Prayer Lessons

The Torah is read on Shabbat and holidays, but also every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday afternoon, as well as Rosh [...]

After the Torah reading, the person who has been given the aliya recites a blessing that thanks G-d for giving [...]

Before and after each portion of the Torah reading, we recite blessings of great depth and meaning. The blessing before [...]

Last week, we discussed the proclamation we make as the Torah is being taken from the ark. The last line [...]

After we have opened the ark, and completed our meditation (culminating in Bei ana rachetz), we participate in a very [...]

If you call to mind the dramatic conclusion to Raiders of the Lost Ark, you’ll remember one of the bad [...]

The moment we take the Torah from the ark is a time of great drama. The Torah is as close [...]

The opening prayer of the service for removing the Torah from the ark contains a wonderful blend of universal and [...]

In Israel, there is a rainy season and a dry season. The dry season stretches through the six months from [...]

If a person has transgressed any one of the Torah precepts, affirmative or negative, willfully or unintentionally, he must confess [...]

The opening lines for the Torah service don’t talk about the Torah. They talk about G-d. That is meant as [...]

The great writer Jorge Luis Borges once wrote, “Don’t speak unless you can improve the silence.” The silent Amidah is [...]

The final blessing of the Amidah is the blessing of peace. It comes in two versions: sim shalom in the [...]

The most important words in any language are those that can’t be easily translated. “Modim,” which begins the 6th blessing [...]

The fifth blessing of the Shabbat amidah (which is the same as the 17th blessing of the weekday amidah) is [...]

All amidah prayers—weekday, Shabbat, holiday, high holiday—consist of the same three opening and closing blessings. The middle blessings vary with [...]

A prayer of consolation for Tisha B’Av This week, we will be commemorating the saddest day of the year, the [...]

Someone recently asked me if we have a prayer for light, the same way we have a prayer for peace. [...]

The high point of the amidah is found in the third blessing, the one that refers to the holiness of [...]

The second blessing of the Amidah is a praise of G-d’s power. Four times, it mentions the concept “techiat hametim,” [...]

The second blessing of the Amidah refers to manifestations of G-d’s power. One of those manifestations has to do with [...]

The first blessing of the Amidah begins in an odd fashion. As I mentioned last week, we bless the G-d [...]

We turn now to the Amidah, literally, the “standing prayer,” recited…wait for it…standing. It is, in many ways, the high [...]

Each day of the week, we recite a psalm linked specifically to that day. The links, however, are less than [...]