Amidah
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the amidah is 19 prayers long even though it is called that shemoneh esrei which means 18
The Amidah ("Standing"), also called the Shemoneh Esrei ("The Eighteen"), is the central prayer in the Jewish liturgy that observant Jews recite each morning, afternoon, and evening. It is also part of the additional (Musaf) service, which is held after the morning Torah reading every Shabbat and on Biblical holidays.
As the prayer par excellence, it is sometimes designated as simply Tefillah (prayer) and consists of a series of blessings, described as 18 in number for daily worship, hence "Shemoneh Esreh," but under scrutiny one finds that there are actually 19 blessings in the Amidah as listed below. The name "Amidah," comes from the fact that the worshipper is commanded to recite it standing. (The Tiferet Yisrael in his commentary - Boaz - explains that it is called "Amidah" because the Amidah helps a person to focus his thoughts. By nature, a person's brain is active and wandering. The Amidah brings everything into focus.) In Orthodox public worship, the Shemoneh Esreh is first prayed silently by the congregation, and if a minyan is present, it is then repeated by the reader aloud, except during the evening service. Conservative and Reform congregations sometimes abbreviate public recitation of the Amidah by saying it once, with the first portion said publicly and the remainder silently. This abridged style is commonly referred to as "Heikhe Kedusha" and is also performed within Orthodox Judaism in certain circumstances.
The first three blessings and the last three constitute, so to speak, the permanent stock, used at every service; while the middle group varies on Shabbat, New Moons, and holy days from the formula for week-days.
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[edit] When Recited
The prescribed times for reciting the Amidah in Jewish services comes from the Council of Yavne determination that the Amidah prayer would be substituted for sacrifices following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E., directly applying Hosea's dictate:
- Take with you words, and return unto the LORD; say unto Him: "Forgive all iniquity, and accept that which is good; so will we render for bullocks the offering of our lips..." (Hosea 14:3).
In Orthodox Judaism, the system of the congregation reciting and repeating the Amidah prayer at prescribed times formally substitutes the sacrifices offered in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, Orthodox Judaism has continued to maintain a close relationship between each public recitation of the Amidah prayer and a specific public sacrifice which it replaces and recalls. Many of the Amidah prayers, particularly the Mussaf prayers, mention the specific sacrifices that would have been offered, and include prayers for their future restoration and the acceptance of prayer in their place. Consistent with its relationship to the rhythm of the sacrificial system of the Temple the Amidah is publicly recited whenever a regular community sacrifice would have been offered in the days of the Temple, and it is recited during the time period that the sacrifice itself would have been offered.
The Amidah is said individually three times daily, in the morning, afternoon, and evening. The daily morning (shacharit) and afternoon (mincha) Amidah prayers, when said publicly (in the presence of a minyan or quorum of 10), are repeated by a chazzan or Reader, denoting the fact these public recitations are congregational responsibilities replacing the communal morning tamid and afternoon mincha offerings. The evening (Maariv) prayer is not repeated, because there was no evening communal offering service in the Temple. Initially, the evening (maariv) Amidah was considered a nonobligatory adjunct to the evening Shema. At a certain point, however, Maariv Amidah became obligatory as well.
On Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath), Rosh Chodesh (Jewish new month), and Jewish Holidays there is a Mussaf (lit. "additional") Amidah, also repeated by the chazzan, to replace the prescribed communal additional offerings for these days. On Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) there are five public recitations to replace the special sacrifices offered that day.
Conservative Judaism retains the traditional number and time periods during which the Amidah must be said, while omitting explicit supplications for restoration of the sacrifices. Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism, consistent with their views that the rhythm of the ancient sacrificial cult should no longer drive modern Jewish prayer, often omit some of the Amidah prayers, such as the Mussaf, omit temporal requirements, and omit references to the Temple and its sacrifices.
[edit] Prayers in the weekday Amidah
The prayers of the weekday Amidah are:
- Known as Avot ("Ancestors") this prayer offers praise of God as the God of the Biblical patriarchs, "God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob."
