When Shlomo HaMelech says of the Eishes Chayil “לא יכבה בלילה נרה – her candle doesn’t go out at night,” what is that “candle” – and why does it make a woman’s tefillah so powerful?

In this week’s Power of Women’s Prayers, Rav Shlomo Katz continues in the teachings of the Biala Rebbe on tefilas nashim and opens up the inner world of a woman’s everyday mesirus nefesh. From “ותתן טרף לביתה – she gives food to her household” to the sleepless worry of “לא יכבה בלילה נרה,” we learn how a woman’s constant giving is not “just life,” but a living fulfillment of “ואהבת לרעך כמוך – love your fellow as yourself,” and why that becomes the key that opens Sha’arei Shamayim.

Through the story of Abba Chilkiya and his wife, whose rain came in her merit first, and the Arizal’s “הריני מקבל על עצמי מצות עשה של ואהבת לרעך כמוך” before davening, Rav Shlomo shows how women so often live this pasuk in the most simple, practical ways: feeding, clothing, worrying, holding everyone together in “גלות הגוף והנפש.” That hidden Ahavas Yisrael is what makes a woman’s candle – and her tefillah – burn through the night for all of Am Yisrael.

A shiur of chizuk for women, and a gentle wake-up call for men to recognize whose tefillos are quietly holding the world together.
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Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David open a living doorway into תְּפִלַּת נָשִׁים (women’s prayer) and why holy masters refused to daven without a women’s section. With the Biale Rebbe, the Sar Shalom of Belz, and Reb Aharon of Belz, we hear a simple, searing standard: if the gates of prayer feel closed, we must lean on the gates of tears, which never close. And whose tears flow most readily? “נָשִׁים דִּמְעָתָן מְצוּיָה” (women’s tears are near at hand).

We revisit רִבְקָה אִמֵּנוּ (Rivka Imeinu), רָחֵל אִמֵּנוּ (Rachel Imeinu) and חַנָּה (Chana)—the mothers whose inner voice and holy tears became the blueprint of the foundations of prayer. And we learn why certain tzaddikim delayed inaugurations, paused before the amud, or spoke first to the women on Yom Kippur night: because women's prayer lifts the room and with it, all of Am Yisrael.

What you’ll hear:

• Sha’arei tefillah / sha’arei dim’ah (שְׁעָרֵי תְּפִלָּה / שַׁעֲרֵי דִמְעָה): when words stall, tears open
• Stories of Belz & Biale: no ezrat nashim (עזרת נשים)? no davening
• Koach ha-havchana (כֹּחַ הַהַבְחָנָה — holy discernment) → targeted tefillah (תפילה)
• Chana as the source-text for sidrei tefillah (סדרי תפילה)
• How women’s kol (קול — voice) and dim’ah (דמעה — tears) raise the tefillot of the whole tzibbur
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Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David lean into תפילת נשים (women’s prayer) and the secret of the gates that open through a woman’s heart. Building on כֹּחַ הַהַבְחָנָה (discerning what truly matters) sourced in בִּינָה יְתֵירָה (heightened inner understanding) embedded in the feminine dimension, we trace how the Matriarchs teach us to pray in a way that Heaven receives.

With רִבְקָה אִמֵּנוּ (Rivka Imeinu) we revisit “לוֹ וְלֹא לָהּ” (answered to him, not to her) and the Chazal that imply: had she been צַדֶּקֶת בַּת צַדִּיק (righteous-from-righteous), her voice would have been first. With רָחֵל אִמֵּנוּ (Rachel Imeinu) we enter מְבַכָּה, the ongoing tears that Hashem cannot turn away from—“וְשָׁבוּ בָנִים לִגְבוּלָם.” With חַנָּה (Chana) we learn that the foundations of prayer come from a woman who became “וַאֲנִי תְּפִלָּה.” And in the merit of righteous women, the Exodus becomes the root of every redemption.

