Jewish Prayer: Entering the Palace of the King

Welcome to the Jewish Liturgy Blog. This site is devoted to exploring the worlds of Jewish worship primarily, but not exclusively, through the written liturgy of Jewish siddurim (prayer books) and machzorim (High Holy Day prayer books). I have already written on the topic of Jewish mystical prayer on my companion blog, Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism, but I've wanted to consider the pietistic, devotional, and artistic aspects of Jewish prayers from perspectives beyond the purely mystical or esoteric.

Truthfully, I find many aspects of Jewish prayer inexplicable. I can't give you a clear or logical reason why I pray, yet it is compelling to me. So I am at least going to attempt to talk around the edges of the experience. So I will be gin with a first entry on the liturgy of the Rosh ha-Shanah Tashlikh ritual in my next post.