Received from Chicago:

As many of you know it is an auspicious time to stay seated by the candles and daven for about half-an-hour...

There are various Minhagim as to which  Tehillim to recite after kindling the Neiros Chanukah.  As noted from various emails received over the past couple of days,  perhaps the most well-known to be recited:

Tehillim 90 (last pasuk - 7 times, as per Ramban) and Tehillim 91 (7 times, as per Rivash) - read 7 times aloud, and once more (8th time), silently. 

Then, Tehillim 30, 33, 67 ,19, 100, 133, 139

R' Levi Yitzchak M'barditchev in the name of the Ramban and the Ba'al Shem Tov - as a segulah for a protection for the coming year.

(Sefer Kedushat Levi L'Chanukahh, Sefer Halichot Yosef 676:4, Yesod V'shoresh Hoavodah 12:1)

Some add- Tehillim kappitel 121, Nishmas Kol
Chai, and Ana B'choach (7 times).
(Sefer Halichos Yosef 676:4, Yesod V'shoresh Ha’avodah 12:1)
 

As per Hakhel: Some additionally recite all of Kepitel 119, and all of the Shir HaMa’alos (120-134). When reciting Chapter 67, some recite it as it is published in the form of a Menorah, ahl pi kabbalah. Finally, some recite the powerful Shiras Chana (Shmuel I, 2:1-10).

May Hashem hear all of our tefillos l'tova.

A Freilichin Chanukah / Chanukah Sameach!

Leah

Chag sameach!

Thank you Nomi for sending this my way:

The Kedushas Levi says that each night of chanuka is mesugal for different things to daven for.
1 st night -not to be lonely or depressed.

2nd night- shidduchim,  shalom bayis

3rd night- good children,happy children, healthy
(Chasam  Sofer says when u cry in front of the candles u can be sure your tefilos are answered)

4th night- 4 imahos
To be a normal  woman, in my 4 walls, of true essence

5th night - chamisha chumshei  torah
Daven your husband should be a talmid chacham children.
By the 5th night more of the menorah is lit up can daven for more light in your life, for a revelation

6th night - simcha
You can have everything and still be sad, so opportunity to daven for simcha.

7th night -happy shabbos

Zmiros ,divrei torah by your seuda. Shabbos is source of all bracha.

8th nignt-mesugal for barren women
8 is above nature,  powerful day to daven.

Kedushas Levi says if you are planning to start something new ,if you start on chanuka it will be blessed.

Happy Chanukah...

Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel zt'l

Jus sharing my favorite picture for Chanukah.

http://www.dailydoseofemuna.com/2013/11/26/chanukah-segulot-powerful-practices/#.VmOm0Xo8KrU

Love, Aviva Rus

Let's Talk About MIRACLES

Call in Sunday!

THE MIRIAM PROJECT WEEKLY GEULA CALL-IN!

Sunday, December 18 at 9:15pm Israel / 2:15pm ET /11:15am PT
Featured guest speaker: Devorah Yaffa Singer, originator of The Lights of Emunah Seminar and G-dDirectTorah.com

Join us for the latest Geula news and spiritual insights from our guest interviewdiscussing: Bringing Geula Through Emunah.

After you dial in at one of the numbers below, be sure to listen for prompt and enter Access Code: 778371#

(Note: Does not work for Kosher Phones)

Dial-in numbers:
Israel: 055-966-1101
U.S.: +1 641-715-0700
Great Britain: +44 330 088 1902
South Africa: +27 87 825 0154

Good SHabbos

A SHIUR BY REBBETZIN TZIPORA HARRIS- about finding light - if you feel yourself in a dark place.

https://youtu.be/yWxvBJ6-19c

Tefila power

644 am New York time.
-----------
On the 9th of Kislev, the mystic sage Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote, something
absolutely colossal will take place in this world, and the worlds above.

Rav Chaim Vital, in the introduction to his work Eitz Hachaim, writes:
*“... the ninth year of yovel arrives and in it the ninth month, and in it
the ninth day, and in it the ninth hour – whereupon all the wheels in the
upper worlds are agitated and [the verse] ‘Your good treasure house upon us
do open’ is fulfilled."*

It is worth your while to do everything in your power during these nine
minutes: pray, give tzedakah, ask others to pray on your behalf - invest
your maximum effort. Take part in this ancient segulah. Join together with
the gedolim. Give tzedaka to suffering families who depend on you to make
it through the month.

Favorite quote from our Chabura last week

"Everyone would seek Hashem if they knew how to settle their minds" Rav Doniel Katz

Your Missing Half

The mazal of the month of Kislev is a keshet.

Bilvavi.net:

The holy kind of keshes (bow, rainbow)is when a person utilizes the power of bakashah (request; prayer) – also rooted in the word keshes. The Sages said, “Tefillah (prayer) does half.” When a person wants something, he is like a half-circle, like a bow - he knows he is not complete, he feels lacking somewhat, and he seeks completion. Thus, when he prays for what he lacks, his prayers accomplish the other “half” that he is missing.

Bakashah is when I realize that I only have half, and I am trying to get the other half. This is what lays behind the concept of tefillah. It is when I have the perspective that I am not remaining in the half that I have; I am hoping to have my other half filled. This is the holy kind of keshes: the power of bakashah, or tefillah.

This is how “keshes” results in “kishut” (adornment, or beautification), which is the good and holy use of keshes. Hashem designed all of Creation in a way that we are all lacking and insufficient, and we need to be completed by other “half” - the Creator. All created beings are incomplete and need to be completed by their other half, which is the Creator. The beauty of Creation, its kishut (beauty), is precisely when the many “halves” of this creation are completed by their other “half”....

The avodah in the month of Kislev, which is about the concept of keshes, is thus to realize that I am but a half, and that I must seek to be completed by my other half.

“There is no generation which does not have in it a righteous person like Moshe”[8] – thus, every Jew can attain a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu’s level, to be “mukash”, to equalize ourselves and align ourselves with our other “half”, Hashem – and in this way, we can merit some degree of Moshe’s level: “the Shechinah speaks from his throat.”

Good Shabbos! Good Chodesh!