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Chukas 5757Volume 18 · Issue 35
Worlds of Words
Song of Prayer
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Pinchas 5774Volume 10 · Issue 38
Divine Being
R’ Yochanan said (Sanhedrin 105b), “From the blessings of that wicked man, you can infer what was in his heart. He sought to say that they would not have houses of prayer and houses of study, but what he said was (Bamidbar 24:5), “How good are your tents—Yaakov.” He sought to say that the Divine Presence should not dwell upon them, but what he said was (ibid.), “…your dwellings Israel.” He sought to say that
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Emor 5762Volume 22 · Issue 26
Opened Gates
Later in the passage, “Rabbi Elazar said, ‘Hannah cast words on high, as it says, “Hannah prayed on God,” this teaches us that she cast words on high.’” It was not words of prayer in the plain sense of prayer, pleas to awaken mercy. It was like someone throwing his words at another.
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VaYikra-Zachor 5768Volume 4 · Issue 26
From Mourning to Joy
The Heavenly Chariot, the Throne of God, requires a fourth leg upon which to stand; this was manifest in King David. Indeed, we always find him as fourth. The established, organized daily prayers are four—the Morning Prayer, the Afternoon Prayer, the Evening Prayer, and the Midnight Prayer, which is a prayer for the ultimate rectification of the world. The first three correspond to the three Fathers (Berachos 26b), and the Midnight Prayer corresponds to King David
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Behar 5776Volume 12 · Issue 32
Your Truth
ends, “You have brought us near (our King) to Your great Name forever in truth.” “In truth” refers to the beginning of the sentence, “You have brought us near.” Why has the Creator brought us near to Him? The prayer continues and explains, “To give thanks—lehodos—to You and to unify You with love.”
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Bo 5750Volume 14 · Issue 18
Cry of the Heart
The sages (Zohar 2:20a) consider a cry as the greatest form of prayer, its response immediate, as it says (Shemos 22:22), “For if he cries to Me, I will hear his cry….” And the sages define it as emanating from the heart, as it says (Eichah2:18), “Their heart cried
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Shoftim 5767Volume 4 · Issue 1
Shofar of Consolation
…rn; renew our days as of old.” Yirmiyahu, however, says it only beforehand as a prayer, but the current situation does not reflect it; the current situation is distant from it. Currently, our predicament is one in which the Creator has…
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Yom Kippur 5758Volume 19 · Issue 5
Kiss of Purity
The moment all inhabitants of the civilized world recognize and know that the Creator is the One to Whom every knee bends and every tongue swears, as we say in the Aleinu prayer, this entire reality becomes nonexistent. It truly has no existence.
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Vayeitzei 5761Volume 21 · Issue 11
Crown of Torah
Rashi cites the sages who interpret vayiphga in the sense of prayer, as we find elsewhere (Yirmiyahu 7:16). This comes to teach us that he instituted the Evening Prayer.
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Yom Kippur 5768Volume 4 · Issue 5
Home of our Heart
This reveals the literal definition of the title Yom Kippur. This loftiest of days, a day whose intense holiness is fearsome and terrifying, as we state in the famous poem recited during the Musaf Prayer, is simply “a day of wiping,” the title that the Torah chose (Vayikra 23:27). Is this the most befitting title? Does it express the core idea behind this exalted day?
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Yom Kippur 5771Volume 7 · Issue 5
Moment of Truth
…ll receive in This World throughout the year. Of this, we say in the prayer of Unesaneh Tokef, “On Rosh Hashanah, it is written, and on Yom Kippur, it is sealed, how many will pass away and how many will be…
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Devarim 5754Volume 16 · Issue 36
The Knowing Man
The Havdalah Prayer
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Lech Lecha 5761Volume 21 · Issue 8
Coming Home
Daily Prayers
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Vayeitzei 5769Volume 5 · Issue 8
Wellspring of Living Waters
House of Prayer
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Vayeitzei 5771Volume 7 · Issue 10
Spatial Awareness
A complete entity is an entity that bears the whole in each of its parts. We are more familiar with this concept regarding the Counting of the Omer, as printed in most prayer books. Each of the seven weeks of the Counting of the Omer corresponds to one of the Seven Attributes of the Creator, which we recite each morning in our prayers (Divrei HaYamim I 29:11): “Yours, God, is greatness (Chesed
