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… is where you go.
That's not Scientology Tech by the way. but then, you probably knew that already. Instead that's one of the most basic understandings I have about life. But it kinda-sorta sounds like something L. Ron Hubbard might say. I can hear him now…
"Well, I was up in the Van Allen belt the other day… you know… ahhh… just having a look around… you know… ahhh…. and it occurred to me – why doesn't a thetan see the implant stations, radiation screens and GPM's that continue to make thetans act stupid and…. ahh… seemingly beyond repair? Ha. Ha. Then… ahem…. as I was observing Mercury rise from behind the sun… which, one ought to understand…. is really no more than a hidden base for the 5th Invader Force… hah, hah, not the sun… you know…. I'm talking about Mercury here! So… as I was saying… I was taking a bit of a thetan-stroll through the nearby planets… ha! Using the Van Allen Belt as my stable point – one wouldn't want to misplace one's body while traipsing through the solar system… now would one? Ha! So, why doesn't a thetan have the sense to see what is right there to see? The answer, you see, is too obvious. It's because he isn't….ahhh… looking at it. It's screened… just like the layers, upon layers of Reactive Mind… ah… goop that screens the thetan from his own endless past… the most simple of things are… screened. Just not there!!! Because… you see…. because thetans no longer have the presence… the attention, the wholeness… to just look!
"And that… that… that is a crying shame. And one easily fixed by just getting the preclear on the cans and going for the rock-slamm—-"
Yeah. Right. You get the point I hope. It's pretty damned easy to take parts of life experience and jazz them up, throw in some murky-sounding, but impressive, words and come up with a stament that is so close to what the person already knows that they just feel… great about it!
Hubbard spent a fair amount of time talking and writing about attention. Pick any level of Scientology, any grade or training course, any "basic" like one of the triangles or scales he rolls out and you'll see that what he is actually creating is an entire subject, pretty much out of whole cloth, that boils down to the little "axiom" I use in my life.
And I figure that you use it all the time as well. You just may have never vocalized it or given it enough direct thought to parse it into a sentence. Or maybe you have. Hell, I don't even know you! But I'll bet you that the idea of going where you are looking isn't exactly a revelation to you. But suppose I wanted to sell you the idea that I knew something you didn't… that I, through painstaking research at great personal expense and sacrifice… had unearthed heretofore unearthed truths, around which all of life's great mysteries could be unraveled. If I wanted you to buy that "thing" from me then I sure as hell would need to dress it up, add some earrings to it, slap on some lipstick and make it appear as if you were going to transform from your pitiful state of aimless, desperate stuttering through life, headed inexorably to a horrible and tragic end and onto a Bridge that would lift you up and away from the very pits of hell!
Anyone who is already certain they don't know how to feel better is part of my target market at that point. And there are a ton of folks who don't actually know how the process of feeling good works. Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard are certainly not the first, the worst or the last who work this angle. It's as old as human experience.
Like this one crazy woman I was married to during part of the 1990's. She was an angel-crystal-mantra-fluffy-marijuana-new-ager. I didn't actually know that when I married her. Mainly because I was looking at something else she possessed… but that's not uncommon for a man who hits his 40's and starts casting around for a little excitement in life. Anyway, when the relationship went sour (which is something I can always count on) she was convinced the answers to "us" were to be found in the world of mysticism, crystals, places-of-power and getting in touch with her angels. I say "her angels" because she never actually accused me of having any angels. So, probably out of desperation on my part, I agreed to meet her in Sedona Arizona to talk about us. She wanted to visit some Places of Power with me and also get a reading.
Okay. That's one of the places we went, there on the left. It's a known place of power. But to me then, and still to this day, this place will always be firmly etched in my memory as a large red rock in Arizona.
We also got that "reading". In Sedona there are tons of people who sell special stuff that you can't get anywhere else. Ahem. The guy who did the reading was pretty good though. He observed us intently, asked just enough seemingly innocuous questions to line all his ducks up, and then laid out a pretty good story. My estranged wife was impressed. I didn't smirk. Which is saying a lot for my self control. See? Those TR's in Scientology do have their uses.
Essentially, all the fortune teller did was what any fortune teller or good salesperson does. He asked questions, figured out who the decision-maker was, provided a product that met the needs and wants… while subliminally suggesting the product possessed the features needed… and then said thank you.
I find it difficult to understand why anyone can be fooled by this scam. Scientology, on the other hand, is a little deeper than a card reader sitting on a patio in the desert evening. It's elaborate. It has millions of spoken and written words that make it up. It's had charts and graphs and volumes and tools and buildings and so much more appeal than gypsies have. And, if you listen to about a million people who are either currently involved or who have been involved… it works.
I call bullshit. At the same time I say yes, it does work. It depends, like pretty much all human interaction, on the circumstances, the people involved and what people are giving up to attain what they imagine they are going to attain. And, I suppose this might be important, whether there is actually anything being attained.
So, back to my axiom – where you look is where you go.
Wanna know when I learned that little problem-solver? You do? Okay. I learned it when I was about 7 years old and learning to ride a bicycle. You know when you're a kid and you have a bike and you're not real good riding it… that you can crash pretty easily? I did that a lot. But crashes I could handle… my real problem was the sidewalks I rode on. Back then, in the 50's, they didn't have weed-whackers to edge the lawns. Men went out and bought these edger machines, the kind with a cutting wheel attached to a gear-driven shaft that was powered by a small engine. And they edged their lawns, turning the edge along the sidewalk into little trenches that were between a half inch and an inch wide.
Perfect size to snag a bicycle tire and pitch a 7 year old head first over the handlebars.
I know they still make these malevolent machines, but I suspect only Suppressive Persons actually use them. The type of men who enjoy sipping on a beer and watching little kids get brain damage from high-siding their bikes.
So anyway, what I was doing was focusing on the thing I feared. I knew it was going to hurt, knew that if I drove my front tire into the trench it would pitch me off. But none of that mattered. In order to avoid the little trench I had to know where they were at! Right??!! Which means I had to look at them in order to avoid them!!! Right!!!??
Finally someone took pity on me and taught me that when you're driving something you tend to steer that something in the direction you are looking. It may seem pretty basic – and it is – but realize, I was 7 years old. And not a particularly bright 7 years old… more like a Texas 7 years old. if you know what I mean.
The reason I bring all this up is to try and relate to those who believe that Scientology Tech is actually some sort of special knowledge that it really isn't.
For the most part it's just a rephrasing of stuff we all pretty much know, or at least understand, but don't think about when we're crying, scared, depressed, mortified or otherwise fucked up. It makes sense not because Hubbard was some sort of insightful immortal thetan from the stars… but because we pretty much already know this stuff, we just don't always use it. Which is also understandable because things can get frantic and confusing from time to time. Mistakes get made, common sense and principle get set aside and before you know it – you're a mess. Or at least you believe you're a mess because you feel like a mess. And then along comes this pert young thing handing out fliers for a free personality test and then when you're getting the results the person (salesperson) says something that seems so right, so on target, so close to what you are thinking… or would be thinking if you're weren't being sold something… and there is this *CLICK* in your head and you go, "Woah! That sounds awesome!"
And you know the rest.
I'm not exactly attacking the "tech" of Scientology here. All I'm saying is this – 1) it's not actually "tech" in the sense that most people understand "tech" and 2) there are no actual revelations in it. Strip the "tech" of all the nomenclature and crazy acronyms, take all the Scio-Speak out and rephrase it in words that normal people understand and you end up with something along the lines of most popular self-help books of the last 30 or 40 years. Even the auditing session, the engrams, the whole "process" of guided self-introspection isn't novel, unique or even particularly innovative.
Okay, before I go… last thing – Scientology Tech claims to offer up truths and insights unattainable in other religions or practices. The method used to lay in the belief that these "datums" are special is to dress them up in special language and to insist on special techniques to bring about an understanding (cognition) about the true meaning of these precepts. But when you strip out the Scio-speak you end up exactly where I was the day I learned to look at where I wanted to go rather than where I didn't want to go. here's an example – actually, two examples:
What's true for you is true for you.
Reality is the agreed upon apparancy of existence.
Both these statements are observably false. Reality is NOT something we agree upon. It's what actually is. Here's the definition, which is in direct contradiction to Hubbard's useful tool of a definition:
Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or may be thought to be. In its widest definition, reality includes everything that is and has being, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible.
So what the hell was Hubbard talking about that Scientologists seem to be so agreeable about? That definition above is a direct contradiction to what Hubbard says. That's because he wasn't talking about reality, instead he was talking about something entirely different, something totally subjective. Here's what is an apparency:
On a much broader and more subjective level, private experiences, curiosity, inquiry, and the selectivity involved in personal interpretation of events shapes reality as seen by one and only one individual and hence is called phenomenological.
Oh, I see what he did there. He has people believing that subjective reality is actual reality so long as they believe it to be true and… this is important… others agree that it's real. Damn! If you could package that up and sell it… shite! There'd be no end to the money you could make. Now, if you throw in the whole "true for you" bit you end up with someone who not only believes some very odd things… but they believe that if you don't agree with them it's because you aren't yet enlightened. Or worse, that you're living in one reality and they in another. Or that you're actually the one who doesn't understand words because you haven't done a clay demo or read the definition while holding the cans until your needle floated.
