It is no secret that our fraught, fragile and fractured world is taking its toll on our people, especially our young folks. Political upheaval, climate change, the effects of the pandemic on our kids — it’s no wonder that children experience anxiety and depression at younger and younger ages. What can we, as Jewish educators, give our students to help them thrive in the world as it is, while also galvanizing them to change the world for the better? Is there a gift from our sacred heritage that might help their parents, our teachers, and even ourselves? 

There is such a gift: Tefillah — Jewish liturgy and prayer practice. 

Prayer in the Light Lab at Songleader Boot Camp, February 2025. North Arrow Creative & Zach Dalin Photography for Songleader Boot Camp

It is no secret that prayer education in our schools is challenging. Bnei mitzvah training and Hebrew skillbuilding can be in tension with meaning-making as ultimate goals. It never feels like there is enough time. Teachers of tefillah often feel ill-equipped to teach such a vast subject, especially as it relates to God and spirituality. How can we make tefillah education positive and powerful, for the students and ourselves? 

These two seemingly disconnected issues — of hopelessness and heartache on one side, and the challenging aspects of tefillah education on the other — are in fact deeply intertwined. 

Research shows that a strong spiritual core is key to surviving and thriving in our increasingly fraught and disconnected world, for all of us. Tefillah, in form and content, is a powerful pathway for spiritual core building. 

Clinical psychologist Lisa Miller, who has been studying the science of spirituality for over 25 years, writes: 

“We see through hundreds of peer review articles that a child is far less likely to fall prey to the most prevalent forms of suffering — anxiety, depression, suicide, addiction — once the spiritual core is built throughout the lifespan. The deepening of the spiritual core throughout childhood and adolescence allows us to transform suffering into post traumatic spiritual growth.” 

When I began studying with Miller, her findings spoke to me in the language of tefillah. What does a strong spiritual core look like? Love, inherent worth, connectedness — these are spiritual muscles that our siddur gives us opportunities to exercise. What builds a strong spiritual core? Shared language, daily practice, family practice — these are the cornerstones of Jewish ritual. Tefillah in both form and content can be a powerful pathway for spiritual core building, but only if it’s taught, talked about, and experienced as such. When we teach and lead tefillah towards spiritual core building, it becomes more positive and powerful for the child, more accessible and meaningful to the adults and more authentic and successful for the leader. 

I’ve started to think of this tefillah as TORAH: Tools Of Resilience And Hope. 

The spiritual gym

How can we use our shared language and ritual practice to help every person cultivate a strong spiritual core? It starts with a change in “tefillahsophy.” What is it that we’re doing when we do tefillah? 

One helpful metaphor is imagining tefillah as a spiritual gym. 

At the gym, each piece of equipment targets a particular muscle group. While it’s important to learn how to properly use each machine, the ultimate goal is not “to get really good at using this exercise machine.” The ultimate goal is to build strength so it impacts your life positively outside the gym. 

In the siddur (prayer book), each piece of liturgy invites us to exercise different spiritual muscles: gratitude, wonder, empathy, love, connection, and so on. The ultimate goal of these exercises is to strengthen these spiritual muscles so they are stronger out in the world, so we can call upon them when we need them and they can enhance our lives. Why are we reading about the wonders of nature inside a sanctuary, for example? Because the liturgy is training our muscles of awareness, so we can notice and feel awe for nature’s wonders the next time we go outside. As my teacher Cantor Ellen Dreskin says: Prayer is called practice for a reason — not just practice for more prayer, but for life itself. 

When we exercise, there are benefits in the moment and benefits that compound with repetition. We release endorphins that boost our mood in the moment, but strengthened muscles and increased flexibility only comes with sustained exercise over time. Singing together in tefillah releases dopamine and can calm the body in the moment, but the spiritual skill building is built through repetition of exercises over time. 

And there’s an even stronger lesson from this metaphor: 

You can learn all about the leg-press machine — what it looks like, how it works, when it was invented, what parts make up the machine. You can teach someone else all about the machine. You can write an essay about “What the leg press machine means to me.” 

But you won’t get any of the benefits unless you actually get on the machine and do the exercise. 

Making the invitation 

How can we make tefillah into this exercise of spiritual core building? The first (and key) step is inviting pray-ers to do the exercise that each piece of liturgy lays out. This is the core of how I lead tefillah and central to our educator training. If invited, anyone can participate, no matter their age, Hebrew level or prior knowledge of the siddur. Invitations happen around the singing and saying of the liturgy, and can be incorporated no matter what melodies or version of the siddur you use. 

For example: Before singing Modeh Ani, invite pray-ers to notice that they woke up this morning. After singing Modeh Ani, invite them to take a deep breath in, and out, and welcome in a feeling of gratitude for waking up this morning. These transition points add very little time but amplify the impact immensely. Modeh Ani changes from just a fun song or words we say into an opportunity for spiritual depth, connection and growth. 

Being able to say the words is important, and so is knowing what they mean; but none of that is a substitute for actually doing the spiritual work the liturgy is inviting us to do. Knowing that the Modeh Ani is about gratitude is not the same as welcoming a feeling of gratitude into your mind and heart for waking up this morning. Even “meaning-making” is not enough: To get the spiritual core-building benefits of tefillah, it must move from the mind to the body to the heart, enlivening them all. This is a key missing link in contemporary tefillah education. 

Through our professional development and coaching, the Light Lab gives clergy and educators the tools to do this work. Our goal over the next few years is to develop usable resources and comprehensive training to support even more leaders so they can support their people. Doing so is capable of accomplishing two different goals: strengthening the Jewishness of our students, and giving them Tools Of Resilience And Hope. 

Isn’t that the kind of Torah all of our kids, teachers, and families — all of us — need right now?

Eliana Light is the founder and head tefillahsopher of the Light Lab, a center for transformative tefillah education.