Modeh Ani – The Jewish prayer of thanks first thing in the morning

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In last week’s Torah portion of Pekudei, towards the end, we read how Moshe basically finishes building the Mishkan. He stops all donations, no more money is necessary, all the vessels have been constructed, everything’s ready to roll, and they put up the Mishkan. Moshe supervises that, and then it says that the cloud of [...] The post Parshat Pekudei – Investing in Our Future appeared first on Jewish Wisdom.

In Parshat Toldot, we learn that Yitzchak became blind in his old age. Rashi cites three explanations from the Midrash and Talmud as to why this happened. One explanation is that Esav’s wives burned incense to idols, and the smoke from that idolatry caused Yitzchak’s blindness. This great tzaddik could not tolerate such tumah—such impurity. [...] The post Parshat Toldot – The Tears of Angels appeared first on Jewish Wisdom.

In Parsha Tetzaveh, the Torah commands us to create clothing, special clothing, for Aaron and his sons, for the Kohanim. And the Torah says the reason for that clothing is l’kavod, for honor, or litifaret, and for beauty. Now, there’s no other mitzvah in the Torah that requires wearing special garments other than the garments of the Kohanim, [...] The post Parshat Tezaveh – The Priestly Garments appeared first on Jewish Wisdom.

The first prayer in the Jewish siddur is recited when we wake up in the morning, while we’re still in bed. Here is my translation of the prayer, from the original Hebrew: Thank you, oh living and eternal God, for mercifully returning my soul to me, great is your faithfulness. Let’s break down the prayer [...] The post Modeh Ani – The Jewish prayer of thanks first thing in the morning appeared first on Jewish Wisdom.

In this podcast episode Rabbi Singer discusses the weekly torah portion (parsha) of Vayakhel and explains a couple of major topics discussed in it. You can apply the important lesson you’ll learn from this teaching to your daily life.   The post Weekly Parsha: Vayakhel [Podcast] appeared first on Jewish Wisdom.