prayer book

n.

1. A book containing religious prayers.
2. Prayer Book The Book of Common Prayer.

The Jewish prayer book (seder tefillot, siddur, or Maḥzor) contains the obligatory and customary Liturgy to be recited in the Synagogue and at home at appointed times. In addition to the regular congregational prayer service for weekdays, the Sabbath and festivals, the prayer book has traditionally offered an order of service to be conducted by the family around their table (symbol of the Temple Altar) including benedictions before and after the meal and Sabbath songs (Zemirot). In many cases, halakhot (religious laws) concerning prayer are also included, as well as penitential prayers (Seliḥot) for forgiveness, the Psalter for devotional use, and biblical and talmudic passages which have become a regular part of the liturgy.

At first, both the terms siddur, i.e., "prayer order" (pl. siddurim), and maḥzor, i.e., "cycle" (pl. maḥzorim), referred to the book of prayers for the whole year. Later, after Piyyutim (liturgical poetry) had been extensively added during the Middle Ages, the Ashkenazi custom arose to distinguish between the siddur for daily prayers and the maḥzor for festivals.

At one time, prayer uniquely belonged to the Oral Tradition. The tannaim and amoraim of the Talmud speak exclusively of memorized prayers (Ber. 5:3-5; RH 4:5-6; Ta'an. 2:2) because of the prohibition against writing down liturgical texts. "R. Judah ben Naḥmani ... discoursed as follows:... The words which are written [i.e., the Bible] you are not at liberty to say by heart, and the words transmitted orally, you are not at liberty to recite from writing" (Git. 60b). The Tosefta, a rabbinic work of the early centuries of the Common Era, records: "Writers of blessings are like those who burn the Torah" (Tos. to Shab. 13:4). A later generation, guarding against the ultimate loss of the entire Oral Tradition as a result of the Roman persecutions of the second and third centuries, lifted the ban. "Oral Tradition is not meant to be written down. We say, however, that since its writing down cannot be eliminated, we say 'when it is time to work for the Lord, they may break the law' (Ps. 119:126)" (Git. 60a). Written prayer books began to appear in the geonic period. These handwritten manuals for the prayer leaders' use alone were permitted, at first, only on the Day of Atonement and other fast days owing to the difficulty in mastering the complex service by heart. License was then extended to include the order of daily prayers and those for the Sabbath and festivals.

The first formulated order of service is found in the talmudic tractate Soferim, a work of the eighth century. In the ninth century, Amram Gaon, a leading Babylonian scholar, compiled the first prayer book, Seder Rav Amram Gaon. Created at the request of Spanish Jewry, this prototype of an authorized liturgical manual contained the statutory prayers for the entire year and the halakhot that govern them "as they have been transmitted ... by the tannaim and ... amoraim," and concludes with a section devoted to lifecycle celebrations. The extensive commentary defined the basic principles of the liturgy as developed by the rabbis and for the first time established the limits of deviation beyond which local custom could not go.

In the tenth century, the Siddur of Saadiah Gaon included the pertinent legal background in Arabic for the benefit of the Jews of Egypt and introduced an economical arrangement of the prayer service which, however methodical, failed to become generally accepted. Unlike Rav Amram Gaon's guide for community leaders, Saadiah's prayer book was compiled for actual use by the synagogue worshiper, with notes explaining the appropriate times, modes, and postures of prayer. It enjoyed popularity until Maimonides' Mishneh Torah appeared with "The Order of the Prayers for the Whole Year."

Maḥzor Vitry ("The Cycle of Prayers from Vitry"), reflecting the 11th-century rite of northern France, repeats many of the legal sections of its predecessors and introduces piyyutim. Its editor, R. Simḥah Ben Samuel, a student of Rashi, appended to his prayer book the Passover Haggadah, prayers for Simḥat Torah, and commentaries to selected prayer texts. From this time it became customary to include the comments of great rabbinic authorities in the margins of prayer books.

The first prayer books to be printed come from the Iberian Peninsula for use by Marranos (crypto-Jews) in about 1475. Maḥzor Roma and Siddur Katan ("Sidorello"), published in 1486 by Nathan Soncino, preserve the Italian rite and mark the beginning of the prayer book's popular accessibility to the individual Jew. The first Ashkenazi siddur was printed in Prague in 1512.

