JTF.ORG Forum
Torah and Jewish Idea => Torah and Jewish Idea => Topic started by: Israel Chai on August 13, 2014, 02:11:23 PM
-
Muman, I need more lectures on the Shema so I can daven with more kavannah please
And Tag, do you know of any siddurim without kabbalistic verses? Did the old ones have them? I don't really understand all of them, so I'd test out an old school one if they were like that.
-
Have you seen the ones I posted in the Tefillah thread?
And what 'Kabbalistic' verses are you referring to?
Davening consists of verses from Psalms mostly, many Kaddishes, and the required prayers including Shema and Amidah...
-
Muman, I need more lectures on the Shema so I can daven with more kavannah please
And Tag, do you know of any siddurim without kabbalistic verses? Did the old ones have them? I don't really understand all of them, so I'd test out an old school one if they were like that.
Sefardi or aski you want?
-
Sefardi or aski you want?
Idk. Technically I can do both.
-
Idk. Technically I can do both.
That is humorous... Anyone can 'technically' do either... We usually learn the mesorah our family has kept...
-
Idk. Technically I can do both.
Ok if you want a good siddur is "Sukkat David". It is Sefardi. Not sure if their is with translation or not.
Better idea is to get one with a translation
Here is a bunch of them http://www.mysefer.com/prodtype.asp?PT_ID=275&strPageHistory=cat
out of them the one's that I would personally recommend more (and it depends on your prefence as well) are
Orot Sefardi Siddur- you can look inside here how it is formatted
http://www.mysefer.com/popuplargeimage.asp?strImage=1008.jpg&strImageType=scanned&strPageTitle=Orot Sephardic Weekday Siddur (Kol Sasson) - Small Size
or Sephardic Siddur with Linear Translation for Weekly, Shabbat and Festivals
http://www.mysefer.com/popuplargeimage.asp?strImage=3123.jpg&strImageType=scanned&strPageTitle=Sephardic Siddur with Linear Translation for Weekly, Shabbat and Festivals
----------------------
The second one is probably better for you because it has for both Shabbat, holidays and weekdays. The first you would have to end up buying more then 1 Siddur separately.
-
I have the second one. And about Kabbalistic, Im not sure. I think most Siddurim don't have them and the one's that do have hints to them which most people do not take into account (such as bigger letters of bold etc.) . Some others have more open but they aren't the majority of them.
If you want Aski, I don't know much but I hear the new Koren is very good.
-
I use Tehillat Hashem (it's Chabad) and there are a lot of Kabalistic things in there. I like it though because it's well organized and you fit everything into one little book. Is there a siddur there with everything in one or am I going to have to have one for shabbat and one for festivals and three others?
-
I use Tehillat Hashem (it's Chabad) and there are a lot of Kabalistic things in there. I like it though because it's well organized and you fit everything into one little book. Is there a siddur there with everything in one or am I going to have to have one for shabbat and one for festivals and three others?
The last one is everything (almost except Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashana) in it. I mean the last Sefardi one I recommended.
I also have Tehillat Hashem on my Phone (and another one as well ) they are free to download as an APP. I use it for Birkat Levana.
-
I use Tehillat Hashem (it's Chabad) and there are a lot of Kabalistic things in there. I like it though because it's well organized and you fit everything into one little book. Is there a siddur there with everything in one or am I going to have to have one for shabbat and one for festivals and three others?
LKZ,
I use the Chabad siddur when I daven with my minyan on Shabbat and holidays. I am not sure what you mean Kabbalistic things? I also use the Artscroll Siddur Ashkenaz and there is very very little difference... Could you explain to me what you consider to be kabbalistic?
-
I have the second one. And about Kabbalistic, Im not sure. I think most Siddurim don't have them and the one's that do have hints to them which most people do not take into account (such as bigger letters of bold etc.) . Some others have more open but they aren't the majority of them.
