March 19, 2014
Dirshu: Confronting Challenges with Mind and Heart: Prayer: What Are We Doing?
Prayer is both an obligation and an opportunity. Yet we encounter many obstacles in prayer, practical challenges as well as theological ones.
This series will discuss ways to understand what we are doing when we pray and introduce practices that help us sustain concentration and cultivate presence of mind and heart in our prayer.
March 19: Less Ego, More God: R. Abraham Joshua Heschel in Conversation with Hasidic Masters and Christian Mystics on the Spiritual Project of Prayer – Rabbi Shai Held
- An exploration of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s outlook on how self-transcendence as a means of connection to God can be achieved through the values instilled by prayer.
March 26: Words Filled with Light: Hasidic Mystical Reflections on Kavvanah and Contemplative Prayer – Prof. Eitan Fishbane
- An analysis of meditative practices adding to the experience of prayer.
April 2: Prayer and Human Needs: R. Soloveitchik and Other Recent Thinkers – Prof. David Shatz
- In praying for ourselves we become sensitized to the needs of others. What are the values that we extract from our prayers?
