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Devarim 5750Volume 14 · Issue 37
Up In Flames
We say this in the prayer of Nacheim as well. It begins, “God our Lord, console the mourners of Zion and the mourners of Jerusalem…,” and it concludes, “For You, God, have ignited it with the fire, and with the fire, You will ultimately build
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Rosh Hashanah 5749Volume 14 · Issue 4
Breath of Life
Yet what we know of Rosh Hashanah is that man is judged for life or death. In the prayer of Unesaneh Tokef, we say, “On Rosh Hashanah, it is inscribed… how many will pass away and how many will be created, who will live and who will die, who in his time and who not in his time….” Even
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Shemos 5752Volume 15 · Issue 15
Stars of Heaven
We say this at least three times a day in the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer. “He remembers the kindnesses of the Fathers and He brings the redeemer for the children of their children.”
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Masei 5752Volume 15 · Issue 39
Occasion of Weeping
days, but there is none because of its festival status. Only lamentations are recited due to the mourning over the Destruction. This also is why no pleas of grace are recited. They are not recited even by the Afternoon Prayer of the day before—or if the day before occurs on the Sabbath as it does this year, the prayer of Tzidkascha is omitted, just as on the eve of any festival.
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Vayeishev 5754Volume 16 · Issue 11
Oppositional Frontiers
We cite this in the prayer of Al HaNissim, our praise to the Creator for the miracle of Chanukah. “You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the defiled into the hands of the pure, the wicked
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Naso 5754Volume 16 · Issue 29
Crown of Kingship
Israel would appear as he had prophesied. But due to his evil counsel to entice Israel to act immorally with the daughters of Moab, all the blessings reverted to curse. The only exception was the blessing concerning houses of prayer and Torah learning, as he had said (Bamidbar 24:5), “How good are your tents—Yaakov.”
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Toldos 5754Volume 16 · Issue 8
Man of Chaos
respect, he is excluded from the image of man. He is wild. But in another respect, the designation of man applies to him—he is called man. As cited earlier from Rabbi Chaim Vittal, he warrants a special prayer, “Were God not with us when man rose against us….” What classifies him as wild and what classifies him as man?
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Bechukosai 5757Volume 18 · Issue 30
From Happenstance to Existence
Ending the year and its curses is in preparation of the judgment. As the poetic prayer of Rosh Hashanah continues, “Let last year and its curses end, and let this year and its blessings begin.” Clearly, preparation is necessary. But the only preparation for the judgment of Shavuos is to read the curses. How is this
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Balak 5757Volume 18 · Issue 36
War of Words
Of Israel, we say in our Evening Prayer, “And His Kingship, they accepted upon themselves willingly.” To do so, it is necessary to choose between two options. When we invert kaleim to melech, God inverts for us kaleim to melech.
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Devarim 5757Volume 18 · Issue 39
Never Forgotten
In the Holy of Holies, at the site of the Holy Ark, there was a stone. It was called shessiyah, foundation, as in (Tehillim 11:3), “For the foundations—ha’shassoss—were devastated,” or as in Hannah’s Prayer (Shmuel I 2:8), “For the pillars of the earth are God’s, and he founded—vayashess—the world upon them.”
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Devarim 5758Volume 19 · Issue 35
Heartened
The universal custom is to welcome the Sabbath with the poetic prayer of Lechah Dodi. “Come, my beloved, toward the bride, let us welcome the presence of the Sabbath.”
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Behaaloscha 5765Volume 1 · Issue 15
The Light of the Menorah
Space parallels the Tabernacle itself, and time parallels the festivals, whose perfect celebration was within the Tabernacle, as we say during the Musaf prayer of festivals, “There we will go up and be seen and bow before You on the three times of our festivals.”
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Chayei Sarah 5760Volume 20 · Issue 10
Branches of the Fathers
core essence, and we are their branches. We are the children of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and we serve our Lord, Lord of our Fathers, Lord of Avraham, Lord of Yitzchak, and Lord of Yaakov (Shemoneh Esrei Prayer).
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Bo 5760Volume 20 · Issue 19
A Matter of Speech
As the sages tell us, Pharaoh had made himself into a deity (Shemos Rabbah 8:2; Yechezkel 29:3). Let the Merciful One save us from such notions. We truly need this prayer—would only it help. Self-deification plainly means considering oneself not as spoken speech, not as a governed being, but as an existential reality, Heaven forbid.
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Shoftim 5760Volume 21 · Issue 1
Reconnecting to Life
On the Seventeenth of Tammuz, Moshe Rabbeinu shattered the First Tablets due to the Sin of the Golden Calf (Taanis 26a). He then cast himself before God in prayer until the day before Rosh Chodesh Elul (Rashi to Devarim 9:18).
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Yisro 5762Volume 22 · Issue 18
Disciples of Truth
The part of the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer for Festivals begins with all that we had gained at the Event of Mount Sinai.
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Vayakheil-Pekudei-HaChodesh 5762Volume 22 · Issue 22
How Fortunate Our Share
Prayer in Distress
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Behar-Bechukosai 5762Volume 22 · Issue 27
Continuity and Change
In the Evening Prayer, we say, “He changes moments and replaces times.” The very concept of moment is change, and this creates new times. Once He changes moments, He naturally replaces times from the previous preparation to this preparation. From now on, there is continuation
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Nitzavim 5762Volume 23 · Issue 4
Mercy Without Limit
On the eighteenth of Tammuz, he ascended the Mountain a second time to cast himself before the Creator and to pray on behalf of Israel (Devarim 9:18; Rashi). During this time, his prayer sustained the world.
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Vayishlach Vayeishev 5766Volume 2 · Issue 12
Chanukah: The Gift of Yaakov
Three times a day, we say in the Aleinu prayer two separate proclamations. We state, “Our King is true,” but additionally we state, “And anything other than Him is efes, impossible,” (as the Ramban [Bamidbar 13:22] translates in his commentary to the verse [ibid. v.28], “Efes—for the nation
