Teaching Team

Hit-bo-de-what?

By Toby Janicki  | Comments (3) | Posted on August 30, 2007

I was once at an Orthodox Jewish Torah study during the month of Elul when the Rabbi began explaining a prayer practice called Hitbodedut. Hitbodedut, as he told us, is a Hebrew word that means “prayer that takes place in seclusion” and it was taught extensively by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. He added that this was the time of year when we really needed to be practicing it as we prepare for the High Holydays. As he began explaining this practice I immediately began thinking of our Master. Let me explain.

We can be sure that the Master would have participated in the daily appointed times of prayer which involved some type of liturgy, but we also read about His own unique practice concerning prayer in the Gospels:

He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. (Matthew 14:23)

We find this to be His practice time and time again. (See Mark 1:35, 6:46-47, Luke 6:12, John 6:15-16) So often in fact, that we are told, “. . . but Yeshua Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.” (Luke 5:16) It appears that a minhag [custom] of His was to go off alone and pray to His Father in Heaven. Often times this was done when things were getting hectic and it seems that He needed to strengthen Himself in order to carry on. He teaches His disciples:

But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:6)

There are almost no records of this practice of prayer being carried out by any of His contemporaries.

Fast forward 1800 years and we come to Rabbi Nachman. He instructed regarding hitbodedut that it should be done alone, preferably at night, and out in nature, but if one could not be in nature then it should be done alone in a room. These are our Master’s teachings! You can imagine how stunned I was listening to this Rabbi’s explanation. Perhaps if we had been doing a better job at discipleship Yeshua would have gotten the credit.*

Praying alone with our Father and talking to Him from our heart can do nothing but strengthen our walk with Him. In the daily hustle and bustle of life we need time alone with Him. How much more so during Elul should we seek to make right that which has gone wrong. Deuteronomy 10:20 commands us to “cling to Him”. This is expressed in the Hebrew concept of devekut “attachment”. What better method of attaching ourselves to God is there than the one that Yeshua has shown us in His life of prayer.

For a detailed teaching on this subject check out the Pray in the Spirit DVD "Spontaneous Prayer" available here.

*To be clear not all of Rebbe Nachman’s teachings on prayer line up with Yeshua’s but the similarities are very compelling.

About the Author: Toby Janicki is a teacher, writer and speaker for FFOZ. He is also a writer for messiah magazine and the author of the Restoration Workbook and a new book on the Mezuzah.

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