Tefillah is a vital part of our daily lives. Yet, for us, as a society and as individuals, Tefillah is hard. After all, Tefillah is called Avodah Sh'balev/work of the heart for good reason. The world of constant instant gratification, alongside the bold feeling of “It’s all coming to me,” has increased our challenges with Tefillah, to say the least. Without a pressing need (thank God) and unfortunately, often without a proper sense of gratitude, of what use is Tefillah to us in the 21st century? Recent research from Nishma (“The Meaningfulness of Tefillah among Modern Orthodox Jews,” 2018) has shown that approximately 60% of Modern Orthodox Jews do not find prayer meaningful!  

In many Jewish day schools across the world, both students and educators struggle to find an effective model for meaningful Tefillah education – especially with middle schoolers. Ask any school leader or Tefillah educator and they will likely tell you that they believe in having an inspiring Tefillah experience that helps each student connect to Hashem and learn the skills and knowledge necessary to create a lifelong connection to Tefillah. But achieving such a goal has proven to be quite difficult. There are many factors that contribute to the challenge, and each school has its own unique resources, culture, and limitations that need to be taken into consideration. 

When thinking particularly about Tefillah in a middle school setting, we have to ask ourselves the difficult and perhaps unpopular question of how to change the status quo.  How can we ensure that our students do not grow, following in the footsteps of these statistics? 

When analyzing this dilemma at my former school, BCHA (Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy), a Modern Orthodox day school, we found three main areas that could potentially lead to challenges for our students during Tefillah. Certainly, each school will have its own varied challenges, but we felt that these were a good starting point.

1. Middle school Tefillah is often held in a large group setting, such as a Beit Midrash, with multiple adults in the room “supervising” the davening/praying. It is not uncommon for these adults to have no other connection with their students other than as policemen and women, constantly shushing the students. Research shows that students perform at higher levels when they have a connection with or bond with their teacher. Students can also benefit from smaller, intimate groups to ensure focus, respect, and attention.  Smaller groups also allow for spontaneous discussion or reflection, which can enhance Tefillah.  

2. In the world of school, anything that is important gets a grade: a report card.  In addition to academic courses such as math and Chumash, specials like PE and art all yield grades. How can we expect our students to feel that Tefillah is important if they do not see it on their report card? Of course, we can never grade one’s kavanah/intention or connection with Hashem, but we can certainly grade their performance on the course work in the Tefillah class described above as well as their decorum during davening.  

3. Tefillah needs an age-appropriate connection to and understanding of its deeper themes. Students are expected to sit for 40-45 minutes, rattling off Hebrew words that they do not connect to or understand.  Yes, they can look in the “Artscroll,” but that is not enough of an understanding to make this exercise meaningful to most of our students.  We are advocating for a Tefillah class that utilizes a thematic approach to teaching Tefillah in an age-appropriate manner. Once students understand the WHY of Tefillah, the HOW will hopefully follow suit.

After, as the BCHA team identified our challenges, we were able to put our collective experiences together and work on solutions as a team.  While logistical changes (challenges 1 and 2 above) were easy enough to implement, it was the curricular piece (challenge 3 above) that was going to be the most difficult from a time and complexity perspective. This is where the staff truly showed their “all-in” attitude and got behind months of hard work, rolled up their sleeves, and produced the first of its kind UBD Tefillah Middle School Curriculum. Year one of the spiral curriculum was composed of eight units, each written by a different teacher. Teachers were paired in chavruta/learning partners to work with during the summer months of design. Units were based around big ideas such as "Hashem and Me" and "Israel in Our Prayers.” These themes were the foundation for month-long units of engaging lessons designed to inspire students.  

As year one progressed, there were frequent collaborative staff meetings designed to assess the efficacy of the program. There wasn’t a meeting in which we did not decide to make a tweak, adjust, and learn from our mistakes. I truly believe that the process was just as valuable as the product. Schools have often asked if they can use the Masora Tefillah Middle School Curriculum; as much as we love to share, it was always important for me to stress that going through this process with your staff is the key to making changes within the culture of your school.  

Due to the incredible dedication and hard work of the BHCA staff and the tremendous generosity of JEIC, we were able to think outside the box and create these special small, intimate groupings and a year-long thematic, age-appropriate curriculum from the ground up. I am proud to have played a part in the creation of the Masora Tefillah Curriculum and am not surprised to hear that those incredible staff members continue to think outside the box and never settle for the status quo when it comes to the spiritual lives of our students.  I am enthusiastic to bring many of the lessons we learned throughout the process to my new role at Brauser Maimonides Academy, where the team is aligned in being creative and innovative to bring Tefillah education to life for our students.

Rabbi Yehuda Jeiger is the Elementary School Principal at the Leon and Leona Brauser Maimonides Academy. He is a premier Jewish educator known for approaching learning in a personal, individualized manner while promoting growth for both the students he teaches and the teams he leads. Previously, Rabbi Jeiger worked at the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy in Stamford, Connecticut.