Why do Jews and Muslims rock back and forth while praying?

Answer 1

This is an old custom of Jews worldwide. It aids in meditation, it adds the "deed" to "thought, speech and deed," and it represents the flickering of the flame of the soul. "The soul of a man is the Lord's flame" (Proverbs 20:27).

Answer 2

It is a form of meditation for Jews in order to help them direct their prayers towards God. Muslims do not rock back and forth.

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Actually, I am Muslim and I can say that some Muslims do rock when studying. Having some knowledge of both the Judaic and Islamic faiths I will give the religious answer first.

There is evidence in the Torah which commands us to love the Creator "with all your mind, with all your strength and with all your being". It can be interpreted to mean not only in mind or mouth, but our bodies as well.

Also, there is a theoretical advantage to this. Have you ever tried to study, but find yourself sleepy or loose interest quickly? Maybe it is hard for you to retain information. When you study too hard your body tends to stay still. The flow of blood lessons thereby making you sleepy or the inability to keep interest due to the lessor amount of oxygen flow in your brain.

The theory also goes that the more oxygen in your blood, the more the brain can use when working to retain information. There are studies which you can find on-line regarding this. One study involved raising a persons adrenalin by fear or extreme temperatures (ice water in this study) to increase blood flow. The person was easily able to recall facts with this technique. Though, adrenalin may have had a part in the "storage" of details, the rocking behavior when studying tends to raise oxygen flow and not adrenalin thereby leaving one to believe that oxygen is the major factor when storing information for recall at a later time.

Answer 3

Seriously, its a metronomic action. You don't have to do it, its more of a habit.

It allows us to recite our prayers according to some spacial understanding of Arabic.