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Terumah 5750Volume 14 · Issue 22
Sweeping Force
hands (cf. Shemos Rabbah 21:1) nor is the Torah studied with the hands. The sages indeed explain that when it says, “The voice is the voice of Yaakov,” it means the voice of Torah and the voice of prayer (Bereshis Rabbah 65:20). What does the slackening of the hands mean? The hands are not ours altogether. “The hands are the hands of Esav.”
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Acharei-Kedoshim 5750Volume 14 · Issue 26
More Precious than Pearls
In Halachah, as well, the festival only begins once the Counting of the Omer ends. The Magein Avraham and others (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 494:1) state that it is prudent to begin the Evening Prayer of Shavuos later and not add from the weekday to the festival because it would detract from the completeness of the counting, and it says, “They shall be seven complete weeks.” If the festival began early, it would mean that
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Haazinu 5750Volume 14 · Issue 5
The Sabbath of Sabbaths
In the plain sense, the determining days are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This is stated in the Talmud and cited in the Code of Jewish Law. In the prayer of Unesaneh Tokef, we say, “On Rosh Hashanah, their verdict is inscribed and on the fast day of Yom Kippur, it is finalized.”
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Shoftim 5751Volume 15 · Issue 1
Time of Change
Nonetheless, as we say in our Evening Prayer, God exchanges the times. One time departs and another enters, like chalipin, from the same root machlif, exchanges, where one item is given and a different item is received in return.
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Tazri'a-HaChodesh 5752Volume 15 · Issue 28
Quintessential Originality
The Hebrew word for time is zeman, related to zimmun, preparation, as in the prayer that some recite before performing a mitzvah, “I am ready and prepared,” mezuman. The very concept of time is that its every fragment prepares for the next. Otherwise, it would lack consecutiveness.
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Ki Savo 5751Volume 15 · Issue 3
Paradoxical Trajectory
These laws are stated by the sages and cited by all the earlier commentators. The Rambam writes (Hilchos Tefillah 13:1-2), “The standard custom throughout Israel is to complete the Torah in one year…. Ezra instituted for Israel to read the curses in the Book of Vayikra before Shavuos and those in Deuteronomy before Rosh Hashanah
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Behaaloscha 5752Volume 15 · Issue 33
Heart and Mind
high. We do not have it. Our minds are miniscule, shallow, and deficient (cf. Rambam Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 2:1). It lacks the proper connectivity (cf. Bereshis 4:1). We therefore plead to God in the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer, “Grace us, from You, with the faculty of knowing.”
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Vayelech 5752Volume 15 · Issue 5
Beyond the Protocols of Mercy
only two places in our prayers, he is called by the description of the humble one. In the poem of An’im Zemiros, it says, “The knot of the tefillin, He showed to the humble one,” and in the prayer before the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, it says, “As You made known to the humble one long ago.” The reason is that these are both the very same revelation.
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Shoftim 5753Volume 16 · Issue 1
Knowing the Shofar
illuminated because they all center on the creation of the world, “And the Lord made it so that He would be feared” (Koheles 3:14). The world was created with the attributes we mention in our Shemoneh Esrei Prayer, “The kind, mighty, and fearsome Lord,” and the Creator portrays Himself to the world as the One Who instills fear, the concept of fearsomeness.
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Vayishlach 5754Volume 16 · Issue 10
Reversed Procession
In the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer, we request of the Creator, “Gather us together from the four corners of the earth,” so that we may return to be the nation of one. Conversely, when oneness is dispersed, it scatters to four sides.
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Ki Seitzei 5753Volume 16 · Issue 2
Confounding Satan
But the appeasement began earlier, in Elul. Throughout the month, Moshe Rabbeinu pleaded on high, “Perhaps I shall atone for your sin” (Shemos 32:30). God conceded to hear his prayer and heard it until Rosh Hashanah when the appeasement occurred. Accordingly, to integrate with the course that enables us to continue onward and to exist altogether, it is necessary to begin it when Moshe Rabbeinu began it and to follow
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Pekudei-HaChodesh 5754Volume 16 · Issue 23
Time of Miracles
In the prose of Yigdal—many recite it and many do not but it nonetheless appears in our prayer books—we find the wording, “He will send our Messiah to liberate those who await the His ultimate deliverance.” Conventionally, this is understood as the categorization of the redemption—that one who does not await it will not receive
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Acharei-Kedoshim 5754Volume 16 · Issue 25
Weeks of Creation
The Rambam writes (Hilchos Tefillah 2:1), “In the days of Rabban Gamliel, heretics abounded among Israel who oppressed Israel and enticed them to turn away from God. Once he saw that this was greater than all human needs, he and his court arose
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Yom Kippur 5754Volume 16 · Issue 5
Sealed and Atoned
This is also stated in the prayer of Unesaneh Tokef, “On Rosh Hashanah, their judgment is inscribed, and on the fast day of Yom Kippur, their judgment is sealed…, who will live and who will die.” In other words, the sealing of judgment on Yom Kippur applies
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Vayeitzei 5756Volume 17 · Issue 11
Duty Bound
that He hear them. Their character echoes the name of their forebear Yishmael, which is the contraction of yishma Eil, let the Lord hear. The root is that God had heard the torment of his mother and its implied prayer and request (Bereshis 16:11). But the character of the man thereby created is that his words are the ones that must be sacrosanct and others must hear him.
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Beshalach 5756Volume 17 · Issue 18
Triumph of Concession
The Hebrew word for triumph, netzach, is also synonymous with Eternal Life. For example, in the prayer of Baruch She’amar, we praise God and say, “Blessed is the One Who lives forever and exists for eternity,” la’netzach.
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Emor 5756Volume 17 · Issue 26
Eternal Heritage
Openly stated even in prayer books, the Counting of the Omer comes to refine the realm of traits. There are seven traits, and with all their ramifications through all their interconnections, they number seven times seven. These are the forty-nine days of the counting.
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Balak 5756Volume 17 · Issue 32
Etchings of the Soul
There is a famous responsa of the Rambam (chapter 42) where he addresses Obadiah the Convert and rules that he may say in prayer, “Our Lord and Lord of our Fathers.” Converts are considered the offspring of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov for all matters—except of course where converts were excluded.
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Lech Lecha 5756Volume 17 · Issue 7
World of Toil
…(Berachos 54a). For example, in the first request of the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer, they would say, “Blessed be God Lord of Israel from (or to) the world Who graces us with knowledge.” In the previous blessing,…
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Shoftim 5756Volume 18 · Issue 1
Understanding Through Error
arise from the Throne of Justice and to be seated on the Throne of Mercy (Vayikra Rabbah 29:3). This is what the shofar comes for, as stated in many passages of the sages and of our Rosh Hashanah prayer books.
