Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.
Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.
When you come to shul. Say the second verse at the door, before you step in:
מַה טֹּבוּ אֹהָלֶיךָ יַעֲקֹב מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל.
How good are your tents, Yaakov, your dwelling places, Israel.
Bilaam said this first (Bamidbar 24:5). The king of Moav had hired him to curse Israel. In the Gemara, Rabbi Yochanan says each of his blessings shows the curse he had in mind. He wanted to say: may they have no shuls and no study halls. What came out was this line.
Bamidbar 24:5; Sanhedrin 105bוַאֲנִי בְּרֹב חַסְדְּךָ אָבוֹא בֵיתֶךָ אֶשְׁתַּחֲוֶה אֶל הֵיכַל קָדְשְׁךָ בְּיִרְאָתֶךָ.
As for me, through Your great kindness I come into Your house. I bow down toward Your holy sanctuary in awe of You.
King David wrote this verse (Tehillim 5:8). Metzudat David (a line-by-line commentary on the Prophets and Writings, from the 1700s) reads it like this: because of the great kindness You will do for me, I will come to Your house to bow. And I bow "in awe of You," not to show off in front of people.
Tehillim 5:8; Metzudat David thereיְיָ אָהַבְתִּי מְעוֹן בֵּיתֶךָ וּמְקוֹם מִשְׁכַּן כְּבוֹדֶךָ.
Hashem, I love the house where You live, and the place where Your glory dwells.
Abaye, one of the great sages of the Gemara, said this verse changed his routine: "At first I used to study at home and pray in shul. Once I heard what David said, 'Hashem, I love the house where You live,' I studied in shul."
Megillah 29aוַאֲנִי אֶשְׁתַּחֲוֶה וְאֶכְרָעָה אֶבְרְכָה לִפְנֵי יְיָ עֹשִׂי.
As for me, I will bow down and bend low. I will kneel before Hashem, my Maker.
The one line here that is not an exact quote. Tehillim 95:6, in the first psalm of Kabbalat Shabbat, says "Come, let us bow down." The siddur made it "I." Radak (a Bible commentator in Provence, about 1200) explains the three verbs as three bows: flat on the ground, bending head and body, and down on your knees.
Tehillim 95:6; Radak and Rashi thereוַאֲנִי תְפִלָּתִי לְךָ יְיָ עֵת רָצוֹן אֱלֹהִים בְּרָב חַסְדֶּךָ עֲנֵנִי בֶּאֱמֶת יִשְׁעֶךָ.
As for me, my prayer is to You, Hashem. Let this be a time of favor. God, in Your great kindness, answer me with Your true rescue.
The Gemara asks what "a time of favor" means in this verse. Its answer: the time when the congregation is praying. You will meet this verse again on Shabbat afternoon, right before the Torah is taken out.
Berakhot 8a; Tur, Orach Chaim 292Do not walk straight in. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short guide to daily Jewish law, from the 1860s) says to stop at the door for a moment, say the second verse, "As for me, through Your great kindness I come into Your house," which is like asking permission, and only then walk in.
Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 12:11; Mishnah Berurah, opening of chapter 46Balak, the king of Moav, hired a non-Jewish prophet named Bilaam to curse the Jewish people, who were camped at the edge of his land. Three times Balak set him up to curse. Three times a blessing came out. "How good are your tents" is from the third. Balak was furious: "I called you to curse my enemies, and you have blessed them three times." So the first words you say in shul were first said by a man who was hired to curse us.
Bamidbar 22:6, 24:5, 24:10The Torah says he looked up and saw Israel camped tribe by tribe. The Gemara asks what he noticed: the tent doors did not face each other. Rashi (the classic commentator, France, 1000s) adds why: no one could look into a neighbor's tent. Bilaam said: people like this deserve to have God's presence rest on them. The Gemara makes this the source for a law: in a shared courtyard you may not open a door facing your neighbor's door. It is also Rashi's first explanation of what "how good are your tents" is praising.
