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Say It Again Sam

In the prayer we say on the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh we ask for a lot of nice things. One of them is Yiras Shomayim. Then a few words later we ask for Yiras Shomayim - again.

Why the repetition and the redundancy. And why do we say the same thing twice. Why? Why?


IMPORTANT NOTE: In the previous post I made the egregious error of saying that Steve Alford played for Ohio State. That is like saying that Winston Churchill was Italian. So even though it has no cosmic signifigance for the sake of my two favorite letters in the alphabet - M and S - I want to set the record straight. Indiana Hoosiers. All the way.

I'm not sports fan but I feel like my vocabulary is fair, so what are "hoosiers"?

I too was bothered by that question. I never thought I'd be doing this but I'm fairly certain that the Artscroll Siddur raises and answers your question, noting that the second occurrence (I believe) is not in רב's formulation in the גמרא. I think it tries to resolve the discrepancy by saying that it based on that which יראת שמים is coupled with in each section. I remember being fairly satisfied with the answer, so have a look-see.

Perhaps this is based on the gemarah that tells us that "hakol bidei shamayim chutz m'yiraat shamayim". Since this is the one thing that G-d will never provide us on a silver platter, maybe repeating our request suggests that we want to acheive yiraat shamayim in any way possible. If it won't be given to us, then we plead that G-d provide us with opportunities to acheive it on our own.

Tyere Will
I take issue with you. Your vocabulary is not just fair - it is the best vocabulary of almost anyone I know!!
Ayain wikipedia erech Hoosiers for more info.
I looked it up in the siddur.


Shkoyach R' Shlomo

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About me

  • I'm Rabbi Ally Ehrman
  • From Old City Jerusalem, Israel
  • I am a Rebbe in Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh.
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