Last month, I wrote about education programs for adults at Beth Israel, including the class on Samuel that will take place on Tuesday evenings at my home, and the Torah Reading class that Bettina is teaching on Wednesday evenings at the shul. Please join us for these classes, and let me know if there is something else you would like to learn. I will also be teaching parts of a class called Judaism that Works to our teenagers, and I hope to work two more classes into the weekly schedule later this year, one on Talmud (in English) and one on the prayers in our liturgy.

And this brings me to this month's topic, which is prayer. Prayer is perhaps the essence of what we do as Jews and what distinguishes us as Jews. We do not pray through intermediaries. We do not pray for impossible miracles. We pray every day for the seemingly mundane things that we need as individuals and as a people.

On Shabbat, we abbreviate the Amidah, removing the requests because they seem out of place on a day that is itself holiness, and increase our prayers of praise and thanks. And unlike the weekday prayers, we add Musaf, an additional prayer... which, if we come to shul only once a week around 11:00 or so on Shabbat, we might think is the central prayer of Judaism!

I'd like to invite you to investigate Jewish prayer more closely, both on Shabbat and during the week. There are two good ways to do this: first, when we are praying, we can (and in fact, we are obligated to) insert something new into our prayers every day. We do this by savoring the words, weighing what they mean, connecting them with what is going on in our lives, finding new connections between them, singing them with intensity and beauty, and using them to express what we need to say to God.

And the second way is to pray more often. Come earlier on Shabbat - some of the best prayers are actually near the beginning of the service. Come more often during the week - we currently gather for minyan, communal prayer, on Sunday, Monday, and Thursday mornings at 6:55, plus every evening at 5:30. Your presence will make a difference, not just in making a minyan, but in making a minyan a richer, fuller prayer experience for all. It is a beautiful way to start and end the work day, a chance to gather with our friends and focus our thoughts and hearts for a few minutes.

Like many arts, the art of praying takes practice. And while not every prayer experience is always sublime, working to improve our understanding of the prayers, in English and in Hebrew, is what enables us to attain those moments of prayer that are sublime. And this is why we pray as a community, in a minyan, because we are strengthened by the other pray-ers around us who are on the same quest we are, to connect with God and our people - past, present, and future.

So, come to minyan. And if you already come, come more often, for your own benefit and for the benefit of the community!