Weekly Tefilah Focus

Seriously Anticipating Mashiach’s Arrival

We are within The Nine Days, just prior to Tish’ah B’Av.  May we see the salvation before this Tish’ah B’Av.

This week, we present Shemoneh Esrei 45 and 46 on the brachah of “R’tzei” followed by a segment on Tish’ah B’Av.

Shabchi Yerushalayim es Hashem, halleli Elokayich tziyon. Ki chizak b’richei sh’arayich, beirach banayich b’kirbeich.

Praise Hashem, O Jerusalem; laud your G-d, O Zion. For He has strengthened the bars of your gates, and blessed your children in your midst.

We are within the Three Weeks, where we turn our focus to mourning the loss of the Beis HaMikdash. The deeper aspects of what we mourn are the following:

Periodically, we will include segments designed to assist us as we seek to raise our tefilos to higher levels of heart, mind, and connection. In this segment, we will offer one suggestion that can make a huge difference in our entire tefilah and in our lives: PREPARATION!

This week, we are presenting the flow of each pasuk as it fits into the overall theme of this mizmor. We will, b’ezras Hashem, continue next week to complete the p’sukim we have presented up to now, and then conclude the mizmor, b’ezras Hashem.

Lo vigvuras ha’sus yechpatz, lo v’shokei ha’ish yirtzeh. Rotzeh Hashem es y’rei’av, es ha’m’yachalim l’chasdo.

Not in the strength of the horse does He desire, and not in the legs of man does He favor. Hashem favors those who fear Him, those who hope for His kindness.