What I Learned about Tefillah Education During a Pandemic

In the last year, Jewish educators have worked hard to transform Jewish learning into something manageable and soul-lifting in these uncertain and challenging times.  We have tried to look for ways to adapt in-person learning to online learning, to engage students, and to develop meaningful relationships.  I am by nature an optimist, and I try to find the good in people and situations.  I’m a big believer in silver linings, and we have definitely discovered some “covid keepers” - changes from this year that we’ll keep even when the pandemic is over.  

But during the pandemic I have also learned something critical: there is absolutely no substitute for in-person tefillah (prayer), especially for kids who are learning how to pray.  

Praying is hard.  Learning to pray is hard.  It’s even harder when it’s in a foreign language (Hebrew) and has set prayers to learn (liturgy).  But learning to pray is not only possible, but can be an exciting part of Jewish education in “normal” times. There is something almost-magical that happens when you’re in a room full of children praying - you hear their voices soar, and you can feel their spirits lift.  As a prayer leader, you know when they are singing along, and you know when you’ve lost them.  You can pivot in the moment because you are getting feedback about the experience - do they need me to slow down? Speed up? Change the melody?  Prayer is a dance, a give-and-take between us and God, and between the shaliach tzibbur (prayer leader) and the pray-ers.  

But so much of that is lost - or impossible - online.

It is hard to pray when you can only hear your own voice.  You feel awkward, self-conscious.  If you don’t know the words that well, it’s uncomfortable to hear yourself mumble along.  When we pray together in person, your voice is subsumed among other voices, and it’s more comfortable to join in, even if you don’t know the prayers very well. You can sing along to a few syllables here and there, eventually more words, and eventually all of it.  You look up to students who are older, who know the words better, who know what to do.  You hear the sounds of people all around you - younger and older, kids and teachers, different voices, different styles.  You can find your place in the sound.  But none of that can happen online.

And so we do our best with tefillah-on-zoom.  We have done our best for a year.  But when this pandemic is over, and we can get back to in-person tefillah (whether outdoors or indoors), we can get back to tefillah education in the way it’s meant to be done - in a group, with people all around you, filling up your spirit, and hearing your voice join others in prayer.

Singing Hashkiveinu with arms around each other