What Lethargic Man said: the Barchu prayer marks the start of the "okay, now were actually SERIOUS" part of the prayer service, from the "warm up" part.
The way I explain it to my Hebrew school students: you have a warm-up section, for two reasons. One is that prayer is important, and you really need to do some "stretching" and getting ready, and getting into the right mindset.
The other is that we're Jews, and we're always late for things, so you do some warm up stuff at the beginning so that everyone's there for the actual important stuff. Which, again, is marked by the Barchu prayer.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-07-22 03:10 pm (UTC)The way I explain it to my Hebrew school students: you have a warm-up section, for two reasons. One is that prayer is important, and you really need to do some "stretching" and getting ready, and getting into the right mindset.
The other is that we're Jews, and we're always late for things, so you do some warm up stuff at the beginning so that everyone's there for the actual important stuff. Which, again, is marked by the Barchu prayer.