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Yisro 5753Volume 13 · Issue 21
In the Beginning of Commandments
On this note, the Men of the Great Assembly instituted for us in the Musaf Prayer of Festivals (Berachos 33a), “Our Father, our King—swiftly reveal the glory of Your Kingship over us, and appear and be uplifted over us in the sight of every living being.” Meaning there is no such thing as the glory
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Shemini-HaChodesh 5776Volume 13 · Issue 26
Obligation and Exemption
Torah life is built from weekdays along with Sabbaths and Festivals. Weekdays are the established routine, and Sabbath and Festivals are special occasions. Of this, we say in the Sabbath Musaf Prayer, “The Continual Offerings according to their routine,” corresponding to weekdays, “and the Additional Offerings according to their laws,” corresponding to the Sabbath and Festivals.
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Devarim 5747Volume 13 · Issue 39
Speechless
The prayer focuses on the sounds. The shouts that emerge from the entire multitude of the many nations, as tumultuous as the tumult of the seas (Yeshayahu 17:12), are all combinations of words that are the destruction of the Holy Temple
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Mattos-Masei 5749Volume 13 · Issue 40
Unsightly Form
The explanation is that the Sabbath, as we know, is connected to the Angels of Perfection. It is stated in our prayer books, which is also a custom. When the Angels of Perfection weep, there is no Sabbath. During the Nine Days, the days between Rosh Chodesh and the Ninth of Av, the sages made us like a person in grief, onein
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Emor 5750Volume 14 · Issue 27
A Good Heart
Of this, we say in the last blessing of the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer, “For with the light of Your face, you have given to us, God our Lord, the Torah of life.” Indeed, we received the Torah as it says, “Face to face God spoke with you on the Mountain from amidst the fire
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Behar-Bechukosai 5750Volume 14 · Issue 28
One Word
central point where all sides are united and where everything is essentially one. This is the revelation of the Sabbath. As the sages tell us, “The Sabbath unites everything in the mystery of oneness” (Zohar 2:135a; Friday Evening Prayer, Nusach Sefard).
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Behaaloscha 5750Volume 14 · Issue 31
Keep Hearing
It seems incongruent. Our prayer is for the redemption to happen, not to hear about it afterward. Imagine instead of asking someone for something, we ask that he let us hear afterward that he had given it to us. Our request should be for the redemption itself.
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Vayeishev 5752Volume 15 · Issue 13
Healing the Limp
created in the image of the Lord (Bereshis 1:27; 9:6), and his body corresponds to the Eminent Man whose limbs represent the attributes on high. This is well known from the sages and it appears in our prayer books, even those for schoolchildren (cf. Tikunei Zohar 19a).
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Yisro 5752Volume 15 · Issue 19
Structural Soundness
This is the intent of the entire Kaddish, which we hear many times throughout the day. We must bear in mind that it is a prayer for the obliteration of the memory of Amalek.
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Shemini-Parah 5752Volume 15 · Issue 27
Realigning the Mind
Both are functions of the same faculty—the Hebrew word daas, knowing, includes connecting and separating (Bereshis 4:1; Shoftim 8:16). In the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer, the Blessing of Knowledge is where we recite Havdalah, the separation of Sabbath and weekdays. The Jerusalem Talmud explains (Berachos 5:2, 39b), “If the faculty of knowing is absent, from where can there be separation?” The power to connect
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Naso 5752Volume 15 · Issue 32
Transience to Permanence
status of a new year because it is when there is judgment for the fruit of the tree (Rosh Hashanah 16a). Hence, when the curses are read beforehand, the year ends with its curses, and as the prayer continues, the new year begins with its blessings.
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Miketz Chanukah 5754Volume 16 · Issue 12
Light of the Home
In the prayer of Al HaNissim, we praise the Creator for delivering the mighty into the hands of the weak, and in addition, for delivering the many into the hands of the few. In the plain sense, it seems repetitious. Certainly, the few have
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Vayigash 5754Volume 16 · Issue 13
Miraculous Festival
In Grace After Meals, we continue, “And for everything, God our Lord, we offer thanks to You.” Similarly, in the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer, we continue, “And for all of them, let Your Name, our King, be blessed and exalted.” We must thank Him for everything. But what thanks must we offer for the sages’ institution of these days to offer thanks and praise
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Shemos 5754Volume 16 · Issue 15
Revelations of Faith
To gain better understanding of this, let us cite from the passage of Ani Maamin—its authorship is uncertain but it appears in our prayer books. There we declare, “I believe with complete faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, is the One Who creates and governs all creations.”
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Vaeira 5754Volume 16 · Issue 16
Transcendent Names
The prohibition is because the act of taking an oath in God’s Name is an act of serving Him, just as every declaration of His Name is Divine Service, whether in blessings, in prayer, or in accepting His yoke, and the like. We serve Him by declaring His Name—and this applies to declaring His Name in oaths as well.
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Yisro 5754Volume 16 · Issue 19
Sweetened Waters
sages in the book we have cited from earlier refer to the entire course of God’s revelation in the world as a tree. Deliverance itself also grows in this manner, as we say in the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer, “He cultivates deliverance.”
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Tazri'a Metzora 5754Volume 16 · Issue 24
Nothing Else
This is sourced in the Maharsha (Berachos 28b). Various sages correlate the eighteen blessings of the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer either with the eighteen instances of the Name of Existence that King David mentions in the chapter that begins (Tehillim 29:1), “Ascribe to God, sons of the mighty…,” or with its eighteen instances in the Reading of Shema
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Behar-Bechukosai 5754Volume 16 · Issue 27
Counting Up
Each morning in prayer, we enumerate the attributes of God (Divrei HaYamim I 29:11). “Yours, God, is greatness, and might, and splendor, and triumph, and concession, also all that is in the heavens and on the earth….” The attribute of “all that
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Ki Savo 5753Volume 16 · Issue 3
Implosion of Evil
It was not simply a matter of prayer and the Creator responded. The revelation of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy was particularly because Israel was in a state where they had nothing, not even the right to exist. The Creator revealed that in this state, there
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Shelach 5754Volume 16 · Issue 31
The End Lives
promised to Avraham (Bereshis 12:2; Rashi), “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you….” The Talmud (Pesachim 117b) finds these two promises corresponding respectively to what we say in the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer, “Lord of Avraham, and Lord of Yitzchak.” Meaning the promise of blessing is fulfilled in Yitzchak.
