The Baal Shem Tov, or Besht —  the founder of Chasidism — 
met the soul of the Messiah during an ascent to heaven. 
The Besht asked him, "When will the Master come?" 
The Messiah answered, "When your wellsprings break forth to the outside!" 
(from a letter written by the Besht to his brother-in-law about one of his soul ascents) 

The Mommas and the Poppas

A way to add the imahot to the first blessing of the Amidah that respects the covenantal language specific to the fathers and establishes covenantal language for the mothers based on Biblical verses. It's both more explicitly feminist and more halakhically conserving than the usual emendations.

Download the Avot+Imahot blessing with study references (Clear your cache or open in a new window if you ever downloaded an earlier version and want the final version.)

This .pdf is a single page that includes the whole first blessing, the Biblical verses it quotes, and notes about the structure of the b'rakhah and the use of the verses. This liturgy was first studied at JTS during the period when the community was debating how to add the mothers to the Amidah. It was first published in Siddur Chaverim Kol Yisrael. The notes here are more extensive, and more useful, than what appeared in those contexts.

P.S. "The Mommas and the Poppas" is a reference to Marcia Praeger's rap version of Echad Mi Yode'a.

Design in progress © Rabbi David Mevorach Seidenberg 2006