Rabbi David E. Ostrich, Congregation Brit Shalom
Clergy Column for The Centre Daily Times
Published August 9, 2026
Among my favorite fancy words is Concatenation, a term used in religious circles for a prayer crafted by combining verses from several sources. The most well-known concatenation in Jewish prayer is Mah Tovu:
“How goodly are your dwellings, O Jacob, Your sanctuaries, O Israel! (Numbers 24.5)
Thanks to Your abundant lovingkindness, O God, I am able to enter Your house and,
in this sacred place, to bow down reverently before You. (Psalm 5.8)
Lord, I love to be in Your house, the place where Your glory dwells. (Psalm 26.8)
Here, I worship my Maker. (Psalm 95.6, adapted )
As for me, may my prayer to You be at a moment of kindness.
O God, in Your great lovingkindness, answer me with the truth of Your salvation.” (Psalm 69.14)
We do not know who first pieced together these verses, but their combination has for centuries given us a wonderful way to start our worship services.
In my own much more modest way, I tried the same kind of thing, combining a verse from a Psalm with quotations from several Rabbis and an English novelist into a prayer about the practice of praying:
“The Lord is near to all who call—to all who call out in truth.” (Psalm 145)
“Where is God? Wherever we open our hearts.” (Reb Mendel of Kotzk)
“The purpose of prayer is to leave us alone with God.” (Rabbi Leo Baeck)
“But there is no room for God in those who are full of themselves.” (The Baal Shem Tov)
How can we know if our prayers are answered?
“When you rise from your prayers a better person, then surely have your prayers been answered.” (George Meredith)
A more famous creative effort can be seen in a Jewish prayer called Kedushah (Holiness), a concatenation which imagines a heavenly “pep rally.” While there is no Biblical description of such a thing, an ancient liturgist picks up on three “clues,” and gives us a delightful and inspiring image.
It starts with Isaiah’s dream in which he sees God surrounded by angels.
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I beheld my Lord seated on a high and lofty throne; and the skirts of God’s robe filled the Temple. Seraphs stood in attendance. Each had six wings: with two the angel covered its face, with two it covered its legs, and with two it would fly. And one would call to the other, ‘Holy, holy, holy! The Lord of Hosts! God’s Presence fills all the earth.’” (Isaiah 6.1-3)
The second “clue” is a description by Ezekiel of one of his fantastic visions: “Then a spirit carried me away, and behind me I heard a great roaring voice: ‘Blessed is the Presence of the Lord in every place!’” (Ezekiel 3.12)
These first two “clues” speak of God being praised by angels—six-winged seraphim in Isaiah’s vision and winged creatures and fiery wheels in Ezekiel’s vision. However, another Biblical verse (Psalm 146.10) seems to be inviting a mountain Zion to join in this festival of praise:
“The Lord shall reign forever, your God, O Zion, from generation to generation. Halleluyah!”
Zion is the mountain in Jerusalem on which King David’s city was built. The name can also refer to the whole city of Jerusalem and is sometimes used for the whole Land of Israel. (Hence Zionism: the Jewish People’s return to our homeland, the Land of Israel.) In this case, the Psalmist invites Mount Zion to join the chorus, and this makes three participants.
But there is more. So inspired should we be by the singing angels and singing mountain that we decide to include ourselves—and the Concatenation has us singing:
“To all generations, we will make known Your greatness, and to all eternity proclaim Your holiness. Your praise, O God, shall never depart from our lips.”
We are all invited to join in the cosmic chorus—praising God and being inspired to bring forth the holiness we each have inside.