- Known as Gevurot ("powers"), this offers praise of God for His power and might. This prayer includes a mention of God's healing of the sick and resurrection of the dead. It is called also Tehiyyat ha-Metim = "the resurrection of the dead." Rain is considered as great a manifestation of power as the resurrection of the dead; hence in winter a line recognizing God's bestowal of rain is inserted in this benediction.
- Known as Kedushat ha-Shem ("the sanctification of the Name") this offers praise of God's holiness.
- Known as Binah ("understanding") this is a petition to God to grant wisdom and understanding.
- Known as Teshuvah ("return", "repentance") this prayer asks God to help Jews to return to a life based on the Torah, and praises God as a God of repentance.
- Known as Selichah, this asks for forgiveness for all sins, and praises God as being a God of forgiveness.
- Known as Geulah ("redemption") this praises God as a rescuer of the people Israel.
- Known as Refuah ("healing") this is a prayer to heal the sick.
- Known as Birkat HaShanim ("blessing for years [of good]"), this prayer asks God to bless the produce of the earth.
- Known as Galuyot ("diasporas"), this prayer asks God to allow the ingathering of the Jewish exiles back to the land of Israel.
- Known as Birkat HaDin ("Justice") this asks God to restore righteous judges as in the days of old.
- Known as Birkat HaMinim ("the sectarians, heretics") this asks God to destroy those in heretical sects who slander Jews, and who act as informers against Jews.
- Known as Tzadikim ("righteous") this asks God to have mercy on all who trust in Him, and asks for support for the righteous.
- Known as Bo'ne Yerushalayim ("Builder of Jerusalem") asks God to rebuild Jerusalem and to restore the Kingdom of David.
- Known as Birkat David ("Blessing of David") Asks God to bring the descendant of King David, who will be the messiah.
- Known as Tefillah ("prayer") this asks God to accept our prayers, to have mercy and be compassionate.
- Known as Avodah ("service") this asks God to restore the Temple services and sacrificial services.
- Known as Hodaah ("thanksgiving") this is a prayer of thanksgiving, thanking God for our lives, for our souls, and for God's miracles that are with us every day.
- Known as Shalom ("peace"); the last prayer is the one for peace, goodness, blessings, kindness and compassion.
[edit] Final Benedictions
Prior to the final blessing for peace, the following is said:
- We acknowledge to You, O Lord, that You are our God, as You were the God of our ancestors, forever and ever. Rock of our life, Shield of our help, You are immutable from age to age. We thank You and utter Your praise, for our lives that are delivered into Your hands, and for our souls that are entrusted to You; and for Your miracles that are with us every day and for your marvelously kind deeds that are of every time; evening and morning and noon-tide. Thou art good, for Thy mercies are endless: Thou art merciful, for Thy kindnesses never are complete: from everlasting we have hoped in You. And for all these things may Thy name be blessed and exalted always and forevermore. And all the living will give thanks unto Thee and praise Thy great name in truth, God, our salvation and help. Selah. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, Thy name is good, and to Thee it is meet to give thanks.
The priestly blessing is said at public recitations of the Shacharit Amidah and at the Mussaf Amidah on Shabbat and Jewish Holidays. On public fast days it is deferred to Mincha and on Yom Kippur, to Neilah. It is also not said in a House of Mourning. In Orthodox and some Conservative congregations, this blessing is, at least on certain occasions, said by kohanim (direct descendants of the Aaronic priestly clan. In Ashkenazic practice, the priestly blessing is said only on Jewish Holidays outside the Land of Israel and daily inside the Land of Israel. In Yemenite Jewish synagogues and some Sephardi synagogues even outside of Israel Kohanim chant the priestly blessing daily.
[edit] Concluding Meditation
The custom has gradually developed of reciting, at the conclusion of the latter, the supplication with which Mar, the son of Rabina, used to conclude his prayer (Talmud Berachot 17a):
My God, keep my tongue and my lips from speaking deceit, and to them that curse me let my soul be silent, and like dust to all. Open my heart in Your Torah, and after [in] Thy commandments let me [my soul] pursue. As for those that think evil of [against] me speedily thwart their counsel and destroy their plots. Do [this] for Thy name's sake, do this for Thy right hand's sake, do this for the sake of Thy holiness, do this for the sake of Thy Torah. That Thy beloved ones may rejoice, let Thy right hand bring on help [salvation] and answer me... May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Eternal, my rock and my redeemer.
