Letter from Shoshanna - The Lord's Prayer (A2)

Shalom!

I believe you are learning about the Lord’s Prayer, so I thought I might write to you to tell you some ways that it is connected to Jewish prayer.

There are two links to Jewish prayer that I can see in the Lord's Prayer. The first is the idea that we want G-d's kingdom or rule to come on Earth. The second is the idea that G-d is our creator and, like a father, we recognise that we come from G-d. 

A good example of these ideas is found in the Rosh Hashanah prayer 'Avinu Malkeynu'. (Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year, which is in September or October, depending on the year. This year is 5774 in the Jewish calendar!) This prayer calls G-d our 'father' or 'creator' ('avinu') and asks G-d to pardon and forgive our wrongdoing, to bring us back to G-d in perfect repentance, and to have compassion on us and on our children. This sounds very like parts of the Lord's Prayer!


Avinu Malkeynu also includes some other things that are not found in the Lord's Prayer, such as asking G-d to help us to conquer sickness, war and famine, asking G-d to give us strength and asking G-d to let the new year be a good year for us. The prayer finishes asking G-d to treat us with charity and kindness and to be our help.

I suppose it's not surprising that the Lord's Prayer would have lots of connection to Jewish prayer given who said it! It is lovely to think that our two religions can still remember everything we have in common.

Please write to me again soon!

Shalom,

Shoshanna

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