A rebbi of tefillah
Rabbi Heshy Kleinman is a Torah educator whose teaching centers on tefillah — the work of praying with real attention and feeling. He is best known as the author of Praying with Fire, a widely learned sefer that walks a person through the daily effort of turning rote prayer into something alive. The recorded shiurim gathered here carry that same focus, returning again and again to how a Jew can strengthen the connection to Hashem that tefillah is meant to build.
What comes through in his titles is a steady preoccupation with the inner life of prayer: why a personal tefillah matters, how to seal the deal in the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, whether a generation suffers from a connection deficit with Hashem. These are not dry analyses but calls to action, meant to move a listener to daven differently the next morning. His subject, in short, is the everyday avodah of the heart — the part of Yiddishkeit that is easy to say and hard to feel.
Teshuvah and the Days of Awe
A large share of Rabbi Kleinman's teaching clusters around the season of return. He speaks about harnessing the power of teshuvah to build a better year, about the work of the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, and about the learning programs of the Nine Days — the times on the calendar when a person is most ready to change. His approach treats teshuvah less as guilt than as opportunity: a yearly window in which real growth is not only possible but expected.
That practical bent is why his shiurim travel well beyond a single shul. He has spoken at large gatherings — Agudah conventions, Chazaq events — where the aim is to reach many people with one usable idea. The listener is not asked to master a sugya but to take a concrete step: to daven one tefillah with more kavanah, to guard the eyes a little more carefully, to enter the Yamim Noraim with a plan. It is Torah pointed squarely at daily conduct.
Topics for the whole year
Beyond prayer and teshuvah, his recorded classes reach into the wider rhythm of Jewish life — the holidays as they come, questions of hashkafah, and shmiras einayim, the guarding of one's eyes in a world full of things not meant to be seen. These are the pressure points of a frum life today, and he addresses them plainly. The through-line is always the same: how the ideals of Torah become the habits of an ordinary week.
For a family, that makes his shiurim easy to fold into the year. A talk on teshuvah before Rosh Hashanah, a piece on tefillah for a weekday morning, a hashkafah shiur for a quiet Shabbos afternoon — each stands on its own while pulling in the same direction. Someone who has been strengthened by Praying with Fire will recognize the voice immediately: warm, direct, and always aimed at getting a person to actually do the thing being taught.
Finding kosher Torah video for your family
FilteredTube is a kosher video service built for Jewish families — every single video is approved against one written standard before it can appear, with no open feed, no comments, and no surprises. It is a calm, safe place to look for the Torah and Jewish music you love.
If your family enjoys teachers like Rabbi Heshy Kleinman, 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 Heshy Kleinman is best known as the author of Praying with Fire, and tefillah is the heart of his teaching.
- Much of his recorded material centers on teshuvah and the Days of Awe, framed as a yearly chance for real change.
- His shiurim are practical and action-oriented, delivered at large gatherings as well as in shul.
- He also teaches on the holidays, hashkafah and shmiras einayim — the everyday challenges of frum life.
- Search FilteredTube for kosher, approved Torah video — the catalog grows every day.