Mainstream Ashkenazi Orthodox Judaism also adds the following prayer to the conclusion of every Amidah:
May it be your will, O my God and God of my fathers, that the Temple be rebuilt speedily in our days, and give us our portion in your Torah, and there we will worship you with reverence as in ancient days and former years. And may the Mincha offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasing to God, as in ancient days and former years.
It is also customary to add individual personal prayers as part of silent recitation of the Amidah. Rabbi Shimon (Pirkei Avot 2:17) enjoins praying by rote ("But rather make your prayer a request for mercy and compassion before the Ominipresent"). Some authorities encourage the worshipper to say something new in his prayer every time.
[edit] Changes to the Amidah
[edit] Ancient changes
According to the Talmud, the 12th prayer in the modern sequence, the prayer against informers and heretics, was the 19th addition to the original 18, and was said to have been added by the council in Yavneh by Samuel ha-Katan, at the request of Rabban Gamaliel II. Scholars have since uncovered early versions of the Amidah; they hold that it is the 15th benediction that was the later addition. A separate benediction for the resumption of the Davidic Kingdom did not exist in the early Palestinian Jewish liturgy. This issue is discussed in the entry on Amidah in the Encyclopaedia Judaica.
[edit] Special Amidah for Shabbat
The Shabbat Ma'ariv (evening), Shacharit (morning), Mussaf (additional), and Mincha (afternoon) Amidah prayers all have special forms in which the middle 13 supplications are replaced by one, different for each service, so that each of these Shabbat Amidah prayers is composed of seven benedictions. The intermediate portion speaks of the sanctity of the day. It has an introductory portion, which on Sabbath has a different form for each of the four services, and another short portion, which is constant:
Our God and God of our Ancestors! Be pleased with our rest; sanctify us with Your commandments, give us a share in Your Torah, satiate us with Your bounty, and gladden us in Your salvation. Cleanse our hearts to serve You in truth: let us inherit, O Lord our God, in love and favor, Your holy Sabbath, and may Israel, who loves Your name, rest thereon. Praised are You, O Lord, who sanctifies the Sabbath.
On Sabbath-eve, after the congregation has read the "Tefillah" silently, the reader repeats aloud the so-called "Me-'En Sheba'," or summary (Ber. 29, 57b; Pes. 104a) of the seven blessings. The congregation then continues:
Shield of the fathers by His word, reviving the dead by His command, the holy God to whom none is like; who causeth His people to rest on His holy Sabbath-day, for in them He took delight to cause them to rest. Before Him we shall worship in reverence and fear. We shall render thanks to His name on every day constantly in the manner of the benedictions. God of the 'acknowledgments,' Lord of 'Peace,' who sanctifleth the Sabbath and blesseth the seventh [day] and causeth the people who are filled with Sabbath delight to rest as a memorial of the work in the beginning of Creation.
[edit] Special Amidah for Festivals
On festivals a special "Sanctification of the Day" prayer, made up of several sections, repalaces the intermediate 13 blessings in the evening, morning, and afternoon prayers. The first section is constant:
Thou hast chosen us from all the nations, hast loved us and wast pleased with us; Thou hast lifted us above all tongues, and hast hallowed us by Thy commandments, and hast brought us, O our King, to Thy service, and hast pronounced over us Thy great and holy name.
A paragraph naming the special festival and its special character follow.
If the Sabbath coincides with it, special sections are added mentioning both the Shabbat and the festival.
[edit] Mussaf Amidah
On the Shabbat, festivals, and Rosh Hodesh (new month in the Jewish Calendar) a Mussaf (additional) Amidah is said, both silently and repeated by the Reader. The Mussaf service is technically a separate, free-standing service which could potentially be said any time between the shacharit (morning) and mincha (afternoon) services, but today is normally recited immediately after the regular morning service as part of single, but extended, worship session. The Mussaf Amidah begins with the same first three and concludes with the same last three blessings as the regular Amidah. However, in place of the 13 intermediate blessings of the daily service, special prayers are added for the holiday. In Orthodox Services, these prayers recount the special Mussaf sacrifice that was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem on the occasion, and contains a plea for the building of a Third Temple and the restoration of sacrificial worship. The biblical passage referring to the Mussaf sacrifice of the day is included. The Priestly Blessing is said during the Reader's repetition of the Amidah. Outside of the land of Israel, the Mussaf Amidah of major Jewish holidays is the only time the Priestly Blessing is chanted by actual kohanim (priests)
The Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism has devised two forms for the Mussaf Amidah with varying degrees of difference from the Orthodox form. One version refers to the prescribed sacrifices, but in the past tense ("there our ancestors offered" rather than "there we shall offer"). A newer version omits references to sacrifices entirely.
Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism generally omit the Mussaf Amidah entirely.
[edit] Ne'ilah Amidah
On Yom Kippur, a fifth Amidah (in addition to the Ma'ariv (Evening), Shacharit (Morning), Mussaf (Additional), and Mincha (Afternoon) Amidah is recited and repeated at the closing of Yom Kippur. The congregation traditionally stands during the entire repetition of this prayer, which contains a variety of confessional and supplicatory additions. It is also the only time that the Avinu Malkeinu prayer is said on Shabbat, should Yom Kippur fall on Shabbat.
[edit] Mode of prayer
The Babylonian Talmud states:
- Rabbi Alexandri said in the name of Rabi Yehoshua ben Levi: One who has prayed should take three steps backward and afterwards say "Shalom". Rav Mordecai said to him: Once he has stepped three steps backward, there he should remain. Talmud Tractate Yoma 53b.
The Talmud relates that this practice is a reminder of the practice in the Temple in Jerusalem, when the Kohanim (priests), Levites, and Isrealites offering the daily sacrifices would walk backward from the altar after finishing.
In keeping with this statement, and with other remarks in a discussion about how the practice is to be conducted, the current majority practice is for the worshipper to take three steps back and three steps forward before beginning the Amidah. and to take three steps backwards while saying, towards the end "May he who makes peace (shalom) in the heavens may he make peace (shalom) for us and all Israel, and let us say, Amen," so as to end up in the spot where the worshipper began. Afterwards, the worshiper remains standing with the feet together, facing toward Jerusalem, adopting an attitude of quiet devotion. (If one is in Jerusalem he faces towards the Temple Mount.) The words should be audible to the speaker but to no-one else, and should be recited without interruption. Where there is a danger of unavoidable interruption, a shorter form is permissible comprising the first three and the last three benedictions and between them only the petition for understanding.
The Shemoneh Esreh is prefaced by the verse "O Eternal, open my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim Thy praise" (Ps. li. 17).
[edit] Prayers for rain in winter and dew in summer
In prayer number nine, the words "dew and rain" are inserted during the term from the 60th day after the autumnal equinox to Passover. The Sepharadi and Yemenite Jewish ritual has two distinct versions: one for the season when dew is asked for, and the other when rain is expected. The former has this form:
Bless us, our Father, in all the work of our hands, and bless our year with gracious, blessed, and kindly dews: be its outcome life, plenty, and peace as in the good years, for Thou, O Eternal, are good and does good and blesses the years. Blessed be Thou, O Eternal, who blesses the years.
In the rainy season (in winter) the phraseology is changed to read:
Bless upon us, O Eternal our God, this year and all kinds of its produce for goodness, and bestow dew and rain for blessing on all the face of the earth; and make abundant the face of the world and fulfil the whole of Thy goodness. Fill our hands with Thy blessings and the richness of the gifts of Thy hands. Preserve and save this year from all evil and from all kinds of destroyers and from all sorts of punishments: and establish for it good hope and as its outcome peace. Spare it and have mercy upon it and all of its harvest and its fruits, and bless it with rains of favor, blessing, and generosity; and let its issue be life, plenty, and peace as in the blessed good years; for Thou, O Eternal, are good and does good and blesses the years. Blessed be Thou, O Eternal, who blesses the years.
[edit] Extended prayers for rain and dew
On Shemini Atzeret, the traditional beginning of the rainy season in Israel, a special extended prayer for rain is added. On the first day of Passover, the traditional beginning of the dry season in Israel, a special extended prayer for dew is added. Both prayers are recited by the Reader during the repetition of the Mussaf Amidah.
