What's worse: reading torah off of an illuminated scrolling computer screen, or out of a traditional paper book? The scrolling screen highlights a problem inherent with practically all prayer books: page turns interrupt kavanah.
Nowadays, we strive to have more kavanh...but apparently it wasn't always that way. The assumption that I've heard from at least one Orthodox Rabbi, is that the closer in time you are to Moses receiving the tablets from God, the more spiritual you are; in the legends of yesteryear, that is when the Jewish people were more spiritual than they were today. Last week, at our Temple's Shabbat service, the rabbi weighed in on the question of "why don't young Jews feel connected to Judaism?" There were a variety of theories, none of which (curiously) actually asked young Jews themselves for their opinion. I have an opinion, and it's based on my own experience. And it doesn't just address the current young generation, but focuses on a problem that has plagued our services for a long time. That is, the interruption. We call ourselves the "People of the Book", but there's a problem with books: they have pages. Every page turn is an interruption. Is it just me? Or am I the only one trying to keep up with the pace of the prayer service, or struggling to find where we are in the prayerbook.
Of course, one could get lost in a torah scroll too (I've seen it happen!), but the one new idea I thought I'd bring to this blog today is: turning pages in a prayerbook creates and interruption in the congregant's concentration. How lovely, a nice collection of prayer books! But if you lose your place, you're kinda stuck...until you find your place again. As I mentioned a moment ago, even if we used scrolls instead of prayer books, we might still lose our place, and this interruption would mess with our kavana.
When I started writing this, I had a grand idea that the interruption of the page-turn is a significant factor in the history of Jewish spirituality...or at least contributed to the current day problem of young Jews not feeling as "Jewish" as their forebears (is this actually true??)
I don't know what to believe. All I know is that this blog has two advantages that a prayerbook doesn't: scrolling text, and an illuminated screen. I feel that this is an important development in the history of Jewish spirituality, but I'm not sure if it's a good development or a bad one.
Why am I even thinking like this? Because the Rabbi mentioned that some congregations ("in California") didn't use a prayerbook at all, but rather, converted their prayer book into a PowerPoint presentation, which included a bouncing ball. I asked the elderly congregant behind what he though of a PowerPoint prayer service; he loved the idea! He could see the words clearly, and you could focus on singing, instead of fussing with the book. I then began to wonder, what's stopping us from doing this at our Temple? We've got the technology. I think one reason is because the image of a book is very precious to us Jews.
Well, I've had some experience bucking tradition in the sacred realm, by writing and publishing the Comic Book Siddur. Just as with the electric nose-hair trimmer, people laughed at first, but then...it caught on! Why? Because it's useful, and people felt that it filled a need. So why do we still use traditional hard cover prayer books, when page turns alone are messing with our kavanah? Why doesn't the Reform movement embrace the PowerPoint Shabbat with open arms and laser pointer? Because we have made idols of books. Isn't there an argument to made that a PowerPoint prayer service is more like the Godly image of "black fire on white fire" because light, after all, is radiant energy, similar to light of a light projector??
If we want to increase kavanah at services, and if we want young Jews to "feel" more Jewish (and thus, cultivate an identification with Judaism and Israel) then we should remove the impediments to kavanah, that is, those things that give us torah interruptus.
Nowadays, we strive to have more kavanh...but apparently it wasn't always that way. The assumption that I've heard from at least one Orthodox Rabbi, is that the closer in time you are to Moses receiving the tablets from God, the more spiritual you are; in the legends of yesteryear, that is when the Jewish people were more spiritual than they were today. Last week, at our Temple's Shabbat service, the rabbi weighed in on the question of "why don't young Jews feel connected to Judaism?" There were a variety of theories, none of which (curiously) actually asked young Jews themselves for their opinion. I have an opinion, and it's based on my own experience. And it doesn't just address the current young generation, but focuses on a problem that has plagued our services for a long time. That is, the interruption. We call ourselves the "People of the Book", but there's a problem with books: they have pages. Every page turn is an interruption. Is it just me? Or am I the only one trying to keep up with the pace of the prayer service, or struggling to find where we are in the prayerbook.
Of course, one could get lost in a torah scroll too (I've seen it happen!), but the one new idea I thought I'd bring to this blog today is: turning pages in a prayerbook creates and interruption in the congregant's concentration. How lovely, a nice collection of prayer books! But if you lose your place, you're kinda stuck...until you find your place again. As I mentioned a moment ago, even if we used scrolls instead of prayer books, we might still lose our place, and this interruption would mess with our kavana.
When I started writing this, I had a grand idea that the interruption of the page-turn is a significant factor in the history of Jewish spirituality...or at least contributed to the current day problem of young Jews not feeling as "Jewish" as their forebears (is this actually true??)
I don't know what to believe. All I know is that this blog has two advantages that a prayerbook doesn't: scrolling text, and an illuminated screen. I feel that this is an important development in the history of Jewish spirituality, but I'm not sure if it's a good development or a bad one.
Why am I even thinking like this? Because the Rabbi mentioned that some congregations ("in California") didn't use a prayerbook at all, but rather, converted their prayer book into a PowerPoint presentation, which included a bouncing ball. I asked the elderly congregant behind what he though of a PowerPoint prayer service; he loved the idea! He could see the words clearly, and you could focus on singing, instead of fussing with the book. I then began to wonder, what's stopping us from doing this at our Temple? We've got the technology. I think one reason is because the image of a book is very precious to us Jews.
Well, I've had some experience bucking tradition in the sacred realm, by writing and publishing the Comic Book Siddur. Just as with the electric nose-hair trimmer, people laughed at first, but then...it caught on! Why? Because it's useful, and people felt that it filled a need. So why do we still use traditional hard cover prayer books, when page turns alone are messing with our kavanah? Why doesn't the Reform movement embrace the PowerPoint Shabbat with open arms and laser pointer? Because we have made idols of books. Isn't there an argument to made that a PowerPoint prayer service is more like the Godly image of "black fire on white fire" because light, after all, is radiant energy, similar to light of a light projector??
If we want to increase kavanah at services, and if we want young Jews to "feel" more Jewish (and thus, cultivate an identification with Judaism and Israel) then we should remove the impediments to kavanah, that is, those things that give us torah interruptus.
