The final resting place for Rose Mallinger, one of 11 killed in the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Credit Jeff Swensen/Getty Images.

… Jewish prayer is not primarily personal or spontaneous. It is communal reading. Public recitations of ancient words, scripts compiled centuries ago and nearly identical in every synagogue in the world. A lot of those words are about exactly this.

(Dara Horn, “American Jews Know How This Story Goes,” NYTimes, 11-2-18)

(c) 2018 JMN.