Crap. There I go again… using Scientology to try and explain Scientology.
Bottom line is this – the reason people stay in Scientology is that they are not looking to go anywhere else. It's that simple. Where you look is where you go. Now, if someone could just convince Scientologists to not look at anything except what they are told to look at… well… then you'd have a captive audience and a steady cash flow.


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It occurred to me last week that inference control (the control of which logical inference steps to take, in trying to resolve some question using reasoning based on knowledge) has a lot in common with the decisions a person makes about how to live their life --- both over the course of their whole lifetime, and in various specific contexts.
Further, I think this analogy may be important in terms of guiding the interaction between semantic (declarative) and episodic memory. That is -- I think that, in many cases, real-life or imagined episodes stored in episodic memory may serve as high-level structural templates for inference control...
At a very crude level, the analogy I see is: both an inference process aimed at resolving a question, and a series of life-decisions aimed at navigating a certain everyday situation, are concerned with achieving certain goals in a limited time-frame, using limited resources, and via a series of choices, where each choice made guides the set of choices that are next available.
At a more precise level, what I also see is that: both in inference control and in real-life everyday episodic human decision-making, the "fitness landscape" is such that it is a reasonably useful strategy to iteratively focus attention on local regions of decision-space, each of which can
- be explored within reasonable accuracy in, say, 1-3 orders of magnitude less time than is available for the overall process
- be explored more thoroughly, yielding generally better results, in the same order of magnitude of time as is available for the overall process
So, in the inference context, one can break one's inference goal into subgoals in multiple ways, where crudely exploring each way of breaking the goal into subgoals may take 1/10 or 1/500 the amount of time one has available for the inference. Thoroughly exploring any one way of breaking the goal into subgoals may then take longer -- indeed it may take as much time as one has.
In the episodic context, for instance, if one is unsure what career to choose or who to marry, one can crudely explore a certain job or a certain potential mate in 1/5 or 1/500 the total amount of time one has to choose a career or mate. On the other hand, thoroughly exploring and optimizing the possibilities offered by a given job or a given mate, if the choice is not a terrible one, may take as much time as one has.
So in both cases one carrying out a sequence of actions over time, in a context where the available actions depend on the actions one has taken previously -- and in both cases one heuristically has time to crudely explore maybe dozens, hundreds or thousands of local regions of action-space, before one's time runs out ... but one has time to thoroughly explore only a small handful of local regions of action-space, before one's time runs out...
In this sort of context, it seems, a reasonable approach will often be to:
- Start out by trying a bunch of different stuff, gaining information about "where in the space of possibilities a good answer may lie"
- Then, when one's time starts to run out, one should pick some of the best options one has found (maybe just one of them) and explore it more deeply.
In part this is just straightforward "exploration versus exploitation" stuff.
For instance, in the everyday life context: When young, one should try out many different jobs and date many different people, and try to understand what one can about the landscape. But then once one gets middle-aged, the time has often come to pick a single mate or a single career area and focus on that. The logic behind this is: In the years one has on Earth, one probably only has time to thoroughly explore and become great at a small number of careers, and to develop deep love relationships (or build families with) a small number of partners. However, some careers and some mates will suit one better. So given the nature of the fitness landscape, the best strategy is to look around a bit till one finds something that seems about as good as one is going to find before one gets too close to the end, and then at a certain point pick something "good enough" and go with it. A review of this sort of process in the mate-selection context is given in this article.
In inference one has the same basic issue. Suppose one wants to figure out X so that X is a person and X lives in China and X knows both p-adic analysis and particle physics. But suppose one doesn't have much time to carry out the search. One option is to look at online publications in those areas, and check out which papers have authors based in China. Another option is to look at Chinese university websites and the listing of professors and their publications. Obviously it's a wrong idea to choose only one approach and pursue it solely, unless one is very, very short on time. Instead it makes more sense to attempt each approach a bit and see which one is more promising. This is just "exploration versus exploitation."
But the nature of inference, and the nature of life-decisions, is that one has a series of exploration-versus-exploitation type choices, where the choices that one is presented with depend on the choices one has made previously .. and where exploring each choice often take an amount of time that is meaningful but not humongous relative to one's total available time.
The same sort of structure applies to social decision-making in contexts briefer and less consequential than choosing who to marry: for instance, figuring out how to entertain a specific person on a date, or figuring out how to get ahead in a specific company. In each of these cases there is a limited amount of time, a series of sequential decisions to make, and a situation where one can explore a bunch of options roughly but very few options thoroughly.
An interesting question, then, is how much the analogy between inference-control decisions and everyday-life decisions helps a human-like mind in its thinking. Are we actually helped by being able to consider our inferences as being like stories?
A typical story has a beginning, middle and end -- where the beginning is about setting out context and making clear what possibilities exist, the middle is about exploring some particular possibility in depth (typically with great uncertainty about whether this possibility will yield a good result or not), and the end is about what happens from exploring this particular possibility (which ideally should have some surprising aspect, whether the exploration is successful or not). A typical inference process will have the same sort of beginning, middle and end ... though it may be a bit more like a big fat epic Russian novel, with multiple possibilities, involving different characters, explored in depth during the middle section.
What does seem likely is that the brain re-uses the same mechanisms it uses for managing stories in episodic memory, for managing memories and patterns of inference control. Evolutionarily, it is not clear to me whether sophisticated episodic memory came before sophisticated inference or not. Perhaps the two co-evolved.
Using similar mechanisms for controlling inference and guiding episodic memory and everyday-life decision-making, should ease "cognitive synergy" between declarative reasoning and episodic recollection. When declarative reasoning gets stuck, it can be helped out via recollection or simulation of episodes; and vice versa.
For instance, suppose a robot needs to figure out how to amuse a certain person. Episodic memory might give it examples of things that have amused that person, or associated people, in prior situations. Declarative reasoning might note that the person has a Pearl Jam T-shirt on, and might then tell the system to look for funny statements involving rock music. The same goal can be explored both via episodic mind's-eye simulations, and via logical reasoning based on general background knowledge. And the overlap can recurse. For instance, if logic tells the system to look for funny statements involving rock music, episodic memory search might come up with specific past situations in which funny statements involving rock music have been uttered. If episodic memory digs up certain people closely associated with the person in question, logic might come up with some clever conclusions regarding what would have amused these associates. Etc.
This sort of cross-memory-mode helping-out would seem to be eased by using the same sort of representation for both processes.
This is interesting to me in terms of our next phase of OpenCog work, because we need to figure out both the best way to represent real-life episodes from a robot's everyday life in the system's memory, and the best way to represent abstractions from probabilistic-logic inference chains. What this rambling, musing discussion makes clear is that we want to use essentially the same representation for both cases. This way the commonality of the decision-processes involved in the two cases can be manifested in the software, and the ease of achieving episodic-declarative cognitive synergy will be maximized.

subset: commoncrawl


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We talked to hundreds of parents about what it's like trying to raise a healthy toddler. Parents shared their burning questions, biggest challenges, and best strategies.
We've taken the top questions from parents about food and feeding and answered them here. We've also included practical tips from other parents like you.
Keep reading to get more information on these questions:
"I give my child a choice between two healthy options: 'Do you want a banana or an orange?' I know she will make it easier on me if there's a choice rather than me saying please eat your banana."
Toddlers are learning what they do and don't like — and it can take them awhile to get used to new foods. A little patience and creativity can help you both get through this challenging stage.
When toddlers get to help out, they are more likely to try new foods. And it's a fun way to spend time together!
"At snack-time, I help my toddler roll up low-fat lunchmeats — sometimes with cheese, depending on what's in the fridge. He loves it because it's hands-on, and I love it because it's such an easy way to give him protein."
"I know my child needs snacks, but I need ideas for fast and easy healthy options."
Toddlers get hungry between meals. And snack time is a great chance to feed your toddler healthy foods (like fruits and veggies). But don't worry — healthy snacks don't have to be complicated.
With a little planning, healthy food can be just as quick and easy to prepare as less healthy options — and you don't have to be a whiz in the kitchen.
"I buy the single serving containers of 'no sugar added' applesauce. My son loves it, and it's quick and easy to throw it into his lunch for daycare."
Try these quick, healthy snacks:
Check out these other resources for more easy ways to eat healthy:
And remember: Snack-time isn't "treat time!" Try not to get in the habit of giving your toddler sweet, sugary foods for snacks.
"I just had to keep offering it."
Did you know that a child might need to try a new food 10 to 15 times over several months before he'll eat it?
Yes, 10 to 15 times sounds like a lot, but you only need to offer her a spoonful each time — not a whole bowl. Give her the new food once a week along with foods she regularly eats. You may also want to try giving her new foods when you know she's hungry — before offering her favorites.
"I couldn't get him to eat the broccoli. I couldn't get him to eat the beans or corn. He'd pick them up and chuck 'em across the room! So I ground up the broccoli, beans, and corn and mixed them with chili. Then I put everything in a burrito, and now he eats it all and asks for more!"
"I'll say, well you know, rabbits love carrots and we all do a little game around it. We pretend to be rabbits while we eat every last carrot."
