Download Synagogue Service II

Synagogue Service II
Ed:Lonergan
From Everywhere
Some other points I don’t think I
have made already
• Davnen is Yiddish for “to pray”
• Prayer book, including prayers, instructions and
commentary is called the Siddur
• Three services daily: Shacharit or Shaharit from
the Hebrew for "morning light,"
• Mincha or Minha the afternoon prayers named
for the flour offering that accompanied sacrifices
at the Temple in Jerusalem,
• Arvith or Ma'ariv from "nightfall."
• Additional prayers:
Shacharit (morning prayers)
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The Shacharit (from shachar, morning light) prayer is recited in the morning. Halacha limits
parts of its recitation to the first three (Shema) or four (Amidah) hours of the day, where
"hours" are 1/12 of daylight time, making these times dependent on the season.
Various prayers are said upon arising; the tallit katan (a garment with tzitzit) is donned at
this time. The tallit (large prayer shawl) is donned before or during the actual prayer
service, as are the tefillin (phylacteries); both are accompanied by blessings.
The service starts with the "morning blessings" (birkot ha-shachar), including blessings for
the Torah (considered the most important ones). In Orthodox services this is followed by a
series of readings from Biblical and rabbinic writings recalling the offerings made in the
Temple in Jerusalem. The section concludes with the "Rabbis' Kaddish" (kaddish derabbanan).
The next section of morning prayers is called Pesukei D'Zimrah ("verses of praise"),
containing several psalms (100 and 145–150), and prayers (such as yehi chevod) made
from a tapestry of Biblical verses, followed by the Song at the Sea (Exodus, chapters 14
and 15).
Barechu, the formal public call to prayer, introduces a series of expanded blessings
embracing the recitation of the Shema. This is followed by the core of the prayer service,
the Amidah or Shemoneh Esreh, a series of 19 blessings. The next part of the service, is
Tachanun, supplications, which is omitted on days with a festive character (and by Reform
services usually entirely).
On Mondays and Thursdays a Torah reading service is inserted, and a longer version of
Tachanun takes place.
Concluding prayers (see Uva letzion) and Aleinu then follow, with the Kaddish of the
mourners generally after Aleinu.
Mincha (afternoon prayers)
• Mincha or Minha(derived from the flour offering that accompanied
each sacrifice) may be recited from half an hour after halachic
noontime. This earliest time is referred to as mincha gedola (the
"large mincha"). It is, however, preferably recited after mincha
ketana (2.5 halachic hours before nightfall). Ideally, one should
complete the prayers before sunset, although many authorities
permit reciting Mincha until nightfall.
• Sephardim and Italian Jews start the Mincha prayers with Psalm 84
and Korbanot (Numbers 28:1-8), and usually continue with the
Pittum hakketoret. The opening section is concluded with Malachi
3:4. Western Ashkenazim recite the Korbanot only.
• Ashrei, containing verses from Psalms 84:5, 144:15 and the entire
Psalm 145, is recited, immediately followed by Chatzi Kaddish (halfKaddish) and the Shemoneh Esreh (or Amidah). This is followed by
Tachanun, supplications, and then the full Kaddish. Sephardim
insert Psalm 67 or 93, followed by the Mourner's Kaddish. After this
follows, in most modern rites, the Aleinu. Ashkenazim then conclude
with the Mourner's Kaddish. On Tisha B'Av, tallit and tefillin are worn
during Mincha. Service leaders often wear a tallit even on normal
days, and must wear one during the fast days.
Ma'ariv/Arvit (evening prayers)
• In many congregations, the afternoon and evening prayers are
recited back-to-back on a working day, to save people having to
attend synagogue twice. Some discourage this practice and wait
until after nightfall to recite Ma'ariv (the name derives from the word
"nightfall").
• This service begins with the Barechu, the formal public call to
prayer, and Shema Yisrael embraced by two benedictions before
and two after. Ashkenazim outside of Israel, then add another
blessing (Baruch Adonai le-Olam), which is made from a tapestry of
biblical verses.
• This is followed by the Half-Kaddish, and the Shemoneh Esreh
(Amidah), bracketed with the full Kaddish. Sephardim then say
Psalm 121, say the Mourner's Kaddish, and repeat Barechu before
concluding with the Aleinu. Ashkenazim, in the diaspora, do neither
say Psalm 121 nor repeat Barechu, but conclude with Aleinu
followed by the Mourner's Kaddish (in Israel, Ashkenazim do repeat
Barcheu after mourner's Kaddish).
