s a whisper. Prayer is a question, and also an answer. Prayer is written in the prayer book, but it’s also spontaneous. Prayer is solemn, and joyful, and sad and awed. And it’s all of these things, all at the same time.

Last weekend, the only thing I could say to my brother was “Honestly, sometimes I have no idea what prayer is. But I know it when I feel it.”

It can be hard for us, in our modern and bustling lives to notice prayer, or to take time to pray at all. We get so wrapped up in the “to-dos” that we all too often ignore the “should-dos.”

But here, in our little community, in the middle of all the craziness that exists outside of these walls, the rhythm of our lives allows us the opportunity to focus, and to take time for prayer.

So, for the next little while, I invite you to use every atom of your heart, any decibel of your voice, any twitch of your muscles to fill this space with prayer. And perhaps, you too, will know it when you feel it.

God's House

When I built my house, I built it from scratch. I put every piece into place myself. I planted the garden, tended to it and watered it. I made sure every leaf, petal and stem grew.

I painted the walls, chose every color of every mural and every statue. I put up stone walls and wooden structures. I made sure every wavelength of light was reflected on the multitude of surfaces.

I built my house from scratch, and now I welcome you into it. I offer you a refreshing drink of spring water. I open the window so that you may sit near this cool breeze. Take comfort and joy in the house I have built, for I built it just for you.

I built it so that in every hall and corner you may discover something new. To see with new wonderment everywhere you turn. I built it to provide for every piece of you life, so that you may work but, I pray, never lack. I built it with puzzles, that you can take apart and reconfigure, so that you too, may build my house.

Because, when I built my house, I built to from scratch. And I did it all alone. But when I built my house, I built it for you, so that you might build our house too.

Lashon Ha'Ra

If you’re like me, you don’t clean until you can see the mess. You wait until there’s sauce on the stove, tumbleweeds of dust in the corner or dried toothpaste on the sink. Then, and only then, do you start your cleaning ritual. But now that it’s Nisan, cleaning takes on a whole ‘nother meaning. We find a feather and candle, or if you’re a little more modern – a Swiffer and vacuum, and go through our entire house looking for crumbs.

It seems appropriate, then, that this week’s parsha is Metzora, in which a homeowner finds that his home is not as clean as it’s supposed to be: there’s tza’ra’at, flecks of disease WITHIN the walls of the house. When this happens the homeowner must empty his house of everything and call in the priest who will either declare the house habitable or condemn it and order its destruction.

The rabbis wonder, what could possibly be this homeowner’s sin that its repercussion is so insidious, so contagious, so infectious, that it permeates his life to a point that necessitates such an extreme response?

Their answer? Lashon Ha’ra.

It’s possible this homeowner didn’t see the slow build up that his actions caused – a speck of gossip here, a dash of hearsay there – until the crumbs of his sins morphed into stains on his house, and it was too late. Now the homeowner must decide whether to stand back and watch his home fall apart, or if his tza’ra’at can be cleansed and cured.

So, when we’re going through your house looking for every particle of chametz, perhaps it’s also a good time to clean our spiritual house, to take stock of the nearly invisible pieces of lashon ha’ra we may have left lying around and clean them up before they become an unavoidable plague.