IB World Religions 6.2.2. Worship: Prayer Times, Berachot, the Siddur and the Synagogue Notes

6.2.2. Worship: Prayer Times, Berachot, the Siddur and the Synagogue

The three prayer times

1. Traditional Jews pray three times a day at fixed hours: shaharit in the morning, minhah in the afternoon and ma'ariv in the evening. The times are set by the sun rather than by the clock, so they move through the year.
2. Rabbinic tradition offers two accounts of where they came from. One traces the three services to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the other to the daily offerings of the Temple, whose destruction left prayer standing in for sacrifice.
3. Shaharit is the longest of the three and the one at which a man traditionally wears tefillin and a tallit (prayer shawl). It may be said from dawn until roughly a third of the day has passed.
4. Minhah is short and often said just before sunset, so many communities run minhah and ma'ariv back to back and save a second gathering. Ma'ariv may be said from nightfall until dawn.
5. Orthodox men are obliged to pray all three, ideally with a congregation, and Conservative practice holds the same obligation with wider participation. Reform and Liberal Judaism treat daily prayer as a discipline to encourage rather than a binding requirement, and concentrate communal worship on Shabbat and festivals.
6. Extra services attach to particular days: musaf after shaharit on Shabbat, festivals and new moons, and ne'ilah at the close of Yom Kippur. Reform and Liberal prayer books usually omit musaf because it asks for the restoration of sacrifice.

The Shema and the Amidah

1. Two texts carry the weight of every service. The Shema is a declaration Jews accept and the Amidah is the prayer they offer, and the liturgy is arranged to lead from one to the other.
2. The Shema takes its name from its first word, hear, and gathers three passages: Deuteronomy 6:4 to 9, Deuteronomy 11:13 to 21 and Numbers 15:37 to 41. It is said at shaharit and ma'ariv, and many Jews say it again before sleep.
3. Reciting it is described as accepting the yoke of the kingdom of heaven and the yoke of the commandments. Its opening line, that the Lord is one, is the plainest statement of Jewish monotheism, and it is traditionally the last thing a dying Jew says.
4. The Amidah (standing prayer), also called the Shemoneh Esrei or eighteen, is said silently while standing with the feet together and facing Jerusalem. The weekday version carries nineteen blessings and the Shabbat and festival versions carry seven.
5. Its shape is praise, then request, then thanks. The middle section asks for understanding, healing, sustenance, justice and the ingathering of the exiles, and it is dropped on Shabbat so the day is not spent asking for things.
6. Aleinu closes almost every service, praising God as sovereign and looking toward a world repaired. Reform and Liberal prayer books have generally revised or removed its older line contrasting Israel with the other nations.

Berachot and the blessing formula

1. A berachah (plural berachot) is a blessing, and almost every Jewish act of worship is assembled from them. Each opens with the same words: blessed are you, Lord our God, king of the universe.
2. The formula changes person halfway through, from you addressed directly to who has commanded us. Rabbinic commentary reads the shift as holding God's nearness and God's remoteness together in one sentence.
3. Blessings fall into three groups. Some are said before enjoying something, some before performing a mitzvah, and some give praise or thanks at what a person sees or hears.
4. The rabbis set a target of a hundred blessings a day, which puts a short text around bread, wine, fruit, thunder, rainbows, new clothes and the first sight of the sea. Jews describe the effect as a refusal to treat anything as simply available.
5. Kiddush, said over a cup of wine to mark the holiness of Shabbat and festivals, is the best known of them. Havdalah closes those same days with blessings over wine, spices and a plaited candle.
6. Birkat hamazon, the grace after meals, is the longest, and Jews trace the obligation to Deuteronomy 8:10, where the command is to eat, be satisfied and bless. Reform and Liberal practice keeps the short blessings and abbreviates the long ones.

The siddur and the machzor

1. The siddur is the Jewish prayer book, and the word means order. It fixes which texts are said, in what sequence and on which days, so a Jew arriving in an unfamiliar community can still follow the service.
2. Its core is old. The Shema, the Amidah and the psalms of praise were long in place before the first surviving prayer books were compiled in the ninth and tenth centuries.
3. The machzor is the companion volume for festivals and the High Holy Days, carrying the special poetry those days require. The two books together cover the year.
4. Every movement produces its own siddur, and setting them side by side is the quickest way to see what each holds. Orthodox communities in Britain long used the Authorised Daily Prayer Book known as Singer's, and Conservative congregations in North America use Siddur Sim Shalom.
5. Reform congregations in North America use Mishkan T'filah and Liberal Judaism in Britain uses Siddur Lev Chadash. These editions add readings on Israel, the Holocaust and social concerns, and reword passages on sacrifice, resurrection and the election of Israel.
6. The differences are theological rather than decorative. A congregation that no longer expects the Temple rebuilt does not pray for it, and the omission is doctrine made visible in the order of the service.

The minyan and its prayers

1. A minyan is the quorum of ten required before a congregation may say certain prayers. Below ten a Jew may still pray, but the service counts as a private one.
2. Orthodox communities count ten males aged thirteen or over. Conservative congregations mostly count women as well, and Reform and Liberal communities count any ten adults, with many treating the number itself as advisory.
3. The prayers needing a quorum are called devarim shebikdushah, matters of holiness: the Kaddish, the Kedushah in the repetition of the Amidah, the public reading of the Torah and the priestly blessing.
4. That rule has a sharp consequence for mourners, since Kaddish cannot be said alone. Jews often observe that a bereaved person is therefore required into company at exactly the point they might withdraw.
5. The shaliach tzibbur (messenger of the congregation) leads the service and repeats the Amidah aloud for those who cannot say it themselves. In many communities the role is filled by a chazan (cantor) trained in the traditional melodies.
6. No rabbi is needed for any of this. A rabbi is a teacher and a decider of law rather than a priest, and any competent adult member may lead the prayers.

The synagogue and the bimah

1. The synagogue carries three names describing three functions: beit knesset (house of assembly), beit midrash (house of study) and beit tefillah (house of prayer). Ashkenazi Jews often call it shul, and Reform congregations in America commonly say temple.
2. The aron kodesh (holy ark) holds the Torah scrolls and stands against the wall facing Jerusalem, so congregations in Europe face east. A ner tamid (eternal light) burns above it.
3. The bimah is the raised platform from which the Torah is read. Orthodox and traditional synagogues set it in the centre of the hall, which turns the congregation inward around the reading.
4. Reform and many Conservative synagogues moved the bimah to the front beside the ark, giving the room a single focus. Orthodox synagogues also keep a mechitzah, a partition between men's and women's seating, which the other movements have removed.
5. The Torah is read in an annual cycle, divided into weekly portions and chanted with fixed cantillation from a handwritten scroll. Mondays, Thursdays and Shabbat carry a reading, and many Reform congregations use a triennial cycle instead.
6. A passage from the Nevi'im (Prophets) follows the Torah as the haftarah, and books from the Ketuvim (Writings) are read on set days, such as Esther at Purim and Lamentations on the ninth of Av.