"My daughter hates it when her foods touch each other. So we bought plates with dividers to keep everything separate."
Remember that you are still in charge. Your child is going through a stage that will pass. In the meantime, don't force kids to eat and try to stay calm.
Check out these other resources:
Milk and water are the healthiest choices for toddlers. Even 100% fruit juice can harm your child's teeth and add unneeded calories to his diet. Give your child plain milk and water to help your toddler stay at a healthy weight for life! Learn more about healthy drink habits.
"I never knew that 100% juice was unhealthy."
Soda pop and fruit juice — even 100% fruit juice — can:
Soda pop and fruit juice — even 100% fruit juice — can also harm your childs teeth.
Remember: Eating fruit is always better than drinking it! If you do choose to give your child juice, limit it to 1 small glass (4 to 6 ounces) per day. Make sure the label says "100% fruit juice."
"I love orange juice in the morning, so as a parent, I've decided to allow a very small serving of 100% juice at breakfast. My kids know this is the only juice they're allowed to have all day."
Milk and water are the healthiest choices, and water is the best option between meals.
"I give my kids milk at meals and water at snacks. I started this when they were very young, so now that's just the way it is."
Toddlers need to drink about 3 servings (1/2 cup for this age) of milk each day.
Low-fat and fat-free milk offer all of the benefits of whole milk without the fat. Your child won't lose any important nutrients by switching to low-fat or fat-free milk.
"I use food coloring and real fruit slices to make "water punch." My toddler loves it! She especially loves "holiday water" which is just plain water in a holiday color (like green for St. Patrick's Day)."
Tip: Expand your results into surrounding areas by only using the first 3 or 4 digits of your zip.


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When you think of Vermont, maple syrup will naturally come to mind. Vermont is America's biggest producer of maple syrup, yielding well over a million gallons a year. It's also a state with a rich and interesting history, and an awesome motorcycle road that's a perfect pathway to explore—U.S. Route 7 (US7), also known as the Ethan Allen Highway.
Recognizing Ethan Allen
The highway is named for Ethan Allen, one of the more colorful figures in American history. He may be best known for leading the "Green Mountain Boys," who captured Fort Ticonderoga during the Revolutionary War. In his lifetime, Ethan Allen was a local hero who figured in the politics of Vermont prior to it becoming a state. He called both Bennington and Burlington, Vermont, home and is buried in the Green Mount Cemetery in Burlington. So, it seems natural to ride along from Bennington to Burlington on the Ethan Allen Highway.
Ride the Ethan Allen Highway—Bennington to Rutland
Starting in Bennington in the southwestern corner of Vermont, we head north. The first three miles is a limited-access highway that seems unlike a motorcycle road until it narrows to two lanes and enters the Green Mountain National Forest. Over the next 49 miles, you'll pass Manchester and head toward Rutland. Once you're south of Rutland, US7 runs concurrently with U.S. Route 4 to the town's center. Rutland makes a good midpoint to stop for fuel, a meal, and some historic architecture, with 108 places listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Ride the Ethan Allen Highway part two—Rutland to Burlington
The ride from Rutland to Burlington is about 63 miles, mostly through farmland and along forest lands. When you come to the town of Brandon, you could take a side trip along Vermont Route 73 to the Fort Ticonderoga–Larrabees Point Ferry. From May to October, you can cross Lake Champlain on the ferry and view the fort. It's not exactly how Ethan Allen got there, but it's a way to experience some history on your motorcycle.
From Brandon heading north, you'll reach the college town of Middlebury. It's a great place to stretch your legs and enjoy the New England atmosphere and some food. Going northbound, it's about 32 miles to Burlington.
Discovering Vermont
The ride from Bennington to Burlington is less than 120 miles and can be covered round-trip on a summer's day. With all the history, quaint inns, and interesting eateries, it just makes sense to consider a long weekend adventure along US7 to discover Vermont. Since foliage season draws a lot of leaf lookers, make sure to book your accommodations months ahead. You'll also want to leave room in your saddlebags for some excellent Vermont maple syrup.
Getting there
You can access the Ethan Allen Highway from the west via New York State Route 7 then Vermont Route 279. From the south or east, you'll have many points to connect, since US7 starts in Norwalk, Connecticut, and runs north through Massachusetts.
The state's tourism department says the best way to experience Vermont is to tour the roadways that wind through the mountains and meet in the valleys. You'll be on roads that'll take you through Vermont's forests and farmland to historic villages and towns that are vibrant hubs of culture, commerce, and recreation.
Beyond the roads we've discussed here, Vermont's 10 designated byways range in length from 14 miles to more than 400 miles. An exploration can range in length from an afternoon to an entire summer, so you'll want to be sure to plan ahead.
Till next time, ride safe!
Related links:
Taking a motorcycle ride up Mount Washington means keeping your eyes on the road and weather.
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Matsuno is known for their incredibly consistent bead sizes and larger, easier to see, round bead holes which makes these beads easier to use and produces a better end result. Create fanciful loom work, amulet bags - any seed bead project can be beaded with size 8 seed beads. These beads are also popular for designs that call for larger, bolder seed beads. You'll also appreciate that these are easier on the eyes than smaller seed beads, and how swiftly the beading goes with this larger size bead. Not only for loom work, these beads look GREAT in all types of jewelry. Use them for a more delicate design or pair them with larger beads for a chunkier look! The last photo shows an illustrated use.
2.5mm stringing length, 2.7mm wide, 1.2mm bead hole. These beads will accommodate up to 17 gauge wire.
20 grams (approximately 600 beads)


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And now, my son, I have somewhat to say concerning the restoration of which has been spoken; for behold, some have wrested the scriptures, and have gone far astray because of this thing. And I perceive that thy mind has been worried also concerning this thing. But behold, I will explain it unto thee. I say unto thee, my son, that the plan of restoration is requisite with the justice of God; for it is requisite that all things should be restored to their proper order. Behold, it is requisite and just, according to the power and resurrection of Christ, that the soul of man should be restored to its body, and that every part of the body should be restored to itself.
And it is requisite with the justice of God that men should be judged according to their works; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, that they should also, at the last day, be restored unto that which is good. And if their works are evil they shall be restored unto them for evil. Therefore, all things shall be restored to their proper order, every thing to its natural frame— mortality raised to immortality, corruption to incorruption—raised to endless happiness to inherit the kingdom of God, or to endless misery to inherit the kingdom of the devil, the one on one hand, the other on the other—
The one raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh. And so it is on the other hand. If he hath repented of his sins, and desired righteousness until the end of his days, even so he shall be rewarded unto righteousness.
These are they that are redeemed of the Lord; yea, these are they that are taken out, that are delivered from that endless night of darkness; and thus they stand or fall; for behold, they are their own judges, whether to do good or do evil. Now, the decrees of God are unalterable; therefore, the way is prepared that whosoever will may walk therein and be saved.
And now behold, my son, do not risk one more offense against your God upon those points of doctrine, which ye have hitherto risked to commit sin. Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.
And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness. And now behold, is the meaning of the word restoration to take a thing of a natural state and place it in an unnatural state, or to place it in a state opposite to its nature?
O, my son, this is not the case;
But the meaning of the word restoration
is to bring back again evil for evil,
or carnal for carnal,
or devilish for devilish—
Good for that which is good.
Righteous for that which is righteous.
Just for that which is just.
merciful for that which is merciful.
Therefore, my son,
see that you are merciful unto your brethren;
deal justly,
judge righteously,
and do good continually.
And if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward.
Yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again.
Ye shall have justice restored unto you again;
ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again;
and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again.
for that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored; therefore, the word restoration more fully condemneth the sinner, and justifieth him not at all.


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Jewish Prayer
Page Contents
Jewish prayer (תְּפִלָּה, tefillah; תְּפִלּוֹת, tefillot; תּפֿלה tfile, תּפֿלות tfilles; davening from Yiddish דאַוון daven 'pray') are the prayer recitations and Jewish meditation traditions that form part of the observance of Rabbinic Judaism. These prayers, often with instructions and commentary, are found in the siddur, the traditional Jewish prayer book. However, the term tefillah as referenced in the Talmud refers specifically to the Shemoneh Esreh.
Prayer—as a "service of the heart"—is in principle a Torah-based commandment. It is not time-dependent and is mandatory for both Jewish men and women.
You shall serve God with your whole heart. — Deuteronomy 11:13
However, in general, today, Jewish men are obligated to conduct tefillah ("prayer") three times a day within specific time ranges (zmanim), while, according to some posekim ("Jewish legal authorities"), women are only required to engage in tefillah once a day, others say at least twice a day.
Traditionally, since the Second Temple period, three prayer services are recited daily:
- Morning prayer: Shacharit or Shaharit (שַחֲרִת), from the Hebrew shachar or shahar (שַחָר) "morning light",
- Afternoon prayer: Mincha or Minha (מִנְחָה), the afternoon prayers named for the flour offering that accompanied sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem,
- Additional prayer: Arvit (עַרְבִית, "of the evening") or Maariv (מַעֲרִיב, "bringing on night"), from "nightfall".
Further additional prayers:
- Musaf(מוּסָף, "additional") are recited by Orthodox and Conservative congregations on Shabbat, major Jewish holidays (including Chol HaMoed), and Rosh Chodesh.
