Prayer lesson 196: Baruch She’amar—”Blessed be the One who brought the world into being.”
What do we think of when we hear the word [...]
Prayer Lesson 195: Trees obscure the forest until kiddush lunch: The structure of the service
I once took a class on how to explain our [...]
Prayer lesson 194: “Not one of them remained”
The blessing right after the Shma, and right before the [...]
Prayer Lesson 193: “Heal us and we will be healed, the 8th blessing of the weekday Amidah”
The opening line of this blessing is a variant on [...]
Prayer Lesson 192: “For the Righteous…”
The 13th blessing of the Amidah begins this way: “Let [...]
Prayer Lesson 191: Shema: the hard part
When I first began davening in earnest, in my late [...]
Prayer Lesson 190: On separating “challah” from the dough
In the ancient world, our ancestors would routinely take [...]
Prayer Lesson 189: Ahavat Olam, a cascade of learning
Just before the Shema, we recite Ahavat Olam, a blessing which [...]
Prayer Lesson 188: Ahavah Rabbah “Great Love” The second blessing before the Shma.
You have loved us with a great love. You have [...]
Prayer Lesson 187: Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day
In 1948, the city of Jerusalem was divided for the [...]