DAILY MINYAN:
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR EXPLORING THE RICHNESS OF PRAYER
Torah
By Bob Goisman and Jeanne Traxler Bob: Our first relationship with the Minyan came upon my important to me. I found the routine of the same prayers mother’s death at age 92. As I began mourning, I found over and over again strangely comforting; it was like being that I wanted and needed people around me to help me told “You should be here, you will get through this” by grieve, so I decided to start attending the Minyan as often my fellow worshippers. I also found that references to as I could, which worked out to 2-3 changes in the season helped me nights each week. One attendee who enormously. I started in deepest I am always in a better had lost her father about 9 months winter, so when Simchat Torah mood after the Minyan. prior, said something very meaningful to came around the next year and me when I was deep in grief. She looked the season changed I knew I was And, we have made at me, a relative novice at this, and almost done. Eleven months passed friends there. We feel a simply said “It gets better.” quickly, it was almost Chanukah sense of community with with all of its songs and lights, and Jeanne: As I attended the Minyan when I felt in some way ready to re-enter the ‘regulars,’ who we Bob’s mother died, I could see how life. also see on Fridays and much comfort it brought to him. I felt a Holidays. simple satisfaction with the daily prayer Jeanne: I like to pray, I believe in a ritual. And when my dad passed away, diety. The melody and cadence of because he attended his daily Minyan in the mornings and prayers feel solid and right to me. I also feel the passing evenings, I wanted to honor his legacy by going to our daily of the seasons with the changing prayer, rain to dew. I am Minyan. I am not a deep emotional person, but to mourn always in a better mood after the Minyan. And, we have by doing something, that felt right and appropriate. I also made friends there. We feel a sense of community with know that my dad would have liked someone to say the the ‘regulars,’ who we also see on Fridays and Holidays. daily Kaddish for him. The Minyan also does occasional celebrations which are always enjoyable, such as Rosh Chodesh and a Minyan and Bob: The idea that there is a process, a sequence of steps, meal in the Sukkah. which one can traverse and come out the other side was
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Our daily Minyan is one of the very few that exist in a Reform community. Give it a try by dropping in any weekday at 6:15 p.m. We look forward to welcoming you!
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INSIGHT Vol. 16, No. 4, Spring 2017/5777
