There are moments in Judaism that don’t just feel holy. They’re wired into the world as an עֵת רָצוֹן (et ratzon — an auspicious “window” when gates are more open).

Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David take one of the most familiar moments in a Jewish home — הַדְלָקַת נֵרוֹת (lighting Shabbos candles), and reframe it as a spiritual turning point. Not just “a mitzvah to do,” but a moment that pushes away the week, clears the inner noise, and pours light into the home and into the hearts of everyone inside it.'

We explore a stunning teaching on וַתַּעַל שַׁוְעָתָם… מִן הָעֲבוֹדָה (“their cry rose up… from the avodah” — meaning: sometimes the tefillah rises דווקא from the mitzvah you’re doing), the hidden power of tefillah said with simplicity, and why the candle-lighting moment is uniquely given to women — because she is the ikar haBayit (עִיקָר הַבַּיִת — the heart/core of the home).

If you’ve ever felt the Friday pressure, the chaos, the rush… this is a reminder: that exact moment can become the biggest opening of your week.
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Concept of Eis Ratzon
01:27 Pasuk from Parshas Shemos and Biala Rebbe Insight
03:49 Auspicious Times: Bris Milah and Hafrashas Challah
05:27 Channah’s Three Mitzvos and Focus on Candle Lighting
08:02 Personal Story: Lighting Shabbat Candles in Rav Soloveitchik’s Apartment
10:38 Why Candle Lighting Is a Weekly Opportunity for Everyone
12:42 Text Begins: Hadlakat Nerot as a Special Eis Ratzon
15:03 Zohar: Candle Lighting as a Segulah for Holy Children
17:18 Why This Mitzvah Is Given Specifically to Women
19:45 Boi Kallah: The Queen Enters and Darkness Leaves
23:14 Shabbos Candles Illuminate Hearts, Not Just Homes
26:06 Sidduro Shel Shabbos: Chitzonim and Weekday Worries Leave
30:16 Practical Tension: Candles vs Getting to Shul
33:02 Choosing to Believe the Shift Is Happening
35:38 Starting With Gratitude Before Requests
38:01 The Power Given to a Mother at Candle Lighting
41:12 Rabbeinu Bachya: “The Good Woman Is a Reason for Torah”
44:03 Use the Moment: Daven for Shlichus + Nisyonos of This Dor
47:05 Stories of Simple Women Whose Candle Tefillos Built Gedolim
49:21 Continuing the Lesson on Es Ratzon

What if the Yetzer Hara isn’t “randomly” making tefillah hard, but specifically targeting the most powerful kind of tefillah?

Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David learn a striking teaching from the Biala Rebbe: women’s tefillos — especially in shul — don’t just matter… they elevate the entire tzibbur. And that’s exactly why the Yetzer Hara works overtime with excuses, self-talk, and “it doesn’t matter if I’m there” thinking.

We explore the idea of Et Ratzon (especially the power of tefillah in a beit knesset), why tefillat hatzibbur is received differently than tefillat yachid, and the hidden spiritual reality of what happens when women show up and daven from the Ezrat Nashim — even if it’s late, even if it’s messy, even if it’s only a few moments.

A practical, empowering reframing: if the resistance is intense, it’s probably because the impact is real.
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

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Some of the deepest pain a Jewish mother feels is quiet: “I don’t daven like I used to.”

Not because she doesn’t care, but because life is full. Kids. Home. Work. Mental load. A headspace that never fully settles.

In this short, powerful shiur from the Biala Rebbe’s Mevaser Tov, Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David reframe what “real davening” actually is: not only pages, not only a minyan, not only a siddur, but speaking to Hashem in the language of the heart.

Even one simple cry — “Abba… Abba…” — can shake the heavens.

We explore:

• Why the Yetzer Hara convinces women their “simple prayers” don’t count
• How Yehuda’s Vayigash elav teaches “Hashem-conscious” conversation
• The Modzitzer teaching: the ideal tefillah for our generation is like a child who can only say “Abba”
• The wild Midrash where one old woman’s simple request “outworks” an entire public fast

If you’ve ever felt guilt about not davening “properly,” this episode is a breath of truth, and a return to what tefillah always was.

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

Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David go deep into one of the most misunderstood lines in a woman’s siddur: the bracha “She’asani Kirtzono” – “Who has made me according to His will.”

From Yud Tes Kislev to the Baal Shem Tov’s chiddush of pnimiyut haTorah, Rav Shlomo explores the difference between “doing mitzvos” and actually giving Hashem nachas ruach. Why is it possible to keep all the rules and still miss what Hashem really wants? And why is it that women, so often exempt from certain obligations, are the ones most plugged into Hashem’s deeper will?

Along the way, we speak about:

• The gap between “I did my obligation” and “I brought Hashem joy”
• When halachically “permitted” doesn’t mean it’s really Hashem’s will
• How women naturally go above and beyond the letter of the law
• Why so many people were never taught about “nachas” – only about “checklists”
• A new, empowering way to understand “She’asani Kirtzono” as an identity, not an apology

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

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In this week’s shiur in The Power of Women’s Prayers, Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David go deep into one of the quiet superpowers of a Jewish woman: vatranut – the ability to let go, to give in, to choose the bigger picture over being “right.”

Drawing from the Biala Rebbe and the life of Rachel Imeinu, Rav Shlomo explores what really happened the night Rachel gave the signs to Leah, what it means to give up not just comfort but your entire imagined future, and how that mysterious choice planted a spiritual DNA in every Jewish woman until today.

Why do women keep saying “yes” when they could so easily say “I’ve done enough”? Why do they bring more children into the world than the bare halachic minimum? Why do they keep cooking, caring, holding families together long after anyone would say they’re “yotzei”?

In this shiur we learn how those daily acts of letting things slide, forgiving, giving way, and going beyond the letter of the law become the very reason our tefillos break through the locked gates of heaven and why Chazal say: “In the merit of righteous women we were redeemed – and will be redeemed again.”

A shiur of chizuk, validation, and gentle challenge for every woman who’s ever wondered if anyone really sees what she gives up.

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

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Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David go straight into one of the biggest questions in avodas Hashem: How do I actually know what Hashem wants from me?

Building on the Biala Rebbe’s Torah about tefilas nashim, we revisit the difference between time-bound mitzvos and those that aren’t, and what it means that women are p’turot from so many mitzvos aseh shehazman grama, yet so often choose to do far more than they’re technically obligated to.

Through the story of Reb Pinchas ben Yair and the river, the Maharsha, and the Baal Shem Tov, Rav Shlomo opens up a powerful secret: there is something uniquely precious about mitzvos done from ratzon and bechira, not just from “I have to.”

Along the way we touch on Women of the Wall, “equality” vs. ratzon Hashem, and what happens when we start asking not “What do I want Judaism to look like?” but “What did Hashem already tell me He wants, through the Torah?”

This shiur is a deep, nuanced hug to women who feel pulled to do more, and a gentle reminder that the way Hashem created you, your instinct to give beyond obligation, is already one of the clearest places His ratzon is shining in the world.

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

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

Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

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

  Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t