- A fifth prayer service, Ne'ila (נְעִילָה, "closing"), is recited only on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
The Talmud Bavli gives two reasons why there are three basic prayers de-rabbanan ("from our Rabbis") since the early Second Temple period on: to recall the daily sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem, and/or because each of the Patriarchs instituted one prayer: Abraham the morning, Isaac the afternoon and Jacob the evening prayer. The Talmud yerushalmi states that the Anshei Knesset HaGedola ("The Men of the Great Assembly") learned and understood the beneficial concept of regular daily prayer from personal habits of the forefathers (avoth, Avraham, Isaac, Yaacov) as hinted in the Tanach, and instituted the three daily prayers. A distinction is made between individual prayer and communal prayer, which requires a quorum known as a minyan, with communal prayer being preferable as it permits the inclusion of prayers that otherwise would be omitted.
Maimonides (1135–1204 CE) relates that until the Babylonian exile (586 BCE), all Jews had composed their own prayers, but thereafter the sages of the Great Assembly in the early Second Temple period composed the main portions of the siddur. Modern scholarship dating from the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement of 19th-century Germany, as well as textual analysis influenced by the 20th-century discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, suggests that dating from this period there existed "liturgical formulations of a communal nature designated for particular occasions and conducted in a centre totally independent of Jerusalem and the Temple, making use of terminology and theological concepts that were later to become dominant in Jewish and, in some cases, Christian prayer." The language of the prayers, while clearly from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE), often employs Biblical idiom. Jewish prayer books emerged during the early Middle Ages during the period of the Geonim of Babylonia (6th–11th centuries CE)
Over the last two thousand years traditional variations have emerged among the traditional liturgical customs of different Jewish communities, such as Ashkenazic, Sephardic, Yemenite, Eretz Yisrael and others, or rather recent liturgical inventions such as Hassidic, Chabad, and various Reform minhagim. However the differences are minor compared with the commonalities. Halachically, Jews can switch from one nusach tefillah to an other (and back) at any time, even on a daily basis, and are not bound to follow the nusach of their forefathers. Most of the Jewish liturgy is sung or chanted with traditional melodies or trope. Synagogues may designate or employ a professional or lay hazzan (cantor) for the purpose of leading the congregation in prayer, especially on Shabbat or holidays.
Main article: List of Jewish Prayers and Blessings
Origin and history of Jewish prayer
Main article: Halakha
Biblical origin
According to the Talmud Bavli (tractate Taanit 2a), tefillah ("prayer") is a Biblical command: "'You shall serve God with your whole heart.' (Deuteronomy 11:13) What service is performed with the heart? This is tefillah." Prayer is therefore referred to as Avodah sheba-Lev ("service that is in the heart"). It is not time-dependent and is mandatory for both Jewish men and women. Mentioning tefillah, the Talmud always refers to the Amidah, that is also called Shemoneh Esreh. The noted rabbi Maimonides (RaMBaM) likewise categorizes tefillah as a Biblical command of Written law, as the Babylon Talmud says. However, corresponding with the Jerusalem Talmud, the RaMBaM did hold that the number of tefillot ("prayers") and their times are not a Biblical command of Written law and that the forefathers did not institute such a Takkanah, rather it was a rabbinical command de-rabbanan ("from our Rabbis") based on a takkanah of the Anshei Knesset HaGedola ("The Men of the Great Assembly").
Babylon Talmud
The Oral law, according to the Talmud Bavli (tractate Berachoth 26b) gives two reasons why there are three basic prayers:
- According to Rabbi Jose b. Hanina, each of the Patriarchs instituted one prayer: Abraham the morning, Isaac the afternoon and Jacob the evening prayers. This view is supported with Biblical quotes indicating that the Patriarchs prayed at the times mentioned. However, even according to this view, the exact times of when the services are held, and moreover the entire concept of a mussaf service, are still based on the sacrifices.
- Each service was instituted parallel to a sacrificial act in the Temple in Jerusalem: the morning Tamid offering, the afternoon Tamid offering, and the overnight burning of this last offering.
Jerusalem Talmud
The Oral Torah, according to the Talmud yerushalmi (tractate Berachoth 4) states why there are three basic tefillot ("prayers") and who instituted them:
- Rabbi Yehoshua said that the Anshei Knesset HaGedola ("The Men of the Great Assembly") learned and understood the beneficial concept of regular daily tefillot from the habit of the forefathers (avoth) Avraham, Isaac and Yaakov. Therefore, the Anshei Knesset HaGedola based their Takkanah that Jewish men were required to pray three times a day from hints to personal habits of the forefathers in the tanach.
Additional references in the Hebrew Bible have been interpreted to suggest that King David and the prophet Daniel prayed three times a day. In Psalms, David states:
Evening, morning, and noontime, I speak and moan, and He hearkened to my voice.
— Psalm 55:18
As in the Book of Daniel:
And Daniel, when he knew that a writ had been inscribed, came to his house, where there were open windows in his upper chamber, opposite Jerusalem, and three times a day he kneeled on his knees and prayed and offered thanks before his God just as he had done prior to this.
— Daniel 6:11
Orthodox, Modern Orthodox and Sefardic strands of Judaism regard halakha (the collective body of religious laws for Jews) as requiring Jewish men to say tefillot ("prayers") three times daily and four times daily on the Sabbath and most Jewish holidays, and five times on Yom Kippur. Some Jewish women from those movements regard the system of multiple daily prayer services as optional for them due to a need to be constantly taking care of small children, but—in accordance with halakha—still pray at least daily, without a specific time requirement. Moreover, it is generally accepted by Orthodox, Modern Orthodox, and Sephardic religious authorities that women are exempt from the evening prayer. Conservative Judaism regards the halakhic system of multiple daily services as mandatory. Since 2002, Jewish women from Conservative congregations have been regarded as having undertaken a communal obligation to pray the same prayers at the same times as men, with traditional communities and individual women permitted to opt out. Reform and Reconstructionist congregations do not regard halakha as binding and hence regard appropriate prayer times as matters of personal spiritual decision rather than a matter of religious requirement.
Text and language
According to halakha, all individual prayers and virtually all communal prayers may be said in any language that the person praying understands. For example, the Mishnah mentions that the Shema need not be said in Hebrew A list of prayers that must be said in Hebrew is given in the Mishna, and among these only the Priestly Blessing is in use today, as the others are prayers that are to be said only in a Temple in Jerusalem, by a priest, or by a reigning King.
Despite this, the tradition of most Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogues is to use Hebrew (usually Ashkenazi Hebrew) for all except a small number of prayers, including the Aramaic Kaddish ("holy"), and the notable Gott Fun Avraham, which was written in Yiddish. In other streams of Judaism there is considerable variability: Sephardic communities may use Ladino or Portuguese for many prayers; Conservative synagogues tend to use the local language to a varying degree; and at some Reform synagogues almost the whole service may be in the local language.
Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Prayer 1:4) relates that until the Babylonian exile, all Jews composed their own prayers. After the exile, however, the sages of the time (united in the Great Assembly) found the ability of the people insufficient to continue the practice, and they legendarily composed the main portions of the siddur, such as the Amidah, from which no fragments survived. The origins of modern Jewish prayer were established during the period of the Tannaim, "from their traditions, later committed to writing, we learn that the generation of rabbis active at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE) gave Jewish prayer its structure and, in outline form at least, its contents." This liturgy included the twice-daily recitation of the Shema, the Amidah, or Shmoneh Esrei, including 18 blessings recited several times daily, and the public recitation of the Torah in installments. The oldest prayer books date from the time of the Geonim of Babylonia; "some were composed by respected rabbinic scholars at the request of far-flung communities seeking an authoritative text of the required prayers for daily use, Shabbat, and holidays."
The language of the prayers, while clearly being from the Second Temple period, often employs Biblical idiom, and according to some authorities it should not contain rabbinic or Mishnaic idiom apart from in the sections of Mishnah that are featured (see Baer).
Over the last two thousand years, the various branches of Judaism have resulted in small variations in the Rabbinic liturgy customs among different Jewish communities, with each community having a slightly different Nusach (customary liturgy). The principal difference is between Ashkenazic and Sephardic customs, although there are other communities (e.g., Yemenite Jews, Eretz Yisrael), and rather recent liturgical inventions such as Hassidic, Chabad, Reform and other communities also have distinct customs, variations, and special prayers. The differences are quite minor compared with the commonalities. The idea that a Jew should not change his Nusach Tefillah and has to continue to pray in the way of his forefathers is an invented Halacha of the galut(diaspora, "scattering, dispersion"). According to halakha, a Jew may change his nusach tefilla at any time, even on a daily basis.
The siddur
Main article: Siddur
The earliest parts of Jewish prayer are the Shema Yisrael ("Hear O Israel") (Deuteronomy 6:4 et seq), and the Priestly Blessing (Numbers 6:24–26), which are in the Torah. A set of eighteen (currently nineteen) blessings called the Shemoneh Esreh or the Amidah (Hebrew, "standing [prayer]"), is traditionally ascribed to the Great Assembly in the time of Ezra, at the end of the Biblical period.
