בראשית כח, (י) וַיֵּצֵא יַעֲקֹב מִבְּאֵר שָׁבַע וַיֵּלֶךְ חָרָנָה: יא: וַיִּפְגַּע בַּמָּקוֹם וַיָּלֶן שָׁם כִּי-בָא הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ וַיִּקַּח מֵאַבְנֵי הַמָּקוֹם וַיָּשֶם מְרַאֲשֹׁתָיו וַיִּשְׁכַּב בַּמָּקוֹם הַהוּא
So Yakov, on his way to Haran to find a wife or two, sees that it’s getting dark. Like any self-respecting gever of Hebrew extraction, he grabs a stone for a pillow and lays down to sleep. His famous ladder dream is the next thing to occur, but we’ll stop here, because what I want to think about isn’t the dream but the timing. It’s getting dark, so he lies down and has a dream in which God speaks to him. This is the reason that we have תפילת ערבית (Eve. Prayer) to this day.
There is an additional reason for our evening prayer-time, that being that according to Deuteronomy, we’re supposed to recite something when we lie down and when we stand up, or as some rabbis suggested, maybe it’s that were supposed to recite it in a position of lying down and a position of standing up. But whatever וּבְשָׁכְבְּךָ וּבְקוּמֶךָ means, it is pretty clear from the Deuteronomy passage that what we’re supposed to recite twice a day is not a prayer, but rather, instructions. Oh well. We don’t always get it exactly right, but according to one school of thought in our tradition, it is our kavvanah that is most important, and we do try to have kavvanah.
Our prayer services became required only after the destruction of the Temple, when it was impossible to engage in the old way of serving God, through sacrifices. The Shacharit and Minchah services were correlated to the daily Temple sacrifice, but `Aravit had no direct correlation because there was no regular evening sacrifice. That created a problem because of the Rabbinic understanding that וּבְשָׁכְבְּךָ וּבְקוּמֶךָ referred to prayer morning and evening.
But the evening obligation was at first restricted to the recitation of the Shema, not the `Amidah. Remember that the `Amidah was and is the essential core of the prayer service, what is also called התפילה, or the “tefillah” par excellance. The question was raised whether `Arvit is a required service (חובה) or discretionary (רשות), and a nasty argument ensued between Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabban Gamliel, that ended in a near-brawl in the Sanhedrin, as recorded in Berakhot 27b. It was determined that the `Amidah of ערבית would remain רשות, but eventually became obligatory by custom, partially on the strength of Psalm 55:18, which goes like this:
יז אֲנִי אֶל-אֱלֹהִים אֶקְרָא וַיהֹוָה יוֹשִׁיעֵנִי: יח עֶרֶב וָבֹקֶר וְצָהֳרַיִם אָשִיחָה וְאֶהֱמֶה וַיִּשְׁמַע קוֹלִי
The JPS Translation of this is: “As for me, I call to God; the Lord will deliver me. Evening, morning and noon, I complain and moan, and He hears my voice.” Note here that there is no mention of the prayer-words, מתפלל, or מתחנן (תפילה, תחינה).
The `Evening prayer was also justified by Daniel 6:11:
וְזִמְנִין תְּלָתָה בְיוֹמָא הוּא בָּרֵךְ עַל-בִּרְכוֹהִי וּמְצַלֵּא וּמוֹדֵא קֳדָם אֱלָהֵהּ...,
This text provides great authority to require prayer three times daily. But half the verse was ignored. That is, we’re not required to pray on our knees on the basis of this verse, which in English reads …three times a day he knelt down on his knees, prayed, and made confession to his God...
Since the rabbis could never be sure whether davvening the `amidah during the aravit service was required or obligatory, they came to a compromise, only requiring a single silent recitation without a repetition. And that’s why we don’t have a repetition of the `Amidah of ערבית to this day.
Eventually, the three prayer services were associated with the three Patriarchs, each of which was supposed to have instituted one prayer service.
שחרית: Abraham (Gen.19:27):
וַיַּשְׁכֵּם אַבְרָהָם בַּבֹּקֶר אֶל-הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר-עָמַד שָׁם אֶת-פְּנֵי יְהוָֹה:
“…where he had stood before the Lord.”