This shiur invites our daughters, sisters, and mothers to trust their inner voice and aim tefillah at the עִקָּר (the essential), so that their tears, words, and presence open gates for all of Am Yisrael.
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Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David open a tender gate into תפילת נשים: the gift of בינה יתירה—a woman’s inner knowing to separate עיקר (primary) from טפל (secondary). Returning to “לא תירא לביתה משלג כי כל ביתה לבוש שנים,” we hear how “snow” (the Amalek-cold that numbs holy feeling) is disarmed by a woman’s warm feeling for Hashem. With Sarah Imeinu and Rivka Imeinu as living guides, we learn how a mother’s כח הבחנה—her ability to detect what truly matters—clothes an entire home in confidence, prayer, and purpose.

This shiur is an invitation to trust that voice: to aim tefillah at what’s essential, to stop pouring koach into what doesn’t serve, and to let a woman’s daas build a bayit ne’eman from the inside out.

What you’ll hear

• “Lo tira…mi’sheleg” as Amalek’s cooling vs. a woman’s warming fire
• Rav Tzadok & Chazal on בינה יתירה: להבין דבר מתוך דבר in tefillah
• Sarah Imeinu’s clarity (גרש את בן האמה) and why Hashem says “שמע בקולה”
• Rivka Imeinu seeing through appearances: loving Yaakov, reading Esav
• Ikar vs. tafel: blessing your home by investing koach where it counts
• Why women’s tefillah is uniquely targeted—and how it protects “kol beitah”

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Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David open Eshet Chayil: “לא תירא לביתה משלג כי כל ביתה לבוש שנים.” With the Biala Rebbe and Rav Tzadok HaKohen, we uncover a luminous reading: “snow” is the klipah of Amalek that cools holy fire—not by stopping mitzvot, but by whispering that our avodah has no value.

The Eishes Chayil does not fear that snow because her heart is warm with regesh for Hashem; she becomes the ma’amidah who lifts her entire home out of self-belittling and into holy confidence (erech atzmi). When a woman knows her worth before Heaven, she “clothes” her family in warmth—shanim as scarlet, royalty, and living passion—and robs Amalek of his sword.

What you’ll hear:

• Rav Tzadok’s two strategies of the yetzer: rebellion vs. “do it, but it’s nothing”
• Why “snow” = Amalek’s cooling and how Lo Tira defeats it
• Erech atzmi (holy self-worth) as the foundation of avodat Hashem—without pride
• How a woman’s inner fire warms “kol beitah”—husband, children, and community
• Reading Eshet Chayil as living guidance for Elul and the Yamim Nora’im

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Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn from the Biala Rebbe’s Zechut Nashim Tzidkaniyot: what is the ma’alah of a Jewish mother, and why is the mitzvah of pru u’rvu placed on men rather than women?

Through the words of Devorah HaNeviah—“ad shekamti Devorah, shekamti em b’Yisrael”—we discover that a mother’s greatness is not defined by obligation but by being the ma’amidah, the one who holds up the home and sustains the future of Am Yisrael. Chazal teach that davar ha’ma’amid is considered like the mitzvah itself: just as Zevulun upholds Issachar’s Torah, so too every mother upholds the Torah of her children.

The Biala Rebbe reveals that such constant mesirut nefesh—pregnancy, birth, raising children, pouring heart and soul day and night—can never come from tzivui alone. It must flow from ratzon, the innermost will, the same root that fuels women’s tefillah and faith that redeemed us from Mitzrayim and continues to carry our people above nature.

What you’ll hear:

• Why pru u’rvu rests on men halachically, but lives through women spiritually
• How Devorah HaNeviah defined leadership as “being a mother in Israel”
• The halachic principle of davar ha’ma’amid applied to the Jewish home
• Why children are not just “a mitzvah,” but new paths of avodat Hashem
• How women’s ratzon and tefillah sustain Torah itself across generations

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

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Rav Shlomo Katz opens the series on the Power of Women's Prayer by naming a core truth: it’s a great mistake not to know our flaws—but an even greater mistake not to know our ma’alot. Women’s tefillah carries a singular gift—רגש טהור, a refined, honest heart that finds exact words before Hashem.

From the Biala Rebbe’s teachings, we contrast outer “status” with inner worth, and we ask: what really counts in Shamayim? Why does a child’s pure cry uphold the world, and how much more so the mother who brings that cry into being?

We set the stage for the coming weeks: obligation vs. essence, mitzvot aseh she’hazman gerama, and learning the siddur through pnimiyut.

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