1. Visual Prayer Art Class
Michele Machles

2. Jewish Prayer = T’filah
T’filah means “to judge oneself,” prayer involves self- judgement and self improvement
through honest self searching we open the door to understanding the gap between “what we say” and “what we do”- between our ideals and our actions
The practice of prayer can help me grow through personal reflection, can increase my connection to the Jewish people, and can strengthen my relationship with God

3. 3 Components of Traditional Jewish Prayer
kavanah- focus and intention
from the heart in prayer
kaddosh- the understanding
and desire to make holy
keva- an understanding,
comfort, and fluency in the
with the fixed order of the
worship service

4. There are four different kinds of prayer:
Prayers to praise God
Prayers to thank God
Prayers of petition, asking God for things
Prayers that connect us to our culture’s history and identify our Jewish values

5. Jewish Prayer Practice = Avodah
Using prayer as a spiritual practice, a spiritual endeavor that with learning and effort, can and should change the way we act in everyday life
Jewish prayer is meant to turn our attention to the needs, problems and concerns of others
Jewish prayer teaches us compassion
Avodah is the work we do to find sacred connections to God, community, and self

6. How do we pray? as a community using the siddur
in private while we study
when we are doing what
we love and our spirit is
joined with God
anytime we include God in
what we are doing
it is said the Orthodox make
at least 100 prayers a day
giving blessings to all things

7. Visual Prayer teaches avodah through creating prayer art
select a special prayer that has meaning for you
a prayer that you’d like to see and be reminded of its values everyday
it could be a song, a blessing, a poem

8. Let’s think about about how we can illustrate it
Here is a sample using traditional
Jewish symbols
and one using
symbols
from nature

9. Traditional Jewish Symbols
Let’s list the traditional Jewish symbols we can find in these visual prayer pictures. Can you think of any others?

10. Symbols From Nature

11. Here is a list of symbols and what they have been used to convey:
reaching up to heaven
God reaching toward us
the meeting in the middle is the heart; our star. once used as a shield of protection
wine glass, grapes = prosperity
the hands= blessing

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