Reflections on Yom Kippur and the start of the new year

Have you made an resolutions? What are some of the things you would like to see different about this new year?

I want to boost my kevanah, bought a new siddur to help me with that. Will keep working out, need to be in better shape. Need to amp up my learning, added a new chevrusah.

Which siddur Yehudah?

There are two that are very good that I've looked at: The R' Hirsch Siddur, a little hard to follow because the pages are not in line with artscroll, but the commentary is fantastic.

And the Artscroll Extended Siddur (Wasserman Edition I think). The pages match so it's easy to follow, but it has more commentary, and some added stuff in the back. Great siddur. I got the one with the gator leather cover... very nice.

Where did you get that?
I was at the local Chabad house this year for Kol Nidrei and things were much different so it was kinda hard to follow. I don't remember which prayerbook the rabbi was using.

Arik wrote:Where did you get that?
I was at the local Chabad house this year for Kol Nidrei and things were much different so it was kinda hard to follow. I don't remember which prayerbook the rabbi was using.

Chabad davens Ari, so it's different anyways.

You can get the artscroll at ....artscroll.. lol. The R' Hirsch siddur can be found at feldheim and amazon (amazon is preferable due to stock issues).

Cool.

WEll this year I wanna make it a point to devote more time to prayer. There have been times when I started to slack and wasn't putting in enough or was rushing through davening. Also, like what u and I talked about, seek out mitzvot and look for more and more ways to fill each day with as many as possible. Touching on what you and I talked abou the other day with coveting each mitzvah like it was the finest gold.

I think it's one of the most important things we can do: doing for others.

We work hard every day and we don't by and large want or need. There are others around us that always do. If we can't give money, we should devote time - no question. Beatification of the Shul and it's grounds, maintenance of the building (paint, etc.), its' cleanliness, etc.

If we have time to play on our smartphones, we have time to spend an hour a day learning, and half of that a day making someone else happy.

Maybe we should learn gemarah over the phone/skype. What do you think? We could learn Megillah, it's short, a win/win.

No prob...we should also maybe start a daily or weekly Parsha or Gemara discussion thread here...

if we do a weekly gemarah or pasha, it needs to be short and to the point... and open for discussion. gonna be questions... should be in a position to answer them as well.