Bava Batra 60a; Rashi on Bamidbar 24:2 and 24:5Nobody sat down and wrote Mah Tovu. It is five verses collected from different places: one from the Torah (Bamidbar 24:5) and four from Tehillim (5:8, 26:8, 95:6 and 69:14). An early version is in Siddur Rashi, a prayer guide from the school of Rashi in France, about 900 years ago. It lists verses to say when you walk into shul: four of our five, plus several more, in a different order. It opens with "Va'ani berov chasdecha." Mah Tovu comes third.
Siddur Rashi 417The fourth line comes from Tehillim 95, the psalm that opens Kabbalat Shabbat. There it says: "Come, let us bow down and bend low, let us kneel before Hashem our Maker." In Mah Tovu every "we" became "I": "As for me, I will bow down and bend low, I will kneel before Hashem my Maker." The Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, a commentator in Provence around 1200) explains the three verbs as three different bows: flat on the ground, bending the head and part of the body, and down on your knees.
Tehillim 95:6; Radak on Tehillim 95:6The second line says: "As for me, through Your great kindness I come into Your house." Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra (a Spanish commentator, 1100s) reads it as David showing up with empty hands. Someone bringing first fruits to the Temple brought the gift and then bowed. David says: I have no offering. All I have is thanks for Your great kindness to me. And I have nothing to bow with except my awe of You.
Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 5:8"Va'ani tefilati," the last line, is also said at Mincha on Shabbat, before the Torah is taken out. The Tur (a code of Jewish law from the 1300s) explains why with a midrash. In Tehillim, the verse just before it says: "Those who sit at the gate talk about me, and drinkers sing songs about me." Then comes our line: "As for me, my prayer is to You." The midrash hears David saying to God: even though we have been drinking, here I am, praying to You.
Tur, Orach Chaim 292; Tehillim 69:13A famous rabbi had the same problem. Rabbi Shlomo Luria, known as the Maharshal, was a leading rabbi in Poland in the 1500s. He wrote that when he came to shul in the morning he skipped the first line, Mah Tovu, and started from the second. His reason: Bilaam said it, and Bilaam meant it as a curse. He added that this is not the place for it.
He was pointing to the Gemara. Rabbi Yochanan says that from Bilaam's blessings you can tell what he wanted to say. He wanted to say that the Jewish people should have no shuls and no study halls. What came out was "How good are your tents, Yaakov." He wanted to say that God's presence should not rest on them. What came out was "your dwelling places, Israel."
The same passage also has something on the other side. Rabbi Abba bar Kahana says that over time, all of Bilaam's blessings turned back into the curses he had in mind, except one: the shuls and study halls. He learns it from the Torah's own summary of the story: "Hashem your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because Hashem your God loves you." It says curse, not curses. Only one stayed a blessing for good.
The Gemara also reports that the Sages (the rabbis of the Mishnah and Gemara) wanted to add the whole Torah section about Balak and Bilaam to the daily Shema. They did not, because it would have been too much of a burden on the community. The reason given is length, not who said the words.
In practice, the siddurim kept the line. The Eliyah Rabbah (a commentary on Jewish law from around 1700) records both sides: the siddurim say to begin with Mah Tovu, and the Maharshal skipped it. It does not answer his objection. So there are two approaches, and the common one is to say it. On Rabbi Abba bar Kahana's reading, the line you open with is the one curse that failed for good.
Teshuvot Maharshal 64,Sanhedrin 105b,Devarim 23:6,Berakhot 12b,Eliyah Rabbah, Orach Chaim 46:10The last line of Mah Tovu asks for "a time of favor." On the plain level, David is asking for good timing. Rashi reads it: may the time of my prayer be a time of favor. The Radak reads it: I pray to You all the time, and maybe one of those times will be a time of favor.
The Gemara gives the phrase a specific address. Rabbi Yitzchak once asked Rav Nachman why he had not come to shul to pray. "I couldn't," said Rav Nachman. Then gather ten people at your house, said Rabbi Yitzchak. "That is too much trouble for me." Then ask the prayer leader to let you know when the community is praying, so you can pray at the same time.