The name Shemoneh Esreh, literally "eighteen", is an historical anachronism, since it now contains nineteen blessings. It was only near the end of the Second Temple period that the eighteen prayers of the weekday Amidah became standardized. Even at that time their precise wording and order was not yet fixed, and varied from locale to locale. It was not until several centuries later that the prayers began to be formally fixed. By the Middle Ages the texts of the prayers were nearly fixed, and in the form in which they are still used today.
The siddur was printed by Soncino in Italy as early as 1486, though a siddur was first mass-distributed only in 1865. The siddur began appearing in the vernacular as early as 1538. The first English translation, by Gamaliel ben Pedahzur (a pseudonym), appeared in London in 1738; a different translation was released in the United States in 1837.
Readings from the Torah (five books of Moses) and the Nevi'im ("Prophets") form part of the prayer services. To this framework various Jewish sages added, from time to time, various prayers, and, for festivals especially, numerous hymns.
The earliest existing codification of the prayerbook was drawn up by Rav Amram Gaon of Sura, Babylon, about 850 CE. Half a century later Rav Saadia Gaon, also of Sura, composed a siddur, in which the rubrical matter is in Arabic. These were the basis of Simcha ben Samuel's Machzor Vitry (11th-century France), which was based on the ideas of his teacher, Rashi. Another formulation of the prayers was that appended by Maimonides to the laws of prayer in his Mishneh Torah: this forms the basis of the Yemenite liturgy, and has had some influence on other rites. From this point forward all Jewish prayer books had the same basic order and contents.
Denominational variations
Conservative services generally use the same basic format for services as in Orthodox Judaism with some doctrinal leniencies and some prayers in English. In practice there is wide variation among Conservative congregations. In traditionalist congregations the liturgy can be almost identical to that of Orthodox Judaism, almost entirely in Hebrew (and Aramaic), with a few minor exceptions, including excision of a study session on Temple sacrifices, and modifications of prayers for the restoration of the sacrificial system. In more liberal Conservative synagogues there are greater changes to the service, with up to a third of the service in English; abbreviation or omission of many of the preparatory prayers; and replacement of some traditional prayers with more contemporary forms. There are some changes for doctrinal reasons, including egalitarian language, fewer references to restoring sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem, and an option to eliminate special roles for Kohanim and Levites.
The liturgies of Reform and Reconstructionist are based on traditional elements, but contains language more reflective of liberal belief than the traditional liturgy. Doctrinal revisions generally include revising or omitting references to traditional doctrines such as bodily resurrection, a personal Jewish Messiah, and other elements of traditional Jewish eschatology, Divine revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai, angels, conceptions of reward and punishment, and other personal miraculous and supernatural elements. Services are often from 40% to 90% in the vernacular.
Reform Judaism has made greater alterations to the traditional service in accord with its more liberal theology including dropping references to traditional elements of Jewish eschatology such as a personal Messiah, a bodily resurrection of the dead, and others. The Hebrew portion of the service is substantially abbreviated and modernized and modern prayers substituted for traditional ones. In addition, in keeping with their view that the laws of Shabbat (including a traditional prohibition on playing instruments) are inapplicable to modern circumstances, Reform services often play instrumental or recorded music with prayers on the Jewish Sabbath. All Reform synagogues are Egalitarian with respect to gender roles.
Philosophy of prayer
In Jewish philosophy and in Rabbinic literature, it is noted that the Hebrew verb for prayer —hitpallel התפלל— is in fact the reflexive form of palal פלל, to judge. Thus, "to pray" conveys the notion of "judging oneself": ultimately, the purpose of prayer —tefilah תפלה— is to transform ourselves.
This etymology is consistent with the Jewish conception of divine simplicity. It is not God that changes through our prayer—Man does not influence God as a defendant influences a human judge who has emotions and is subject to change—rather it is man himself who is changed. It is further consistent with Maimonides' view on Divine Providence. Here, Tefillah is the medium which God gave to man by means of which he can change himself, and thereby establish a new relationship with God—and thus a new destiny for himself in life; see also under Psalms.
The rationalist approach
In this view, the ultimate goal of prayer is to help train a person to focus on divinity through philosophy and intellectual contemplation. This approach was taken by Maimonides and the other medieval rationalists.
The educational approach
In this view, prayer is not a conversation. Rather, it is meant to inculcate certain attitudes in the one who prays, but not to influence. This has been the approach of Rabbenu Bachya, Yehuda Halevy, Joseph Albo, Samson Raphael Hirsch, and Joseph Dov Soloveitchik. This view is expressed by Rabbi Nosson Scherman in the overview to the Artscroll Siddur (p. XIII); note that Scherman goes on to also affirm the Kabbalistic view (see below).
Kabbalistic view
Kabbalah (esoteric Jewish mysticism) uses a series of kavanot, directions of intent, to specify the path the prayer ascends in the dialogue with God, to increase its chances of being answered favorably. Kabbalism ascribes a higher meaning to the purpose of prayer, which is no less than affecting the very fabric of reality itself, restructuring and repairing the universe in a real fashion. In this view, every word of every prayer, and indeed, even every letter of every word, has a precise meaning and a precise effect. Prayers thus literally affect the mystical forces of the universe, and repair the fabric of creation.
This approach has been taken by the Chassidei Ashkenaz (German pietists of the Middle-Ages), the Zohar, the Arizal's Kabbalist tradition, the Ramchal, most of Hassidism, the Vilna Gaon and Jacob Emden.
Methodology and terminology
Terms for praying
Daven is the originally exclusively Eastern Yiddish verb meaning "pray"; it is widely used by Ashkenazic Orthodox Jews. In Yinglish, this has become the Anglicised davening.
The origin of the word is obscure, but is thought by some to have come from Arabic (from diwan, a collection of poems or prayers), French (from devoner, 'to devote' or 'dedicate' or possibly from the French 'devant'- 'in front of' with the idea that the person praying is mindful of before whom they stand), Latin (from divin, 'divine') or even English (from dawn). Others believe that it derives from a Slavic word meaning "to give" (Russian: давать, translit. davat'). Some claim that it originates from an Aramaic word, de'avuhon or d'avinun, meaning 'of their/our forefathers', as the three prayers are said to have been invented by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Another Aramaic derivation, proposed by Avigdor Chaikin, cites the Talmudic phrase, "ka davai lamizrach", 'gazing wistfully to the east' (Shab. 35a). Kevin A. Brook, cites Zeiden's suggestion that the word daven comes from the Turkish root tabun- meaning 'to pray', and that in Kipchak Turkish, the initial t morphs into d.
In Western Yiddish, the term for pray is oren, a word with clear roots in Romance languages—compare Spanish and Portuguese orar and Latin orare.
Minyan (quorum)
Individual prayer is considered acceptable, but prayer with a quorum of ten adults—a minyan—is the most highly recommended form of prayer and is required for some prayers. An adult in this context means over the age of 12 or 13 (bat or bar mitzvah). Judaism had originally counted only men in the minyan for formal prayer, on the basis that one does not count someone who is not obligated to participate. The rabbis had exempted women from almost all time-specific positive mitzvot (commandments), including those parts of the prayer that cannot be recited without a quorum, due to women in the past being bound up in an endless cycle of pregnancy, birthing and nursing from a very early age. Orthodox Judaism still follows this reasoning and excludes women from the minyan. Since 1973, Conservative congregations have overwhelmingly become egalitarian and count women in the minyan. A very small number of congregations that identify themselves as Conservative have resisted these changes and continue to exclude women from the minyan. Those Reform and Reconstructionist congregations that consider a minyan mandatory for communal prayer, count both men and women for a minyan. All denominations of Judaism except for Orthodox Judaism ordain female rabbis and cantors. In Orthodox Judaism, according to some authorities, women can count in the minyan for certain specific prayers, such as the Birchot HaGomel blessing, which both men and women are obligated to say publicly.
- Head covering. In most synagogues, it is considered a sign of respect for male attendees to wear a head covering, either a dress hat or a kippa (skull cap, plural kipot also known by the Yiddish term yarmulke). It is common practice for both Jews and non-Jews who attend a synagogue to wear a head covering. Some Conservative synagogues may also encourage (but rarely require) women to cover their heads. Many Reform and Progressive temples do not require people to cover their heads, although individual worshipers, both men and women, may choose to. Many Orthodox and some conservative men and women wear a head covering throughout their day, even when not attending religious services.
- Tallit (prayer shawl) is traditionally worn during all morning services, during Aliyah to the Torah, as well as during all the services of Yom Kippur. During the daily afternoon and evening services, the hazzan alone wears a tallit. In Orthodox synagogues they are expected to be worn only by men who are halakhically Jewish and in Conservative synagogues they should be worn only by men and women who are halakhically Jewish. In most Orthodox Ashkenazi synagogues they are worn only by men who are or have been married.
- Tefillin (phylacteries) are a set of small cubic leather boxes painted black, containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. They are tied to the head and arm with leather straps dyed black, and worn by Jews only, during weekday morning prayers. In Orthodox synagogues they are expected to be worn only by men; in Conservative synagogues they are also worn by some women. The Karaite Jews, however, do not don tefillin.
