Synagogue Service II

1. Synagogue Service II Ed:Lonergan From Everywhere

2. 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:

3. Shacharit (morning prayers) • 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 de-rabbanan). • 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.

4. 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 (half-Kaddish) 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.

5. 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).

6. 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” Additional prayers

7. 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. Reasons to pray

8. 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 liturgicalcustoms 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.

9. Origin and History • 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.

10. 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 AshkenaziOrthodox 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.

11. The Siddur • 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 mass-distributed 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.

12. 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. 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. Denominational Variations

13. 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.

14. Prayer Attire • 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.

15. 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.