1

The Rambam (Maimonides) and The Ramban (Nachmonides) debated when God
wants us to pray: Rambam says 'praying daily is of fundamental importance', whereas
the Ramban says 'prayer is only necessary when the community is faced with a
tremendous difficulty and needs to turn to God and cry out for help in that very
moment.'

Rabbi Yosef Soloveitchik reconciles the two views by maintaining that both see prayer
as meaningful only if it derives from a sense of tzarah (difficulty). For Rambam,
difficulty “is an external crisis which arises independently of man. It emerges out of
the environment and usually appears suddenly.” The “surface difficulty” of Ramban
arises only at particular moments.

Many essays, articles and sermons have been written to address the fundamental
reasons why Jews pray. It is most unfair to treat the question with a bullet point list of
'reasons to pray'.

2
3
Anybody who has watched the standard morning minyan knows that Jewish prayer is
not normal. It is not normal to wrap yourself in a white woolen sheet, strap leather
boxes containing ancient scrolls on your arm and head, sway back and forth with your
cohorts chanting Hebrew incantations and reading from a parchment scroll. It is not
normal to stand before a wall and appear to be speaking to it. It is not normal in this
day and age and may never have been normal in any era! In fact…

4
And by acknowledging these things, we have obviated the need for prayer!!

5
6
Maybe God doesn't need our prayers. Maybe the whole point of prayer is to elevate
us. Many authors have interpreted that this is precisely Maimonides' point in this
passage from the Guide of the Perplexed:

7
In fact, we may be using the wrong word altogether. The English word, prayer, means
to beseech, to implore, to plead for something.

Bakasha certain does mean all those things. But that’s not the word we use – we use
the word “T’filah”. Does T’filah really mean ‘prayer’??

8
T’filah is etymologically related to the root word tofel—meaning
reconnect or bond.

9
10
Mincha makes it quite clear that there is a conversation with God. What about
Shacharit and Ma’ariv?? These sound a little tenuous as a marker of prayer. But
consider the word ‘Makom’ in its more ‘spiritual meaning’ - not as ‘the place
where…’, but as THE Place, ie., God. (Like mitzvot bein Adam LAMAKOM – between
Man and God).

11
12
13
The oldest fixed daily prayer in Judaism is the Sh'ma. This consists of Deut. 6:4-9,
Deut. 11:13-21, and Num. 15:37-41. Note that the first paragraph commands us to
speak of these matters "when you retire and when you arise." From ancient times,
this commandment was fulfilled by reciting the Sh'ma twice a day: morning and
night.

The next major development in Jewish prayer occurred during the Babylonian Exile,
6th century B.C.E. People were not able to sacrifice in the Holy Temple at that time,
so they used prayer as a substitute for sacrifice. "The offerings of our lips instead of
bulls," as Hosea said. People got together to pray three times a day, corresponding to
the three daily sacrifices. There was an additional prayer service on Shabbat and
certain holidays, to correspond to the additional sacrifices of those days. Some
suggest that this may already have been a common practice among the pious before
the Exile.

After the Exile, these daily prayer services continued. In the 5th century B.C.E., the
Men of the Great Assembly composed a basic prayer, covering just about everything
you could want to pray about. This is the Sh'moneh Esrei, which means "18" and
refers to the 18 blessings originally contained within the prayer. It is also referred to

14
as the Amidah (standing, because we stand while we recite it), or T'filah (prayer, as in
The Prayer, because it is the essence of all Jewish prayer). This prayer is the
cornerstone of every Jewish service.
The blessings of the Shemoneh Esrei can be broken down into 3 groups: 3 blessings
praising God, 13 making requests (forgiveness, redemption, health, prosperity, rain in
its season, ingathering of exiles, etc.), and 3 expressing gratitude and taking leave.

But wait! That's 19! And didn't I just say that this prayer is called 18?

14
One of the thirteen requests (the one against heretics) was added around the 2nd
century C.E., in response to the growing threat of heresy (including Christianity, which
was a Jewish sect at the time).

But by then, The Prayer was already commonly known as the Shemoneh Esrei, and
the name stuck, even though there were now 19 blessings!

15
In ancient times, regular daily prayers were recited by heart, or a reader prayed aloud
and the congregation responded to the blessings with “Amen”. There were no books
containing the texts of the prayers. It was said, “The writers of blessings are like those
who burn the Torah.” (Tosef. To Shab. 13:4). Writing down the text of blessings was
considered forbidden.

However, after the Talmud was written, this idea was abandoned and people started
to write prayer books. At first it was only permitted to use these new prayer books in
Babylon on the Day of Atonement and other fast days, but later they came into
general use.

The First Proper Siddurim: Rabbi Amram ben Sheshna haGaon, the leader of the
Talmudic Academy at Sura in Babylon, wrote the first Siddur in about 875 CE. This
Siddur was written especially for scholars. One of his successors, the famous Saadia
Gaon, compiled a siddur for general use in 882-942 CE.

16
During the Middle Ages prayer books grew longer and longer, as Jews wanted to
spend more time in prayer. New supplications, new penitential prayers, new poems
on a variety of religious themes were all added. No rabbinical committee met to vote
on which prayers should or should not be included. Individuals made content
selections in a very informal manner.

It was not only the desire to pray that stimulated the expansion of the siddur, but also
the fact that Jews could read. Literacy was extremely high amongst Jews at a time
when most men in Europe could not even sign their own names. The serious concern
of the learned Jews for women’s spiritual needs led to the production of a special
translation intended for women. (Whereas boys were routinely taught Hebrew so
that they could understand prayers and religious texts, girls were not at that time.)

