Amidah to My Son
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This brief literary piece presents a reflective meditation on Jewish prayer, parental responsibility, and spiritual transmission across generations. Through poetic prose, Rabbi Gary Kozberg employs the metaphor of a young child's physical struggles to stand and walk as a parallel to spiritual development and religious identity formation. The methodology consists of personal narrative intertwined with theological reflection, using the framework of the Amidah prayer as a structural and thematic foundation. The author observes his son's persistent attempts at physical uprightness during prayer, drawing connections between the child's repeated falls and efforts to rise with the broader Jewish experience of perseverance through adversity. Key findings suggest that authentic Jewish identity emerges through individual struggle rather than passive inheritance, with the parent serving as both model and questioner of divine relationship. The work concludes with profound uncertainty about intergenerational spiritual continuity, questioning whether religious heritage can be successfully transmitted and whether divine attention extends to both father and son. This meditation contributes to contemporary Jewish literary discourse by examining the intersection of parenthood, prayer, and religious authenticity within Conservative Judaism.

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Published 1982
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Gary Kozberg