- Tzeniut (modesty) applies to men and women. When attending Orthodox synagogues, women will likely be expected to wear long sleeves (past the elbows), long skirts (past the knees), a high neckline (to the collar bone), and if married, to cover their hair with a wig, scarf, hat or a combination of the above. For men, short pants or sleeveless shirts are generally regarded as inappropriate. In some Conservative and Reform synagogues the dress code may be more lax, but still respectful.
Daily prayers
Shacharit (morning prayers)
Main article: Shacharit
The Shacharit (from shachar, morning light) prayer is recited in the morning. Halacha limits parts of its recitation to the first three (Shema) or four (Amidah) hours of the day, where "hours" are 1/12 of daylight time, making these times dependent on the season.
Various prayers are said upon arising; the tallit katan (a garment with tzitzit) is donned at this time. The tallit (large prayer shawl) is donned before or during the actual prayer service, as are the tefillin (phylacteries); both are accompanied by blessings.
The service starts with the "morning blessings" (birkot ha-shachar), including blessings for the Torah (considered the most important ones). In Orthodox services this is followed by a series of readings from Biblical and rabbinic writings recalling the offerings made in the Temple in Jerusalem. The section concludes with the "Rabbis' Kaddish" (kaddish de-rabbanan).
The next section of morning prayers is called Pesukei D'Zimrah ("verses of praise"), containing several psalms (100 and 145–150), and prayers (such as yehi chevod) made from a tapestry of Biblical verses, followed by the Song at the Sea (Exodus, chapters 14 and 15).
Barechu, the formal public call to prayer, introduces a series of expanded blessings embracing the recitation of the Shema. This is followed by the core of the prayer service, the Amidah or Shemoneh Esreh, a series of 19 blessings. The next part of the service, is Tachanun, supplications, which is omitted on days with a festive character (and by Reform services usually entirely).
On Mondays and Thursdays a Torah reading service is inserted, and a longer version of Tachanun takes place.
Concluding prayers (see Uva letzion) and Aleinu then follow, with the Kaddish of the mourners generally after Aleinu.
Mincha (afternoon prayers)
Main article: Mincha
Mincha or Minha (derived from the flour offering that accompanied each sacrifice) may be recited from half an hour after halachic noontime. This earliest time is referred to as mincha gedola (the "large mincha"). There is, however, another time to daven mincha, which is then known as mincha ketana (2.5 halachic hours before nightfall). Ideally, one should complete the prayers before sunset, although many authorities permit reciting Mincha until nightfall. Mincha is allowed to be recited during any of the hours between mincha gedola and mincha ketana also.
Sephardim and Italian Jews start the Mincha prayers with Psalm 84 and Korbanot (Numbers 28:1–8), and usually continue with the Pittum hakketoret. The opening section is concluded with Malachi 3:4. Western Ashkenazim recite the Korbanot only.
Ashrei, containing verses from Psalms 84:5, 144:15 and the entire Psalm 145, is recited, immediately followed by Chatzi Kaddish (half-Kaddish) and the Shemoneh Esreh (or Amidah). This is followed by Tachanun, supplications, and then the full Kaddish. Sephardim insert Psalm 67 or 93, followed by the Mourner's Kaddish. After this follows, in most modern rites, the Aleinu. Ashkenazim then conclude with the Mourner's Kaddish. Service leaders often wear a tallit even on normal days, and must wear one during the fast days.
Ma'ariv/Arvit (evening prayers)
Main article: Maariv
In many congregations, the afternoon and evening prayers are recited back-to-back on a working day, to save people having to attend synagogue twice. The Vilna Gaon discouraged this practice, and followers of his set of customs commonly wait until after nightfall to recite Ma'ariv (the name derives from the word "nightfall").
This service begins with the Barechu, the formal public call to prayer, and Shema Yisrael embraced by two benedictions before and two after. Ashkenazim outside of Israel (except Chabad-Lubavitch and followers of the Vilna Gaon) then add another blessing (Baruch Adonai le-Olam), which is made from a tapestry of biblical verses. (This prayer is also said by Baladi Temanim in and out of Israel.) This is followed by the Half-Kaddish, and the Shemoneh Esreh (Amidah), bracketed with the full Kaddish. Sephardim then say Psalm 121, say the Mourner's Kaddish, and repeat Barechu before concluding with the Aleinu. Ashkenazim, in the diaspora, do neither say Psalm 121 nor repeat Barechu, but conclude with Aleinu followed by the Mourner's Kaddish (in Israel, Ashkenazim do repeat Barcheu after mourner's Kaddish).
Prayer on Shabbat (Sabbath)
On the Sabbath, prayers are similar in structure to those on weekdays, although almost every part is lengthened. One exception in the Amidah, the main prayer, which is abridged. The first three and last three blessings are recited as usual, but the middle thirteen are replaced with a single blessing known as "sanctity of the day," describing the Sabbath. Atypically, this middle blessing is different for each of the prayers.
Friday night
Shabbat services begin on Friday evening with the weekday Mincha (see above), followed in some communities by the Song of Songs, and then in most communities by the Kabbalat Shabbat, the mystical prelude to Shabbat services composed by 16th-century Kabbalists. This Hebrew term literally means "Receiving the Sabbath". In many communities, the piyut Yedid Nefesh introduces the Kabbalat Shabbat prayers.
Kabbalat Shabbat is, except amongst many Italian and Spanish and Portuguese Jews, composed of six psalms, 95 to 99, and 29, representing the six week-days. Next comes the poem Lekha Dodi. Composed by Rabbi Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz in the mid-16th century, it is based on the words of the Talmudic sage Hanina: "Come, let us go out to meet the Queen Sabbath" (Talmud Shabbat 119a). Kabbalat Shabbat is concluded by Psalm 92 (the recital of which constitutes men's acceptance of the current Shabbat with all its obligations) and Psalm 93. Many add a study section here, including Bameh Madlikin and Amar rabbi El'azar and the concluding Kaddish deRabbanan and is then followed by the Maariv service; other communities delay the study session until after Maariv. Still other customs add here a passage from the Zohar. In modern times the Kabbalat Shabbat has been set to music by many composers including: Robert Strassburg and Samuel Adler
The Shema section of the Friday night service varies in some details from the weekday services—mainly in the different ending of the Hashkivenu prayer and the omission of Baruch Adonai le-Olam prayer in those traditions where this section is otherwise recited. In the Italian rite, there are also different versions of the Ma'ariv 'aravim prayer (beginning asher killah on Friday nights) and the Ahavat 'olam prayer.
Most commemorate the Shabbat at this point with VeShameru (Exodus 31:16–17). The custom to recite the biblical passage at this point has its origins in the Lurianic Kabbalah, and does not appear before the 16th century. It is therefore absent in traditions and prayer books less influenced by the Kabbalah (such as the Yemenite Baladi tradition), or those that opposed adding additional readings to the siddur based upon the Kabbalah (such as the Vilna Gaon).
The middle blessing of the Amidah (see above) discusses the conclusion of the Creation, quoting the relevant verses from Genesis. This is then followed by the hazzan's mini-repetition of the Amidah, Magen Avot, a digest of the seven benedictions (hence it's Hebrew name Achat Me'ein Sheva). In some Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogues the second chapter of Mishnah tractate Shabbat, Bameh Madlikin, is read at this point, instead of earlier. Kiddush is recited in the synagogue in Ashkenazi and a few Sephardi communities. The service then follows with Aleinu. Most Sephardi and many Ashkenazi synagogues end with the singing of Yigdal, a poetic adaptation of Maimonides' 13 principles of Jewish faith. Other Ashkenazi synagogues end with Adon `olam instead.
Main article: Shacharit
Shabbat morning prayers commence as on week-days. Of the hymns, Psalm 100 (Mizmor LeTodah, the psalm for the Thanksgiving offering), is omitted because the todah or Thanksgiving offering could not be offered on Shabbat in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem. Its place is taken in the Ashkenazi tradition by Psalms 19, 34, 90, 91, 135, 136, 33, 92, 93. Sephardic Jews maintain a different order, add several psalms and two religious poems. The Nishmat prayer is recited at the end of the Pesukei D'Zimrah. The blessings before Shema are expanded, and include the hymn El Adon, which is often sung communally.
The intermediary benediction of the Shacharit Amidah begins with Yismach Moshe and discusses Moses' receiving of the Torah (which according to tradition took place on the morning of the Sabbath). Kedushah, which is always recited during the Hazzan's repetition of the third blessing, is significantly expanded. After the repetition is concluded, the Torah scroll is taken out of the Ark in a ritual much longer than the ritual during the week, and the weekly portion is read, followed by the haftarah.
After the Torah reading, three prayers for the community are recited. Two prayers starting with Yekum Purkan, composed in Babylon in Aramaic, are similar to the subsequent Mi sheberakh, a blessing for the leaders and patrons of the synagogue. The Sephardim omit much of the Yekum Purkan. Prayers are then recited (in some communities) for the government of the country, for peace, and for the State of Israel.
After these prayers, Ashrei is repeated and the Torah scroll is returned to the Ark in a procession through the Synagogue. Many congregations allow children to come to the front in order to kiss the scroll as it passes. In many Orthodox communities, the Rabbi (or a learned member of the congregation) delivers a sermon at this point, usually on the topic of the Torah reading.
