Mechon Hadar's Tefillah Toolkit takes a prayer or a section of a service from Jewish liturgy and explores it from three perspectives: content, meaning, and music. Together as a package, we explore what the prayer is about, what it means to pray it, and how to get a community praying it together.

In this issue:

• Elie Kaunfer discusses the history and structure of Ashrei, and understands why two of the verses break the pattern, in order to reinterpret the Thirteen Attributes.  
• Dena Weiss brings an image about what it's like to praise God and human beings as counting and spending coins.
• Joey Weisenberg talks about the role of Pesukei De-Zimrah in davening and teaches his own tune for Ashrei.