מנחה: Isaac (Gen.24:63): וַיֵּצֵא יִצְחָק לָשֹוּחַ בַּשָּׂדֶה לִפְנוֹת עָרֶב
“And Isaac went out walking in the field toward evening.” Isaac wasn’t praying in this scene at all. This is actually when he first spotted Rivkah. Isaac wasn’t known much for praying, understandably, I suppose.
ערבית: Jacob (Gen.28:11):
וַיִּפְגַּע בַּמָּקוֹם וַיָּלֶן שָׁם כִּי-בָא הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ...
This is, of course, our verse that I just read to you, when Jacob lay down intending to sleep, not to have God address him.
There seems to have been disagreement among the rabbis, not only over how often one is obligated to pray, but whether prayer in synagogue is even required (as opposed to individual prayer at home). Some of the rabbis are referred to as not praying daily (Idelsohn P.28 for sources).
The תפילות evolved in oral form.
In the time of the Mishnah and Talmud, prayer was by heart, which does not mean memorized. The basic themes for each of the 18 prayer-blessings of the `Amidah were standardized, but not the words. The ש"צ prayed before the congregation, which responded "Amen" rather than join in, because the format was different and fresh for each rendering.
For a while, it was even forbidden to write down the תפילות, presumably because they were not to be so standardized. How do we know? From a discussion in Masekhet Shabbat 115b, where it is said: "writers of blessings are [like] those who burn the Torah. כותבי ברכות כשורפי תורה
They were not written down in any formal way until the first siddurim turned up, such as that of Rav Amram Ga’on in the 9
th century, but even these were simply records of what individual rabbis or individual communities did. Because there was no standardization of the liturgy, there was a good deal of variation in the actual nuskha'ot (wording) of the various prayers, and the differences were noted between congregations. The greatest and most obvious differences occurred between the Palestinian and Babylonian communities.We’re most familiar with the difference in the Torah reading cycle. In EY, it was 3.5 years, in Bavel, 1 year. But here are another couple of differences that may seem surprising.
In EY, the קדושה was davened only on Shabbatot and chagim. In Bavel, every day.
In EY, the שמונה עשרה was actually שמונה עשרה. In Bavel, it was תשע עשרה.
And in EY, you could have a minyan with 7! In Bavel, guess how many?
Which community, EY or Bavel, do you think had more influence on how we pray today?
There were significant variations also between the various congregations within the larger communities. In Megilot 22a & Ta`anit 28b, the great Amora, Rav, is depicted as being amazed to note the different liturgical customs in various parts of Babylonia.
In later times, people began writing down individual prayers or words here and there in order to remember particularly nice renderings of the שליחי ציבור. Then some written compilations of prayers were permitted during fast days, especially YK.
The Cairo Geniza includes fragments of prayer compilations form EY in the 8th Century.
Probably the first known official סידור was Seder Rav Amram (b. Sheshna, d.875). It was compiled as a תשובה to a שאילה from Jews of Spain, and it contained both texts and customs for the entire year: weekdays, Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, fast days, Chanukkah, Purim, and all the Chagim. But it isn’t an accurate reflection of Rav Amram, because each ms. of the work was rewritten to conform with and thus justify local traditions.
Then there is the סידור of Sa`adia Gaon (d.942). It was apparently found in al-Fayyum, Egypt (his birthplace) and somehow transported to Oxford where it was discovered in 1851 by a Jewish scholar (Steinschneider). The ms. is quite old, and seems to reflect a pre-Maimonidean Egyptian/Babylonian minhag.
Siddur Rashi. 11th-12th Cents. from school of Rashi. Does not contain any actual prayer texts, but rather halakhah on the תפילות and relevant Talmudic material.
Rambam's סדר התפילות (12th Cent) is attached to his Mishneh Torah. It’s a collection of versions of prayers, but not put into any praying seder. Probably current Egyptian tradition, which was quite different from the Spanish rites, and which was adopted by Yemen.
Machzor Vitry. 11th Century. Compiled by Simchah b. Sh emuel of Vitry, who was a student of Rashi. It is a true prayer book which includes the texts of all the regular prayers. Minhag of N. France (a version of Ashkenaz). But it lacks many פיוטים, especially for chagim and HHDs that we know were current at that time.
