Unlike the weekday Amidah, which contains nineteen blessings, the Amidah for Shabbat contains only seven. Why seven? The Talmud (Berachot 29a) explains that these seven blessings correspond to the ...

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After completing the weekly haftarah, the reader chants four berachot, the last of which begins with the words, “al HaTorah, v’al haAvoda v’al ha’Nevi’im v’al Yom HaShabbat ha’zeh.... [the Torah, the ...

Raising twins is one of the biggest challenges of my life. As my kids grow (they are now 8 1/2), I have watched them develop different character traits and—being a boy and a girl—different ...