There is a well-known question on one of the key paragraphs of our prayer service. The first paragraph of the amidah was written as follows: Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d and the G-d of our acnestors. The G-d of Avraham, and the G-d of Yitzhak, and the G-d of Y’akov. So the question is, [...]

Maharal says: Some people ask, “If G-d was ready to hook up whatever you were gonna ask for anyway, why should you have to ask? And if you aren’t on the level, why would your prayer make a difference? And why do you need to actually speak your prayers – doesn’t G-d know what’s in [...]

There is a tension.  Some things are worth struggling for.  They are beyond our immediate grasp for a good reason – if they were easy to attain, we would not value them as much.  So we have to reach – go beyond our immediate set of skills and work toward something new. But if they [...]

If I didn’t know Hebrew, and I wasn’t devoted to Orthodox practice, there is approximately NO WAY I’d be praying three times a day out of a prayerbook.  The bar is just too high!  There’s just nothing instinctual about it.  Even doing it in English – it feels repetitive.  If I don’t know the difference [...]