Personalized Prayer
Few can question that tefilla in our communities is seriously lacking. Our shuls leave us with davening that is too often, even at its best, rushed and uninspiring. At its worst, the experience...
Hashem Sifati Tiftach: Paying More Than Lip Service to Tefila
Walking into a preschool program during tefilla, a visitor will see children sitting in a circle, belting out the words to songs like “Modeh Ani” or “Torah Torah.” That might be about as good...
Jewish Tradition on Ethics Beyond the Law: Revisiting R. Aharon Lichtenstein’s Essay, “Does Jewish Tradition Recognize an Ethic Independent of Halakha?”
[1]As a mode of life, religion is often expected by its adherents and critics to guide toward the good and deter from the bad. Halakha, the observance of which is the principal fulfillment of...
And Man Laughed: R’ Menachem Froman’s Torat Ha-Sechok and its Antecedents
The jester is brother to the sage – Arthur Koestler Jesters do oft prove prophets – William Shakespeare The relationship between sense and nonsense, between the rational and the irrational, is often...
Between Heaven and Earth: The Clash of Theory and Reality in Masekhet Hagigah
[1] “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign, the Lord” (Exodus 23:17), declares the Torah, instituting the Shalosh Regalim of Sukkot, Pesaḥ, and Shavuot, when Israelites would celebrate in...
“I Have Set God Before Me Always…”: An example of the Maimonidean Approach to Jewish Law and Philosophy
Translated by: Yaakov Schiff A. We find in the Talmud two sources concerning the kavvanah, conscious intention, required for prayer. In Tractate Berakhot 31a, we learn: Our Rabbis taught: One who engages in...
Mi-Darkei Ha-Teshuva: The Authentic Repentance
Compiled by: Yehoshua Katz Of the many novel insights that are presented in Rambam’s Hilkhot Teshuva,[1] Rambam’s development of the “darkei ha-teshuva,” “the ways of repentance,” emerges at their forefront. Rambam (Hilkhot Teshuva...
Jonah and the Paradox of Prayer and Repentance
The Book of Jonah occupies a prominent spot in the Yom Kippur liturgy. The themes of the book align closely with the themes of the day: distance and closeness to God, sin and...
“And I Will Bless Them”: Understanding Birkat Ha-Kohanim In Its Scriptural Context
Among the rites that make up the Jewish prayer service, Birkat ha-Kohanim stirs particular curiosity. Mere human beings step in to offer (what appears to be) their own blessing as the congregation is about...
Piyyut: The Story of the Poetry of Jewish Prayer
Jewish prayer is caught between the two poles of keva and kavvanah, the fixed nature of prayer, and the role of intentionality in one’s prayer.[1] While Jewish law ultimately prescribes fixed formulas of liturgy,...
Letter from the Editor
My God My God/ May these never end…/The sand and the sea/The rustle of the water/The lightning of the Heavens/The prayer of man (Hannaa Szenes, “Eli, Eli”) Like the sand and the sea, human...
Issue 10.1 Symposium
Kol Hamevaser is excited to announce that this year, we are launching a new section featuring a symposium on issues pertinent to the Yeshiva University undergraduate community. Contributors to these symposiums will include Yeshiva...
Issue 10.1 Derekh Ha-Limmud
In the newly published Toras HoRav volume titled Halakhic Morality, Rabbi Soloveitchik distinguishes between two aspects of Jewish life: a derekh ha-hayyim and signon ha-hayyim. The derekh ha-hayyim, way of life, is universal. As...
Orthodoxy, Unorthodoxy, and Paradox: Review of “Faith Shattered and Restored: Judaism in the Postmodern Age,” by Rav Shagar
Like so many American Orthodox Jews, I had scarcely heard of Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg, or “Rav Shagar,” until relatively recently, despite having spent two years learning in a hesder yeshiva. In fact, I...