[edit] Changes by Liberal Denominations
Orthodox Judaism has not changed the text of the Amidah in modern times. The most recent known change to the text of the Amidah was done by the Arizal. He formulated a text of the Amidah which seems to be a fusion of the Ashkenazi and Sepharadi text in accordance with his understanding of Kabbalah.
Conservative and Reform Judaism have altered the text to varying degrees to bring it into alignment with their view of modern needs and sensibilities.
Reform Judaism has changed the first benediction, traditionally invoking the phrase "God of our Fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob," one of the Biblical names of God. New editions of the Reform siddur explicitly say avoteinu v'imoteinu ("our fathers and our mothers"), and Reform and some Conservative congregations amend the second invocation to "God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob; God of Sarah, God of Rebekah, God of Leah, and God of Rachel."
Liberal branches of Judaism makes some additional changes to the opening benedictions. the phrase umeivi go'eil ("and brings a redeemer") is changed in Reform Judaism to umeivi ge'ulah ("who brings redemption"), replacing the personal messiah with a Messianic Age. The phrase m'chayei hameitim ("who causes the dead to come to life") is replaced in the Reform and Reconstructionist siddurim with m'chayei hakol ("who gives life to all") and m'chayei kol chai ("who gives life to all life"), respectively. This represents a turn away from the traditional article of faith that God will resurrect the dead.
Prayer 17, Avodah ("service"), asks God to restore the Temple services, build a Third Temple), and restore sacrificial worship. The concluding meditation ends with an additional prayer for the restoration of Temple worship. Both prayers have been modified within the siddur of Conservative Judaism, so that although they still ask for the restoration of the Temple, they remove the explicit plea for the resumption of sacrifices. (Some Conservative congregations remove the concluding silent prayer for the Temple entirely.) The Reform siddur also modifies this prayer, eliminating all reference to the Temple service and replacing the request for the restoration of the Temple with "God who is near to all who call upon you, turn to your servants and be gracious to us; pour your spirit upon us."
Conservative Judaism is divided on the role of the Mussaf Amdidah. More traditional Conservative congregations recite a prayer similar to the Mussaf prayer in Orthodox services, except they refer to Temple sacrifices only in the past tense and do not include a prayer for the restoration of the sacrificial cult. More liberal Conservative congregations omit references to the Temple sacrifices entirely. Reconstructionist and Reform congregations generally do not do the Mussaf Amidah at all, but if they do, they omit all references to Temple worship.
[edit] Linguistic sources
The following analysis may indicate the Biblical passages underlying the Amidah.
[edit] Biblical sources
Benediction No. i.: "Blessed be Thou, our God and the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" recalls Ex. iii. 15 (comp. Mek., Bo, 16). "The high God," Gen. xiv. 19. God "great, mighty, and awe-inspiring," Deut. x. 17 (comp. Ber. 33b; Soṭah 69b). "Creator of all," Gen. xiv. 19. "Bringing a redeemer," Isa. lix. 20. "Shield of Abraham," Ps. vii. 11; xviii. 3, 36; lxxxiv. 10; Gen. xv. 1.
No. ii.: "Supportest the falling," Ps. cxlv. 14. "Healest the sick," Ex. xv. 26. "Settest free the captives," Ps. cxlvi. 7. "Keepest his faith" = "keepeth truth forever," ib. cxlvi. 6 (comp. Dan. xii. 2). "Killing and reviving," I Sam. ii. 6.
No. iii.: "Thou art holy," Ps. xxii. 4. "The holy ones," ib. xvi. 3. "[They shall] praise Thee" = sing the "Hallel" phrase, which is a technical Psalm term and hence followed by Selah <view.jsp?artid=449&letter=S>.
No. iv.: "Thou graciously vouchsafest" is a typical Psalm idiom, the corresponding verb occurring perhaps more than 100 times in the psalter. "Understanding," Isa. xxix. 23; Jer. iii. 15; Ps. xciv. 10.
No. v.: "Repentance," Isa. vi. 10, 13; lv. 7.
No. vi.: "Pardon," ib. lv. 7.
