Prayer Lessons

Ya’aleh v’yavo is to prayer what a journeyman player is to baseball: reflecting a great deal of experience, appearing only occasionally [...]

Aleynu is one of the most recognized of all Jewish prayers. We use it to conclude each of our services, morning, [...]

Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of a new month, was a prominent holiday in ancient Israel. In our day and age, [...]

The Ashrei: All Everything, Everyone, Every Way, All the Time The Ashrei is an absolutely fascinating prayer for many reasons. Here’s one: [...]

In the blessing right before the Sh’ma, we thank G-d for the gift of Torah. We ask G-d to incline [...]

The sweeping array of redemptive central blessings in the weekday Amidah leads directly to Zion. The dramatic final crescendo concludes with these [...]

As we remove the Torah from the ark, we recite the powerful verse: “Ki mitzion tetzey torah” “Torah shall come [...]

The verse that gives the kedushah its name is the famous proclamation of Isaiah: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts [...]

In the collection of verses we recite right before the ashrei of pesukei d’zimra, we read the following: “For [G-d] spoke, and it [...]

The 2nd blessing before (and immediately preceding) the Sh’ma sings the praises of Torah, and expresses the hope that Torah permeate our [...]

There is one thing missing from the siddur that we would certainly expect to find there: the Ten Commandments. This [...]

In the Amidah, right before we prayer that we may witness G-d’s return to Israel, we read this intriguing [...]

In Ps. 146, which we read as a part of Pesukei D’Zimra, we find the following: G-d “brings justice to [...]

Just before we recite the Song of the Sea, we recite a short summary of Jewish history taken from the [...]

Ever since the Middle Ages, the Song of the Sea has been incorporated into the shacharit service. This is hardly [...]

The high point of pesukei d’zimra, virtually the last thing we do before we begin the core of the [...]

As we have previously noted, the core of the morning service is the Shema, which is surrounded by prayers which [...]

Last Shabbat, Dr. Arthur Cederbaum asked a really interesting question. There are two versions of the Mi Kamocha prayer, morning [...]

The Book of Esther which we read on Purim is a literary masterpiece. The author utilizes dozens of literary techniques: [...]

We might title this essay “On the virtue of telling the truth in prayer.” Recently, the Friends of the Israel [...]

The blessing right before the Sh’ma centers on G-d’s revelation of Torah. An interesting fact, though, is that the [...]

The Song of the Sea, Az yashir, begins with the words “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song…” [...]

Imagine you were rewriting the prayer book. What would you include? The Sh’ma certainly. Kaddish, definitely. The Amidah? Sure. Aleynu, [...]

Who’s “us”? At the end of every Amidah, there is a silent and personal meditation, “Elokai n’tzor,” where we ask [...]