Prayer
Agnon or Herzog?
In a biblical book many of whose poems express anxiety and apprehension, Psalm 104 is a confident and joyous singalong.
A prayer book was edited so that the wicked Greeks became wicked Syrians.
The promise and peril of calling angels to bless your Sabbath table.
At the instigation of a 16th-century sultan.
Where is Jonah’s remorse?
Modern Orthodoxy vs. humility.
The two great liturgical songs of Yigdal and Adon Olam offer rival attempts to summarize the essence of Judaism.
More a contract than a prayer.
And its unique American variations.
Nishmat starts with the wide-open sky and the wings of eagles; it ends deep inside the recesses of the body, in our vital organs.
The ancient priesthood, the Pharisees, the kabbalists, the Ḥasidim—each of these and more have made a stand in the prayer book for what they think Judaism should be.
Saving the lowliest sinners from hellfire.
Praying for an unseen land.
