What is in the Siddur? Shabbat and Holiday Liturgy
This description of the Shabbat and holiday morning service includes most
of the elements that appear in weekday services as well.
By Rabbi Daniel Kohn
Jewish prayer is as ancient as the Hebrew Bible, for the
Torah records that even the patriarchs prayed to God in times of distress or to
give thanks. In late antiquity, the Rabbis of the Talmud established formal
structures and blessings to be recited for the various worship services.
Two of the earliest written versions of the prayerbook,
called a siddur (meaning "order")
in Hebrew, were compiled in Babylonia by the sages Amram Ga'on and Sa'adia
Ga'on in the ninth century CE. Over the centuries, scores of rabbis produced
their own versions of the siddur, providing commentaries and additional
religious poems as they were written and incorporated into a local community's
liturgy. Even to this day, while the talmudic structure of prayers remains the
standard format, contemporary rabbis, denominational movements, and different
ethnic communities within the Jewish people continue to update and publish new
siddurim. Although separate prayerbooks exist for High Holy Day services and
daily prayers, siddurim for Shabbat and holidays are more prevalent within any
given synagogue and serve as the primer of spirituality for Jewish life.
Nearly all Shabbat and holiday siddurim are structured
around significant liturgical units. The first of these, and often the first
section one finds in a siddur, is morning blessings and psalms. Called Birchot
HaShahar, or blessings of the morning, these were originally recited by
individuals in their home as they awoke, washed, and dressed for the day. Later
on, these blessings--such as thanking God for giving sight to the blind (once
recited before one opened their eyes in the morning), raising the downtrodden
(recited before standing up from bed), and clothing the naked (recited before
getting dressed)--were transferred to the synagogue and included in the siddur.
To spiritually prepare the worshipper for reciting the
obligatory major prayers of the morning, the Rabbis established that a series
of psalms and selected passages from the Hebrew Bible should be recited each
morning. Called Pesukei D'Zimra (verses of song), these readings were chanted,
mumbled, or read silently by the individual worshippers in order to build up to
the proper mood and reverential attitude for reciting the later prayers of the
service.
One of the most ancient prayers recited by Jews is called
the K'riyat Shema, or the recitation of the Shema, meaning "Hear!" In
the Torah, Moses declares, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord
alone" (Deuteronomy 6:4), which has become the quintessential statement of
Jewish monotheistic belief. The Rabbis ordained the recitation of the Shema and
a series of additional selections from the Torah each morning and evening. A
series of berakhot, or blessings, was
established to be recited before and after the passages of the Shema. Forming
its own mini liturgical unit, the recitation of the Shema and its attendant
blessings begins with the Barkhu, the formal call to prayer ("Praise the
Lord who is blessed!"), and its antiphonal response by the congregation
("Praised be the Lord, who is blessed, forever and ever."). The two
blessings preceding the Shema are extended paeans to God on the twin themes of
creation of the world and revelation of the Torah. Following the Shema is a
concluding blessing thanking God for redemption of the Jewish people from
slavery in Egypt and obliquely referring to a future, messianic redemption.
The Amidah (literally, "standing") is the second
major liturgical unit of the Shabbat and holiday service. Taking its name,
obviously, from the posture in which it is said, the Rabbis also referred to it
as HaTefillah, or simply, "The prayer" par excellence. Using the image
of master and servant, the Rabbis declared that a worshipper should come before
their master first with words of praise, then ask one's petitions, and finally
withdraw with words of thanks. Using this tripartite division, every Amidah
begins with three blessings, praising God's relationship with the biblical
patriarchs, God's divine power to give and restore life, and God's holiness. On
Shabbat and holidays, instead of petitions that might distract us by reminding
us of our physical wants and needs, the Rabbis established the middle section
as an opportunity to celebrate the holiness of the Sabbath day and/or the
festival. The final section of every Amidah concludes with blessings of
thanksgiving to God for accepting our prayers, for the daily miracles of
creation, and a final prayer for God to bestow justice, mercy, and peace on the
world.
