Tefillah Meanings: You Are One
The first thing you may notice about the middle, Shabbos-related, berakhah of Shabbos Minchah is that the opening parallels the berakhah immediately before it….
Category: Amidah
Tefillah Meanings: From Tav to Alef
But as Rav Shelomo haLevi al-Qabetz put it in Lekha Dodi, “סוֹף מַעֲשֶׂה בְּמַחֲשָׁבָה תְּחִלָּה – [Shabbos,] which was made last, was ‘Thought’ about first.” When planning, we start with the end. In the above example, if I want a ball to fall, I will first let go of it.
When we look at the sequence in ת – ש- ר- ק … – ב -א order, we are not looking at causes, but at goals. “סוֹף מַעֲשֶׂה בְּמַחֲשָׁבָה תְּחִלָּה”.
Tefillah Meanings: Moshe’s Happiness
Notice it doesn’t talk about Moshe being happy with his portion, but “with the giving of his portion.” … If I were to just do whatever Hashem made me for, my role in the running of the vast engine of creation, just as Moshe Rabbeinu fulfilled his role, I too can have the same never-ending joy.
Tefillah Meanings: You Consecrated the Seventh Day
Shabbos is in particular a day of berakhah. If properly utilized, Shabbos can get us further in our ascent up Har Hashem than other days. But only because it is also a zeman, a time, of qedushah. A repeating appointment with our destiny.
Tefillah Meanings: The Great Shofar
Why do we describe Hashem’s ingathering of the exiles as a “Great Shofar”? … In this berakhah we ask Hashem to give us the wake-up call, the opportunity and the inspiration to return to our homes. Not to force us to come.
Destroying Evil
The next berakhah I found a relationship to requires skipping ahead to “VelaMalshinim… — And for the informers, let there be no hope”.
… It also fits the Sanhedrin’s intent of asking Shemu’el haQatan to compose this berakhah. We aren’t praying for people to “get theirs”, although much of the berakhah acknowledges that this may be necessary. What we are praying for is for the world to be a better place. Hopefully that could happen through the wicked changing their ways.
Tefillah Meanings: Forgive Us, Pardon Us
In Vidui, we desperately beg for whatever we can get … But the berakhos of Shemoneh Esrei are organized by cause and effect….
In this berakhah we ask that the restoration plays out to completion. Once Hashem leads us to where we can return to the path that He laid for us, we can ask Him for the secondary effects of that mess as well.
Tefillah Meanings: Revisiting Gevuros
Three weeks ago, I shared that the body of the berakhah “Atah Gibbor” became for me more of a request than the intended praise…. Three weeks ago, I shared that the body of the berakhah “Atah Gibbor” became for me more of a request than the intended praise. … Don’t force a meaning on the prayer. As life and our situations change, we have different things to say to our Creator.
Tefillah Meanings: Return Us
“הֲשִׁיבֵֽנוּ אָבִֽינוּ לְתוֹרָתֶֽךָ — Restore, our Father, to Your Torah…” Are we are asking Hashem to do our teshuvah for us? That defeats too many givens about free will!
One could argue that the act of turning to Hashem to ask for it is itself a form of teshuvah, but we are saying it in the plural. And many of the non-repentant are not going to be joining us in prayer.
Tefillah Meanings: Graciously
Now that we spent two posts (1, 2) building an approach to what it is we are asking for, the noun, I want to go to the originally intended topic of the post –...
Tefillah Meanings: Da’as
[A]ll in all, when I say this berakhah I ask Hashem to grace me with the “honey” to let me take what I know — and especially the intellectual skills I learned (Da’as), and further develop them (Binah) so that I can better embody the Torah’s truths, and emotionally react, make proper decisions and live those ideals (Haskeil).
Malki-Tzedeq and Birkhas Avos
Compare these two snippets. I added color to highlight my point. First, Bereishis 14:19-20. A massive regional war just completed, and Avraham joins the kings he fought with. Malki-Tzedeq the king of Shaleim (the...
Types of Thought: Dictionary
A while back, last time I had a chance to complete a blog entry, I promised a dictionary of terms for thought. When writing it up, I noticed I had MUCH more to say...
Types of Thought: Progressions
The first of the requests of the Shemoneh Esrei is Birchas haDa’as, the blessing on understanding. We first state “Atah chonein le’adam da’as – You grant humanity understanding, umelameid le’enosh binah – and teach...
Birkhas Avos
This chart combines the ideas contained two earlier divrei Torah. The first is the idea of the Vilna Gaon that the first berakhah of the Amidah, Birkhas Avos, consists of iterations of variations on...
Atah Qadosh
“You Are Kadosh, and Your Name Is Kadosh, and kedoshim praise You every day. Selah! [For you are G-d, King, Great and Kadosh. –Sepharad] Baruch Atah … the Kadosh G-d.” The question of kedushah...
HaKel HaGadol HaGibbor veHaNora
I In this week’s parashah Moshe describes Hashem as “… haKel haGadol haGibor vihaNorah — the G-d, the Great, the A-lmighty, and the Awesome …”. These words were incorporated by the Anshei Kinesses Hagedolah...
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