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Prayer as Spiritual Practice

Ask most people about their long-term goals for prayer and they often lack even the vocabulary to venture an answer.

Who Taught You to Pray?

Prayer is a natural part of human existence, requiring neither a belief system nor even instruction about how to do it.

Tachanun: Engaging the Mind-Body Connection

In its tone and its language, this daily prayer nods to the themes and postures of the High Holidays.

The Torah Blessings: Celebrating the Source of ‘Eternal Life’

The idea that the Torah is alive and ever-changing is encoded in the blessings recited before and after an aliyah.

Psalm 23: Who Walks in the Valley of the Shadow of Death?

These words are commonly understood as reassurance that God accompanies us in our darkest moments, but some ancient rabbis understood them differently.

Yishtabach: What Lies In Prayer’s Wake

A Hasidic teaching offers a way to understand this prayer that seems to suggest our words of divine praise are inherently insufficient.

‘All That Lives Shall Bless Your Name’

This Nishmat Kol Chai benediction is said at the transition between our preparatory prayers and core elements of the morning service.

Listening to the Constant Prayer of the Soul

How to integrate meditation into Jewish prayer.

Mah Tovu: Seeking the Good

This biblical verse, traditionally recited as one enters a synagogue, has a challenging provenance.

Refaeinu: Connecting Physical and Spiritual Healing

This prayer for healing included in the weekday Amidah is a reminder that ultimate healing can only come from God.