Every Shabbat and holiday includes a service in which Torah
scrolls are removed from the holy Ark and read. Each Shabbat, a portion of the
Torah is read, advancing each week until the entire five books of Moses are
completed in a single year, although some liberal communities read the Torah in
a three-year cycle, chanting one-third of each portion each week. On festivals,
special selections are read outside of this order that either mention the
particular holiday or highlight a theme of the festival.
As the Torah scroll is removed from the ark, the
congregation chants, "From Zion shall come forth the Torah, the word of
the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:3). Most siddurim also include the
special blessings chanted before and after the reading of the Torah as well as
the blessings before and after the Haftarah. Concluding with prayers for the
host country, the State of Israel, and (in some siddurim) world peace, as well
as additional psalms, the Torah is wrapped up in its mantle, marched around the
sanctuary once again and returned to the ark as the congregation sings,
"It is a tree of life to those who hold fast to it, and all of its
supporters are happy" (Proverbs 3:18).
At the conclusion of every Shabbat and festival service, the
medieval hymn Ein K'eloheynu ("There is none like our Lord") is
chanted, followed by a prayer called Aleinu, which means, "It is incumbent
upon us." Referring to the obligation to acknowledge the sovereignty of
God, its highpoint is the line, "We bend the knee and bow, acknowledging
the King of Kings, the Holy One, praised be God," at which the
congregation as a whole bows in the direction of the ark, toward the
east--Israel and Jerusalem. Concluding with a messianic commitment to improving
this world, the Aleinu prayer ends with a hope that on "that day, the Lord
shall be one and God's name will be one" (Zechariah 14:9). This is
followed by the Mourner's Kaddish, at which anyone in the community who is
mourning the recent loss of a family member, or anyone observing the yearly
anniversary of the death of a loved one, recites a prayer of praise to God. The
service ends with the singing of the medieval hymn, Adon Olam, ("Lord of
the World"), which contrasts Gods eternity and infinity with human
mortality and finitude.
What has just been described is the general flow of a
regular Shabbat service. On festivals there are additional sections of prayers
included as way to celebrate the unique character of the day. One such addition
is called Hallel, which means, "praise." This name is derived from
the fact that of the six psalms of celebration chanted that make up Hallel,
nearly all of them begin with the Hebrew word halleluyah, or "praise God!" Scholars surmise that the
joyous chanting of Psalms 113 through to 118 were sung by the Levitical Temple
workers even in ancient biblical times. Extolling God for the exodus from
Egypt, for God's power to effect salvation and save from enemies, the psalms of
Hallel represent a brief spectrum of religious reasons for praising and
rejoicing in God's omnipotence. Beginning and ending with a blessing, Hallel is
chanted immediately following the Amidah, preceeding the Torah service on the
pilgrimage festivals of Pesah, Shavuot, and Sukkot.
Upon the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE by the
Romans, the Rabbis of antiquity moved quickly to transform the rites and
rituals of the now-defunct sacrificial cult into a spiritually based religion
predicated on prayer and observance of the Torah's commandments. In place of
the daily and festival animal sacrifices, the Rabbis established the recitation
of the Amidah, the central prayer of Jewish worship, as a substitute based on a
creative interpretation of the prophetic utterance, "Let the [utterings of
our] lips compensate for the bulls [which used to be sacrificed]" (Hosea
14:3).
Based on a one-to-one correspondence of Amidahs in place of
animal sacrifices (except for the evening or ma'ariv service, which has no ancient sacrificial parallel), the
Rabbis established an additional Amidah for Shabbat and holidays to be recited
after the Torah reading. This is called the Musaf, or additional service, and
corresponds to the additional animal sacrifice offered on these days. Consisting
of the same opening and closing set of blessings, the central portion of the
Musaf Amidah for Shabbat or holiday deals once again with the themes of the
day, making specific mention of the animal sacrifices that were offered as the
additional offering of that day. (Today, many liberal communities have
eliminated the Musaf service.)
Rabbi Daniel Kohn is the associate rabbi of Congregation
Kol Shofar in Tiburon, California, and holds the rank of shodan (black belt) in
aikido.