If you want Aski, I don't know much but I hear the new Koren is very good.
I think you are referring to the printing of the Shema... The first and last letters are bolded because they form the word eid, meaning witness. I don't know if this is kabbalistic in orgin or from the Talmud.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1019954/jewish/WhY-the-LargE-LetterS.htm
Question:
Why are the final letters of the first and last words of the Shema larger than all the others in the Torah scroll?
Answer:
One of the many explanations is that we enlarge those letters to ensure that they are read properly.
If the word shema, שמע, would be read with an aleph—which sounds very similar to the ayin—the meaning of the word would change from “hear” to “maybe,” changing a firm declaration of belief into an expression of doubt.
Similarly, if the ד (dalet) of the word echad, אחד, would be mistaken for a ר (reish)—as the two look almost identical—then echad (“one”) would be read acher (“other”). This would make our belief in one G‑d look like a belief in two gods.
Another explanation the commentaries cite is these two letters together spell עד (eid), the Hebrew word for “witness.” When we recite the Shema, we attest to His primacy. This reflects the words of Isaiah (43:10), “You are my witnesses . . .”
Sources:
Vayikra Rabbah 19:2; Baal Haturim and Kli Yakar to Deuteronomy 6:4.
In some siddurs I have seen the letters of the acrostic in Psalm 145 (Ashrei) bolded.... Each letter at the beginning of a word runs from aleph to Taf with the Nun missing.
http://www.w.ouradio.org/torah/article/psalms_chapter_145
-
I think you are referring to the printing of the Shema... The first and last letters are bolded because they form the word eid, meaning witness. I don't know if this is kabbalistic in orgin or from the Talmud.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1019954/jewish/WhY-the-LargE-LetterS.htm
In some siddurs I have seen the letters of the acrostic in Psalm 145 (Ashrei) bolded.... Each letter at the beginning of a word runs from aleph to Taf with the Nun missing.
http://www.w.ouradio.org/torah/article/psalms_chapter_145
Well for sure a lot of the songs before shabbat, but when I saw the artscroll tehillat Hashem, a lot of the verses were sourced to Zohar. Also the prayers before retiring at bed I think too. Ask a Rabbi about it. In the counting of the Omer I think too there's a lot of things about the emanations of Hashem that I'm pretty sure no one really gets.
-
Well for sure a lot of the songs before shabbat, but when I saw the artscroll tehillat Hashem, a lot of the verses were sourced to Zohar. Also the prayers before retiring at bed I think too. Ask a Rabbi about it. In the counting of the Omer I think too there's a lot of things about the emanations of Hashem that I'm pretty sure no one really gets.
What are you trying to find exactly?
Do you have an I-Phone? If you do you can now install "Smart Siddur Lite" for Free. (and 3 different Nusach's are available- Sefardi, Sefarad and Askenasi) Their is also the $3 dollar version with some more things but the free one has most of the things you need.
Also can download
Tehillat Hashem, for free. (Its Chabad as you know).
Then I suggest you buy the siddur I recommended with the English translation. It will help you to understand what you are reading and it has the Halachot (Laws) right before each section as well.
- Then when you go buy you should get the one with the translation I told you earlier because it
-
That is humorous... Anyone can 'technically' do either... We usually learn the mesorah our family has kept...
My family doesn't do any. My mother's father is Sephardic, so technically I should do Sephardic, but I'm the only one in the house that keeps anything, and I learned Ashkenazi minhag. I like to switch up the siddur anyways.
-
My family doesn't do any. My mother's father is Sephardic, so technically I should do Sephardic, but I'm the only one in the house that keeps anything, and I learned Ashkenazi minhag. I like to switch up the siddur anyways.
Ok... IMO you should keep the Sephardic minhag... My Sephardic friend does daven with his siddur when in the mostly Ashkenazic minyan and nobody gives him a hard time. Though I have heard it said that one who visits a shul should daven in the minhag of the shul...
