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Daily Minyan
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR EXPLORING THE RICHNESS OF PRAYER
By Bob Goisman and Jeanne Traxler
Bob: Our first relationship with the Minyan came upon my mother’s death at age 92. As I began mourning, I found that I wanted and needed people around me to help me grieve, so I decided to start attending the Minyan as often as I could, which worked out to 2-3 nights each week. One attendee who had lost her father about 9 months prior, said something very meaningful to me when I was deep in grief. She looked at me, a relative novice at this, and simply said “It gets better.” Jeanne: As I attended the Minyan when Bob’s mother died, I could see how much comfort it brought to him. I felt a simple satisfaction with the daily prayer ritual. And when my dad passed away, because he attended his daily Minyan in the mornings and evenings, I wanted to honor his legacy by going to our daily Minyan. I am not a deep emotional person, but to mourn by doing something, that felt right and appropriate. I also know that my dad would have liked someone to say the daily Kaddish for him. Bob: The idea that there is a process, a sequence of steps, which one can traverse and come out the other side was
important to me. I found the routine of the same prayers over and over again strangely comforting; it was like being told “You should be here, you will get through this” by my fellow worshippers. I also found that references to changes in the season helped me “I am always in a better mood after the Minyan. enormously. I started in deepest winter, so when Simchat Torah came around the next year and
And, we have made the season changed I knew I was friends there. We feel a almost done. Eleven months passed quickly, it was almost Chanukah sense of community with with all of its songs and lights, and the ‘regulars,’ who we I felt in some way ready to re-enter also see on Fridays and life.
Holidays. ” Jeanne: I like to pray, I believe in a diety. The melody and cadence of prayers feel solid and right to me. I also feel the passing of the seasons with the changing prayer, rain to dew. I am always in a better mood after the Minyan. And, we have made friends there. We feel a sense of community with the ‘regulars,’ who we also see on Fridays and Holidays. The Minyan also does occasional celebrations which are always enjoyable, such as Rosh Chodesh and a Minyan and meal in the Sukkah.