No. vii.: "Behold our distress," Ps. ix. 14, xxv. 18, cix. 153. "Fight our fight," ib. xxxv. 1, xliii. 1, lxxiv. 22. "And redeem us," ib. cix. 154 (comp. Lam. iii. 58).
No. viii.: "Heal," Jer. xvii. 14 (comp. ib. xxx. 17). Maimonides' reading, "all of our sicknesses," is based on Ps. ciii. 3.
No. ix.: Compare ib. lxv. 5, 12; ciii. 5; Jer. xxxi. 14.
No. x.: "Gather our exiles," Isa. xi. 12, xxvii. 13, xliii. 5, xlv. 20, lx. 9; Jer. li. 27; Deut. xxx. 4; Mic. iv. 6; Ps. cxlvii. 2.
No. xi.: "Reestablish our judges," Isa. i. 26. "In loving-kindness and mercy," Hos. ii. 21. "King who lovest righteousness and justice," Ps. xxxiii. 5, xcix. 4; Isa. lxi. 8 (comp. also Isa. xxxv. 10, li. 11; Ps. cxlvi. 10).
No. xii.: The expression "zedim" is a very familiar one of almost technical significance in the "Psalms of the poor" (for other expressions compare Ps. lxxxi. 15; Isa. xxv. 5).
No. xiii.: For some of the words of this benediction compare Jer. xxxi. 20; Isa. lxiii. 15; Ps. xxii. 6, xxv. 2, lxxi. 5, cxliii. 8; Eccl. vi. 9.
No. xiv.: Zech. viii. 3; Ps. cxlvii. 2, lxxxix. 36-37, cxxii. 5.
No. xv.: Hos. iii. 5; Isa. lvi. 7; Ps. l. 23, cxii. 9; Gen. xlix. 18; Ps. lxxxix. 4, 18, 21, 26; xxv. 5; Ezek. xxix. 21, xxxiv. 23; Ps. cxxxii. 17; Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15; Ps. cxxxii. 10.
No. xvi.: Ps. lxv. 3.
No. xvii.: Mic. iv. 11.
No. xviii.: I Chron. xxix. 13; II Sam. xxii. 36; Ps. lxxix. 13; Lam. iii. 22; Ps. xxxviii. 6 (on the strength of which was printed the emendation "Ha-Mufḳadot" for the "Ha-Peḳudot"); Jer. x. 6.
No. xix.: Ps. xxix. 10; Num. vi. 27; Mic. vi. 8; Ps. cix. 165, cxxv. 5.
[edit] Apocrypha of Ben Sira
Analogies in Ben Sira
Verse 1: "God of all" recalls benediction No. i., while 1b is the key-note of the prayer for Rosh ha-Shanah.
Verse 2 contains the word = benediction No. ii.
Verse 3 is a summary of the "Kedushah" = benediction No. iii.
Verse 4 explains the knowledge asked for in No. iv.
Verse 6 accounts for the petition against the enemy, No. xii.
Verse 7 is the prayer for the exiles, No. x.
Verse 8 is the content of the prayer in behalf of the pious, No. xiii.
Verse 9 is the prayer for Jerusalem, No. xiv.
Verse 10 recalls No. xvii.
Verse 11 is clearly related to both Nos. xvi. and xix. Another line begins "Hasten the end-time," which may, by its Messianic implication, suggest benediction No. xv. ("the sprout of David"). If this construction of Ben Sira's prayer is admissible, many of the benedictions must be assigned to the Maccabean era, though most scholars have regardedthem as posterior to the destruction of the Temple.
Instead of for the "judges," Ben Sira prays for the reestablishment of God's "judgments," in open allusion to the Exodus (Ex. xii. 12; Num. xxxiii. 4; Ezek. xxv. 11, from which verse he borrows the name "Moab" as a designation of the enemy in the prayer).
