Tefillah: An Inner Exploration

Tefillah education is a vital part of Jewish education. Many schools work tirelessly on modeling proper tefillah for their students, hoping that they will pick up on good habits and develop a strong connection with Hashem. In YCQ, we are working on two major aspects of tefillah: the messages and knowledge one needs to have before engaging in tefillah, and the words and procedure of tefillah itself.

An important realization one should have when focusing on tefillah education is that before students can engage in proper tefillah, they first need to develop and internalize certain ideas/themes that are essential for a strong inner connection with Hashem. In the book Living in the Presence, Dr. Benjamin Epstein argues, “Our foremost and most basic obligation to ourselves and those around us is to reveal God’s presence in the world. … Our awareness of the divinity manifest within the present moment consecrates the present with the presence.” To address this, our team created a structured class where once a week our students in grades 1-5 learn topics that help them further their relationship and awareness of Hashem. Some of the themes include nifla’ot Haborei (wonders of the world that Hashem created), basic emunah (faith) concepts, Nature and Hashem, hashgachah pratit (Divine Providence), struggle and growth, and mindfulness.

The lessons themselves must be engaging enough to ignite a curiosity in our young daveners. The structure of the lesson includes a stated goal, a trigger activity that creates interest in the topic, a hands-on lesson that supports the goal and assessment (which can be an activity in school or out of school that checks for understanding). One lesson that we recently had our students focus on was the topic of the appreciation of nifla’ot Haboreh. We had the students bring in a peach pit and asked them to try to open it. We asked them to use any tools in their desk to open up the pit. After the students were not able to open it up, we taught them about how specific enzymes and bacteria found in the dirt caused the outer seed to open, thereby allowing the genetic material in the inside of the seed to come out. The students recognized that Hashem created an amazing world with tremendous Chochmah (wisdom). As a takeaway, the students had to find something else in nature/science that they find interesting, and the next day in class explain how there is so much chochmah in how Hashem created it.

After the students internalize the different ideas that they learned in the first half of the year, they will begin the second aspect of our tefillah curriculum, which focuses on the tefillah itself. The ideas that were taught this year will come out naturally in the words of the siddur and will help the students connect with the major themes and phrases found throughout the siddur. With a newfound understanding of Hashem’s role in our lives, we hope the tefillah will become naturally relevant to them. This process will be an important part of our students’ development in Judaism.

In the future, we will look to have our upper grades engage in a social-emotional curriculum of tefillah that requires the teachers to give thought to what is on their students minds, to question where their interests lie and connect them to tefillah. The idea is once the students have an individual sense of basic Jewish thought and emunah, the students will begin to open themselves up to understanding the significance of davening for themselves and eventually for Klal Yisrael (the entire nation) by connecting to areas that are relevant to them. Some areas that they can explore are self-esteem, failure, future goals, jealousy, stress and relationships. Connecting these relevant topics to the words of the siddur will allow our students to focus in and have a direct line to Hashem.

This program will hopefully carry our students in all areas of tefillah, academics and as a member of the Jewish community. As the year continues, we hope to see success in this pilot program, with our students engaging in tefillah in a meaningful way.