Amidah, The

The centerpiece of the three daily weekday prayers, wherein we beseech G-d for all our personal and communal needs.

The very idea of prayer is absurd--a tiny creature speaking with its Creator, like a figment of your imagination talking back to you. Once you accept that absurdity, you are ready to stand in the awe of prayer.

The lights go up, the cameras are off, you turn to the director's chair and say, "I don't like the way this scene is going. How about we try…" Sounds wild, right? Yet that's exactly what we do...

The Hebrew word for prayer, tefilah means "to judge." It also means "attachment"

But today we cannot be satisfied with yesterday's standards of accomplishment. Not only is yesterday's liberation insufficient, imperfect--it is, for today, a strait, a limitation, an Egypt from which an exodus must be experienc

First time offender? :-) Not to make light of it, G‑d forbid! It's happened to me a couple of times, and I felt absolutely horrible. So I know where you are coming from. Nowadays, I try my best to prayer in a synagogue with a minyan, and that ...

This class discusses the focal point of prayer – the amidah – where we reach the pinnacle of prayer.

A-do-nai s'fa-tai tif-tach, u-fi ya-gid t'hi-la-te-cha. Ba-ruch a-tah A-do-nai, E-lo-hei-nu, vei-lo-hei a-vo-tei-nu, E-lo-hei av-ra-ham, e-lo-hei yitz-chak, vei-lo-hei ya-a-kov, Ha-eil ha-Ga-dol ha-Gi-bor v'ha-no-rah eil el-yon, go-meil cha-sa-dim to-vim ...

When we get to the climax of the prayer service, the top rung of the ladder, the Amida, what do we hear? Nothing. Just lips moving. But why? Why, after all the hub-bub, when we get to the heart of our personal conversation with G-d, do we finally go ...

The wording of the Amidah–the 19 blessings, praises, and requests at the heart of each prayer service–is precise, like a treasured family recipe that is not to be tampered with. Its text was written by our greatest sages who sensed the exact wording to ...