|
 By Rabbi Lawrence Kushner
My favorite part of sailing comes about fifteen minutes into the voyage, after we’ve loaded all our gear aboard, removed all the covers, freed all the neatly coiled lines, pumped the bilges, checked the safety equipment, opened the sea cocks, turned “on” the batteries, hoisted the “iron genoa” (started the engine), cast off the mooring line, negotiated our way through the maze of boats in the harbor, raised the main, unfurled the jib, trimmed the sails, set a course—then the moment comes.
I reach down to the throttle and pull it backward all the way, back past “idle” (there’s a spring somewhere in there to keep you from doing it accidentally), and shut off the fuel to the diesel. It takes a second or two to take effect.
The engine obediently chugs and sputters to a stop. Now, except for the whisper of the wind in the sails and the gurgle of water rushing past the hull, there is only silence. There’s nothing to say. Indeed, to say anything would damage the serenity of the moment. We are better at making noise than enduring silence. But silence is better than noise. Attaining silence may just be the reason for the prayers.
The classical Reformers must have figured this out long ago when they made the “silent meditation” the culmination of the liturgy. And, for most of us, it was. After you did all your prayer work, there was silence. It lasted for several minutes. It taught, effectively, that the purpose of prayer was stillness, patience, passivity, listening. The meditation ended with the choir singing a stylized version of Psalm 19:15, “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable, in Thy sight O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.”
A reasonable, short-term goal for all of us might be to create a five-minute morning ritual that could be performed at home each day—perhaps nothing more than holding a prayer book, or putting on a tallit or tefillin, closing one’s eyes, reciting a favorite line from the liturgy, “shutting off the engine,” and waiting in meditative silence for an answer.
The above excerpt, “Silent Prayer,” by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, is from I’m God; You’re Not: Observations on Organized Religion & Other Disguises of the Ego © 2010 by Lawrence Kushner. Permission granted by Jewish Lights Publishing, P.O. Box 237, Woodstock, VT 05091; www.jewishlights.com.
*********************
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, best-selling author, lecturer, and spiritual leader, is regarded as one of the most creative religious thinkers and writers in America. Kushner’s acclaimed books include I’m God; You’re Not: Observations on Organized Religion & Other Disguises of the Ego; God Was in This Place & I, i Did Not Know: Finding Self, Spirituality and Ultimate Meaning; Honey from the Rock: An Easy Introduction to Jewish Mysticism; Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary; The Book of Letters: A Mystical Hebrew Alphabet; Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Introduction for Christians; and In God’s Hands, an inspiring fable for children, with Gary Schmidt (all Jewish Lights). Kushner served as rabbi at Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, Massachusetts, for almost thirty years; he is currently the Emanu-El scholar at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, and an adjunct faculty member at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion.
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner is available to speak on the following topics:
-
Jewish Mystical Imagination
-
Rymanover’s Silent Aleph: What Really Happened on Sinai
-
Zohar on Romance and Revelation
-
What Makes Kabbalah Kabbalah
-
Sacred Stories of the Ordinary: When God Makes a Surprise Appearance in Everyday Life
Click here to contact the author.
|
