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 role of repetition in Hallel. How was it historically recited? Why do we repeat every line at the end of Psalm 118? What does it mean to pray through repetition?
• Dena Weiss asks: With all the dramatic contrasts in Hallel—that God takes us from death to life, and slavery to freedom—why is the contrast of night and day never mentioned?
• Joey Weisenberg teaches a tune for the end of Psalm 114 of his own composition.