Is Prayer Futile?
After reading Talking With God, a relative of mine, Kim recently asked,
“If contact with the Divine requires the laws of purity—”clean,” “unclean”—and Kashrus (observance of Jewish dietary laws), then is it an exercise in futility to pray now that the purity laws are non-observed and Kashrus only by the Orthodox (in reality). Why should we even attempt it according to your theory?”
Extending that question a bit, one might ask, since Jews can no longer follow the body of laws surrounding the use of the Ark of the Testimony as a communications device, i.e., sacrifice, use of items such as blood, incense, oil, special clothing, etc., for protection of the priests, what good is to be derived from prayer today? To that I have two separate answers, one directly from the book. There I say,
“Even if my description is historically correct and the mechanism did work, how does that affect us today? There is no easy answer to that question. Perhaps there is the feeling that one should always be in a position to receive through the prescribed wavelengths, and by observing the instructions for becoming clean one would be in the most ideal condition to hear Him. Perhaps someday through medical advances we will be able to completely understand the physiological changes brought about by shifting from an unclean to a clean condition, and be able to bring them about in a simpler, more controlled fashion than was necessary at the time of the tent.”
But, probably more to the point of Kim’s question is a discussion of prayer that I supplied during a recent interview:
“…If these ancient technological devices were truly used, does that mean we’ve been deluding ourselves with the spiritual belief that we can talk to God via traditional prayer and meditation?”
My answer appears in this post: Traditional Prayer. (From a response supplied to Donna Williams, The Celebrity Editor.)
