"Prepare My Prayer," Perfect Timing, Book Review

Prepare My Prayer
by Rabbi Dov Singer

I read Prepare My Prayer by Rabbi Dov Singer just as the corona virus aka COVID-19 began to restrict our basic life as Jews. The fear and uncertainty of our basic health has certainly been affecting the faith of most of us regardless of our general spirituality and religious observance. It was very clear that I'd need time to fully digest Singer's book.

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The Introduction had me very wary, because it mentioned "Hasidic revival," of which I've never been a fan. I have problems with the entire concept of hasidism, because for me is theologically problematic. As I understand it, hasidim place a rebbe between themselves and Gd. According to my understanding of Judaism, one of the main principles is that we worship Gd directly. I also don't go to graves and tombs to pray to Gd.

Despite my doubts, I read through the book very carefully. Prepare My Prayer ended up being extremely timely, because it encourages looking for words, phrases sections of our long prayers that speak to us personally, in addition to the solitary, hibodedut, praying we are now commanded to observe.

Temporarily, until the corona virus aka COVID-19 is no longer considered an immediate danger, community aka prayer with a minyan (group of ten or more) is forbidden in most of the Jewish World. Rebbe Nachman and his followers are suddenly "mainstream." We all must learn how to pray alone, and I consider Prepare My Prayer to be the perfect tool to help us.

Here in Israel we're not allowed to take long walks to isolate ourselves for prayer in the ways of classic Bratslav, but we do have to find the beauty and relevance from the text. Singer's Prepare My Prayer really encourages us to look at the prayers instead of just following.

Catriel Sugarman who
reconstructed
Rebbe Nachman's chair

Israel Museum

Davka, just before Purim, at the Israel Museum, there was the grand opening of an exhibit depicting the Bratslav Hasidim's solitary prayer, which I attended and wrote about. The curators were fascinated by the beauty and spiritualism of solitary praying on logs and broken chairs, rather than in well-kept decorated synagogues.

Even when today's restrictions are long over and history, our prayers should be more personalized and meaningful, not just a proscribed mumbo-jumbo. Too many young people have left observance, because they couldn't connect spiritually, intellectually and emotionally to the long, standardized, structured classic prayers. Rabbi Singer is the principal of Yeshiva High School Mekor Chaim, and no doubt he has found many welcome ears for his approach to Jewish Prayer.

Despite my initial misgivings, I got a lot from reading Prepare My Prayer by Rabbi Dov Singer and highly recommend it for yourself and as a gift to people of all ages.