Rav Nachman asked: why all this? Rabbi Yitzchak answered with a teaching on our verse: "As for me, my prayer is to You, Hashem, at a time of favor." When is a time of favor? When the community is praying. A few lines later the Gemara adds that God does not reject the prayer of the many.
The third line of Mah Tovu gets similar treatment. Abaye, one of the best-known teachers in the Gemara, said: at first I studied at home and prayed in shul. Once I heard what David said, "Hashem, I love the house where You live," I began to study in shul as well.
Some statements go further. Abba Binyamin says a person's prayer is heard only in shul. When the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) turns this into practice, it says a person should make an effort to pray in shul with the community. Someone who cannot get there should try to pray at the time the community is praying. That is the same advice Rabbi Yitzchak gave Rav Nachman.
So on the Gemara's reading, the "time of favor" in the last line is not something you wait around for. It is the time the community prays, which is what you are walking into.
Rashi and Radak on Tehillim 69:14,Berakhot 7b-8a,Megillah 29a,Berakhot 6a,Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 90:9The words in Mah Tovu are big: Your house, Your holy sanctuary, the place where Your glory dwells. You might be saying them in a school gym or a classroom.
Start with who said them first. Three of the five lines come from psalms of David. David never saw the Temple. God told him that his son would be the one to build it. The Radak explains that when David says "Your house," he means the house where the Ark was. Once David brought the Ark to Jerusalem, it stood inside a tent he had put up for it. Put the two together, and the "house" David loved was a tent.
Later, when Jews were exiled to Bavel (Babylonia), the prophet Yechezkel quoted God: "I have been a small sanctuary for them in the lands where they have come." Rabbi Yitzchak, in the Gemara, says what that small sanctuary is: the shuls and study halls of Bavel.
The Gemara reads Bilaam's line the same way: his "tents" are shuls and study halls. Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno (an Italian commentator, 1500s) spells it out. The tents are the study halls. The dwelling places are the shuls, set aside for God's name to rest there and for prayers to be received.
One more detail. The second line says "I bow down toward Your holy sanctuary," not "in" it. The Radak comments that a person who bows to God faces the sanctuary and bows in its direction. The Gemara makes that a rule for prayer everywhere: outside Israel you face the Land of Israel, in Israel you face Jerusalem, and in Jerusalem you face the Temple. The result, it says, is that all of Israel end up directing their hearts to one place.
A tent counted for David. On Rabbi Yitzchak's reading, a shul in Bavel counts as a small sanctuary.
Radak on Tehillim 5:8 and 26:8,Shmuel II 6:17 and 7:13,Yechezkel 11:16,Megillah 29a,Sanhedrin 105b,Sforno on Bamidbar 24:5,Berakhot 30aShort ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.
The Gemara (Sanhedrin 105b) says that all of Bilaam's blessings later turned back into curses, except one: the shuls and study halls, which is how it reads "How good are your tents." The Maharal of Prague (a major Jewish thinker who died in 1609) explains why this one lasted: of everything Bilaam said, no blessing belongs to Israel as much as this one. Now read the first line again.
אין ברכה יותר מיוחדת ושייכת לישראל כמו ברכה זאת... לא נהפכה הברכה שהיא שייכת לישראל לגמרי, ולא חזרה לקללה
Maharal, Netzach Yisrael, chapter 59, on Sanhedrin 105bRav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) notices that the verse has two words for a home that can travel. A tent stands for moving: the drive to keep changing and climbing. A mishkan, a dwelling, stands for the rest between one move and the next. A person needs both, he says, and each has its own fear. One is the fear of sliding down, which keeps you climbing. The other is the fear of pushing past what fits you and losing the calm that all good rests on. When the two come together, we say in wonder: "How good."
