The Ansche Chesed blog is a place where you can find enriching material to read about God, Torah and the Jewish People.
The central element of worship in any service is the Amidah, literally “the standing,” which the Sages simply called “prayer,” par excellence. All other elements of a morning service up until the Amidah – “dawn blessings,” “verses of song,” the ritual recitation of biblical passages in the Shema and blessings that accompany them – these… Read more »
In the last week, the nation state of the Jewish people came to an extraordinary political crossroads that should terrify and repel everyone who, like me, continues to believe in Zionism and Judaism. As widely reported, in order to maximize the number of right-wing seats in the next Knesset (to be elected April 9), Prime… Read more »
Parashat Ki Tisa Religious communities build holy places and fill them with sacred vessels. American liberal Judaism’s great saint (one-time AC member) Abraham Joshua Heschel claimed Judaism is a religion of sacred time, not sacred space. That’s only half true. Yes, we treasure holy moments, like Shabbat, but we also feel the power of a… Read more »
ברום עולם מושביך ומשפטיך וצדקתך עד אפסי ארץ/ B’rum olam moshavekha, u’mishpatekha v’tzidkat’kha ad afsei aretz. “Your abode is the heights of the cosmos, and Your statutes and righteousness reach the ends of the earth.” When I daven this phrase from the blessing following the Shema, I find myself meditating on natural law. Philosophers of… Read more »
As I discussed two weeks ago here on Tefillah Tuesdays, the blessing following Shema is devoted to the theme of the redemption – paradigmatically, the liberation of Israelite slaves from Egypt. The blessing concludes with two key lines from the song upon crossing the Red Sea: מי כמוך/mi kamokha, “who is like You,” and ה’… Read more »
