Chanukah provides us with a unique opportunity to make positive changes in our lives and to come closer to Hashem.  There are numerous messages of inspiration that we can and should inculcate over Chanukah and take with us after Chanukah.  To list just a few: • To love mitzvos and perform them with love and enthusiasm • […]

אבינו מלכנו, החזירנו בתשובה שלמה לפניך Our Father, our King, return us to You in perfect repentance. ***** Avinu Malkeinu is one of our most prominent and most passionately and powerfully recited tefilos in these days of Aseres Y’mei T’shuvah.  In fact, the same is true during the very last moments of N’ilah, which is […]

There is a dispute between Rashi and the Rambam in how to understand the pasuk of Shema Yisrael. Rashi understands the pasuk as a request for the entire world to come to recognize Hashem as The One G-d.  Adding some insights of others, what we are saying is: Shema Yisrael: Hear, understand, and accept – […]

Part 2 ככתוב בתורתו: וידעת היום והשבת אל לבבך כי ה’ הוא האלוקים… …as it is written in His Torah: “You are to know this day and take to your heart that Hashem is the only G-d…” ***** Knowing that “ה’ הוא האלוקים–Hashem Hu HaElokim(Hashem is the only G-d)” must be as “clear as day” […]

Part 1 Although Aleinu was composed by Yehoshua bin Nun, and the Anshei K’neses HaG’dolah instituted its inclusion in the Malchiyus section of tefilas Musaf on Rosh HaShanah, it was Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai who instituted saying it daily after each tefilah.  He did this to strengthen the emunah and spirits of klal Yisrael, who […]

We recite Aleinu daily, many of us three times a day. Perhaps because we have grown so accustomed to saying it, many of us unfortunately do not appreciate the significance and importance of this tefilah. In fact, we are often mentally on our way to the next part of our day as we fly through […]

At the start of Elul, rather than plunging ourselves into cheshbon ha’nefesh (accounting of one’s soul), many advise to begin by strengthening the core areas of our avodas Hashem.  Since we are involved in tefilah in this program, and since tefilah is certainly one of the core areas of our service to Hashem, we are reviewing four segments in particular, since they […]