האוהל מסמן את היסוד המטלטל... והמשכן מסמן... את היסוד המנוחתי שיש בין מסע למסע
Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Mah TovuRabbi Chaim Vital wrote down the teachings of his teacher, the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Kabbalist of Tzfat, who died in 1572). One of them is about how to enter a shul. Do not just walk in. Stop in the doorway for a moment first, and show that you are in awe, even shaken, at entering the palace of the King of the world. He writes that this helps a person a great deal. Then say "Through Your great kindness I come into Your house" while you are still at the door, and only then go in.
הנכנס לבה"כ צריך ליזהר מאד להתעכב מעט בפתח קודם שיכנס ולהראות עצמו ירא וחרד ומזדעזע לכנס בהיכל מלכו של עולם
Arizal, Sha'ar HaKavanot, on entering shulThe Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) says a person should not enter a shul without first consulting Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, because they are the ones who set up prayer before God. It finds all three in the verse said on the way in. "Through Your great kindness I come into Your house" is Avraham. "I bow down toward Your holy sanctuary" is Yitzchak. "In awe of You" is Yaakov. Include them first, the Zohar says, and then go in and pray.
לָא לִבָּעֵי לֵיהּ לְבַר נָשׁ לְעָאֳלָא לְבֵי כְּנִישְׁתָּא אֶלָּא אִי אַמְלִיךְ בְּקַדְמִיתָא בְּאַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק וְיַעֲקֹב, בְּגִין דְּאִנּוּן תְּקִינוּ צְלוֹתָא לְקָמֵי קוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא.
Zohar, Introduction (1:11a)Rav Kook says it plainly: a person is full of changing feelings and states of mind, and is not always able to be fully present in prayer. He adds that this is how God made the soul. So we know the worth of the moments when we do feel fully ready, and we call such a moment "a time of favor," the words of the last verse here. He ends with the Gemara's line (Berakhot 8a): when is a time of favor? When the community is praying. One person, he writes, is made ready by the prayer of the many around them.
אין האדם, המלא תמיד שינויים, ותמורות של רגשות... מוכן תמיד להיות מתעצם בתפלה
Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Mah TovuThe practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.
The second verse, Va'ani berov chasdecha ("through Your great kindness I come into Your house"), belongs at the door. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short guide to daily Jewish law, 1860s): pause there, say it, "which is like asking permission," then enter. The Mishnah Berurah (a central law commentary, around 1900) agrees. Its source quotes Rabbi Chaim Vital, a Kabbalist of Tzfat in the 1500s: saying it once you are inside is a mistake. Seder HaYom (a guide to the Jewish day, 1599): then go in and say Mah Tovu.
Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 12:11; Mishnah Berurah, opening of chapter 46; Sha'arei Teshuvah, Orach Chaim 46:1; Seder HaYomOne major authority did. The Maharshal (Rabbi Shlomo Luria, Poland, 1500s) wrote that he began with the second verse and skipped Mah Tovu, "which Bilaam said, and he said it as a curse." He skipped the last verse too, saying it belongs only where the Sages set it, at Mincha on Shabbat. The Eliyah Rabbah (a law commentary by Rabbi Eliyahu Shapira of Prague, around 1700) quotes him, but first records the practice: say Mah Tovu, "as written in the siddurim." This siddur prints all five verses.
Maharshal, Responsa 64; Eliyah Rabbah, Orach Chaim 46:10Several sources say to bow when you come in. Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote, in the name of his teacher the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Kabbalist of Tzfat, who died in 1572): on entering, bow toward the ark. Sha'arei Teshuvah (a commentary printed with the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) and the Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) both quote it. Seder HaYom has you stand facing the ark and say verses about bowing. In these sources the bow comes as you enter, facing the ark.
Sha'ar HaKavanot; Sha'arei Teshuvah, Orach Chaim 46:1; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 25:25; Seder HaYomThe Kaf HaChaim, following the Arizal, applies Va'ani berov chasdecha to every time you come to shul to pray: morning, afternoon and night. Leaving has a line too. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch): on your way out say Hashem necheni ("Hashem, lead me in Your righteousness"), bow, and leave. It is the next verse in Tehillim 5. Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers, Spain, about 1340) counts the two verses together: 18 words, like the 18 blessings of the Amidah.
Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 25:25; Rema, Orach Chaim 132:2; Abudarham, Laws of Blessings, Gate 8The Shulchan Aruch says to put on tefillin at home and walk to shul "dressed in tzitzit and crowned with tefillin." If the streets make that a problem, says the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, put them on in the shul's entrance hall. Some go further. The Ben Ish Chai (a law book by Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, 1890s) rules: on a weekday, do not say Va'ani berov chasdecha unless you have tefillin on. On Shabbat and Yom Tov you say it. The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code, around 1900) says this only of the verse's second half.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 25:2; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 12:11; Ben Ish Chai, Year 1, Miketz 3; Aruch HaShulchan 93:8The Shulchan Aruch rules that it is a mitzvah to run when you are going to shul, even on Shabbat, when long strides are otherwise forbidden. The Mishnah Berurah adds: all the more so, do not stop on the way to chat with a friend, which is how people miss Barchu and Kedushah. The running ends at the door. Inside, it says, running is forbidden and you walk in awe. The Ben Ish Chai says to hurry in a way that will not get you laughed at. On the way out, the Shulchan Aruch forbids running.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 90:12; Mishnah Berurah 90:40-41; Ben Ish Chai, Year 1, Miketz 2The Shulchan Aruch: "Go in the distance of two doorways, and then pray." It gives three explanations. Do not sit right by the door, as if being in shul were a burden (your regular seat is fine). Or: by a door that opens to the street, you look out and cannot concentrate. Or: do not start praying the second you walk in. It concludes that it is right to keep all three in mind. The Mishnah Berurah adds that shuls are built with an entrance hall for this reason, and that it is better to pray inside the shul itself.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 90:20; Mishnah Berurah 90:61-62אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: מִבִּרְכָתוֹ שֶׁל אוֹתוֹ רָשָׁע אַתָּה לָמֵד מָה הָיָה בְּלִבּוֹ. בִּיקֵּשׁ לוֹמַר שֶׁלֹּא יְהוּ לָהֶם בָּתֵּי כְנֵסִיּוֹת וּבָתֵּי מִדְרָשׁוֹת: ״מַה טֹּבוּ אֹהָלֶיךָ יַעֲקֹב״... אָמַר רַבִּי אַבָּא בַּר כָּהֲנָא: כּוּלָּם חָזְרוּ לִקְלָלָה, חוּץ מִבָּתֵּי כְנֵסִיּוֹת וּמִבָּתֵּי מִדְרָשׁוֹת.
Rabbi Yochanan said: From that wicked man's blessing you can learn what was in his heart. He wanted to say that they should have no shuls and no study halls, [and what he said was] "How good are your tents, Yaakov"... Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: All of them turned back into a curse, except the shuls and the study halls.
וְלֹא־אָבָה ה׳ אֱלֹהֶיךָ לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶל־בִּלְעָם וַיַּהֲפֹךְ ה׳ אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְּךָ אֶת־הַקְּלָלָה לִבְרָכָה כִּי אֲהֵבְךָ ה׳ אֱלֹהֶיךָ
But Hashem your God would not listen to Bilaam. Hashem your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because Hashem your God loves you.
״וַיִּשָּׂא בִלְעָם אֶת עֵינָיו, וַיַּרְא אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל שֹׁכֵן לִשְׁבָטָיו״, מָה רָאָה? רָאָה שֶׁאֵין פִּתְחֵי אׇהֳלֵיהֶם מְכֻוּוֹנִין זֶה לְזֶה, אָמַר: רְאוּיִן הַלָּלוּ שֶׁתִּשְׁרֶה עֲלֵיהֶם שְׁכִינָה.
"Bilaam looked up and saw Israel camped tribe by tribe." What did he see? He saw that the openings of their tents did not face each other. He said: These people deserve to have God's presence rest on them.