17
Before 1446 all prayer books were written by hand. With handwriting came minor
changes and errors, which confused the original text.

The first printed prayer books appeared in the early 1500s, but since their type was
set by hand, the errors multiplied.

A German Jewish scholar, Seligman Baer, printed a definitive siddur in 1886, after he
had carefully traced all sources and compared all manuscript versions available. This
text is used in all recently published traditional Siddurim.

As some Jews in the 16th century lost the skills in Hebrew that their ancestors had
possessed, translations became necessary. Unfortunately this trend has continued
and the number and variety of siddur translations has increased as Hebrew
knowledge decreases around the Jewish world.

18
19
MEANING OF THE WORDS: The commentary of the Mishna Brura states: This
complies with what the Sages, of blessed memory, said that one should not cast the
blessing out of his mouth. (Berachot 47a) Instead, one must have the meaning in
mind when he says the blessing and should say the blessing at leisure.

FOR THE SAKE OF HIS CREATOR: When one makes a blessing over the washing of his
hands or makes a blessing over fruit or over the performance of a mitzvah, which is
commonly uttered by everyone, he should apply his heart to the blessing so that he
says it for the sake of his Creator, Who was kind to him, and commanded him
regarding the performance of the mitzvah.

20
OUT OF HABIT: For this behavior, God's anger flared up against His people, and He
sent to inform us through Isaiah: 'Because of the fact that this people has
approached, with this mouth and these lips it has honored Me, but its heart is far
from Me.' (Isaiah 29:13)

DIVINE NAME: That said, he should have in mind the meaning of the Name however
it is written. For example, the letters yud, hei, vav, etc., meaning "He was, is, and will
always be in existence". When one mentions the divine name Elohim, one should
have in mind that He is overpowering, omnipotent and almighty.

OPPOSITE HIM: In other words, one should imagine being in the very presence of
God when praying.

21
Men are obligated to perform public prayer three times a day with additional services
on Jewish holidays.

According to Jewish law, each prayer must be performed within specific time ranges
(z’manim), based on the time that the communal sacrifice the prayer is named after
would have been performed in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem.

According to the Talmud women are generally exempted from obligations that have
to be performed at a certain time. Orthodox authorities have generally interpreted
this exemption as due to women's higher spiritual level and therefore a lack of need
to connect to God at specific times, since they are always connected to God. In
accordance with the general exemption from time-bound obligations, most Orthodox
authorities have exempted women from performing evening prayers (Maariv), but
most believe that women are obligated to pray Shacharit and Mincha when possible.

Because women were required to perform certain korbanot (sacrifices) in the Temple
in Jerusalem, women today are required to perform, and hence can lead (and can
count in the minyan for if required), the specific prayers substituting for these specific
sacrifices. Birchat Hagomel (the prayer after coming through a life-threatening

22
situation) falls in this category.

22
Firstly, please forgive the gender specificity of this section. We’ll be discussing the
traditional scenario because that’s where the ancient legislation lies.

Upon pondering the concept of Minyan, one comes to realize a great truth: the
power of each individual Jew. There can be a group of nine of the greatest Jews,
men who complete all of the commandments and understand the depths of the
Torah’s secrets, yet they do not have the ability to complete a minyan on their own.
However, add to the group the simplest Jew, someone who perhaps cannot properly
read his prayers nor does he really understand what he is saying, yet when he walks
into the room he has now transformed the entire group and made them complete—a
minyan. It is because of him that they are now able to recite those parts of the prayer
that can be read only with a minyan. Never underestimate the potential of the
individual Jew.

The biblical source for the requirement of ten men to complete a minyan (lit., “count”
or “number”) is Numbers 14:27. Moses sent spies to scout the land of Canaan. Ten of
them returned and issued a report concluding that it was not a conquerable land.
God was extremely disappointed with their lack of faith in His abilities. He turns to
Moses and Aaron, telling them: "How long will this evil ‘assembly’ provoke [the

23
Jewish nation] to complain against Me?” From here it is deduced that an “assembly”
is comprised of ten men.

A person should make an effort to pray in a synagogue with a minyan. Supposedly,

God never rejects the prayers of a congregation, even if sinners are amongst the
crowd. Even if a person's kavanah (concentration, intention) is imperfect, if he prays
with a congregation, his prayers will be heard. It is said that in the merit of praying
with a minyan, one will make a living more easily and be blessed with the fruits of his
labor.

23
24
A kippah can be worn conveniently under a street hat, as was the custom of most
Jews in the first half of the 20th century. It is still the practice of many observant
Jewish men to wear a headcovering throughout the day, not just during prayer. (One
tradition holds that a Jewish man should not walk more than four cubits (abt 6ft) in
any direction with an uncovered head.)

25
The origin of the tzitzit is biblical; the practice is prescribed in Numbers 15. The
precept is to put these strings on corners of any four-cornered garment–in ancient
tradition, with a single strand of blue as well–as a reminder of the duties and
obligations of a Jew. Since we no longer wear four-cornered garments habitually (no
pun intended), the tallit (or tallit katan – aka tzitzit) is worn specifically to fulfill the
biblical precept.

Typically, men (ie., past Bar Mitzvah) wear a tallit during morning services; in non-
Orthodox synagogues, many women also wear a tallit. In some Orthodox
congregations, only married men wear a tallit. One may see people gathering the
tzitzit in their left hand and kissing them when the paragraph from the Torah referring
to them (third paragraph of the Sh’ma) is recited.

26
27
28
29
Not surprisingly, with this language of betrothal, this prayer has found its way into the
wedding ceremony as well!

30
31