Teaching Tefillah

Teaching Tefillah

First Grade

Learning about Hashem’s Wonders

Adon Olam Asher Yatzar

Second Grade

God longs for the prayer of the righteous. (Yevamos 64a) )

Birkas Hashachar

Third GradeMankind, East and West, Christian and Muslim, accepted the Jewish conviction that there is only one G-d.  Today it is polytheism that is so difficult to understand, that

is so unthinkable.T.R. Grover, The Ancient World

Shema

Fourth Grade“If we were forced to choose just one, there would be no way to deny that

Judaism is the most important intellectual development in human history.”

David Gelernter, Yale University Professor

Baruch She’amar

Fifth Grade

A life of seclusion, devoted only to meditation and prayer, is not Judaism.

Samson Raphael Hirsch, Nineteen Letters

Oz YashirYishtabach

Sixth Grade

Birkas Krias Shema

Seventh GradePrayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin

the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism and falsehood. The liturgical movement must become a revolutionary movement, seeking to

overthrow the forces that continue to destroy the promise, the hope, the vision. Abraham Joshua Heschel, On Prayer

Aleinu

Eighth GradeWords are the shell, meditation the kernel. Words are the body of

the prayer, and meditation its spirit.Hovos HaLevavos

Shemonei Esreh

Ninth Grade

There is a famous story in which the Kaiser asks Bismarck, “Can you prove the existence of God?”

Bismarck replies, “The Jews, your majesty. The Jews.”

Shabbos Teffilos

Tenth Grade

A poor man's prayer breaks through all barriers and storms its way

into the presence of the Almighty. Zohar Bereshis

Davening for others

Eleventh & Twelfth Grade

Small minds discuss people.  Average minds discuss events.  Great minds discuss ideas.

Unknown

Deeper Meforshim