Even when some of the prayers were standardized, there were different opinions as to how, where and when they should be recited. Maimonides wants the ברכות הבוקר to be done only in the course of getting up in the morning at the appropriate time. But the Tur (Jacob b. Asher, d.1340, Arba`ah Turim) has them recited in the synagogue as we do today. But some siddurim, following the Rambam, do not have these ברכות to this day.
Nusach Paras. Strongly influenced by Sa`adia's Siddur.
Minhag Aram Tzova (Aleppo). Unique, with many original prayers and text-versions.
Machzor Rumania, or Greek minhag, is Byzantine ritual used by most Jews in Balkans and Istanbul.
Machzor Roma. Old Italian ritual, included both Palestinian and Babylonian elements.
Tikhlal of Yemen. Strongly influenced by Maimonides and Sa`dia, with much Sephardic influence as well.
Ahavat haqadmonim (Fez, Morocco).
Siftey R
enanot (minhag Tripoli, N.Africa).Minhagim for Tunis, Tlemsan, Algiers.
Shirey Renanot (Cochin & Senegal).
Another from Island of Corfu.
Minhag Sepharad. A fusion of several Spanish systems. Earlier, there were different rites for Castilla, Aragon, Catalon, etc. After the Expulsion, the various communities of Spain settled together and fought over which was correct. They were finally fused, and this fusion also tended to take over the indigenous Jewish rituals as well, such as the old Greek Byzantine minhag, or the local N.African minhagim.
Minhag Ashkenaz. SW German ritual originally, which was virtually identical with that of France. Broke off into many variations as the community split and moved around, including into E. Europe.
The very ashkenazic Chassidim even created a fusion, of minhag ashkenaz with the Sephardic minhag of the Ari, Isaac Luria.
What we have today, in our global Judaism (aside from the Kara’ite Jews, which is a different story entirely), is that we are, למעשה, back to a situation like in the early Talmudic period. We have many different traditional Jewish communities within our larger community that have different versions of the same basic prayers. Even in our Conservative סידור, we have renderings of standard Ashkenazic ברכות that are creations of Conservative Judaism. One is the famous “bait and switch” in Shabbat מוסף where the tenses are switched. The traditional call for the return of the Temple sacrifice is blatantly changed to simply acknowledge that we once engaged in it (you’ll find it on p. 158 of our סידור).
Another, and here is where I’m leading, is in our peace prayers. In the morning version, called שים שלום, the change is wimpy and meaningless. Rather than having, simply, שים שלום – “grant peace,” it has שים שלום בעולם, which means, “grant peace on earth.” Sounds like a Christmas carol. In the Hebrew it’s even more clichéd. Where else would we want God to force us into peace, aside from in this world!
In the evening version, שלום רב, the addition is quite beautiful. Rather than the traditional שלום רב על ישראל עםך תשים לעולם – “Grant a great and everlasting peace to Your people Israel,” it has שלום רב על ישראל עמך ועל כל-יושבי תבל תשים לעולם – “Grant a great and everlasting peace to your people Israel, and to all people living in the world.”
In this day of increasing violence, it is sinful to pray to God for peace only for Jews, and for 2 reasons. The less important one is that of strategy. In a global world and where Jews are everywhere, war anywhere affects Jews.
But the important reason is ethical. When Jews were removed from politics after the Roman Empire became Christian and relegated to the county dump of political history, when Jews were officially and legally persecuted by the world powers, it should not be surprising that our ancestors asked God to bring peace only to us. And when we were ghettoized in the medieval period, such a viewpoint is completely understandable.
But today, we Jews are the most successful American group by all indicators: economic, cultural, educational, and yes, social. And our success here is matched by our success in many parts of the world. For us to pray only for ourselves is the deepest hypocrisy.
So why can’t the שליח ציבור add a few words that were already approved by the Rabbinical Assembly to our morning prayers, by saying שים שלום...עלינו ועל כל ישראל עמיך ועל כל יושבי תבל?
Frankly, I’m not sure whether this would be Yakov’s כוונה, but it should be ours.
שבת שלום