Filling Words with Light: Hasidic and Mystical Reflections on Jewish Prayer - Hardcover

"A wonderful collection of insights into prayer, collected and reworked by a team of contemporary masters. Will add depth and insight to your prayer life!"
--Rabbi Arthur Green, author of Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow and These Are the Words: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life

"Kushner and Polen are unparalleled in their ability to translate the most arcane and difficult insights of Hasidic masters into terms that are stunningly applicable to the human condition. Each and every page is testimony to their affection for the sages they cite and their regard for the prayers those sages address. For a spiritual commentary on the prayer book, this is the book to own."
--Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, editor of the My People's Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries series

"This book will surely open the heart of anyone opening a prayer book. The inspiring gems of insight by two great scholars seem to literally sparkle right off the pages. So much wisdom, made so accessible."
--Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, editor of The Women's Torah Commentary and The Women's Haftarah Commentary

Breathe New Life into Your Prayer with the Wisdom of Kabbalah and the Hasidic Masters

Jewish mystics teach that every word a person utters in prayer should radiate light. Even the letters of the words of prayer carry sparks of the Divine that yearn to join together in holiness.

In this inspiring spiritual companion, Reform rabbi Lawrence Kushner and Orthodox rabbi Nehemia Polen join together to provide a window into the liturgy for people of all backgrounds by offering fresh insights and meditations that bring the traditional prayerbook to life. Drawing from the Torah, Zohar and ancient and contemporary Hasidic masters, Kushner and Polen reflect on the joy, gratitude, compassion, mystery and awe embedded in traditional prayers and blessings, and show how you can imbue these familiar sacred words with your own sense of holiness.

Insightful, fresh and wise, Filling Words with Light will enrich your understanding of the prayer book and guide you on how to put more of yourself into the holy words of the Jewish tradition.