Prayer is called many things in the Torah. Jacob has an
"encounter"
on Mount Moriah; Pinchas conducts a "judgment"
with G-d; Isaac and Rebecca "entreat" for a child;
Jonah "cries out" from the belly of the fish.
The Midrash surveys the Five Books of Moses, the Book of Psalms and the Prophets,
and finds 13 ways to say "prayer": cry,
howl, groan,
stricture, song,
prostration, encounter,
judgment, entreaty, standing,
appeal and beseeching.
Of course, no two people cry alike. Judgment can be the judgment of self, of
our place in the world, or of our relationship with G-d. And certainly the tone
and timbre of our prayers varies with the time and place of our beseeching, the
reason for our entreating, and the object of our appeals. Thus each of the thirteen
modes of prayer include numerous colors and textures, as we have attempted
to demonstrate with this selection of 28 stories, essays and articles, culled
from 125 issues of Chabad.Org Magazine.
Stories of Prayer:
Minchah
The Fork in the Road
The Chassid and the Fool at the Leiptzig Fair
The Bulkhead
The Old Man on the Island
Getting There
The Prayerbook
A Guest, a Fish, and a Prayer
The Dancing Jews
The Ladder
Voices of Prayer:
Prayer
Grace After Meals
Sweet
A Man I Met in Shul
Uncle Irv
Words
Spitting
Advice to an Expectant Mother
You
Rehearsal for Redemption
Enter the Beloved
Essays on Prayer:
Is G-d a He?
The Cosmology of Prayer
A Glass of Milk
Prayer Insights:
The Tzaddik's Prayer
Talking With G‑d
Holy War
Bless You!
Wrestling With Angels
Why Do We Pray?
If G-d Knows Best, what's the Point of Prayer?
