The Tefillah Conundrum
Dina Doctoroff ‘18
Tefillah
is a heavily-discussed topic at GOA, with many student holding varied and
strong opinions on the matter.
There
is a large sect of students within the student body that are highly critical of
the period and generally hold negative views on the subject. Many believe that
this is due to the current system in which students in younger grades are
influenced by upperclassmen, many of whom bear strong opinions on the subject.
“When
incoming freshman first join the high school in prayer, it is not difficult for
them to look around and see bored faces, disrespectful students and aggravated
teachers threatening detention,” sophomore Yael Liebman said.
Liebman continued with the
theory that the preexisting negative mood does not exactly create the best
atmosphere to develop a fondness, or at least a tolerance, for this expression
of collective worship. Unfortunately, it seems as though as the year
progresses, Liebman’s perceived negativity of the majority of the upperclassmen
rubs off on the newcomers.
Rabbi Gindea, the coordinator for Tefillah, acknowledged this
problem and has attempted fix the perpetual cycle that has been an ongoing
issue for many years. Despite there not seeming to be any present solutions to
the problem of negative response, the administration has put forth many new
engaging measures in an attempt to find a solution.
Rather than have students repeat
the same service every day, students
now participate in a variety
of programs throughout the week. Students
still take part in the traditional shacharit
service with a torah service on Mondays and Thursdays, but
are also able to explore
new ways of experiencing Tefillah on Tuesdays
and Wednesdays. It is the hope of the school that through varied Tefillah
experiences, stu- dents will have the opportunity to explore the impact
of Tefillah on a personal
and individual level, while
participating in communal prayer.
Even with these measures being put into place,
however, there is still a generally
negative consensus regarding both the implementation of Tefillah service
and the
concept of its prevalence in the school
day.
Sophomore Elijah Taitel explained
that the gen- eral
sentiment of the Tefillah-critical sect of the high
school can be summed into one phrase.
“I have heard many students claim
the following:
‘If you talk you get detention, if you don’t pray you get
detention, if you laugh you get detention.’”
It seems as if those who are critical
of Tefillah generally see the problem as resulting from the systemic
supposed-persecution of students, as opposed
to the existence of a Tefillah
program. Alternatively, other
students feel that the Tefillah system has caused so much conflict, because
of the existence of strin-gent rules regarding behavior.
“Tefillah is a good idea because it’s supposed to give
people a personal
spiritual connection,” said sophomore Lizzie Irwin, “but the flaw at our school
is the rigidness (of the
rules regarding behavior).”
While many feel that Tefillah has become a negative part of GOA life, some students believe
that tefil- lah is an eye-opening experience.
“Tefillah at GOA is both inspiring
and breathtak-ing,” said sophomore Sharoni
Marcus. “We go from thanking Hashem
for all the things we have in life to praying about keeping
our soldiers in Israel safe. It’s truly inspirational.”
Many students see the problems
with the Tefillah program,
but still believe that to deny someone the right to prayer and connection with God at a religious
Jewish day school is unfair. The majority of the students who pray during Tefillah
are not asking
the everyone be forced to pray, but
rather would like
respect from the collective and an open and accepting
environment for their worship.
“If we are all capable
of showing respect
to those engaging
in prayer during the mourner’s kaddish, why do we not do so throughout
the rest of the service as well?”
asked sophomore Jordan Mayor.
When somebody in the Golda Och community needs to say kaddish, the community attempts
to make them feel welcome
and tries as hard as it can to provide a
loving and comfortable environment.
While it is highly improbable that the either the student
body or the administration will undergo a paradigm
shift and will change their opinion on the topic
of Tefillah, it is possible that the communal
dis- course regarding the topic itself can become a more respectful one.
As Golda Och has always been an environment open to criticism and new ideas, the community should
attempt to come together as a whole and en- gage in a productive and meaningful conversation regarding the Tefillah
system and how to better im-
prove it.
