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 investigates the deeper meaning of the poem Lekhah Dodi. How is it structured? What does the refrain mean? What are the biblical and Talmudic allusions in the stanzas?
• Dena Weiss asks: Why is Shabbat so lonely? How is Shabbat the perfect partner for the Jewish people? And how does this change our understanding of singing Lekhah Dodi?
• Joey Weisenberg shares best practices when leading Lekhah Dodi in community, and samples four tunes of very different styles.