-
http://mytorah.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/parsha-eikev/ Awesome!
Shabbat Shalom!!
-
http://mytorah.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/parsha-eikev/ Awesome!
Shabbat Shalom!!
Thanks... I wrote that in 2008 about the time I joined JTF.... I used to do the weekly parsha on my blog... mytorah.wordpress.com is my blog...
-
That is humorous... Anyone can 'technically' do either... We usually learn the mesorah our family has kept...
Perhaps you didn't notice he's baal teshuva...
-
I use Tehillat Hashem (it's Chabad) and there are a lot of Kabalistic things in there. I like it though because it's well organized and you fit everything into one little book. Is there a siddur there with everything in one or am I going to have to have one for shabbat and one for festivals and three others?
A good old fashioned artscroll siddur with nusach ashkenaz will do the trick. Has all festival shemoneh esrehs etc.. for things other than shemone esrei on yom kippur, rosh hashana you will need another siddur but that's probably truee of all of them. They just can't possibly fit that much into one book.
-
Well for sure a lot of the songs before shabbat, but when I saw the artscroll tehillat Hashem, a lot of the verses were sourced to Zohar. Also the prayers before retiring at bed I think too. Ask a Rabbi about it. In the counting of the Omer I think too there's a lot of things about the emanations of Hashem that I'm pretty sure no one really gets.
I usually just ignore this kind of stuff and barely could even begin to understand it if I tried. I find it meaningful to. Have kevana even on simple matters in the prayerbook which we are even doing over and over again.
-
Perhaps you didn't notice he's baal teshuva...
Oh, I know LKZ... We are pretty good friends...
And I did not mean anything derogatory by saying I found it humorous...
-
Here are some meditations and kevanah of the Shema, as taught by Rabbi Avraham Sutton.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJuUoZRBHeg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmk9dOewwyY
-
I recommend the following book from ArtScroll. It was one of the first books I purchased when I bought a bunch of books from Artscroll... It is great for helping your kevanah.
http://artscroll.com/Books/9781422600153.html
(http://artscroll.com/images/covers/p/pwfh.jpg)
Product Description
Ignite the Power of Your Tefillah In Just 5 Minutes A Day!
Tefillah (prayer) is a miraculous power each of us has, yet most of us use only a fraction of its potential. Through the gift of tefillah , Hashem places in our hands the key to the Heavenly storehouse of blessing, and gives us the precise words that can release these treasures into our lives. And what treasures they areà . our health, our ability to find a spouse and build a Jewish home, our success in raising our children, our safety, security, livelihood. Everything.
Praying With Fire is a 5- minute- a day program developed by Rabbi Heshy Kleinman, who has researched, taught and spoken on the topic of tefillah for many years. Now he brings his passion and knowledge to the printed page.
This work is a brilliant combination of in- depth scholarship and pure inspiration, all in an easy- to- use daily learning format. Day by day, step by step, you will find your tefillah becoming stronger, more meaningful and more effective. With soul- stirring introductions by HaRav Mattisyahu Salomon and Rabbi Yisroel Reisman, Praying With Fire is the ultimate guidebook to fine tune attitudes and approaches to daily communicating with Hashem. The book examines several key components of meaningful tefillah, such as:
o Igniting the Power of Prayer
o Achieving Personal Growth through Tefillah
o Gaining a Proper Understanding of Kavanah (focused intention)
o Tapping the Shechinah's Presence
o Thirteen Practical Strategies to Achieve True Kavanah
o Why No Prayer Goes Unanswered
o The Spoken Word: Our Downfall, Our Salvation
Give your prayer experience a vital boost this year with Praying With Fire in just five minutes a day!
-
The Breslov Rabbi Cassuto discusses the Likutey Moran on Shema..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRt6J2AkfF4
-
May all the Torah learned in the videos I posted be a blessing for all of us... Hashem should shine his glory to each of us.
