Rosh Hashanah Prayers

“I thought to myself,” said the rebbe of Karlin, “if we address the Almighty as ‘King,’ does this not invite the question, ‘If I am indeed your king, why did you not come to me until now?’”

Why when praying for life, do we emphasize G-d’s desire for life and that we are asking for life for His sake

We pray for others -- but perhaps with a slight ulterior motive...

Why did Alexander, a great philosopher and a student of Aristotle, want to know the Jewish view on the order of creation?

When is the father truly happy? When is he ready to shower them with abundant blessing?

Their warden was a Jewish communist named Mosei, who felt it his duty to be particularly brutal to religious prisoners. Occasionally, however, the light of his buried soul would emerge...

"My good friend, Rabbi Amnon, I know you have been loyal and devoted to me for many years. Now I wish to ask you a personal favor. Abandon your faith, and become a good Christian like me..." The gripping story behind a most moving High Holiday prayer.

How does the Divine attribute of remembering all that is forgotten work in our favor?

What is the difference between someone who shepherds his own sheep, and one who shepherds others' sheep?

While he was reciting the Musaf service and singing the hymn V'chol Maaminim, which declares how all men share in the belief in G-d, he stopped and thought: Why was he in a hard labor camp? Because there were people who did not believe...

"Mind your own business. I’m drilling under my seat. I paid my fare for this boat ride, and this is my seat..."

The prayer we recite during the High Holidays while the Ark is opened teaches us a valuable lesson about wealth...

Why do we base our plea for Divine mercy on Noah; can’t we find any other righteous people?

Why is G-d good to the wicked? And what is so surprising about the fact that He is good to the righteous?

What does G-d respond to Satan and his entourage when they come to besmirch the Jewish people on the Day of Judgment?

The Hebrew language has no word for "things", "objects" or "stuff". In Hebrew, all things are dvarim, "words": articulations of the soul, crystallized thoughts

Rosh Hashanah is a game of hide and seek. G-d hides, we seek. But where can G-d hide? Wherever you go, there He is. So perhaps what is meant is more like peek-a-boo...

On the awesome day of Rosh Hashanah, G-d shifts into transcendent mode. "The Throne of Judgment," our sages call it. Our mission: to re-awaken the flow of energy to the cosmos. To re-engage G-d

"Repentance," "prayer," and "charity" -- three often-used mistranslations of the Hebrew words "teshuvah," "tefillah," and "tzedakah"...