Additional prayers
• Musaf (additional) are
recited by orthodox
and conservative
congregations on
Shabbat, major
Jewish holidays and
Rosh Chodesh.
• Ne’ilah (closing), a
fifth prayer service is
recited on the day of
atonement “Yom
Kippur”
Reasons to pray
• Biblical
commandment
• Recall the daily
sacrifices in the
temple of Jerusalem
• Because each of the
Patriachs instituted
one prayer
• There is individual
and communal
prayer. Communal
prayer requires a
minyan and is
preferable because it
permits the inclusion
of all prayers.
• Maimonides on Prayer 1135-1204 CErelates that until
the Babylonian exile (586 BCE), all Jews composed their
own prayers, but thereafter the sages of the Great
Assembly composed the main portions of the siddur.
• Modern scholarship suggests that dating from this
period there existed "liturgical formulations of a
communal nature designated for particular occasions
• Over the last two thousand years variations have
emerged among the traditional liturgical customs of
different Jewish communities, such as Ashkenazic,
Sephardic, Yemenite, Hassidic, and others, however the
differences are minor compared with the commonalities.
• Most of the Jewish liturgy is sung or chanted with
traditional melodies or trope. Synagogues may designate
or employ a professional or lay hazzan (cantor) for the
purpose of leading the congregation in prayer, especially
on Shabbat or holidays.
Origin and History
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According to the Talmud 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
that is in the heart"). The noted rabbi Maimonides likewise categorizes prayer as a
Biblical command but believed that the number of prayers and their times are not.
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).
Orthodox Judaism regards halakha (Jewish law) as requiring Jewish men to pray
three times daily and four times daily on the Sabbath and most Jewish holidays, and
five times on Yom Kippur.
Orthodox Jewish women are required to pray at least daily, with no specific time
requirement, but the system of multiple daily prayer services is regarded as optional
Reform and Reconstructionist congregations do not regard halakha as binding and
hence regard appropriate prayer times as matters of personal spiritual decision rather
than a matter of religious requirement.
Text and language
• According to halakha, all individual prayers and virtually
all communal prayers may be said in any language that
the person praying understands.
• Despite this, the tradition of most Ashkenazi Orthodox
synagogues is to use Hebrew for all except a small
number of prayers, including the Kaddish, which had
always been in Aramaic, and sermons and instructions,
for which the local language is used.
• In other streams of Judaism there is considerable
variability: Sephardic communities may use Ladino or
Portuguese for many prayers; Conservative synagogues
tend to use the local language to a varying degree; and
at some Reform synagogues almost the whole service
may be in the local language.
The Siddur
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The earliest parts of Jewish prayer are the Shema Yisrael ("Hear O Israel") (Deuteronomy 6:4 et
seq), and the Priestly Blessing (Numbers 6:24-26), which are in the Torah. A set of eighteen
(currently nineteen) blessings called the Shemoneh Esreh or the Amidah (Hebrew, "standing
[prayer]"), is traditionally ascribed to the Great Assembly in the time of Ezra, at the end of the
Biblical period.
It was only near the end of the Second Temple period that the eighteen prayers of the weekday
Amidah became standardized. Even at that time their precise wording and order was not yet fixed,
and varied from locale to locale.
According to the Talmud, soon after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem a formal version of
the Amidah was adopted at a rabbinical council. However, the precise wording was still left open.
The order, general ideas, opening and closing lines were fixed. Most of the wording was left to the
individual reader.
It was not until several centuries later that the prayers began to be formally fixed. By the Middle
Ages the texts of the prayers were nearly fixed, and in the form in which they are still used today.
The siddur was printed by Soncino in Italy as early as 1486, though a siddur was first massdistributed only in 1865.
The siddur began appearing in the vernacular as early as 1538. The first English translation
appeared in London in 1738; a different translation was released in the United States in 1837.
Readings from the Torah (five books of Moses) and the Nevi'im ("Prophets") form part of the
prayer services. To this framework various Jewish sages added, from time to time, various
prayers, and, for festivals especially, numerous hymns.
The earliest existing codification of the prayerbook was drawn up by Rav Amram Gaon of Sura,
Babylon, about 850 CE. Half a century later Rav Saadia Gaon, also of Sura, composed a siddur,
in which the rubrical matter is in Arabic. These were the basis of Simcha ben Samuel's Machzor
Vitry (11th century France), which was based on the ideas of his teacher, Rashi. Another
formulation of the prayers was that appended by Maimonides to the laws of prayer in his Mishneh
Torah: this forms the basis of the Yemenite liturgy, and has had some influence on other rites.
