Jews always sway. In Yiddish it's called "shukling," and praying or learning, Jews are always rocking and swaying. Why?
This is actually one of the questions that the Kuzari posed to the author in the famous treatise "The Kuzari." He asked: "I will ask of you, why do the Jews sway when they read Hebrew?"
The author replied: "They say it is to arouse the natural fervor. I personally do not think so, rather it developed circumstantially. It often happened that many people - ten or more - would gather together and read from the same text. This is why our books were quite large. Because the book lay on the ground, inevitably one would have to bend forward to see a word, and afterwards his friend, and so on. This was the original reason. Then it became a habit through constant seeing, observing and imitating, which is in man's nature..."
כוזרי מאמר ב אות פ
ועי' במפרשים שם
See here
In Chassidus it explains that man soul is similar to a fire. A fire constantly has a yearning to go up to unite itself with its source, and therefore it is constantly flickering . So too our "Neshamah" has a constant urge to become unified with its source above, causing us to shake in our service to god.
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