Main article: Mussaf
The Musaf service starts with the silent recitation of the Amidah. The middle blessing includes the Tikanta Shabbat reading on the holiness of Shabbat, and then by a reading from the biblical Book of Numbers about the sacrifices that used to be performed in the Temple in Jerusalem. Next comes Yismechu, "They shall rejoice in Your sovereignty", and Eloheynu, "Our God and God of our Ancestors, may you be pleased with our rest" (which is recited during all Amidahs of the Sabbath. Kedushah is greatly expanded.
After the Amidah comes the full Kaddish, followed by Ein keloheinu. In Orthodox Judaism this is followed by a reading from the Talmud on the incense offering called Pittum Haketoreth and daily psalms that used to be recited in the Temple in Jerusalem. These readings are usually omitted by Conservative Jews, and are always omitted by Reform Jews.
The Musaf service culminates with the Rabbi's Kaddish, the Aleinu, and then the Mourner's Kaddish. Some synagogues conclude with the reading of An'im Zemirot, "The Hymn of Glory", Mourner's Kaddish, the Psalm of the Day and either Adon Olam or Yigdal.
Mincha commences with Ashrei (see above) and the prayer Uva letzion, after which the first section of the next weekly portion is read from the Torah scroll. The Amidah follows the same pattern as the other Shabbat Amidah prayers, with the middle blessing starting Attah Echad.
The week-day Ma'ariv is recited on the evening immediately following Shabbat, concluding with Vihi No'am, Ve-Yitten lekha, and Havdalah.
Special observances and circumstances
Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur
Main articles: Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah
The musaf service on Rosh Hashana has nine blessings; the three middle blessings include biblical verses attesting to sovereignty, remembrance and the shofar, which is sounded 100 times during the service.The services for the Days of Awe—Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur—take on a solemn tone as befits these days. Traditional solemn tunes are used in the prayers.
Yom Kippur is the only day in the year when there are five prayer services. The evening service, containing the Ma'ariv prayer, is widely known as "Kol Nidrei", the opening declaration made preceding the prayer. During the daytime, shacharit, musaf (which is recited on Shabbat and all festivals) and mincha are followed, as the sun begins to set, by Ne'ila, which is recited just this once a year.
Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot
Main article: Passover
The services for the three festivals of Pesach ("Passover"), Shavuot ("Feast of Weeks" or "Pentecost"), and Sukkot ("Feast of Tabernacles") are alike, except for interpolated references and readings for each individual festival. The preliminaries and conclusions of the prayers are the same as on Shabbat. The Amidah on these festivals only contains seven benedictions, with Attah Bechartanu as the main one. Hallel(communal recitation of Psalms 113-118) follows.
The Musaf service includes Umi-Penei Hata'enu, with reference to the special festival and Temple sacrifices on the occasion. A blessing on the pulpit ("dukhen") is pronounced by the "kohanim" (Jewish priests) during the Amidah. While this occurs daily in Israel and most Sephardic congregations, it occurs only on Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur in Ashkenazic congregations of the diaspora. (Those Ashkenazic congregations substitute a prayer recited by the hazzan after the Modim ("Thanksgiving") prayer) on week-days and Sabbath in commemoration of the priestly blessing.) (American Reform Jews omit the Musaf service.)
Missed prayer
In the event one of the prayers was missed inadvertently, the Amidah prayer is said twice in the next service—a procedure known as tefillat tashlumin.
Related customs
Many Jews sway their body back and forth during prayer. This practice (referred to as shoklen in Yiddish) is not mandatory, and in fact the kabbalist Isaac Luria felt that it should not be done. In contrast, the German Medieval authority Maharil (Rabbi Jacob Molin) linked the practice to a statement in the Talmud that the Mishnaic sage Rabbi Akiva would sway so forcefully that he ended up at the other side of the room when praying (Talmud tractate Berachot).
Many are accustomed to giving charity before, during (especially during Vayivarech David) or after prayer, in the hopes that this will make their prayer more likely to be heard.
Role of women
Men are obligated to perform public prayer three times a day with additional services on Jewish holidays. According to Jewish law, each prayer must be performed within specific time ranges (zmanim), based on the time that the communal sacrifice the prayer is named after would have been performed in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem.
According to the Talmud women are generally exempted from obligations that have to be performed at a certain time. Orthodox authorities have generally interpreted this exemption due to women's higher spiritual level and therefore a lack of need to connect to God at specific times, since they are always connected to God. In accordance with the general exemption from time-bound obligations, most Orthodox authorities have exempted women from performing evening prayers (Maariv), but most believe that women are obligated to pray Shacharit and Mincha, the morning and afternoon prayers, respectively, when possible. According to the Mishna, women are exempt from the morning and evening Shema.
Orthodox authorities have been careful to note that although some women with small children have been exempted from praying at specific fixed times, they are not exempted from the obligation of prayer itself. The 19th-century posek Yechiel Michel Epstein, author of the Arukh HaShulkhan, notes: "Even though the rabbis set prayer at fixed times in fixed language, it was not their intention to issue a leniency and exempt women from this ritual act". Traditionally women were also reciting individual tkhine prayers in Yiddish.
Authorities have disagreed on the minimum amount that women's prayer should contain. Many Jewish women have relied on an idea expressed by (Ashkenazi) Rabbi Avraham Gombiner in his Magen Avraham commentary on the Shulkhan Arukh, and more recently the (Sephardi) Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (Yabiah Omer vol. 6, 17), that women are only required to pray once a day, in any form they choose, so long as the prayer contains praise of (brakhot), requests to (bakashot), and thanks of (hodot) God. However, most Orthodox authorities agree that women are not completely exempt from time-bound prayer. The Mishnah Berurah by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, an important code of Ashkenzic Jewish law, holds that the Men of the Great Assembly obligated women to say Shacharit (morning) and Minchah (afternoon) prayer services each day, "just like men". The Mishnah Berurah also states that although women are exempt from reciting the Shema Yisrael, they should nevertheless say it anyway. Nonetheless, even the most liberal Orthodox authorities hold that women cannot count in a minyan for purposes of public prayer.
Throughout Orthodox Judaism, including its most liberal forms, men and women are required to sit in separate sections with a mechitza (partition) separating them. Historically, a learned woman in the weibershul (women's section or annex) of a synagogue took on the informal role of precentress or firzogerin for the women praying in parallel to the main service led in the men's section. Conservative/Masorti Judaism permits mixed seating (almost universally in the United States, but not in all countries). All Reform and Reconstructionist congregations have mixed seating.
Haredi and much of Modern Orthodox Judaism has a blanket prohibition on women leading public congregational prayers. Conservative Judaism has developed a blanket justification for women leading all or virtually all such prayers, holding that although only obligated individuals can lead prayers and women were not traditionally obligated, Conservative Jewish women in modern times have as a collective whole voluntarily undertaken such an obligation. Reform and Reconstructionist congregations permit women to perform all prayer roles because they do not regard halakha as binding.
A small liberal wing within Modern Orthodox Judaism, particularly rabbis friendly to the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA), has begun re-examining the role of women in prayers based on an individual, case-by-case look at the historical role of specific prayers and services, doing so within classical halakhic interpretation. Accepting that where obligation exists only the obligated can lead, this small group has typically made three general arguments for expanded women's roles:
- Because women were required to perform certain korbanot (sacrifices) in the Temple in Jerusalem, women today are required to perform, and hence can lead (and can count in the minyan for if required), the specific prayers substituting for these specific sacrifices. Birchat Hagomel falls in this category.
- Because certain parts of the service were added after the Talmud defined mandatory services, such prayers are equally voluntary on everyone and hence can be led by women (and no minyan is required). Pseukei D'Zimrah in the morning and Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday nights fall in this category.
- In cases where the Talmud indicates that women are generally qualified to lead certain services but do not do so because of the "dignity of the congregation", modern congregations are permitted to waive such dignity if they wish. Torah reading on Shabbat falls in this category. An argument that women are permitted to lead the services removing and replacing the Torah in the Ark on Shabbat extends from their ability to participate in Torah reading then.
A very small number of Modern Orthodox congregations accept some such arguments, but very few Orthodox congregations or authorities accept all or even most of them. Many of those who do not accept this reasoning point to kol isha, the tradition that prohibits a man from hearing a woman other than his wife or close blood relative sing. JOFA refers to congregations generally accepting such arguments as Partnership Minyanim. On Shabbat in a Partnership Minyan, women can typically lead Kabbalat Shabbat, the P'seukei D'Zimrah, the services for removing the Torah from and replacing it to the Ark, and Torah reading, as well as give a D'Var Torah or sermon.
The first Orthodox Jewish women's prayer group was created on the holiday of Simhat Torah at Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan in the late 1960s.
Ephraim Mirvis, an Orthodox rabbi who serves as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, supports Shabbat prayer groups for Orthodox women, saying, "Some of our congregations have women prayer groups for Friday night, some Saturday mornings. This is without women reading from the Torah. But for women to come together as a group to pray, this is a good thing."