From this point forward all Jewish prayerbooks had the same basic order and contents.
Denominational Variations
Conservative services generally use the
same basic format for services as in
Orthodox Judaism with some doctrinal
leniencies and some prayers in
English.
In practice there is wide variation among
Conservative congregations
depending on how liberal the
congregation is.
• The liturgies of Reform and
Reconstructionist are based on
traditional elements, but contains
language more reflective of liberal
belief than the traditional liturgy.
Services are often from 40% to 90% in
the vernacular.
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Reform Judaism has made greater
alterations to the traditional service in
accord with its more liberal theology
dropping some of the more traditional
beliefs such as a bodily resurrection of
the dead, and others. The Hebrew
portion of the service is substantially
abbreviated and modernized and
modern prayers substituted for
traditional ones. In addition, in keeping
with their view that the laws of
Shabbat (including a traditional
prohibition on playing instruments) are
inapplicable to modern circumstances,
Reform services often play
instrumental or recorded music with
prayers on the Jewish Sabbath. All
Reform synagogues are Egalitarian
with respect to gender roles.
Philosophy of prayer
• Hebrew verb for prayer—also means to judge. Thus, "to pray"
conveys the notion of "judging oneself’ suggesting that
ultimately, the purpose of prayer is to transform ones self.
• This idea is consistent with the Jewish conception of Divine
simplicity. It is not God that changes through our prayer—Man
does not influence God—rather it is man himself who is
changed.
• It is further consistent with Maimonides' view on Divine
Providence. Here, (Tefillah) prayer is the medium which God
gave to man by means of which he can change himself, and
thereby establish a new relationship with God—and thus a
new destiny for himself in life.
• Thus the ultimate aim of prayer is to help train a person to
focus on divinity through philosophy and intellectual
contemplation. This approach was taken by Maimonides and
the other medieval rationalists.
Prayer Attire
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Head covering. In most synagogues, it is considered a sign of respect for male attendees to wear a
head covering, either a dress hat or a kippa (skull cap, plural kipot also known by the Yiddish term
yarmulke). It is common practice for both Jews and non-Jews who attend a synagogue to wear a
head covering.
Some Conservative synagogues may also encourage (but rarely require) women to cover their
heads. Many Reform and Progressive temples do not require people to cover their heads, although
individual worshipers, both men and women, may choose to. Many Orthodox and some conservative
men wear a head covering throughout their day, even when not attending religious services.
Tallit (prayer shawl) is traditionally worn during all morning services, during Aliyah to the Torah, as
well as the Kol Nidre service of Yom Kippur. In Orthodox synagogues they are expected to be worn
only by men who are halakhically Jewish and in Conservative synagogues they should be worn only
by men and women who are halakhically Jewish. In most Orthodox Ashkenazi synagogues they are
worn only by men who are or have been married.
Tefillin (phylacteries) are a set of small cubic leather boxes painted black, containing scrolls of
parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. They are tied to the head and arm with leather
straps dyed black, and worn only by Jews, during weekday morning prayers. In Orthodox
synagogues they are expected to be worn only by men; in Conservative synagogues they are also
worn by some women.
Tzeniut (modesty) applies to men and women. When attending Orthodox synagogues, women will
likely be expected to wear long sleeves (past the elbows), long skirts (past the knees), a high
neckline (to the collar bone), and if married, to cover their hair with a wig, scarf, hat or a combination
of the above. For men, short pants or sleeveless shirts are generally regarded as inappropriate. In
some Conservative and Reform synagogues the dress code may be more lax, but still respectful.
Tzeniut (modesty) applies to men and women. When attending Orthodox synagogues, women will
likely be expected to wear long sleeves (past the elbows), long skirts (past the knees), a high
neckline (to the collar bone), and if married, to cover their hair with a wig, scarf, hat or a combination
of the above. For men, short pants or sleeveless shirts are generally regarded as inappropriate. In
some Conservative and Reform synagogues the dress code may be more lax, but still respectful.
Special observances and
circumstances
• Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur
The services for the Days of Awe—Rosh
Hashana and Yom Kippur—take on a
solemn tone as befits these days.
Traditional solemn tunes are used in the
prayers.
Yom Kippur is the only day in the year when
there are five prayer services.