Prayer Lesson 148 – Blessing the New Month
As is well known, the Jewish calendar is a lunar [...]
Prayer Lesson 147 – The Ashrei (2): A Quick Ticket to Paradise
The rabbis teach that if you recite the Ashrei prayer three times [...]
Prayer Lesson 145 – A Prayer for Our Country
Politics and religion actually do mix, sort of. The prophet [...]
Prayer Lesson 144 – A Prayer for Normalcy
At the beginning of all our morning services, we recite [...]
Prayer Lesson 143: Why Do We Stand for the Amidah?
As noted, Amidah literally means “standing.” But why do we [...]
Prayer Lesson 142: The prayer for peace—the final blessing of the Amidah
It is not surprising, in light of Jewish history, that [...]
Prayer Lesson 141: A prayer of thankfulness, the 18th blessing of the Amidah
There is probably no character trait less appreciated than gratitude. [...]
Prayer Lesson 140: Akdamut, the special prayer for Shavuot
The great poet Langston Hughes once wrote, “A dream deferred [...]
Prayer Lesson 139: To Sacrifice or Not to Sacrifice: That is the Question?
The 17th blessing of the weekday Amidah (which is the [...]
Prayer Lesson 138: Prayer “Hear our voice…”, the 16th blessing of the weekly Amidah
The weekday Amidah begins with 3 prayers of praise, and continues with [...]