[edit] History of the Amidah
The language of the "Tefillah" would thus point to the mishnaic period, both before and after the destruction of the Temple, as the probable time of its composition and compilation. That the Mishnah fails to record the text or to give other definite and coherent directions concerning the prayer except sporadically, indicates that when the Mishnah was finally compiled the benedictions were so well known that it was unnecessary to prescribe their text and content (Maimonides on Men. iv. 1b, quoted by Elbogen, "Gesch. des Achtzehngebetes"), although the aversion to making prayer a matter of rigor and fixed formula may perhaps have had a part in the neglect of the Mishnah. That this aversion continued keen down to a comparatively late period is evidenced by the protests of R. Eliezer (Talmud Ber. 28a) and R. Simeon ben Yohai (Ab. ii. 13). R. Jose held that one should include something new in one's prayer every day (Talmud Yerushalmi Ber. 8b), a principle said to have been carried into practice by R. Eleazar and R. Abbahu (ib.). Prayer was not to be read as one would read a letter (ib.).
While the Mishnah seems to have known the general content and sequence of the benedictions, much latitude prevailed as regards personal deviations in phraseology, at all events; so that men's learning or the reverse could be judged by the manner in which they worded the benedictions.
The Talmud names Simeon ha-Pa?oli as the editor of the collection in the academy of R. Gamaliel II. at Jabneh. (Ber. 28b). But this can not mean that the benedictions were unknown before that date; for in other passages the "Shemoneh 'Esreh" is traced to the "first wise men" ( ; Sifre, Deut. 343), and again to "120 elders and among these a number of prophets" (Meg. 17b). This latter opinion harmonizes with the usual assumption that the "men of the Great Synagogue" arranged and instituted the prayer services (Ber.33a). In order to remove the discrepancies between the latter and the former assignment of editorship, the Talmud takes refuge in the explanation that the prayers had fallen into disuse, and that Gamaliel reinstituted them (Meg. 18a).
[edit] Edited by Gamaliel II.
The historical kernel in these conflicting reports seems to be the indubitable fact that the benedictions date from the earliest days of the Pharisaic Synagogue. They were at first spontaneous outgrowths of the efforts to establish the Pharisaic Synagogue in opposition to, or at least in correspondence with, the Sadducean Temple service. This is apparent from the haggadic endeavor to connect the stated times of prayer with the sacrificial routine of the Temple, the morning and the afternoon "Tefillah" recalling the constant offerings (Ber. 26b; Gen. R. lxviii.), while for the evening "Tefillah" recourse was had to artificial comparison with the sacrificial portions consumed on the altar during the night.
R. Gamaliel II. undertook finally both to fix definitely the public service and to regulate private devotion. He directed Simeon ha-Pa?oli to edit the benedictions-probably in the order they had already acquired-and made it a duty, incumbent on every one, to recite the prayer three times daily. Under Gamaliel, also, another paragraph, directed against the traitors in the household of Israel, was added, thus making the number eighteen (Ber. iv. 3; see Grätz, "Gesch." 3d ed., iv. 30 et seq.).
Old material is thus preserved in the eighteen benedictions as arranged and edited by the school of Rabban Gamaliel II. The primitive form of most of them was undoubtedly much simpler.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Ismar Elbogen and Raymond P. Scheindlin Jewish Liturgy: A Comprehensive History JPS, 1993
- Louis Finkelstein's article on the Amidah in Jewish Quarterly Review (new series) Volume 16, (1925-1926), p.1-43
- Alvin Kaufner "Who knows four? The Imahot in rabbinic Judaism" Judaism Vol.44 (Winter '95) p. 94-103
- Jules Harlow "Feminist Linguistics and Jewish Liturgy" Conservative Judaism Vol. XLIX(2) Winter 1997, p.3-25
- Joseph Heinemann "Prayer in the Talmud", Gruyter, NY, 1977
- Joseph Heinemann "'Iyyunei Tefilla" Magnes, Jerusalem, 1981
- Paula Reimers, "Feminism, Judaism and God the Mother" Conservative Judaism Volume XLVI, Number I, Fall, 1993
- Joel Rembaum "Regarding the Inclusion of the names of the Matriarchs in the First Blessing of the Amidah" Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards 1986-1990 p.485-490
- Reuven Kimelman "The Messiah of the Amidah: A Study in Comparative Messianism." Journal of Biblical Literature 116 (1997) 313-320.
[edit] External links
- Transliteration of the weekday Amidah, Chabad
- The Amidah Prayer according to kabbalah
- The Prayer of our Fathers Translation of the Amidah with instructions - according to the Mishneh Torah
