Elana Langer (חוה)

THE PRAYER FOUNTAIN

By Elana Langer

In Elul 2022, artist Elana Langer created The Prayer Fountain—a participatory installation grounded in the metaphor of Torah as water and prayer as flow. Inspired by the idea that just as water nourishes and sustains life, so too does Torah and heartfelt prayer, the work was conceived as a celebration of spiritual vitality and collective intention.

The fountain was first presented in Tel Aviv as an invitation to reflect, release, and renew during the spiritually rich days leading up to the High Holidays. Visitors were invited to write personal prayers and place them into the flowing waters of the fountain—symbolizing surrender, continuity, and the cyclical nature of life and faith.

During the High Holidays, The Prayer Fountain was brought to the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem, where it served as a living metaphor for the movement of prayer— rising from the depths of the individual heart and flowing outward into the collective soul of Am Yisrael.

Both poetic and practical, the piece embodied a central truth of the season: that prayer, like water, finds its way—through cracks, over time, into deep places—and brings with it the possibility of growth, softness, and return.