Chances are that when you first got to Stern, you were surprised to find that there was no official davening program. Sure, people carve time in their schedules to daven individually before class or even in between classes, but communal prayer—that cornerstone of Jewish religious life—is conspicuously absent. Enter SCW senior and Kol Hamevaser staff-writer Elana Raskas. In her article for the publication’s most recent issue on worship, Elana called for the institution of daily communal davening at Stern. Thanks to her article and the efforts of TAC and other Stern students, Shaharit-with-a-group is officially coming to a Beit Medrash near you. “It’s not something that takes a lot of work at all,” Elana says about the new initiative. “It’s not drastic or revolutionary in any way; it’s just something that’s lacking in Stern and that a lot of people want.”
Elana and TAC president Margot Reinstein consulted with Stern’s professor of Jewish Studies Rabbi Saul Berman to determine how best to structure the Tefillah. Scheduled for Mondays through Thursdays at 8:15, the davening will be similar to most seminary and high-school prayer groups with a Chazanit reading aloud the first and last lines of each passage. Though the majority of the prayers will be recited silently, Elana stresses that “we want to make it a unique experience that the individual couldn’t achieve on her own.” For example, Margot revealed that “we’ll be going through the siddur and illuminating a passage each day, making our way through the siddur, as per the suggestion of Rabbi Berman.” She also notes that “we’re open to suggestions and student involvement and experimenting with other ways to have a more spiritually fulfilling experience.”
Though Stern students currently have the option of davening minhah with a minyan on Wednesdays, the new shaharit davening will only have women in attendance. This is partially due to the logistical complications of arranging for ten men to come to the Beit Medrash and lead a minyan each morning. Yet, Elana views this limitation in a positive light: “it’s more empowering for students to be in charge of their own davening without having to rely on outside support.” However, she does point out that the new shaharit program “might be a natural progression towards a minyan.”
Ultimately, though, as the shaharit program currently stands, participants will not be able to recite devarim she-bi-kedusha, prayers which are only recited in the presence of a minyan. However, Elana maintains that there are benefits even to “minyan-less” communal davening. For one thing, the new initiative will help students achieve consistency in their Tefillah. As Elana puts it, “personally it’s easier to get up and daven in the morning if I know there is somewhere I need to be.” Also, Elana stresses the power of group prayer to foster a sense of community: when you get together every morning and “see the same faces every day,” you develop a sense of kinship and Areivut which “can be very moving.”
The first communal shaharit is slated for February 12th and according to Margot, the feedback thus far has been “phenomenal.” The real litmus test will be if the davening group can maintain a strong attendance over the course of the semester, something which can only be achieved through the efforts of the Stern community at large. To quote Elana, “we need student support to make it happen.”
“A major struggle for Stern students, as a microcosm for students everywhere, is tefillah,” Margot contends. “Whether it’s because it’s hard to do it alone, because of the routine or because of something fundamentally deeper in terms of our connection with G-d, tefillah is difficult.” If you’re looking to improve your tefillah and imbue your day with an extra dose of spirituality, the new shaharit program at Stern might just be the answer to your prayers.