Prayer Lessons

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 [...]

The Kel Maley Rachamim, “G-d Who is Full of Mercy” is a gut wrenching prayer where we ask that the soul [...]

In the Marx Brothers Classic A Night at the Opera, Groucho asks Chico about “the sanity clause” in a [...]

One of the most peculiar ideas to ever come down the road is the assertion that Zionism and Judaism [...]

Ma nishtanah is one of the best known phrases in Judaism. Nearly every single one of us prepared to recite it [...]

The Passover seder is all about the telling of the story of the Exodus from Egypt. The Haggadah really means [...]

The Passover seder is all about the telling of the story of the Exodus from Egypt. The Haggadah really means [...]

No Passover seder is complete without the singing of Chad Gadya. Technically it is called a cumulative song, with each [...]

The Book of Esther, otherwise known as the megillah (“the scroll”) tells a great story of intrigue, courage, violence, and triumph. It [...]

On Saturday night, we mark the end of Shabbat with the lovely and bittersweet havdalah (separation/distinction) ceremony. We introduce the [...]

This verse comes from the berachah immediately following the Shema. And at first glance, it seems to simply repeat a well recognized assertion: [...]

Most of our prayers are found in a fixed liturgy, a collection of psalms, quotes, poems, and meditations forged in [...]