-
Perhaps you didn't notice he's baal teshuva...
The rule is to follow the minhag of your fathers and other Ravs have poskimed that you follow the minhagim of the people you make teshuva with, and Rav Ovadia Yosef poskimed you go with the majority in the area. You can't do anything without permission, but I have Rabbis to count on if I want to go Ashky, Sephardi, or Lubavitch.
-
The rule is to follow the minhag of your fathers and other Ravs have poskimed that you follow the minhagim of the people you make teshuva with, and Rav Ovadia Yosef poskimed you go with the majority in the area. You can't do anything without permission, but I have Rabbis to count on if I want to go Ashky, Sephardi, or Lubavitch.
It's not such a weighty issue in my opinion and the widely disparate views demonstrates that since it's very unclear. I think the ikkar of all these views on this issue is the practicality,not religiosity , and that's how it should be. The whole point of minhag of nusach and things like that which tend to vary from household to household (details, not minhag in the true halachic sense, the word minhag is used liberally) is it's passed as a tradition in one's family. As a BT there was no longer a living tradition in my family so I'm not discarding anything by doing any particular thing. Like you, my family came from many different places, but I also don't think that matters as much as people make it out to matter. I am no longer in any of those places.
-
Also sometimes people mean different things when they say kavanah so just ti clarify what I meant, simply focusing on the words ii am saying and their straight forward meaning, so that I am truly speaking to God and not just reciting something or checking off a list. Sounds very simple but this is a daily challenge and can sometimes not be very easy to achieve. This is an active battle and it must be waged.
-
Minhag in the truest sense is in the LOCATION of a place. If in a certain place, (city, maybe even big neighborhood or even inside a Shul) certain things are expected and said to be like that, if it doesn't contradict Halacha then it can be categorized as a Minhag. For example let's say that in a certain city they decide that they will make a limit on the amount of the price of a wedding (so that people do not overspend their money on these things and instead focus more on having more children and not being bogged down in debt, and/or not embarrassing the people that have less money and cannot afford extravagant weddings) . This would be a Minhag of that particular city. Those who move into this city are expected to follow its Minhagim and Takanot.
-
Also sometimes people mean different things when they say kavanah so just ti clarify what I meant, simply focusing on the words ii am saying and their straight forward meaning, so that I am truly speaking to God and not just reciting something or checking off a list. Sounds very simple but this is a daily challenge and can sometimes not be very easy to achieve. This is an active battle and it must be waged.
That definitely is good and desirable. I would personally suggest though that for starters when reading the Tefillah (Shemono Esri) to first focus on getting to know the main idea of each paragraph. For example Barecheinu- about Parnasa, Refaeinu- about healing, etc. First to focus on the main idea of each paragraph and then to "close in the gaps" and know the words individually, paragraph by paragraph.
-
I may have asked this before, and if I did, sorry...
What do you guys think of the 'interlinear' siddurs which have Hebrew above and English below each word? I have an Artscroll Interlinear siddur and it is helpful in understanding the davening (when first learning)...
(http://artscroll.com/images/siteimages/itehillim_5-6_L.jpg)
http://artscroll.com/Books/9781578196975.html
-
Minhag in the truest sense is in the LOCATION of a place. If in a certain place, (city, maybe even big neighborhood or even inside a Shul) certain things are expected and said to be like that, if it doesn't contradict Halacha then it can be categorized as a Minhag. For example let's say that in a certain city they decide that they will make a limit on the amount of the price of a wedding (so that people do not overspend their money on these things and instead focus more on having more children and not being bogged down in debt, and/or not embarrassing the people that have less money and cannot afford extravagant weddings) . This would be a Minhag of that particular city. Those who move into this city are expected to follow its Minhagim and Takanot.
Yeah this is the definition of minhag in halacha, but other things people do customarily (for example, different practices regarding mayim acharonim, or different order of prayer, or small detailed things which all fit within the parameters of halacha but there could be a hundred ways of doing it) people also refer to as minhagim.
