Shmoneh Esrei: Recent Episodes
Rabbi David Fohrman, Ami Silver
The Shmoneh Esrei is the centerpiece of our daily prayers. A person who davens regularly will say these prayers tens of thousands of times in their lifetime (if not more!). But do we really know what these words mean? There are a lot of things we say in the Shmoneh Esrei that really aren't so obvious what they're doing here. Why are these the things the we pray for on a daily basis? Why did the Rabbis decide to lay out the brachot in the way they did, and in this particular order? Join Rabbi Fohrman and writer Ami Silver as they unpack the text of the Shmoneh Esrei and attempt to uncover what this prayer is all about. In this session, they begin with a general introduction to the Shmoneh Esrei and delve into the first of the bakashot (requests), the bracha of chonen ha-da'at. I think you'll see that there is much more here than meets the eye.
In this segment, Rabbi Fohrman and Ami continue to develop their theory about the middle section of the Shmoneh Esrei through the next blessing of Redemption. The phrases and words of this bracha have very strong resonances to another Biblical story. What is that story? Why is it showing up here? And what might it mean for us to pray using these particular words as a frame of reference?
In this session, Ami and Rabbi Fohrman continue to develop their theory about the intermediate blessings, and search for the hidden story beneath the next two blessings. If the first request, "Ata Chonen", is in fact referring to the Tree of Knowledge story, is it possible that the next blessings pick up where that one left off? If so, what might it mean for us to approach prayer through these stories? Come see for yourself.
In this session, Ami and Rabbi Fohrman continue exploring the bracha of Chonen HaDa'at ("Who Grants Knowledge"), and grapple with some of the big questions they raised in the previous segment: Did God plan on granting knowledge to Adam and Eve all along? If so, why weren't they allowed to just eat from the Tree of Knowledge to begin with? How do we understand the early stories of Adam and Eve's descendants through this lens? How do the words of this bracha inform our understanding of those stories, and vice-verse? You don't want to miss this.