Each year at MetroWest Jewish Day School, we are blessed to have students joining at various points in their educational and Jewish educational journeys. Tefilah, Jewish prayer, has a traditional structure that will be similar in any Jewish setting, but there are also differences in what tefilah looks and sounds like in any setting. If your older-than-kindergarten child is joining the school this year, or maybe has been with us for a while but wants to review, you can use the mp3s on this page to get more familiar with how some of the tefilot, prayers, usually sound at MWJDS. I’ll be adding more over the course of the summer, and I’ll try to add them, and arrange them on this page, in the order that our students would learn them starting in Kindergarten and working through the older grades. We’ll start with the first three tefilot our kindergarteners learn, the Shema, Modeh / Modah Ani, and Ma Tovu, and add more bit by bit. We’re having some technical difficulties with having the Hebrew text appear on this blog, so for now, we have transliteration and translation. Hebrew text is hopefully, coming soon.
The Shema – This is one of the central tefilot of the morning (and evening) service. It declares God’s Oneness and that God is special to the Jewish people:
She-ma Yis-ra-el A-do-nai El-lo-hei-nu A-do-nai E-had
Ba-ruch shem ke-vod mal-hu-to le-olam va-ed
Hear, Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai is One
Blessed is God’s holy name – God rules forever
Modeh / Modah Ani – This tefilah thanks God for waking us up in the morning. Because it is said in the singular personal way, it uses either the masculine or feminine form of the Hebrew verb to thank.
Mo-deh / Mo-dah a-ni le-fa-ne-ha Me-lech hai ve-ka-yam
she-he-he-zar-ta bi nish-ma-ti be-hem-lah ra-bah em-mu-na-te-ha
I am grateful to You, living and enduring ruler
that You returned my soul to me with compassion. Your faithfulness is great!
Ma Tovu – This tefilah draws our attention to the beauty that surrounds us as we pray. The words come from the Torah (Numbers 24:5).
Ma to-vu o-ha-le-ha Ya-a-kov, mish-ke-no-te-ha Yis-ra-el
How beautiful are your tents, Jacob, your dwelling places, Israel
The first and last lines of the Amidah – The Amidah is a core tefilah in all the regular Jewish prayer services. It is a long tefilah with text that changes for special occasions, as well as an opportunity for personal silent prayer. The first parts of it that our students learn are the opening line, and the closing prayer for peace.
Opening line: A-do-nai se-fa-tai tif-tach u-fi ya-gid te-hi-la-te-ha
Open, my lips, God, and my mouth will speak your praises
Closing line: O-seh sha-lom bim-ro-mav Hu ya-a-seh sha-lom a-lei-nu ve-al kol Yis-ra-el ve-im-ru a-men.
May the One who makes peace above, bring peace to us, and to all of Israel and let us say amen.
Watch for more Tefilah audio, coming soon.