ובבוקר כשאני בא לב"ה מתחיל אני בפסוק ואני ברוב חסדיך ומדלג הפסוק הראשון מה טובו אהלך שאמרו בלעם ואף הוא אומרו לקללה
In the morning, when I come to shul, I begin with the verse "As for me, through Your great kindness," and I skip the first verse, "How good are your tents," because Bilaam said it, and he said it as a curse.
כשנכנס אדם לבית הכנסת, קודם שיאמר פסוקי דזמרה מתחיל פסוקים הללו, ואומר ואני ברוב חסדך אבוא ביתך וגו'... ואני תפילתי לך ה׳ עת רצון וגו'... מה טובו אהליך יעקב וגו'... ה׳ אהבתי מעון ביתך וגו'
When a person enters the shul, before he says Pesukei DeZimra (the psalms of praise that open the morning service), he begins with these verses: "As for me, through Your great kindness I come into Your house..." "As for me, my prayer is to You, Hashem. Let this be a time of favor..." "How good are your tents, Yaakov..." "Hashem, I love the house where You live..."
בֹּאוּ נִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה וְנִכְרָעָה נִבְרְכָה לִפְנֵי ה׳ עֹשֵׂנוּ
Come, let us bow down and bend low, let us kneel before Hashem our Maker.
שהוא בא אל בית השם ואין עמו מנחה להשתחות בהיכלו... והנה הטעם: אין לי מנחה רק להודות ברוב חסדך עלי... אין לי במה אשתחוה רק ביראתי ממך
He comes to God's house and has no offering with him to bow with in His sanctuary... The meaning is: I have no offering, only thanks for Your great kindness to me... I have nothing to bow with except my awe of You.
וּבְבוֹאוֹ לִפְנֵי הַפֶּתַח, יִשְׁהֶה מְעַט שֶׁלֹּא יִכָּנֵס בְּפֶתַע פִּתְאֹם, וְיֵרָתַע וְיִפְחַד מֵהֲדַר גְּאוֹנוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ שְׁמוֹ, וְיֹאמַר הַפָּסוּק וַאֲנִי בְּרֹב חַסְדְּךָ וְגוֹ', שֶׁהוּא כְּמוֹ נְטִילַת רְשׁוּת, וְאַחַר כָּךְ יִכָּנֵס
When he comes to the door, he should wait a little, so that he does not walk in all of a sudden. He should feel awe before God's majesty and say the verse "As for me, through Your great kindness," which is like asking permission. Then he goes in.
מַאי דִּכְתִיב ״וַאֲנִי תְפִלָּתִי לְךָ ה׳ עֵת רָצוֹן״. אֵימָתַי עֵת רָצוֹן, בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁהַצִּבּוּר מִתְפַּלְּלִין.
What does the verse mean, "As for me, my prayer is to You, Hashem, at a time of favor"? When is a time of favor? When the community is praying.
״וָאֱהִי לָהֶם לְמִקְדָּשׁ מְעַט״, אָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק: אֵלּוּ בָּתֵּי כְנֵסִיּוֹת וּבָתֵּי מִדְרָשׁוֹת שֶׁבְּבָבֶל... אָמַר אַבָּיֵי: מֵרֵישׁ הֲוַאי גָּרֵיסְנָא בְּבֵיתָא וּמְצַלֵּינָא בְּבֵי כְנִישְׁתָּא, כֵּיוָן דִּשְׁמַעִית לְהָא דְּקָאָמַר דָּוִד: ״ה׳ אָהַבְתִּי מְעוֹן בֵּיתֶךָ״, הֲוַאי גָּרֵיסְנָא בְּבֵי כְנִישְׁתָּא.
"I have been a small sanctuary for them." Rabbi Yitzchak said: These are the shuls and study halls of Bavel... Abaye said: At first I would study at home and pray in shul. Once I heard what David said, "Hashem, I love the house where You live," I would study in shul.
Torah Tech is a beit midrash in Tel Aviv built for personal and professional growth: Torah learning at the center of every day, and internships at Israeli startups. It is the year a future Jewish leader realizes who he can become, and chooses to become it.