HOME | CONTACT US | DONATE LoginLOGIN Ask the RabbiASK THE RABBI
Chabad.org Spirituality
 
Chabad.org » Spirituality » Short Insights » By Tzvi Freeman » Prayer as Madness


Share thisPost a CommentPrintSend this page to a friendSubscribe
7 Comments Posted


Prayer as Madness



Prayer is a form of madness. Tell me that it is rational to talk to the Force of Being as though this were your closest confidant. Tell me that it is not absurd to plead with this force to adjust reality more to your liking--as though you know better how to run the universe.

Prayer, like love, is more about losing yourself A philosopher cannot pray--unless he loses his mind. A pragmatist does not pray until he loses control. Prayer, like love, is more about losing yourself than it is about finding any great truth.

If so, should we not strive to be reasonable people? Why have we institutionalized madness?

This is something vital to know: There is madness and there is madness. There is blind, stupid madness; madness not worth listening to because it has nothing to say. And there is madness that has very much to say, so much the mind cannot listen unless it sits quiet and still.

There is madness that transforms human beings into monsters, imprisoning them within the worst of their own fantasies--and there is madness that lies at the nucleus of being human, a divine spark that makes us free, living beings and not mechanical humanoids. To pray is to find the Essence of Life within your own heart.

It is at that nub of madness that lies beyond reason and intellect, that lies at our very core and essence, it is there that we touch the core and essence of reality, that which we call G-d. And from there we speak with G-d, for there the two of us are one.


Share thisPost a CommentPrintSend this page to a friendSubscribe
7 Comments Posted

By Tzvi Freeman   More articles...  |   RSS Listing of Newest Articles by this Author

Rabbi Tzvi Freeman heads Chabad.org's Ask The Rabbi team, and is a senior member of the Chabad.org editorial team. He is the author of a number of highly original renditions of Kabbalah and Chassidic teaching, including the universally acclaimed "Bringing Heaven Down to Earth." To order Tzvi's books click here.

Painting by Chassidic artist Zalman Kleinman.


The content on this page is copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org, and is produced by Chabad.org. If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with the copyright policy.
 

7 Comments Posted  |  Post A Comment
Reader Comments
Latest Comments:
Posted: Oct 1, 2006
Powerful and beautiful- thank you.
The paintig is magnificent too.

Posted By Miri

Posted: Sep 28, 2006
response to Susan
That's what makes composing your own prayer so difficult for most of us--it's hard to sustain that loss of self-consciousness while searching thesaurus.com for just the right word. So, when we do utter our own words of prayer, it usually comes out rather cryptic. As in the classic "Oy Tattty!"
Perhaps that's what King Solomon meant when he said, "G_d is in the heavens and you are on earth--so make your words short and snappy!"
Posted By Tzvi Freeman (Author), Thornhill, ON

Posted: Sep 28, 2006
prayer as madness
Thought provoking as always.

Does this apply to all prayer? ie, one's own words as well as formal preset words.
Posted By Susan Deutsch, Toronto, Canada



Post a Comment
Subject:
Comment:
  1000 Characters Remaining
Name*:
Email*:
City:   State/Country:
* indicates a required field
 


By Tzvi Freeman
The Kabbalah of Man and Woman
Help! I Don't Want to Turn Into My Father!
Prayer as Madness
Children of the Universe
The Existential Exodus
Da'at
Mind Over Heart?
The Angels and Us
The Heresy of Kindness
Divine Madness
Tradition or Progress?
Adam
Unidolatry
The Marriage
The Moon and Us
Showing 1 to 15 of 47

Related
  More articles on
Reason and Supra-rationality (45 articles)
Prayer (310 articles)