Alden Solovy
What will become of prayer?
Sunday, August 11th, 2024 - 3:00-4:30pm EST
Sunday, August 11th, 3:00-4:30pm EST
What has happened to our prayer lives in the aftermath of the shock assault of October 7? And what will happen as we move toward the first anniversary of the Simchat Torah massacre? For many, Tisha b’Av – occurring this week – marks the beginning of a journey from profound grief to the s’liechot of Elul and the t’shuva of the Days of Awe. How will we navigate these themes? How will our prayers adapt? How will we adapt in prayer? American-Israeli Poet-Liturgist Alden Solovy will use his forthcoming book – Enter These Gates: Meditations for the Days of Awe – to tee-up our conversation on prayer in anticipation of the season of return. We will consider prayer as an act of hope, as an act of defiance, as an act of surrender, and as an act of remembrance. Prayer as service of the heart and prayer as an act relationship with the Divine.
Alden Solovy is a modern day pay’tan, a traveling poet/preacher/teacher who uses Torah and verse to
engage and inspire. Alden embodies the intersection of scholarship and heart. His writings resonate with
soul and his presence is sought after in Jewish spiritual spaces around the world. Alden’s work
challenges the boundaries between poetry, song, meditation, personal growth, storytelling, and prayer.
His teaching spans from Jerusalem to Vancouver, including HUC-JIR, the Conservative Yeshiva, Leo Baeck
College, and synagogues throughout North America. His fifth volume from CCAR Press – Enter These
Gates: Meditations for the Days of Awe – is forthcoming in 2024. His other CCAR Press books are: These
Words: Poetic Midrash on the Language of Torah (2023), This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a
New Day (2017), This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings (2019), and This Precious Life:
Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer (2021). These Words won a Silver Medal from the
Independent Book Publishers. His work appears in more than 25 collections, including CCAR Press books:
Mishkan Ga’avah: Where Pride Dwells (2020); The Year of Mourning: A Jewish Journey (2023); and
Prophetic Voices: Renewing and Reimagining Haftarah (2023). Alden made Aliyah to Jerusalem in 2012,
where he is Liturgist in Residence at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Find his latest works at
www.tobendlight.com.
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