The Prayer Experience

By Jason Rembrandt
Miami University of Ohio

When asked to write about praying in nature I jumped at the opportunity, since being outdoors can so heavily influence your prayer. The rabbis of Tzfat would run go out to the hills and fields during Kabbalat Shabbat, singing praises to God, lifting their souls. Outside, our prayers are free to fly to the heavens, and make their way back into our hearts. 

I am a camp kid. I have been to a number of different Jewish sleep-away summer camps throughout my life, and while they were different camps, they all held services outside. There is something to be said about staring into the leaves of trees while you’re praying or looking out over a lake and seeing the snapping turtles looking up at you when you pray. It was at camp and in youth group that I developed my passion for prayer. When I prayed outside I wasn't worried about what time it was, how hungry I was, or how hot or cold it was. When I prayed outside, my soul found a place in the world, my heart would rise in my chest and I would fall into a deep prayer experience. I would find myself experiencing so much more. Nature opened herself up to me when we prayed. It allowed me to further appreciate my world.

On the morning of Rosh Hashanah, sitting in services, there was a fly on the bench in front of me. This small insect didn't move until the Torah service and, as odd as it is, I had a meaningful spiritual experience with this little fly. I found a small bit of holiness in that fly on that morning. When we sang Halleluyah and we sang that all of God's creations sing praises to God, I could swear the fly was, in its own way, joining in with our prayer. There is something, well, everything, wonderful in nature, and all too often we forget nature for our brick and mortar and air conditioning. It is hard to experience your soul, to find God, in a soulless building.

But I feel that prayer in nature requires much more focus than prayer in a building. There are many more distractions, from a blade of grass you want to pluck to insects flying around. And so praying outside requires more dedication, it asks of you to truly let everything else go and just slide into the prayer experience.  That can be hard for a lot of people; a lot of us come to pray and find ourselves reserved, cautious almost. I implore you: let go, express yourself through prayer because once you do, you will find yourself in an incredibly powerful prayer experience.

Jason Rembrandt is a sophomore majoring in anthropology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is a board member of a few organizations and is very involved in his academic department. Even with all that, he doesn't lose sight of how important his Judaism is to him.

[Posted 10/7/10]