During the Days of Awe, the blasts of the shofar are meant to awaken our slumbering soul. As Maimonides writes: In the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashana, there is an allusion, as though saying: Awake you sleepers from your sleep, and slumberers arise from your slumbering…All who forget the truth in the follies […]

Kadesh, urchatz, karpas…tzafun, barech, Hallel, nirtzah. Kiddush, washing, karpas…afikomen, grace after meals, Hallel… Many of us have been singing the steps of the seder for as long as we can remember – which is great if we want to remember what to do, but not so great if we want to think about why we […]

Dear JITC- Why do Orthodox Jews rock when they pray? Thanks, Shawn Dear Shawn- Yes, Orthodox Jews rock. We rock so hard. The swaying to which you refer is called shuckeling, from the Yiddish word shuckelen meaning to shake. While a widespread – though not universal – practice (it’s not the practice of Sefardim, for example), its […]