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Jewish prayer

Pastek

Sunni muslim
Shalom

Can you explain me what you say when you pray ?
Do you use only the Psalms ? (which verses) Do you have some prayers that you have to learn like the "Lord Prayer" for the christians or the "Fatiha" for the muslims ?
How long does it takes for a prayer (alone) ? Do you have to say your prayer in hebrew ?
I'm very curious about that
Thank u
 

Terrywoodenpic

Oldest Heretic
Any Christians reading this thread... would do well to read the above links.... the thoughts expressed mesh exactly with my (Christian) take on Personal prayer.

please remove this post if it offends....
 

Levite

Higher and Higher
Shalom. Can you explain me what you say when you pray ?
Do you use only the Psalms ? (which verses) Do you have some prayers that you have to learn like the "Lord Prayer" for the christians or the "Fatiha" for the muslims ?
How long does it takes for a prayer (alone) ? Do you have to say your prayer in hebrew ?
I'm very curious about that
Thank u

So, that's actually a more complex question than it might seem.

We basically have two aspects of prayer that the tradition encourages: keva, which indicates both the practice of having fixed times of regular prayer, and also the practice of having a fixed liturgy for formal communal prayer; and kavanah, which indicates not only the need to be focused and attentive to one's prayer when one prays, and the need for prayer to be from the heart and soul, not merely words said by rote, but also the need for there to be spontaneous prayer.

Basically, our entire prayer tradition is built on the tension between these two aspects. I say tension because of course having a fixed liturgy and fixed times of regular prayer has a tendency to lead both to "praying on autopilot," and to a lack of spontenaety in prayer; but having only spontaneous prayer can lead to uninspiring and unchallenging prayer experiences, and a focus on praying only from the heart and soul can mean that one prays only when one is deeply motivated, making prayer a highly irregular experience. So our challenge is to try to have both aspects.

We have a fixed liturgy that has developed over the past 2000 years or so. It does contain many psalms, and also many verses from other places in scripture; but it is mostly composed of liturgical poetry, both in the form of piyyutim (self-contained liturgical poems) and of a stylized and somewhat free-flowing body of poetic praise, studded with quotations from scripture, rich with allusions to scripture, to psalm, to Rabbinic literature, to midrash (exegetical parables).

There are three daily prayer times (one in the morning, one in the afternoon, one at night), though outside Orthodox communities, few people actually go to a synagogue or gather a minyan (the quorum of ten people needed for formal public prayer) every day, much less for all three times. We usually refer to each of the three daily prayer sessions as "a service," although in fact, each morning prayer time involves (strictly speaking) two services; each afternoon and evening prayer time usually involves one. Most strictly observant Jews will make an effort to go to synagogue on Shabbat (the Sabbath), festivals, and on Monday and Thursday mornings, since it is customary at those times to also chant aloud selections of the Torah, from a Torah scroll. On Shabbat and Festivals, the services are expanded; also, Friday nights, which begin Shabbat (on the Jewish calendar, we count days from sunset to sunset, and therefore Shabbat, for example, begins on Friday night and ends on Saturday night), we add an extra service to welcome the Shabbat; and on the mornings of Shabbat and Festivals, we add an extra service to fulfill the equivalent of the extra offering that used to be given in the Temple on such days. And some festivals even further expand services and add additional ones, or additional rituals.

A typical weekday morning prayer service (mornings are the longest services of the day) lasts between 30 and 40 minutes. A typical Monday or Thursday service lasts between 50 to 80 minutes. A typical afternoon or evening service will only be 10-20 minutes. Friday night services will usually run 45 minutes to an hour. Shabbat morning services tend to average about two and a half hours. Festival morning services can run anywhere from about two and half hours to five or six hours (on the High Holidays).

Personal, spontaneous prayer has no set duration, and may be as long or as short as a person wishes or feels motivated to pray.

The fixed liturgy used in formal public prayer is in Hebrew, and is printed in prayer books called siddurim (sing. siddur): all synagogues have plenty of these available for all, although many if not most observant Jews have at least one of their own. There are many traditional versions and editions of the siddur, since different Jewish cultures often have slightly different versions of the liturgy, and there may also be considerable variation of customs from place to place; and of course, today, the different movements usually sponsor their own editions of the siddur, redacting the liturgy as they see fit. Many, if not most, modern siddurim also will have the liturgy translated into whatever the common language of the area happens to be. It is considered to be especially meritorious to pray in Hebrew, since that is our holy language, but it is permitted to pray in any language, and we do not believe that God "hears" prayers in Hebrew any better than prayers in any other language.

