Prayer Lessons

I have often been approached by people who are unhappy with the current leadership of the United States. Republicans or [...]

Near the end of pesukei d’zimrah we recite the Song of the Sea, the triumphant poem celebrating our rescue from Egypt and [...]

“Does anybody really know what time it is?” the great song by Chicago, is a protest against the hectic pace [...]

We could be forgiven for thinking that prayer is essentially “blah blah blah blah G-d. Blah blah G-d blah blah…” [...]

So here’s a question: why don’t we recite Hallel on Rosh Hashanah? Hallel is a collection of psalms praising Hashem [...]

As our Rosh Hashanah service draws to a close, we sing a lively song entitled “Hayom,” which means “today.” The [...]

The period of the High Holy Days is a dramatic time in Jewish life. We imagine that G-d shifts His [...]

From the beginning of the month of Elul through the holiday of Sukkot, we add a prayer to every morning [...]

All Amidah prayers (“amidot’) begin with the same three blessings, and end with the same three blessings. What happens in the middle [...]

Before and after we recite the Sh’ma, we reflect on the three greatest manifestations of G-d’s power: creation, revelation, and [...]

What do we think of when we hear the word “cosmos”? For people of my generation, we cannot help but [...]

I once took a class on how to explain our services to novices. The class began by the teacher, without [...]

The blessing right after the Shma, and right before the morning Amidah is a plea for redemption. It concludes with [...]

The opening line of this blessing is a variant on a passage from the prophet Jeremiah. As is often the [...]

The 13th blessing of the Amidah begins this way: “Let Your tender mercies be stirred for the righteous, the pious, [...]

When I first began davening in earnest, in my late teen years, I was puzzled by the fact that we [...]

In the ancient world, our ancestors would routinely take a small part of their dough, called the “challah,” and [...]

Just before the Shema, we recite Ahavat Olam, a blessing which celebrates the gift of revelation to our people. As part [...]

You have loved us with a great love. You have shown enormous and boundless compassion toward us….” These are the [...]

In 1948, the city of Jerusalem was divided for the first time in its 4000 year history. The Kingdom of [...]

One of the first prayers we recite in the core of the morning service praises G-d as the Creator. It [...]

In the period between Passover and Shavuot, we “count the omer.” An “omer” is a dry weight measure—slightly less than 4 [...]

Between Passover and Shavuot, we count the omer. “Omer” refers to a quantity of grain (slightly less than 4 lbs) [...]

On Yom Haatzmaut, Israel Independence Day, we Conservative Jews recite a special Al hanisim (“For the miracles”) prayer, thanking Hashem for His  miraculous [...]