You ever wonder why you were put in certain situations and then all of a sudden it just hits you like a ton of bricks?
It took me a little while to catch on, but in the end I managed to learn something very disturbing that hit me in the gut.
I'll try to catch you up.
So I was a choir director for an orthdox school, from which I developed a mentor type of relationship with the boys in my choir. Therefore, I could tell when something was amiss with one of them. It was Friday night and maariv was being said in the shul but I had to be outside of the shul in the hallway because there were no seats left (no I was not late, I gave up my seat for an elderly man). When I got out there, what caught my attention hurt me. A number of boys were standing outside the shul chatting. Boys who were old enough to daven and surely knew how to, yet they stood "shmoozing" as if they were at a friends house, completely neglecting the davening. I nudged one of the boys and asked him if he would say the paragraph "Vayichulu" with me and he did without looking in. He knew it "by heart". I then asked him if he knew what the paragraph meant, he replied in the affirmative, but when I asked him if he could translate it for me, he said to me "translate? I don't do English".
Ouch. Could it be? Could it be that there's not a focus on making sure the children understand what they are saying?
And we wonder why so many children/adolescents lose their identity? Now that I think of it, I was not given an explanation of the davening as well. It was something I had to self-teach myself and I struggle with the explanation to many paragraphs to this very day!
Think about it, he's davening three times a day out of habit and he doesn't know what he's saying the whole time? No wonder he's not interested in davening and would rather chat with his friends!
It was like the whole world was crashing in on me at once, like one big understanding swept over me. I'm sure the rebbeim do their best, but if they don't or even if they do, the chinuch (education) has to continue at home or these kids just won't care. Think about how many adults you see at shul who are on their blackberry's or are fiddling with something. If adults cant concentrate on their davening (which may be because they don't understand the significance) then with children, all the more so!
Something is very very wrong with this picture...
I'm sure the gedolim are aware of such situations, there are just so many distractions out there now that it's nearly impossible to keep one interested in davening. Even if it's only a half hour...
So here's the big question. Why is this on a music blog? What am I ranting about?
I found a way that to connect myself to the pesukim (verses) of the siddur (prayer book). Through song of course! So many contemporary songs take famous pesukim and use them as songs. Sure, they don't really make sense most of the time with the tune but they are catchy! For instance, Lecha Hashem Hagedula from The Chevra doesn't fit with the meaning of the words at all. I'm pretty sure G-d doesn't need us praising his great powers in the style of a rock song. However, the song is catchy and it led me to the next step, which was to find the meaning. So now, whenever that phrase is mentioned in davening (prayers) I think of the song, which in turn leads me to thinking about the meaning of the verse, which subsequently lead to a more inspirational davening for myself.
So next time you hear a song, open up the booklet that came with the album and most of the time it says the source of the passuk. Find that passuk and read the meaning and every subsequent time you read that passuk it will give you a better understanding of your religion and ultimately bring you closer to G-d. Which in my opinion, is a good place to be. :)
