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The ABCs of Prayer
Where Does the Concept of Prayer Come From? In the Shema, we are given the commandment to ‘serve Him (Hashem) with all your heart’1. The Gemara2 explains that we achieve this through prayer. For this reason, prayer is referred to as the ‘work of the heart’3. Prayer is also a replacement for the sacrifices of…
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Serving Hashem With What We Have
Toward the end of the chagim, we read Kohelet, written by Shlomo HaMelech. While reading it, I thought about Shlomo’s father, King David, and I discovered something fascinating that never struck me before. From his beginnings as a shepherd to the times he was homeless, running and hiding from his enemies, King David in his…
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Yaakov, Rachel, and Yosef: Withstanding the Test of Being Alone
“Without anyone or anything else; without people that you know or are usually with.”
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Prayer and Hitbodedut: Reflections on Connecting to Hashem in Different Ways
How many times have I raced through davening because of a busy schedule? Or got distracted by the people around me, noises outside, or even the phone ringing? And I can’t even count the number of moments where my own trifling thoughts creep into my daily prayer that I can’t even remember the words I’ve…
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Connecting Inwards by Removing External Distractions
A cursory glance at articles addressing technological device usage indicates that on average people spend nearly three hours a day on their smartphones, two of those hours on social media, and the same — if not more — amount of time watching television daily. Those numbers increased with the rise of COVID and the many…
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Shabbos: Hishtadlus vs Rest
When giving the commandment to keep Shabbos, the Torah tells us: “Six days you will work and you will complete all of your labor” (Shemos, 20:8) Surely it’s impossible for a person to actually complete all of his work before Shabbos! Shabbos is more of a “pause” where we take a break after a long…
