Prayer—The Hebrew word for prayer is tefilah. The infinitive form of this verb is l’hitpalel—to pray—a reflexive form denoting action that one performs on oneself. Many scholars believe that the root of this word comes from a Ugaritic verb for judgment, and that the reflexive verb l’hitpalel originally must have meant to judge oneself. This is not the usual way we think of prayer. Ordinarily we think we should pray to ask for things, or to bend God’s will to our own. But it is no secret to those who pray regularly and with conviction that one of the deepest potentials of prayer is that it can
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