How We Pray: “Something Clicked, and Something Changed.”
Judaism: Part one of a series about student spirituality
Slide show by Edward A. Brown; text by Jessica Ullian
Click on the slide show above to learn more about the Jewish faith.
See a slide show from the second part of the series, “Faith Is What Connects Me to My Creator,” as Mohamed Serageldin (ENG’08), a leader of BU’s Islamic Society, talks about why praying each day is a joy, not a burden.
On Sundays, they gather in Marsh Chapel for communal worship. At least four times a day, they pray facing Mecca in a room at the George Sherman Union. On Fridays and Saturdays, they meet in Hillel House on Bay State Road, and when the seasons change, they celebrate on the lawn behind Marsh Plaza. They are the hundreds of students involved in spiritual life at Boston University, the former Methodist seminary that is now home to twenty-nine religious groups that include students of all races, nationalities, and beliefs.
In the slide show above, Jewish students use the chapels at the Florence and Chafetz Hillel House to pray individually, at morning minyan — a communal prayer that needs a quorum of at least 10 men — and during the services that mark the beginning of Shabbat (or Shabbos), the Sabbath, or weekly day of rest. There are typically three daily prayers in the Jewish faith: the Shacharit, morning prayers at which a series of blessings are read; the afternoon Mincha, focusing on reaffirming priorities and goals; and the Ma’ariv, an evening prayer during which a series of biblical verses and blessings are recited.
Naomi Rose Konikoff (SAR’09), a regular at the Chabad House of Greater Boston, talks about how she reconnected with Judaism when she came to college.