-
I may have asked this before, and if I did, sorry...
What do you guys think of the 'interlinear' siddurs which have Hebrew above and English below each word? I have an Artscroll Interlinear siddur and it is helpful in understanding the davening (when first learning)...
(http://artscroll.com/images/siteimages/itehillim_5-6_L.jpg)
http://artscroll.com/Books/9781578196975.html
I love the interlinear and I think it really helps not only for learning Hebrew but also maintaining focus on what you are saying. I find myself sometimes having memorized the Hebrew, saying it because I'm so accustomed to it now I can recite the Hebrew by heart but not really fully grasping it since it's a second language. Whereas with interlinear, I can pray in Hebrew but still my eyes can glance at the English at the same time and I have more kavanah that way, more consistently knowing what the Hebrew means as I'm saying it.
-
I may have asked this before, and if I did, sorry...
What do you guys think of the 'interlinear' siddurs which have Hebrew above and English below each word? I have an Artscroll Interlinear siddur and it is helpful in understanding the davening (when first learning)...
http://artscroll.com/Books/9781578196975.html
If you can read Hebrew, it helps a lot, but reading it in English, the sentences after the arrow don't really make sense, it's like Yoda wrote it.
-
Yeah this is the definition of minhag in halacha, but other things people do customarily (for example, different practices regarding mayim acharonim, or different order of prayer, or small detailed things which all fit within the parameters of halacha but there could be a hundred ways of doing it) people also refer to as minhagim.
I know people commonly refer to it as "minhag", but the example you brought is more likely an interpretation of Halacha. Their are those who say that one must do it fully like in the olden days (Rav Bar-Hayim for example) and one takes a cup and washes just like for Al Letilat Yadayim. Their are those who say it isn't needed at all these days mainly because of the danger of the salts not being a danger any longer (I believe Rav Moshe Feinstein) and their are those who in theory agree with the latter but only wash a little as a minhag and a remembrance.
-
Out of curiosity, are you going to skip Lecha Dodi, since that is Kabalistic in origin?
-
The writer of the Lecha Dodi song was a Kabbalist, but the tradition of greeting the Sabbath bride is a concept from the Talmud.
http://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/475695/jewish/Lecha-Dodi.htm
This mystical hymn to the Shabbat was composed by the kabbalist Rabbi Alkabetz (c. 5260-5340) who was the teacher as well as the brother-in-law of the famed kabbalist Rabbi Moshe Cordovero. Rabbi Alkabetz was one of the members of the esteemed Safed circle of scholars and mystics, which included Rabbi Yosef Caro, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero and Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the holy Ari. The author signed his name - Shlomo HaLevi - in the acrostic formed by the first letter of the first eight stanzas of the hymn.
One of the themes of the hymn - preparing oneself to greet the Shabbat - is based on the Talmud’s account of how the Sages would welcome the Holy Day (Shabbat 119a): Rabbi Chanina would wrap himself in his cloak and say, “Come, let us go and greet the Shabbat Queen.” Rabbi Yannai would don his robe and say, “Enter O bride! Enter, O bride! ”
The holy Ari included this hymn in his edition of the siddur, and thus it eventually became an integral part of the Shabbat liturgy of Jewish communities everywhere.
Click below for our new, original, rhyming translation
-
Out of curiosity, are you going to skip Lecha Dodi, since that is Kabalistic in origin?
Yeah well I like that one and we do it all together. It's a discovery now that it's not kaballistic, though the discussion I never finished on what exactly the shabbat queen or bride is supposed to be was ultimately kaballah-heavy, and as usual I came to a thousand epiphanies before getting past a sentence in the explanation, and if I was studying full time I'd maybe come to understand it, but I don't have access to study partners anywhere near enough to really learn kabalistic concepts in depth.
-
Oh and to even mention the war I started with my family situation, I'd have to know where to start.