The [Jewish] prayer service is full of gesture: bowing at specific moments, covering the eyes as the Shem' a is recited, and gathering and kissing the fringes of the prayer shawl at various points. Jewish prayer has a physical dimension. One prays each day from the same physical space, from the same seat in the synagogue, and each time we return to this seat and move through these choreographed gestures, the experience of encountering God is triggered in our bodies.
— Alan Lew, Sherril Jaffe, One God Clapping