Aryeh Kaplan

£10.95

 "The first book to read on the subject. It is a gentle, clear introduction and provides exercises and practices that can be used right away by any Jew who wants a deeper prayer experience." --Rodger Kamenetz, author of The Jew in the Lotus

2. Kabbalah of Prayer: Sacred Sounds and the Soul's Journey

Shulamit Elson 

£12.99

We learn of her journey from the closed world of an Orthodox Jewish family, on a voyage of discovery that took her into a secular life of poetry and travel throughout Europe. Then, faced with personal difficulties and waking visions, she began a path of meditation. Gifts of healing and prophecy followed. Eventually she met her Maggid, the traditional Kabbalistic "answering angel," with whose help she developed a series of meditative "Sound Prayers" using sacred sounds made with the voice. 

Elson explains the theological, cosmological, and esoteric foundations upon which "Sound Prayer" is based. We are introduced to the ancient wisdom of the Kabbalah, the "Tree of Life," and the structure of the soul in its relationship with God. We learn the true nature of prayer, how it relates to Tikkun Olam ("Repair of the World"), and how "Sound Prayer" relates to different angelic levels of being and truth. 

This is a practical book that gives individual exercises as well as offering help on meeting specific challenges, including spiritual struggles, feelings of meaninglessness, and harsh self-judgment, as well as illness, fear, and anxiety.

3. Hasidic Prayer  

(Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)

Louis Jacobs 

£15.95

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 distracting 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.

4.  Your Word Is Fire: The Hasidic Masters on Contemplative Prayer (A Jewish Lights Classic Reprint)

Arthur Green, Barry W. Holtz, (Translators)  

£13.99

5. Major Philosophers of Jewish Prayer in the Twentieth Century 

Jack J. Cohen 

£17.95

Arguing that for many people prayer is not a relevant activity, Cohen (Guide for an Age of Confusion) presents nine Jewish philosophers who sought an intellectual base for prayer. Their thinking includes rationalism, moral action, and prayers' function. The philosophers born earlier in the century are more aligned with the orthodox movement than those born later, who are here tied to more liberal movements. Still, Elie Munk's and Abraham Kook's philosophies are as unique as those of their liberal colleagues Eugene Borowitz and Lawrence Hoffman. One chapter discusses feminists' views of prayer, and the last chapter poses the question of prayer's relevance. Cohen shows that prayer is neither a recent concern nor a greater concern for one movement's philosophers than it is for another's. Rather, philosophers from each movement confront it as a part of their thinking. This thoughtful, general summary is concerned with stimulating readers to think about prayer.

The source-quotes for many well-known Breslov concepts can be found here: Repeating one word over and over like a mantra (p. 24); pouring out your heart to God in your own language (p. 20); spending time in solitude (p. 28); finding yourself in the Psalms (p. 24); meditating outdoors where "each blade of grass sings out to God" (p. 42); The "silent scream" technique (p.40); and much more. 

The booklet also contains an excellent overview of the history of meditation in Judaism, written by the translator, Aryeh Kaplan. Kaplan brings to this translation his expertise in meditation practices, which he has written about more extensively in his own works. The original compiler of these quotes, Rabbi Alter of Teplik, also wrote an introduction illuminating the connections between these ideas, which is included here, too.

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