Rabbi Mike Comins, the founder of TorahTrek Spiritual Wilderness Adventures ([...] and the Institute for Jewish Wilderness Spirituality ([...] is the author of A Wild Faith: Jewish Ways into Wilderness, Wilderness Ways into Judaism and Making Prayer Real: Leading Jewish Spiritual Voices on Why Prayer Is Difficult and What to Do about It (both Jewish Lights). He studied classical Jewish texts at the Pardes Institute, earned his MA in Jewish education from Hebrew University and was ordained in the Israeli rabbinical program of Hebrew Union College. He was a founding member and the first director of education at Kehilat Kol Haneshama in Jerusalem. He lives, teaches and writes in Los Angeles, and serves as a scholar-in-residence for schools and synagogues around the world.

Rabbi Mike Comins is available to speak on the following topics:

• Finding God in Nature: Buber, Heschel and the Kabbalah on the Experience of Divinity in the Natural World
• How the Jews Lost Nature and Why We Need to Get Her Back
• Making Prayer Real: Why Prayer Is Difficult and What to Do about It
• Prayer, Teshuvah and Coping with Loss
• The Spiritual Dynamics of Traditional Prayer

Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction: The Problem with Jewish Prayer

Part I The Spiritual Dynamics of Prayer
1. The Efficacy of Prayer
2. What Is Prayer?
3.Yearning
4. Gratitude
5. Kavvanah
6. Engaging the Body
7. Listening for God: Silence and Meditation
8. Discerning Divinity
Part II Beginning to Pray
9. Advice For Beginners
10. The Power of You
11. Blessings
12. Cultivating a Personal Prayer Voice
Part III Growing and Healing through Prayer
13. Teshuvah: Personal Change, Communal Responsibility
14. Coping with Loss
Part IV Embracing Traditional Jewish Prayer
15. The Spiritual Dynamics of the Siddur
16. Learning the Siddur
17. Overcoming the Hebrew Barrier
18. Best Practices
19. Between Traditional and Personal Prayer
20. Advice For Beginners Redux
Part V Building a Prayer Practice
21. Starting a Daily Practice

Conclusion: Letting God In
Notes
Waiting for You at [...]
Glossary
Resources
About the Contributors
Index of Contributors