{"id":2881,"date":"2018-05-15T13:08:39","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T20:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/?p=2881"},"modified":"2018-05-15T14:47:30","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T21:47:30","slug":"further-thoughts-on-prayer-as-media-and-praxis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2018\/05\/further-thoughts-on-prayer-as-media-and-praxis","title":{"rendered":"Further thoughts on prayer as media and praxis"},"content":{"rendered":"

I would like to add to what many people are saying about the vacuous offering of “thoughts and prayers” after deliberate, predictable, and avoidable tragedies, without, I hope, sounding contrarian. Immersed as I’ve been for the last decade in prayer literature directing the Open Siddur Project<\/a>, I want to say something in general about prayers, the genre of prayers as a form of public media, and their efficacy and use.<\/p>\n

Because prayers convey messages that are known implicitly to be sincere and heartfelt, they have long been used as a public media for publicizing concerns and arousing action. This is the parallel dimension of prayer outside the realm of angels. I dare say it is one of the oldest uses of prayers published in literary form. The prayer of \u1e24ana[1<\/a>]<\/sup> doesn’t only pray for a child, but published and disseminated, it also shames and humbles the institution of the Temple cult. The power of such prayers in turning attention depends on the sensibility of those readers (or listeners) to receive those prayers as earnest pleas, and thus awaken in them an empathy and understanding they previously lacked. <\/p>\n

As we often said at the ecological education school in which I taught, Teva Learning Center: “awareness is the first step.” Elevating awareness is the parallel dimension of prayers such as this. After awareness and appreciating the power of our alliances, our interconnectedness, we can commit ourselves to informed bold actions.<\/p>\n

\n

Earlier critical thoughts on prayer as media and praxis may be found in the Afterword to my Friday evening prayerbook, Siddur Livnat Hasapir<\/a>. That entire essay is online at the Open Siddur Project, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

  1. the mother of Shmuel the prophet; I Samuel 2:1-10[↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I would like to add to what many people are saying about the vacuous offering of “thoughts and prayers” after deliberate, predictable, and avoidable tragedies, without, I hope, sounding contrarian. Immersed as I’ve been for the last decade in prayer literature directing the Open Siddur Project, I want to say something in general about prayers, . . . → Continue reading: Further thoughts on prayer as media and praxis<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[289],"tags":[290,291,292,293,294,295,296],"class_list":["post-2881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prayer-and-praxis","tag-prayers","tag-prayerbooks","tag-praying","tag-thoughts-prayers","tag-media-theory","tag-the-politics-of-prayer","tag-prayers-as-political-media","odd"],"yoast_head":"\nFurther thoughts on prayer as media and praxis • Aharon's Omphalos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2018\/05\/further-thoughts-on-prayer-as-media-and-praxis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Further thoughts on prayer as media and praxis • Aharon's Omphalos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I would like to add to what many people are saying about the vacuous offering of “thoughts and prayers” after deliberate, predictable, and avoidable tragedies, without, I hope, sounding contrarian. 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Varady","date":"December 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Rabbi Schwartz asked prospective participants in his \"Kenissa: Community of Meaning Network\" to respond to his chapter, and in particular how our initiatives are aligned with one (or more) of the four propositions he offers to heading off the crises facing the American Jewish community, and in what ways they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Judaica"","block_context":{"text":"Judaica","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/DPVU4QRX0AAm9ex.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/DPVU4QRX0AAm9ex.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/DPVU4QRX0AAm9ex.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/DPVU4QRX0AAm9ex.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/DPVU4QRX0AAm9ex.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/DPVU4QRX0AAm9ex.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3177,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2011\/08\/ain-sof","url_meta":{"origin":2881,"position":4},"title":"Ain Sof","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"August 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A very short meditation on negative theology and emergence.","rel":"","context":"In "Prayer and Praxis"","block_context":{"text":"Prayer and Praxis","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit\/prayer-and-praxis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/E9wNtRbX0AExkHT.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/E9wNtRbX0AExkHT.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/E9wNtRbX0AExkHT.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/E9wNtRbX0AExkHT.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3308,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2022\/08\/we-rabbis-dont-make-golems-for-money-we-do-it-because-its-awesome","url_meta":{"origin":2881,"position":5},"title":"We Rabbis Don’t Make Golems for the Money \u2014 We Do It Because It’s Awesome","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"August 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This here meme I rolled this evening was inspired by a meme created by Steg sometime more than a decade ago and shared on the icanhascheezburger.com website. The timestamp on the image I saved dates to hoary 2012, but I have a feeling I saw it earlier than that, perhaps\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mythology"","block_context":{"text":"Mythology","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit\/mythology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/We-Rabbis-Dont-Make-Golems-for-the-Money-We-do-it-because-its-awesome-II.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/We-Rabbis-Dont-Make-Golems-for-the-Money-We-do-it-because-its-awesome-II.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/We-Rabbis-Dont-Make-Golems-for-the-Money-We-do-it-because-its-awesome-II.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2881"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2890,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2881\/revisions\/2890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}