Since our liturgy is so extensive as to need prayerbooks, we do not expect that people will memorize it; that said, strictly observant people, who pray on a regular basis and have good Hebrew, often end up memorizing large sections of services, or even the entirety of the most common services, though it is normal for even such individuals to have a prayerbook in hand while praying, lest their memory fail them on a particular word or phrase.

Spontaneous prayer may be in any language, at any time, including as appendix to a liturgical service; in the past, spontaneous prayers that have been recorded, or have been discussed in Jewish philosophy, have most often been composed in whatever the lingua franca of the one doing the praying might be.

And, it should be noted, that while we have no precise equivalent for things like The Lord's Prayer (although some of the original language for that came from one of our liturgical formulations) or the al-Fatiha, there are two central portions of our liturgy which are considered of paramount importance. One is a long and complex prayer called the Amidah ("Standing Prayer") which is of Rabbinic (Talmudic and immediately post-Talmudic) composition in ultimate origin; the other is usually referred to as "the Sh'ma" (after the first word of the selection). This is actually a selection of Biblical verses: Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deuteronomy 6:11-13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41.

The first line of the Sh'ma (Deut. 6:4) is:
שמע ישראל ה׳ אלהינו ה׳ אחד
Sh'ma Yisra'el Hashem elohenu Hashem echad
"Listen, O Israel! YHVH our God: YHVH is One."

This is arguably the most central core of Jewish prayer and Jewish theology.
 

Pastek

Sunni muslim
Levite : Thanks for takin the time to explain it!
A typical Monday or Thursday service lasts between 50 to 80 minutes.
Wow, it's very long. It must be difficult to do it everyday before going to work.
I gonna take a look at what is in the Siddur, then

JacobEzra : Thanks, i'm reading it. It explain very well
 

Levite

Higher and Higher
Levite : Thanks for takin the time to explain it!

Wow, it's very long. It must be difficult to do it everyday before going to work.
I gonna take a look at what is in the Siddur, then.

Outside the Orthodox communities, most people don't make it to services every day. And even a lot of my Modern Orthodox (as opposed to ultra-Orthodox) friends don't make it to services every weekday morning. But people do try to go, at least from time to time, if they are observant and committed; often if for no other reason than that certain prayers require a minyan (quorum), and those include the memorial prayer that one says for slightly less than a year following the death of a close family member, so one is doing a substantial mitzvah (good deed) by permitting others to fulfill their mourning obligations.

Usually services just start very early.....
 

Pastek

Sunni muslim
I saw that you have a calendar for the prayers.
If someone want to pray does he have to take a look at the calendar to be sure that the time is not over ?
 

Me Myself

Back to my username
Hopefully this question takes littler time to be answered :eek: :

Do jews join their hands when praying?

Is that an old jewish tradition?
 

Levite

Higher and Higher
I saw that you have a calendar for the prayers.
If someone want to pray does he have to take a look at the calendar to be sure that the time is not over ?

Well, some prayers are only said on certain days, or certain special occasions, so one would have to be aware of what day it was. Likewise, there are a few bits of liturgy that are seasonal, so one would need to be aware of what season it is.

As for within a given day, there are time parameters for what "counts" as saying each prayer service at the appropriate time (for example, the morning service really needs to be said before around 10 am, otherwise it is beyond the classical Jewish legal definition of "morning"), but though it is considered more meritorious to pray services at their proper times, one still is considered to have accrued the merit of prayer by praying a service even after the correct time has passed, or before the correct time arrives.

Do jews join their hands when praying?
Is that an old jewish tradition?

No, we don't do that.
 

Flankerl

Well-Known Member
Its not even about him being a convert(which i highly doubt). Its one of the gazillion videos out there who try to prove that jews prayed like muslims do and that this somehow shows that islam is the true religion etc etc etc etc etc etc

The usual missionary stuff.
 

Caladan

Agnostic Pantheist
Its not even about him being a convert(which i highly doubt).
You are right, it isn't. or at least, it should not be. but this is the information he provides about himself. the fact is that Jews do not pray this way, he knows this, and admits it.
Its one of the gazillion videos out there who try to prove that jews prayed like muslims do and that this somehow shows that islam is the true religion
Exactly.
 
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Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member


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"When I marched in Selma, my feet were praying." - Abraham Joshua Heschel

:)

 
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