Essays on Prayer

why does one engaged in prayer need to face a particular latitude and longitude in this physical world?

The physical realm as the "shadow" of the spiritual; the mitzvot as physical "symbols" that manipulate spiritual realities; matter as thye most compact form of energy; prayer as the language of the soul and the minyan as the "critical mass" that unleashes its power

It is dawn in Jerusalem. The light is clear. A bent woman lays her head upon the stones; the men are draped in a sea of undulating black and white prayer shawls. The morning service has begun.

Where the mind and heart converge

How are we to reconcile the loftiness of Rosh Hashanah with the mundane subject of a significant part of its prayers? Chanah's prayer offers the response to this profound question.

The day has 12 hours; the Jewish day has the 12 sons of Jacob

Where is your heart? Where are your eyes? There are three approaches, each having implications in many realms, including a general view about life and even macroeconomic vision

The emphasis of early Chabad Chasidism on contemplative prayer is well known. But what about the 20th century?

It was precisely the inconceivably audacious nature of Hannah’s prayer that placed it at the center of the Jewish definition of prayer.