Prayer Lessons

There are only a few prayers that are recited only once a year. Tal, the prayer for dew, is one [...]

“Show compassion to the righteous (the tzaddik), to the pious, to the leaders of your people, the House of Israel, to [...]

There is probably no prayer in our siddur more controversial than the 12th blessing of the weekday Amidah. Our [...]

Perceptions change over time. Things that are obvious to one generation may be obscured, or missed entirely, by a later [...]

The advent of modernity had a massive effect on Judaism. In fact, it was so threatening to the traditional [...]

We have previously noted that the 7th and 8th blessings of the weekday Amidah are strategically placed. The 7th blessing, “Redemption,” is a reminder [...]

The prayer for healing is, at first glance, shrouded in mystery. The idea of praying for healing itself makes [...]

One of the main problems understanding our liturgy is our modern tendency to read too quickly. Speed-reading the siddur sounds [...]

The previous blessing of the Amidah was a prayer for knowledge. With that knowledge comes an important awareness: we have drifted [...]

(Blessing 4: Knowledge) The ethnosphere—the world as shaped by the humans on it—is more of a fruit cocktail than a [...]

The third blessing of the Amidah comes in two forms. One is the private form, used when one is davening silently, as [...]

The second blessing of every Amidah refers to G-d’s power, in particular G-d’s power over life and death. As we [...]

  “History,” wrote C.V. Wedgewood “is lived forward but is written in retrospect. We know the end before we consider [...]

The opening of every Amidah prayer is an evocation of our ancestors. More exactly, of the relationship between G-d and our ancestors. [...]

In the middle of the 9th blessing of the weekday Amidah, we read the blessing of the year. In [...]

A common logical structure in the Talmud is called the “tzericha” (“it is necessary”). It is used when there is a [...]

The third blessing after the Shma of Maariv is an odd collection of verses from all over the Tanach (the Hebrew Bible). Odd, because no [...]

One of the things that sometimes makes the siddur hard to comprehend is the use of repetition. Our modern style emphasizes brevity. [...]

The blessings before the Shema emphasize creation and revelation. The blessing after, redemption. While the gist of the blessing speaks [...]

Once upon a time, a country fair was held. There was a contest to guess the correct weight of an [...]

The first paragraph of the Shema, “You shall love the Lord your G-d with all your heart…” is among the best [...]

Our Torah and our siddur try (one might say desperately) to instill in us a love and appreciation for [...]

The short paragraph read before the Barchu of Maariv is easy to underestimate. It reads, “Yet He, being merciful, grants atonement and does not [...]