Prayer Lessons

  This blessing begins in a most interesting fashion: “Let Your tender mercies be stirred for the righteous, the pious, [...]

Another name for the Amidah is Shemoneh Esrei (= 18), a reference to the 18 blessings of the Amidah. But in typically delightful and maddening Jewish [...]

Here’s a thought experiment. The 10th blessing of the Amidah is the blessing of redemption, the call for freedom in our own land. [...]

This blessing is the purest expression of the millennial yearning of the Jewish people for a return home to Israel. [...]

The 9th blessing of the weekday Amidah asks Hashem to bless the year, and in particular, the yearly produce, by blessing the earth [...]

The blessing for healing (number 8) follows immediately after the blessing for redemption (number 7). This is not at all [...]

In the weekday Amidah, there are 13 intermediate blessings. They are found between the introductory 3 blessings of praise and [...]

In the weekday Amidah, in the prayer for a good year, we add the phrase ten tal umatar, “give dew and [...]

During Chanukah, we add a special prayer to the Amidah. It is called Al Hanissim (For the miracles and the deliverance and [...]

I believe it was Dr. Louis Finkelstein who said that the easiest way to trace the rise of new movements [...]

Like the blessing which precedes it, on repentance, the blessing asking for forgiveness repeats the same sequence of divine roles—“Our [...]

In the weekday Amidah, immediately after the prayer for discernment, we read the prayer for repentance. When examined carefully, we [...]

On weekdays, the middle 13 blessings of the Amidah are blessings of petition. We ask G-d for all sorts of [...]

There is a difference between knowing how to read and knowing how to read. Case in point: In 1920’s Soviet Russia, in [...]

The Shabbat Amidah contains a most peculiar phrase. In the middle blessing, which notes the sanctification of Shabbat, we ask G-d to [...]

Virtually everyone knows that there are Jewish blessings for food. Hamotzi and Borei pri hagafen are among the most recognized [...]

In the first blessing of the Amidah, we read: “G-d remembers the pious deeds of our ancestors and will send [...]

During the holiday of Sukkot, which we are currently celebrating, we chant a unique set of prayers called hoshanot. The [...]

Anyone who has ever picked up a siddur has noticed that there are a lot of texts in small print. [...]

For the sin we have committed by diminishing the sanctity of Jewish lives            And for the sin we have committed [...]

Ever yell at a golf ball to make sure it goes into the hole? Ever do a little dance so [...]

The blessings before the Shema talk about G-d as the Creator and the Revealer. After the Shema, we turn to [...]