THE SPIRITUAL AND COMMUNAL IMPORTANCE OF THE DAILY MINYAN The daily minyan, morning and evening, is one of the most important services (pun intended) a synagogue can provide its community. The synagogue is, by definition fact, a faith-based community organization. Certainly, one of the ways of expressing that faith is by daily prayer. Jewish Continue Reading »
Al HaNissim (for the miracles) is passage added to the Amidah and the Grace After Meals (Bentching) on ChanukahPurim and Israel Independence Day. In it we offer thanks and credit God with the miraculous event being celebrated on those holidays. On Chanukah the prayer refers to two different miracles. First it discusses the military victory Continue Reading »
THE SHEMA – PART 3 The third major theme that I see in the first two passages of the Shema and in virtually all of the third passage (Num 15:37-41) is that we should provide ourselves with virtually constant reminders of our connection to God and God’s laws. These reminders are set forth in three Continue Reading »
THE SHEMA PART 2 The Shema, as I noted earlier, is an integral part of our statement of faith and of our prayer services. It consists of three passages from the Torah, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deut. 11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41. Part one dealt with the first verse (Deut 6:4), the definitive statement of monotheistic connection to Continue Reading »
THE SHEMA Part 1 The unit of biblical passages that we know as The Shema is essential to our out liturgy. It is part of our morning (Shacharit) and evening (Ma’ariv) services on weekdays, Shabbat and on holidays. It is also recited when retiring for the night. It has been referred to as “the watchword Continue Reading »
MAKING OUR SENSES PART OF OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE – PART 2 I have written before about connecting our senses and our spirituality. The earlier essay focused on the senses of hearing and sight. But what about our other, perhaps more earthly, senses, smell, touch and taste. How can these be part of our spiritual lives? Continue Reading »
SING A NEW SONG “Shiru l’Hashem shir chadash” sing unto the Lord a new song. This is the opening verse of several of the psalms. They include two of the psalms recited before “L’cha Dodi” on Friday evening during the Kabbalat Shabbat service and one psalm which is recited every morning as part of the Continue Reading »
MAKING OUR SENSES PART OF OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE While participating in prayer and observing mitzvot are important parts of our spiritual lives, they are “acts” that can be performed autonomously and unthinkingly. I use the word “acts” in quotations for a purpose. The potential problems is that while are act or perform it can Continue Reading »
Feeling and Meaning our Prayers A couple of weeks ago Rabbi Greene commented (note: one must give his or her teachers credit) that often we go through our prayers but we don’t let our prayers go through us. I believe that his point was that while we (too) quickly mutter the various prayers for Continue Reading »
Psalm 27 For the Penitential Season During the penitential season, from the first day of the month of Elul through Hoshana Rabba ( the last say of Sukkot before Shemini Ha’atzeret and Simchat Torah) it is customary to recite Psalm 27 at the end of the morning and evening services. To be honest, I Continue Reading »
