A noted darshan on the subject of prayer
Rabbi Daniel Glatstein is a widely followed American maggid shiur and author, known for drashos that are both deeply sourced and genuinely engaging. He serves a kehillah in the Five Towns and has become popular well beyond it, in part through a large body of recorded shiurim and published works. This series gathers his teaching on one central theme: tefillah, the world of Jewish prayer.
Focusing a set of shiurim on tefillah is a natural fit for his strengths. Prayer is something every Jew does daily yet few fully understand, and it is exactly the kind of familiar subject that opens up dramatically when a skilled darshan brings its background to light. The result is a series that treats the siddur not as routine but as a text worth studying closely.
Understanding the words we say
The heart of these shiurim is meaning — what the words of davening actually say. Rather than treating prayer as a fixed script to get through, Rabbi Glatstein slows down over particular phrases, brachos and passages, asking what they mean, where they come from and why the Sages chose them. A tefillah a person has said thousands of times can suddenly read differently.
That shift is the whole point. When a familiar line of Shemoneh Esrei or a passage of Pesukei D'Zimra is opened up, the davening that follows can feel less mechanical and more like real conversation. These shiurim work to close the gap between saying the words and understanding them, so that tefillah becomes something a person does with kavanah rather than by rote.
Sources woven into an engaging shiur
Rabbi Glatstein is especially known for the way he weaves sources together. A single point about a tefillah may draw on Gemara, Midrash, the classic commentators and strands of machshava and Kabbalah, all braided into one clear line of thought rather than a dry list of references. That richness gives his shiurim real depth while keeping them warm and accessible to a broad audience.
It is a demanding style to deliver well, and it is a large part of his appeal. Listeners tend to come away not only with a fresh understanding of a particular prayer but with a sense of how many layers even a few words of the siddur can carry — the kind of insight that stays with a person the next time those words come up in davening.
Why tefillah is worth this depth
Of all subjects, tefillah may be the one that most rewards this kind of attention. It is the daily meeting point between a Jew and Hashem, and yet its language is easy to let wash by. Shiurim that restore the meaning behind the words touch something a person returns to every single day, which multiplies their impact far beyond a one-time class.
For a family, that makes this series especially practical. Insights into the davening can be shared before Shabbos, taught to children first learning to daven, or simply carried into one's own tefillah the next morning. Rabbi Glatstein's shiurim on tefillah offer a real way to make the most familiar part of Jewish life feel freshly meaningful again.
Finding kosher Torah video for your family
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If your family enjoys teachers like Rabbi Daniel Glatstein, search FilteredTube for the speakers and topics that matter most to you. With a daf yomi shelf, a weekly parsha shelf, topic shelves, audio-only listening for the car, and a kids mode with a PIN, kosher Jewish video is easy to reach — and the approved catalog keeps growing every day.
At a glance
Key takeaways
- Rabbi Daniel Glatstein is a popular maggid shiur and author; this series focuses on tefillah.
- The shiurim open up the meaning behind the words of daily prayer.
- He weaves Gemara, Midrash, commentators, machshava and Kabbalah into one clear thread.
- Understanding tefillah pays off daily, since prayer is a constant part of Jewish life.
- Search FilteredTube for kosher, approved Torah video — the catalog grows every day.