Prayer Lessons

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 [...]

(In honor of Thanksgiving) Modim, the prayer for gratitude, is recited 3 times every day as a part of [...]

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 [...]

When we are called to prayer with the Barchu, a small but meaningful  ritual dance takes place. The ark is opened, the shaliach tzibbur (prayer [...]

Just before we call to prayer in the evening service, with the Barchu prayer, we recite a short verse. This verse marks [...]

Ad-n Olam has got to be the most underrated prayer in the siddur. For many, it is merely the “tallit-taking-off-song” at [...]

One of Judaism’s earliest and most provocative concepts of the relationship of human beings with G-d has to do with [...]

“Rabbi, what was there before the Big Bang? My father told me there was a Cosmic Egg, but what’s a [...]

With the exception of the Shma, there is probably no prayer as well known as the Kaddish, in particular the [...]

In “Silver Blaze,” a Sherlock Holmes story, the decisive clue is the fact that a dog didn’t bark when it [...]

On ordinary weekdays, a private meditation called Tachanun is added to the service. It is meant to guide us in offering our [...]

When we open the ark, we sing, “vayehi binsoah haaron…” “With the moving of the ark, Moses would say, ‘Arise, [...]

It is fitting that the last blessing of the Amidah (whether on weekdays, number 19, or on Shabbat , number [...]

The Amidah is written entirely in the plural—“…our G-d and G-d of our ancestors…,” “Heal us G-d and we will be healed…,” “We gratefully acknowledge…”. The collective emphasis during the quintessential Jewish [...]