Sometimes prayer comes easily. We don’t need a book, a service, a rabbi or a minister. The words pour out of our hearts, and our connection to the Source of All feels as natural and easy as breathing.

Sometimes prayer comes haltingly, or not at all. Even when we find the right setting, the right people to pray with, the right music and prayers, we can sit through an entire religious service and not feel a thing – no connection to the Divine, no inspiration, nothing.

The Torah doesn’t tell us how to pray. It doesn’t even tell us that we should pray; it just shows us people praying in times of stress, or need, or thanksgiving. 

Isaac prayed on Rebecca’s behalf; Rebecca cried out to God about the twins struggling in her womb; Hannah prayed for a child; Moses asked God to heal his sister Miriam. Each was specific and deeply personal. Not especially helpful for us .

 This week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, offers two prayers of thanksgiving and gratitude. The first looks to the past and recaps what God did for the people in taking them out of Egypt. You may remember it from the Passover seder; it begins “My father was a wandering Aramean.”

The second leaves the past behind and offers a declaration to God that the person praying has followed God’s commandments, and ends by moving from personal to communal prayer:
 
“I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done just as You commanded me. Look down from Your holy abode, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the soil You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.” (Deut:26:14-15)
 
It is a reminder that prayer can be more than an individual’s personal relationship with the Divine, much more than a balm for the individual soul. It is also an opportunity to remember that we are not alone, but part of something larger, part of a community.

Rosh Hashanah is just around the corner, and the Jewish community will gather in synagogues, praying together. May our prayers rise up and may our repentance and thanksgiving bring us to an awakening to Wonder, to Holiness, to God.