Prayer
The 9th-century siddur from which all others descend.
The academic and podcast host joins us to talk about why the words of prayer don’t work for him, and why nonetheless he’s prayed daily for 30 years.
Blessings after bread.
“Just as He is compassionate and merciful, so too should you be compassionate and merciful.”
Leah Horovitz’s tkhines.
A bill before Congress would make communal morning prayer more difficult.
“I often feel great disjunction between my own experience of prayer and what many people say about it.”
On the Ninth of Av, Oholah and Oholibah speak.
“There is only one joy: to increase and not to lessen the world’s joy.”
Prayer isn’t the same across religions.
Its meaning in the Bible is “Truly said!” or “So be it!” After that it acquired its intense liturgical emotion, and then hasn’t changed much since.
Prayers on the death of a father.
“We pray sincerely for America and the ideals of democracy and freedom that are here enshrined.”