Liturgy

Many synagogue goers found the abbreviated High Holiday services we recently concluded quite appealing. Need we eventually go back to the way it was before coronavirus? Not really, argues Moshe Kurtz, surveying the substantial halakhic support for shortening the services every year.

Noam Stadlan offers a heartfelt reinterpretation of Tzidkatkha Tzedek.

William Gewirtz explores the value of cantillation.

Zvi Grumet suggests that when read in sequence, the kinot of R. Elazar Ha-Kalir—often seen as the ones most difficult to understand—offer a powerful theological narrative from despair to hope.

Yaakov Jaffe examines how the order of our morning Tefillot can shape the way we approach our day.

Who is the Woman of Valor, really? She's a woman engaged in a relationship of mutuality, argues Malka Simkovich, and someone who has her own voice and deserves to be heard.

How should we understand Yatziv Pitgam, the enigmatic poem recited in the Haftarah for the second day of Shavuot? Tzvi Novick’s close reading reveals it to be a paean to the Torah and those who study it.

With the High Holidays approaching, a time iconic for its songful liturgy, Moshe Kurtz scrutinizes the practice of cantors repeating words during davening.

Dov Berkovits reflects on his father, Eliezer Berkovits's legacy, his philosophy and attitude toward halakhah and the Jewish people.

Yaakov Jaffe on the Rav, prayer and Modern Orthodox Jews who wish to pray like the Rav.