Before I go on to Part 3 of my weekend: what I mean about how Christians and Jews sit differently

[xiphias]

. . . for prayer.

Real simple. During communal prayer -- anything where someone starts with something like "Let us pray" -- Christians bow their heads, while Jews look up, forward, at the officiant. Jews tend to bow their heads somewhat during private individual prayer, but not during communal prayer, or prayer which an officiant is saying and everyone else is listening to. Anyway, now I'm going to try to write up more about my weekend and Kim and Stacey's wedding.

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Depends on the Christians. In some denominations or congregations, it's traditional to bow when the officiant is talking/praying and others are listening, but to stand up and face forward when praying communally, everyone speaking out loud.

[cafemusique.livejournal.com]

Nice to konw. I'm not too much of a look down-er...to me it feels too inward...I prefer to actually look up or forward...seems to work better for me.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I've noticed something like this in the handful of times I have been in a Christian setting (weddings and stuff) since, well, since. While everyone else bows their heads and folds their hands, my impulse is to raise my head (lifting my face up towards the heavens) and close my eyes. Which is what I do when I daven from memory.

[angelovernh.livejournal.com]

interesting.. maybe I've had Jewish past lives. I always look up.

[beardedone.livejournal.com]

Being your friendly neighborhood atheist, it always is a problem when I'm in a setting where some person decides prayer must be spoken in a crowd.

I always had other Boy Scouts look at me funny when I always would turn my head around and look at the worshipers while the chaplain was speaking. (I will not go into my rant on the Church of LDS and its takeover of the BSA.)

I firmly feel that Christian prayer is way overused in today's society. (Tongue in cheek statement: there's just not enough Jews in the world to make it a better place.)

LDS takeover?

[(Anonymous)]

The Mormons only "took over" the BSA because they registered more units than any other sponsor. If someone else wanted to "take over" the BSA away from the Mormons, they just need to register more troops.

[goljerp]

Another difference is the whole idea of communal prayer. Judiasm has a very strong idea of communal prayer. There are certain prayers which can only be said with a quorum[1]. But the communal prayers aren't really spontaneous. They're time-bound: morning, afternoon, and evening. Or else they're event-bound: a group is about to eat bread before a meal. A group has just finished a meal. But the idea of a Rabbi getting up before a bunch of Jews and just saying "let us pray" when it isn't connected to something... just does not compute. I mean, it's not that I've never seen it happen... but it's not what Jews[2] normally do when we're together. (Individual spontaneous prayer's another ball of wax, but that's individual.)

[1] 10 adult Jews. The Orthodox movement believes they must be male; some Reform people don't feel as strongly about the quorum requirement, but I'm generalizing here.
[2] OK, when I say "Jews" here, I probably mean "The Jews that I've hung out with over the years, who are mainly Conservative, with a sprinkling of Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Reform, and Jewish Renewal (not necessarily in that order)". Again, I'm generalizing.

[mitchellf.livejournal.com]

I see your point. The most I've ever heard from a rabbi for that is something like "turn in your siddurim (prayer books) to page ___ for the Musaf Amida (supplementary prayer said on Sabbath or Holidays)" or to take a page from my cousin's husband's rabbi (a way-to-verbose man), apparently there is a need to discuss each part of the service as it relates to the current simcha (joyous occasion). But, I've never actually heard the words "let us pray" from a rabbi. Huh.

But you're right about the quorum (Minyan) and such. Most of the communal prayers are time-bound and, while it is not necessary to always pray with a Minyan, certain prayers require one in order to be said (like Kadish--the prayer for rememberance of the dead/mourning). The only time I've ever heard anyone say "let us pray" has been either in a church setting (yes, I've been in a church before), or at a christian, or christian/jewish (been to a few of those), wedding. I've even been to one Reform Jewish wedding, and the rabbi never said "let us pray," she just constantly repeated each blessing in English after she said it in Hebrew.