Jewish legal tradition teaches that we should recite 100 blessings every day. This presents an opportunity and a challenge. How might I fill up my quota today?
Her eyes, I think, will stay with me forever. Imploring, beseeching, full of so much sadness.
Jewish prayer is a spiritual discipline for regaining wonder each day. One hundred times a day we are instructed to stop and recite a bracha recognizing the miraculous in each moment of life.
Norman and Lela Jacoby are talking about Camp Ramah again.
As a scientist and a believer in human progress, I have been concerned about how well the established process of teshuvah (repentance) has worked. Yom Kippur after Yom Kippur – in fact, since the 11th century – we have recited the same confessional prayer, \”Al Chet.\” If we were any good at repentance, shouldn\’t the list have changed in 1,000 years? Even if we don\’t want to change the ancient formula, shouldn\’t we be able to feel that we had eliminated or reduced at least a few on the list? Yet the list of sins remains the same, as does the ritual for expunging them. Why haven\’t we improved?\n
A prayer and study center honoring Jewish life has opened near the place that for more than half a century has been the paramount symbol of Jewish death.
Each night before retiring, the great Chassidic master Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav would make a list. At the end of a long day, he would write down all the wrongs he had committed – against other people, against God, against himself.
Most Shabbat worshippers expect decorum. But Adat Ari El\’s new Jump-n-Jive minyan is different. Its founder, Aaron Kaychuck, describes the monthly Saturday morning service as \”upbeat neo-Chassidic egalitarian.\” The service is unusual partly because it combines traditional Conservative liturgy with exuberant song and dance, set to the beat of an African hand-drum. It is also distinctive because Kaychuck, who leads the congregants in prayer, is 15 years old.
It\’s not easy working for a Jewish vice-presidential candidate
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