Role of minors
In most divisions of Judaism boys prior to Bar Mitzvah cannot act as a Chazzen for prayer services that contain devarim sheb'kidusha, i.e. Kaddish, Barechu, the amida, etc., or receive an aliya or chant the Torah for the congregation. Since Kabbalat Shabbatis just psalms and does not contain devarim sheb'kidusha, it is possible for a boy under Bar Mitzvah to lead until Barechu of Ma'ariv. As well, the conclusion of the service on Shabbat and Chagim may be led by children. Under the Moroccan, Yemenite, and Mizrachi customs, a boy under bar mitzvah may lead certain prayers, read the Torah, and have an aliyah. It is customary among many Ashkenazim to have children sing "Adon 'Olam" after Mussaf and "Yigdal" after Shabat and Holiday Maariv. Among Sefardim, Mizrachim, Yemenites, and some Askenazim, a child leads the congregation in Kriyat Shema.
Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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Interaction between the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis and the Circadian Clock System in Humans
Rotation of the Earth creates day and night cycles of 24 h. The endogenous circadian clocks sense these light/dark rhythms and the master pacemaker situated in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus entrains the physical activities according to this information. The circadian machinery is built from the transcriptional/translational feedback loops generating the oscillations in all nucleated cells of the body. In addition, unexpected environmental changes, called stressors, also challenge living systems. A response to these stimuli is provided immediately via the autonomic-nervous system and slowly via the hypothalamus"pituitary"adrenal (HPA) axis. When the HPA axis is activated, circulating glucocorticoids are elevated and regulate organ activities in order to maintain survival of the organism. Both the clock and the stress systems are essential for continuity and interact with each other to keep internal homeostasis. The physiological interactions between the HPA axis and the circadian clock system are mainly addressed in animal studies, which focus on the effects of stress and circadian disturbances on cardiovascular, psychiatric and metabolic disorders. Although these studies give opportunity to test in whole body, apply unwelcome techniques, control and manipulate the parameters at the high level, generalization of the results to humans is still a debate. On the other hand, studies established with cell lines cannot really reflect the conditions occurring in a living organism. Thus, human studies are absolutely necessary to investigate mechanisms involved in stress and circadian responses. The studies presented in this thesis were intended to determine the effects of cortisol as an end-product of the HPA axis on PERIOD (PER1, PER2 and PER3) transcripts as circadian clock genes in healthy humans. The expression levels of PERIOD genes were measured under baseline conditions and after stress in whole blood. The results demonstrated here have given better understanding of transcriptional programming regulated by pulsatile cortisol at standard conditions and short-term effects of cortisol increase on circadian clocks after acute stress. These findings also draw attention to inter-individual variations in stress response as well as non-circadian functions of PERIOD genes in the periphery, which need to be examined in details in the future.


text: The aim of this course is to introduce students to topical issues in science and technology policy. The course will meet weekly for a formal seminar. Those currently in the science policymaking arena as well as experts in applied science policy research will be invited to campus to participate as seminar speakers. By interacting with those active in science policy circles, it is hoped that students will gain a real appreciation for the processes and underpinnings of current national science policy. The course will be offered as a 1 credit seminar course and as a 3 credit seminar/discussion course. Students enrolled in the 3 credit course will also take part in discussion sessions to follow-up the seminar presentations, as arranged by the instructor. In addition, these students will be expected to write a term paper on one of the issues covered in the seminars and give a brief presentation late in the term. Students enrolled in the Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) Graduate Certificate Program must take this course for 3 credits.


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April 15, 2011
The Guardian
Joanna Moorhead
It feels incongruous to be sitting in a cafe in Kendal – a town they call "the gateway to the Lake District" – discussing women's rights in the Rift Valley. And yet it couldn't be more relevant: because Cath Holland, the down-to-earth Lancashire midwife I'm with, has managed almost singlehandedly, and in her spare time, on a tiny budget, to steer an entire province of northern Kenya towards eradicating a practice that surely rates as the most extreme example of male domination today.
Holland – a nurse and midwife who works on the labour ward at Furness General Hospital – first went to Kenya with VSO back in 1998. She was in her late 40s: her two sons were in their early 20s, and she felt she wanted an adventure. She was sent to be a midwifery tutor at a nursing school in the Cherangani Hills in Pokot, an area of Kenya that the Lonely Planet Guide describes as "East Africa's best-kept secret".
But when Holland arrived, she discovered Pokot had another secret – and it wasn't one travel books boasted about. The community still practised a form of female genital mutilation (FGM) that the World Health Organisation considers the most extreme – in which the entire outer genitalia, including the clitoris, are removed.
As a midwife, Holland saw the consequence: women giving birth had vaginal openings too narrow to let a baby through. "In that area, they say there are three sorrows of womanhood. The first is when a girl has her genitalia removed, usually in her teens. The second is when she gets married, and has to have her vagina opened so she can have penetrative sex, which is usually done using an animal's horn. And the third is when she gives birth, and has to be cut again so the baby can be born."
'I will never be cut': Kenyan girls fight back against genital mutilation Link to this video The practice turns healthy teenage girls into women with chronic ill-health – kidney problems, pelvic and back pain, infertility and birth difficulties are common. And they are the lucky ones: others won't survive the blood loss of the initial procedure or will contract HIV from the knives used, or die giving birth, or have stillborn or brain-damaged babies.
Holland abhorred the practice from the moment she came into contact with its effects. "At its root," says Holland, "FGM is all about patriarchy. It's about controlling women – controlling their sexuality, controlling their libido. In communities like Pokot it's regarded as a prerequisite for marriage." But her life was changed when a young girl she'd befriended in the village where she lived asked her if she'd like to attend her initiation ceremony – the event at which she would be mutilated.
"Nellie was about 14, and she often called in at my house on her way to and from school," she remembers. "One day she was a bit shy and coy, and she told me it was her initiation ceremony next week – and she wanted me to be there. As far as she was concerned, this was an important day on her life's journey. To me it was a tragedy, for her it was a rite of passage."
Holland says the event was like a village party – until they brought out the girls. "The men were all standing with their backs turned. I was with the women – and the sense of solidarity, and horror, was almost palpable," she remembers. "There were two circumcisers – they moved quickly from one girl to the next, cutting their labia." Then, says Holland, the girls were led to a wooded area, away from the men, for the more extensive cutting. "It was horrendous," she says. "And none of the girls cried out, because they'd had it drilled into them that they had to bear it without making a sound."
Afterwards, Holland couldn't forget what she'd seen. "It haunted me," she says. "I knew I couldn't just go home, go back to my old job, forget all about it. Because there were more girls like Nellie, and it was going to go on and on. I couldn't turn my back on it."
Back in Cumbria after her two years with VSO, Holland roped in her colleagues and friends to help her fundraise. In 2005, when they had collected enough money, she persuaded Miriam Lopus and Rhoda Lodio, two Kenyan midwives she knew from Pokot, to travel to Kendal and meet specialists who campaign against FGM. "I felt midwives were key," she says. "They see the effects of FGM – educating them had to be the way to start.
"They'd never had passports, and they'd never been on a plane. But they came, and I took them to meet doctors at places like Liverpool Women's Hospital, so they could learn more about FGM and its effects."
But the bigger battle, as Holland was aware, lay in convincing the community to put an end to the practice. She returned to Pokot once or twice a year and kept in touch with Nellie, now a mother of two. FGM had led Nellie, as it does for many girls, to early marriage and an end to schooling. (Improving educational opportunities for women will, says Holland, be another ambition of the anti-FGM campaign in the long term.)
Over the years, events were held to educate different sections of the community: including men – which in some ways, says Holland, wasn't too difficult. "Because the men travel more, they're aware of communities in which women aren't mutilated, and they know that women don't have to be circumcised in order to get married."
In 2009, Lopus and Lodio got more than 60 traditional birth attendants from across Pokot together to spread the word about the dangers of FGM. "The idea they came up with," says Holland, "was to put together an alternative rite-of-passage ceremony that didn't involve cutting."
Back home, Holland fundraised for a week-long girls' camp that would end in a public ceremony to initiate 100 young girls into adulthood without FGM. "We were inundated with girls who wanted to attend – and many of them had had a tough time persuading their families that it was the better thing to do than FGM," she says. "In the end we had around 175, all aged between 14 and 20." The camp – which is the subject of a Guardian film – involved workshops and classes about the dangers of FGM, as well as dancing and fun events.
Holland's plan is to hold an annual rite of passage ceremony in Pokot, and fundraise for its costs. "Once the local community is on-side, and there's an alternative way of initiating the girls into adulthood, more and more becomes possible." It's a pretty impressive result for a project whose entire budget, at about £7,000 to date, would barely register in the world of international aid spending.
But Holland, now 61, is unwilling to stop. "Pokot is only one area of one country," she says. "There are many, many others where FGM still goes on. We want to replicate this work in other parts of Kenya, and in other parts of Africa. There's a lot more to be done."
This blog posts any and all news related to Female Genital Cutting (FGC). It tracks only content that discusses FGC as a main subject. The page is designed as a resource for researchers and those who want to keep up to date on this issue without slogging through google alerts or news pages. Original authors are responsible for their content. To suggest content please write to firstname.lastname@example.com. FGC is also called female genital mutilation or FGM; FGM/C; or female circumcision.