Islam has a heavy emphasis on daily prayer, and while (now) less pronounced, it also exists in Judaism. It is almost certain that many other religions past and present engage the notion of daily prayer, but these two are noteworthy ones in which it is practiced. Islam’s prayers are five times a day in the direction of Mecca, and Judaism’s daily prayers are three times, in the direction of the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Middletown has no minarets, and no prayer call five times a day. Most people do not engage in such regular prayer at Wesleyan or in Middletown, despite the fact that the local Congregation Adath Israel holds services every day. College life, even modern life in general, does not seem to have an affinity for the commitment required for intense daily prayers.

Even as a Jew and not a Muslim, I miss the Islamic calls to prayer in Jerusalem. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where I studied, was located on Mount Scopus, the high point of the city, and it was only befitting that the primary minaret of Jerusalem be located there. Not only have I seen it, I could have entered it if I wanted to, because there is an entrance with no door to shut.

People in college and high school, especially teachers, tell stories of lending out their offices to their religious Muslim students or excusing them from class so that they could complete the prayers recited five times a day. But it is difficult to find this sentiment well revered consistently in many places.

Do I pray every day? I will be praying for as long as I have exams and unanswered e-mails, that is to say all the time, but sometimes I feel that reciting lengthy formulae many times a day could easily make it grow stale and meaningless.

One of my favorite Jewish scholars, Maimonides, notes duplicitously in his writings the notion that a man should only pray when he finds the need to do so, as well as other customs relating to the established daily prayers. I feel that when he writes of the former phenomenon, he encapsulates a feeling much like my own.

But is abolishing daily prayer proper? Not at all! Group activities and escapism are helpful to many people, and daily prayer not only encapsulates these elements but also the love of G-d into it. This is especially true for children, for whom another purpose is formed: teach them cultural literacy in the ways of the well-known prayers. With it, they will feel a connection.

But perhaps the most useful purpose of the prayers—at morning, afternoon, and night—is to ensure that a regular living schedule is enforced. Way after I stopped praying as regularly as I used to, I find it difficult to breach my circadian rhythms, because I am still used to operating in the daily prayer biological clock.

In Israel, I could not remember many tired mornings, because I knew when to get to sleep and when to wake up. The call to prayer from that minaret, decorated with green neon, is mostly what I have to thank for that.

About Gabe Lezra

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides with the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon those with great vengeance and with furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know that my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee. Ezekiel 25-17.