Writings and Recordings

It's tempting to think of prayer as an eloquent form of begging. Please let me live. Please let me get this job. Please let my team win this football game. If we learn the "right" words to the prayers, if wecome to shul and sit and stand at the proper times, if we get it right, then our prayers will work. It's tempting to think that's how prayer works and it is equally tempting to dismiss it as a fantasy of wish fulfillment. But that's not what prayer is. From the time of the

Oy vey, what pain I caused myself today! Last night, I got some stressful news, so I stayed up late trying to rectify it. Of course, I was so agitated on account of working till nearly midnight that I had trouble sleeping. That meant that in the morning, I was tired and cranky even after my second cup of coffee. Which was unfortunate, since the schools were closed and I was home with my children. They did not get the memo informing them that I needed to sleep late and that I

Many people who live a religious life, or aspire to one, pray that God will appear to them in a cacophonous moment of revelation. We routinely offer the priestly blessing, which Aaron offered to the children of Israel. May GOD bless you, and keep you; May GOD make God’s face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; May GOD lift up God’s face towards you, and give you peace. What is it that we hunger for when we pray for the face of God to be turned towards us? Perhaps we pra