The High Priest and High Holy Day Prayer

Prayer, according to the rabbis of the Talmud, is avodah shebalev, the service of the heart. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel calls prayer  “a microcosm of the soul.” Yet, how can a book filled with prayers other people wrote hundreds of years ago be a pathway to the individual,  idiosyncratic Jewish soul? 

Looking at different stories of the High Priest featured throughout the High Holy day mahzor, we will explore radical re-imaginings of how we communicate our deepest needs and desires during these High Holy Days. Our learning will be interactive and integrate the wisdom of the texts with our own knowing. 

Dorothy Richman serves as the rabbi of Makor Or: Jewish Meditation Center and is a founding faculty member of the Romemu Yeshiva, a six-week immersive program of spiritual study and practice. Dorothy’s work centers on the spiritual practices of Torah study, meditation, prayer, and justice. She recently released an album of original songs, Something of Mine, largely based on texts from the Jewish tradition, available on BandCamp.