Howdy and shalom. I hope all are well and have been enjoying a nice summer.  I am returning from my break from my TOI Blog. I have spent time reflecting, writing music, reading, and trying to stay cool. We are now in the month of Elul, leading up to the high holidays, and I wanted to offer a few suggestions to make your holidays more meaningful.

We learn from the commentaries on the high holidays prayer Unetaneh Tokef, from Talmud Yoma, the Talmudic tractate on the Day of Atonement, that prayer, repentance, and charity can avert ‘an evil decree’ for the year to come. This is also true in our day to day life.

https://www.thetorah.com/article/unetaneh-tokef-repentance-prayer-and-charity-cancel-the-decree

I am holier than no one, and writing as a Jewishly educated and somewhat experienced secularized lay person with a few suggestions and true stories from my real life spiritual journeys with my family in the hope of assisting many of you to have a more meaningful spiritual and reflective experience this holiday season.

I have a large Judaica library at home with many prayer books and machzors (holiday prayer books) from various traditions in Jewish life, and various historical periods. The prayer book is the ‘greatest hits’ collection from the Jewish tradition, and anyone can learn the basics of Jewish belief, spiritual practice, ethics, philosophy and holidays just by perusing any Jewish prayer book.

Now that I am in my ‘bifocal years’ I find it harder to read the fine print in many siddurs so have passed a number of prayer books of various denominations from Chabad Orthodox to Israeli Sephardic, to Reform to members of my family with my blessings.

Recently I have been thinking about the prayer books we used at Hebrew school and synagogue and at home and I have accumulated the full collection from my grandfather’s day to my own. I should say that ‘owning’ the prayer books is not the same as actual prayer and this should be true for anyone who thinks they can ‘buy’ spiritual wisdom at their local Judaica shop or with pricey high status synagogue membership and attendance. Just saying.

I regard prayer as a solo spiritual sport, and it is for this reason that the Hebrew word for prayer, Lehitpallel is a REFLEXIVE verb. It means to reflect and to judge ourselves. Prayer is something we do with and for ourselves, and the results are not always immediately apparent. But these effects and experiences accumulate over time with persistent effort. I have often been amazed at ‘aha’ moments in the prayer book when I am astonished to find a sentiment written in ancient times whose wisdom expresses my current concerns exactly. How could they possibly have known what I most needed to hear in that moment?

There have been times that I have been more regular in my prayers and religious observance, and sometimes less so, and this is true for many of us. This is to be........

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