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: Shabbos
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: Like a Date Palm
“צַ֭דִּיק כַּתָּמָ֣ר יִפְרָ֑, כְּאֶ֖רֶז בַּלְּבָנֹ֣ון יִשְׂגֶּֽה׃ – A righteous person blooms like a date-palm,he thrives lie a cedar in Lebanon.” … So to me, while davening, this verse means to me (and again, I am not claiming this is the author intended):A tzadiq blossoms like a tamar – a tall tree but like Tamar the tzadiq puts the other one first. His focus is not on his own greatness, but on others.He thrives like a cedar in Lebanon – once one defines oneself by their place in connection to others, can one thrive strong and proud like a cedar.
Tiqanta Shabbos
This week I’d like to discuss three seemingly unrelated questions about the words of the tephillah: The focus of Shabbos Mussaf davening is the paragraph that begins “Tiqanta Shabbos…” What most readily jumps to...
Sweet Charoses
(Embellished with thoughts from my daughter Noa’s recent bas mitzvah speech. Yay, Noa!) If you think about it, charoses is quite strange. On the one hand, as we learn in preschool and the Rambam writes,...
Simchah and Oneg
Simchah is related to wanting and having, because Ben Zoma defines the wealthy person as “sameiach bechelqo — happy with his lot”. The Tanya speaks about how each aspect of the soul lives in...
Nishmas, part II
This week’s shiur picks up from “HaKel besa’atzumos uzekha”, the point where the Chazan begins on Yamim Tovim.Some of the key topics raised: The impossibility of understanding Hashem, and the resulting consequence of tending...
Nishmas. part I
This week’s shiur skips to Nishmas, under the assumption that davening in shul runs too quickly for slow and careful recitation, and it would be more practical to skip to around the point where...
Yismach Moshe II
As an example for explaining the idea of tefillah behispa’alus, I raised a number of questions about the meaning of the phrase “Yismach Mosheh“. I wrote: Yismach Mosheh — Moses will be happy bematenas...
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