FFOZ Blogs

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 The Siddur Project

Thoughts, updates and information about the FFOZ Siddur Project.

 

Siddur: Unity and Continuity

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (13)
Posted on December 20, 2007

Shalom! Many people have expressed their excitement about the FFOZ Siddur project and have asked for an status update. Here is what's going on: One of the initial steps was to select our texts. In addition to texts selected from...
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Become Familiar With...the Siddur

By Seth Dralle  | Comments (1)
Posted on October 31, 2007

As in my last blog on the Mishnah (click here), I am continuing to showcase some of the brand new entries that have been added to our Online Torah Club Dictionary. Thanks to the diligent work of Aaron Eby, the...
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Content of the Grace After Meals

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (5)
Posted on August 28, 2007

The traditional Jewish prayer of thanks after eating covers much more than food. Learn why! Also, see the end of this post for a new resource coming soon from FFOZ: a foretaste of the FFOZ Siddur! After one eats bread,...
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4th Century Christians Prayed Amidah

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (6)
Posted on July 20, 2007

A Christian fourth century collection of documents known as the Apostolic Constitutions (Didascalia Apostolorum) contains a treatise on prayer with remarkable similarity to the Amidah, the central prayer of Judaism. This is not new news, as scholars have known this...
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Yeshua and the Grace After Meals

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (3)
Posted on July 4, 2007

In Christian tradition, at least in America, it is common to give thanks before eating. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that. Even our Master can be found consistently giving thanks before eating, which may have given rise to this Christian...
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First Century Grace After Meals Rediscovered

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (9)
Posted on June 26, 2007

I was putting together the Grace After Meals for the Siddur project and a thought occurred to me: I might as well include the original Grace After Meals from the First Century Apostolic Messianic Jewish Community. Seems like a no-brainer...
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"Ashrei" revisited

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (5)
Posted on June 22, 2007

Remember a while back when I posted on the topic of the difficulty of translating Hebrew to English, and used the term "Ashrei" as a case in point? If you didn't read that one, you can see it here. I...
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Intro to the Shema (Part III)

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (1)
Posted on June 21, 2007

The Shema begins with an acknowledgment of God's oneness, followed by a commandment to love Him. I have showed how those two concepts are related and that acknowledgment of God's oneness leads us to love Him. Our text continues by...
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Intro to the Shema (Part II)

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (4)
Posted on June 3, 2007

This is the second in a series of posts about the Shema. See this post to read the first part. This series is actually a part of a larger study of the traditional Jewish prayers. When describing the other main...
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Intro to the Shema (Part I)

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (1)
Posted on May 18, 2007

One of the most well-known elements of Jewish prayer is the Shema. The Shema is a core part of the prayer services every day, in the morning and in the evening. The Shema means much more to Judaism than simply...
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Verses of Pruning

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (3)
Posted on April 13, 2007

In the last few posts on prayer I have been stepping methodically through the morning service. I hope these posts have been helping you gain a perspective on the Jewish system of prayer and on prayer in general. First I...
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The Preliminary Service

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (4)
Posted on April 2, 2007

In these blog posts on prayer I have been describing the structure of the daily prayer service. I started with a simple overview in my post Navigating the Siddur. I narrowed in a little in another post when I provided...
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Shacharit: Entering Through The Veil

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (5)
Posted on March 21, 2007

In my post entitled Navigating the Siddur I gave a very brief outline of the contents of the daily prayers. Now I would like to narrow in just slightly and examine the morning prayers in more detail. The reason I...
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A Prayer Upon Arising

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (2)
Posted on March 1, 2007

When should one begin the morning prayers? According to Jewish tradition, we begin our prayers sometime after we gain consciousness in the morning, but before we open our eyes. A day in Jewish life begins with a blessing of the...
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Navigating the Siddur

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (10)
Posted on February 23, 2007

For people who are not acquainted with the traditional Jewish prayer book, navigating the siddur can be an intimidating task. The key to understanding how to find your way in the siddur is familiarizing yourself with the structure of Jewish...
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Our Father as a Jewish Prayer

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (3)
Posted on February 15, 2007

Plenty of thought, study and interpretation have gone into the passage from the Gospels known as the "Lord's Prayer." Lots of different conclusions have been drawn as to its meaning and message. For those of us who are devoted to...
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Benefits of the Synagogue Liturgy

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (8)
Posted on February 9, 2007

In a previous post, I responded to many of the common objections to liturgy. In this post, I would like to focus on some of the benefits of using the synagogue liturgy in worship. Once again, let me state that...
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Answering Objections to Liturgical Prayer

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (5)
Posted on February 2, 2007

In this post, I will tackle some of the common objections that people have against using liturgical prayers. To many people from an evangelical or charismatic background, “liturgy” is a bad word. It is considered synonymous with deadness, dryness and...
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The Power of Unity in Prayer

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (5)
Posted on January 25, 2007

In every area of life, when people join together to accomplish the same goal, their united efforts tend to be much more successful. The same is true of prayer. People sometimes see prayer at set times or prayer from a...
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Worship on His Terms

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (5)
Posted on January 23, 2007

In an earlier post I explained the multifaceted nature of our relationship with God, and how this must manifest itself in a person’s prayer life. I noted that it comes natural to us to approach God as Father, as many...
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אשרי is the man who can read Hebrew

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (23)
Posted on January 16, 2007

The various translation projects I have undertaken have caused me to realize something important: Hebrew and English are two very, very different languages. It is easy to take our English Bibles for granted – but have you noticed how many...
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Our Relationships With God

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (8)
Posted on January 9, 2007

Avinu Malkenu One of the most moving traditional Jewish prayers of all is Avinu Malkenu, which is composed of a list of dozens of petitions that begin with "our Father, our King." This prayer is offered primarily during the time...
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The Amazing Simplicity of Prayer

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (5)
Posted on January 2, 2007

What an amazing thing prayer is! Our Creator has marvelously woven into the fabric of His universe a way for us to communicate with Him. All we must do is open our mouths and utter a whisper, and our petition...
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Responsibilities & Duties to Pray

By Boaz Michael  | Comments (0)
Posted on July 9, 2006

I write this entry with thanks to God for His blessings over all the times we presented the seminar, “Knocking on Heaven’s Gates” this summer. Our sessions went well, and the message was very warmly received throughout the US. This...
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By Your Light We See the Light

By Boaz Michael  | Comments (0)
Posted on January 2, 2006

We are privileged to both know and have the ability to study the Torah. Do we understand this to be a privilege? If so, then this perspective should transform our approach to the study of the Torah and how we...
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