Hasidic Prayer Jacobs

This is a reprint of Louis Jacobs' 1972 classic on the history and techniques of Hasidic prayer. It's an academic study, not a how-to book, but it does contain quite a bit of material translated from firsthand Hasidic sources, about how the Rebbes and their followers approached their daily prayers. As such, it is of great value to anyone interested in the inner dynamics of prayer. Both Jews and non-Jews will find gems of wisdom in this book. I am very glad to see it back in print. From the outside looking in, Hasidic prayer appears to be nothing more than endless repetition, chanted so quickly that the casual observer wonders how the worshipper can possibly focus on the meaning of the words. In a world where "slowly" is often associated with "more sincere," the rapid-fire pace of traditional Jewish liturgy is often misunderstood by outsiders as mere rote. But the inner dynamics of Hasidic prayer are something far different and much more sublime. The key word is "kavannah," or focused attention, which transforms the seemingly "rote" repetitions into a mystical act of "elevating holy sparks." The words may be the same over and over, but the kavannah must be freshly-focused each time, because every prayer is a new offering to God. Properly done, Hasidic prayer "transcends syllables and sounds" to become an act of spiritual redemption. This book was among the first in English to discuss the role of kavannah for the general public, and open up the various ways in which a Hasid puts his heart and soul into the recitation of the daily liturgy. Many Jews who read this book back in the 1970's saw, for the first time, the similarities between Hasidic prayer and forms of Eastern mantra meditation. The author gives an overview of Hasidism and the various prayerbooks used by Hasidism, then discusses the role of gestures and melodies, various forms of contemplative prayer, ecstatic prayer, the elevation of "strange" or distractiing thoughts during prayer, prayers as inspiration, and the difference between the prayers of the Zaddik (Hasidic saint) and a ordinary Hasid, inluding the custom (still practiced today) of leaving a written prayer request (kvittel) on a Hasidic Rebbe's grave. One technique that is not discussed here is the hisboddidus prayer of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (Bratzlav), where the individual goes into solitude and speaks spontaneously to God in his or her own words, as a spontaneous "stream of consciousness" prayer. Although Jacobs cites Rabbi Nachman several times on other topics, he does not seem to have picked up on the centrality of hisboddidus prayer in the practice of Breslov Hasidism. Either that, or he made a conscious decision to focus on prayer techniques related to the written prayerbook only. Still, given the time period in which this book was written, it was a fine achievment, and remains valuable today, as a good intro to the spiritual side of Hasidism.