It all started on a school trip to Toronto. I’d started davening every morning since the summer and I wanted to continue this on my school trip. As I contemplated how to explain davening to my ...

The author (right) in shul with his father’s first cousin Larry Ciment. The plaque behind them is dedicated to the author’s grandparents and the one on the right to Larry Ciment’s parents. I have a ...

Formal prayer, that musical and lyrical intersection between this world and the other, is as much science as art, as least for the cantor. There are rules, equations, let alone laws, but “most people ...

We have entered a new phase of Jewish history in which cyberspace has become the place to nurture our spiritual lives. Previous generations lived through the Black Plague, cholera and more. Ours is ...

We have often referred to the gemara in B'rachot's fourth perek, that teaches us a "dispute" as to whether our prayers we fixed to correspond to the daily sacrifices in the Beit HaMikdash, or it was ...

My 12-year-old daughter is, B”H, a well-rounded, hardworking Bais Yaakov girl. She takes her schoolwork seriously and has a nice circle of friends. Recently, I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend. On ...

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I am sorry. Davening just isn’t what it use to be. This past Shabbat, I wandered into a well-respected, modern Orthodox institution for Shabbat morning services. Because it was late, I wandered into a ...

It must have been quite a scene, and quite a neighborhood. Boys as young as 3 waking up at 5 a.m. with their fathers and brothers and walking to their shuls for the morning prayers. Hundreds of men — ...