Jewish services: Encyclopedia II - Jewish services - The prayers and their origins

Jewish services - The prayers and their origins

Jewish services - Backgrounds

There are three prayer services each day on weekdays. A fourth additional prayer service (called mussaf, "additional"), is added on Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath) and on major holidays by Orthodox and Conservative congregations. A fifth prayer (ne'ilah), is only recited on Yom Kippur.

According to the Talmud (tractate Taanit 2a), prayer is a Biblical command: "You shall serve God with your whole heart (Deuteronomy 11:13) - What service is performed with the heart? This is prayer". The prayers are therefore referred to as Avodah sheba-Lev (service from in the heart). Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Prayer 1:1) likewise categorises prayer as a Biblical command, but states that the number of prayers or their times are not. This statement is relied upon by the authorities that hold that women, while being required to pray, only need to pray once a day (preferably in the morning), though they can, if they wish, pray all three daily prayers.

The Talmud (tractate Berachoth 26b) gives different reasons why there are three basic prayers.

1. According to one sage, every one of the Patriarchs instituted one prayer: Abraham the morning, Isaac the afternoon and Jacob the evening prayers. This view is supported with Biblical quotes indicating that the Patriarchs prayed at the time mentioned.
2. A second opinion states that each was instituted parallel to a sacrificial act in the Temple in Jerusalem: the morning Tamid offering in the morning for the morning, the afternoon Tamid for the afternoon prayers and the overnight burning of the leftovers for the evening prayers.

Additional Biblical references suggest that King David and the prophet Daniel prayed three times a day. In Psalms, David states: "Evening, morning and afternoon do I pray and cry, and He will hear my voice" (55:18). As in Daniel: "[...] his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he had done before" (6:11).

Jewish services - Text and language

Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Prayer 1:4) relates that until the Babylonian exile, all Jews composed their own prayers. After the exile, however, the sages of the time (united in the Great Assembly) found the ability of the people insufficient to continue the practice, and they composed the main portions of the siddur, such as the Amidah. The language of the prayers, while clearly being from the Second Temple period, often employs Biblical idiom, and according to some authorities it should not contain rabbinic or Mishnaic idiom apart from in the sections of Mishnah that are featured (see Baer).

Jewish law allows for prayers to be said in any language that the person praying understands. Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogues use almost exclusively Hebrew, and use the local language only for sermons and directions; Conservative synagogues use Hebrew for 75% to 100% of the service (depending on the local custom), and the rest is in the local language. Reform synagogues (usually called Temples in North America) use anywhere from 10% to 50% Hebrew; most of the service is in the local language. Sephardic customs vary, but Ladino or Portuguese may be used in smaller or greater parts of the service even in the most traditional and Orthodox communities.

Jewish services - Quorum

Main article: Minyan

Individual prayer is considered acceptable, but prayer with a quorum of ten adults (a minyan) is considered "prayer with the community", and this is the most highly recommended form of prayer. Judaism has traditionally counted only men in the minyan for formal prayer, on the basis that one does not count someone who is not obligated to participate. Since 1973, many Conservative congregations have begun to count women in the minyan as well, although the determination of whether or not to do so is left to the individual congregation. Those Reform and Reconstructionist congregations that consider a minyan mandatory for communal prayer, count both men and women for a minyan.

Jewish services - Concentration

Proper concentration (kavvanah) is considered essential for prayer. There are only certain portions that are invalid a posteriori if they were recited without the required awareness. These are the first line of Shema Yisrael and the first of the nineteen benedictions of the Amidah.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The prayers and their origins", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki