brachos 3, 4, 5, 6: kedusha, daas, teshuva, selicha

kedusha:
chana zipped through kedusha so quickly, i went back afterwards and opened the siddur and asked her about phrases that i thought were odd:

what does kadosh mean?  what does it mean that hashem is kadosh?
chana said she thinks it means special.  i think that's a decent basic understanding.

what does it mean "kedoshim praise you every day?"
chana said the jewish people.

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chana mentioned that she keeps reading shemona esrei without paying attention to what she's saying.  i said, "but we've been doing the meanings of the brachos! doesn't that help?"  she said she forgets to think about them.
i suggested to her that before she start, she envision that she's going to the king's office, where she has an appointment to talk about her needs.

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daas:
chana had a hard time understanding the english for this one.  i showed her the shorashim in hebrew and it was easier: "ladaat" "lehavin."  i asked her why she thought the first bracha was for smartness.  she said: so we don't do stupid things?

it's an added benefit that her name is "chana" which has the same root of "chonen" which is that hashem graciously gives.
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teshuva:
chana was confused and kept thinking this bracha is about forgiveness.  i said a few times that it's asking hashem to help us want to do teshuva.  maybe we should do this one a little more carefully.

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selicha:
chana felt that hashem doesn't forgive so easily.  which is actually interesting, because i felt that if you do teshuva, hashem does forgive.  i'm glad we had this bracha as an opportunity to talk about it a bit.

each bracha took just a couple of minutes.  i do think it would be good to talk a little more about teshuva and selicha.  we didn't have a chance to do them on friday, shabbos, or sunday.  but today chana did it before i asked her to do it.  which reminds me, she only did chazara today but not pesukim chadashim.  we have to do that!