The Ashkenazim and the Sephardim have developed distinct prayer book traditions (see Nusaḥ). Among the Ashkenazim, the categories include the Kol Bo ("everything is in it"), also known as the Maḥzor Ha-Gadol ("Great Maḥzor") with Sabbath and festival prayers for the year, the festival Maḥzor, and the Siddur containing daily and Sabbath prayers. Sephardi prayer books include Tefillat ha-Ḥodesh, for weekdays, Sabbaths, the New Moon, ḥanukkah, and Purim; Mo'adim for the Pilgrim festivals; Rosh ha-Shanah for the New Year; Kippur for the Day of Atonement; Ta'aniyyot for the fast days. Among the best-known prayer books in Europe were Jacob Emden'S Siddur Bet Ya'akov (1769), Wolf Heidenheim's classic Siddur (1806), and Isaac Seligman Baer's Avodat Yisra'el (1868), which contains a learned commentary.

The Ḥasidim modified the Ashkenazi prayer book to include elements of the Sephardi liturgy following their adoption in the 18th century of Isaac Luria's kabbalistic version of the liturgy (Nusaḥ ha-Ari) complete with his commentary and Kavvanot. The Arabic-speaking Jews of Yemen refer to their comprehensive prayer book as Tikhlal, which remained a handwritten text until published in Jerusalem at the end of the 19th century.

As with the totality of Jewish life, the prayer book, too, underwent fundamental changes in response to Emancipation and Enlightenment at the turn of the 19th century. The earliest reformers were concerned with the form of the synagogue service and only later dealt with the theological underpinnings of the traditional siddur. Among the innovations were simplified service and prayers in the vernacular.

The first Reform prayer book, edited by I.S. Fraenkel and M.I. Bresselau in 1819, was the Hamburg Gebetbuch: Sefer ha-Avodah. It contained researched citations in Jewish sources giving support for some of its liturgical reforms, which included the abbreviation of certain texts, the elimination of repetitions, and the introduction of both the vernacular language and Sephardi piyyutim.

After the Reform Rabbinical Conferences of 1844-46, which attempted to unify the wide variety of liturgical versions developing in Germany at this time, the Berlin community struck out on its own and developed a radically universalist service, predominantly in German with but a few biblical verses in Hebrew.

Prayer book reform in America, following patterns set in Central Europe, included Leo Merzbacher's Seder Tefillah---The Order of Prayer for Divine Service (1855), David Einhorn's Olam Tamid---Book of Prayers for Israelitish Congregations (1856), and Isaac Mayer Wise's Minhag Amerikah---The Daily Prayers for American Israelites (1857). These rituals, in turn, paved the way for The Union Prayer Book for Jewish Worship---Seder Tefillot Yisrael (1894-5), which unified the entire American Reform movement under one spiritual banner. Each successive edition reflected the changing self-image of Reform Judaism, as in 1922, when ceremony and ritual took on new meaning, and in 1940, when the consciousness of Jews as a people with its own culture transformed the posture of Reform worship. The 1975 edition, Shaaré Tefillah: The Gates of Prayer---The New Union Prayer Book, affirms Jewish tradition and culture, peoplehood, and homeland as expressed in its editors' choices of services, prayers, supplementary readings, and rituals, while in the 1990s a "gender-sensitive" edition appeared as well. The same approach can be seen in the Reform movement's other innovative liturgical publications: Shaaré Bayit: The Gates of the House (1977), Shaaré Teshuvah: The Gates of Repentance (1978), and Shaaré Seliḥah: The Gates of Forgiveness (1980).

The Movement for Conservative Judaism in America represents a departure from the traditional siddur as well, although it adheres more faithfully to the classical structure. Its first publication in 1927, Maḥzor le-Shalosh Regalim---The Festival Prayer Book, reveals a marked kinship with the enlightened Orthodoxy of its day. A second edition (1946), entitled Seder Tefillot Yisra'el le-Shabbat u-le-Shalosh Regalim--- Sabbath and Festival Prayer Book, permitted few textual revisions but introduced supplementary readings and explanatory notes. Since 1961, Conservative liturgical publications have sought to reflect a consensus among the wide spectrum of belief and practice represented within the movement. Siddur li-Yemot ha-Ḥol---Weekday Prayer Book (1961), Maḥzor li-Yamim ha-Nora'im: Maḥzor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (1972) and Siddur Sim Shalom: A Prayer Book for Shabbat, Festivals and Weekdays (1985) all preserve a large part of the traditional liturgy and yet speak in popular parlance of the spiritual and moral concerns of the day, with a decidedly Zionist emphasis. Like the Reform movement, the Conservative movement has also produced a "gender-sensitive" version of its Sim Shalom prayer book for the 1990s

The fledgling Reconstructionist movement published as early as 1945 Seder Tefillot le-Shabbat---Sabbath Prayer Book, and in 1948, Maḥzor li-Yamim ha-Nora'im---High Holy Day Prayer Book. These, and their later Festival Prayer Book (1958) and Seder Tefillot li-Yemot ha-Ḥol---Daily Prayer Book (1963) make extensive use of auxiliary material meant to enhance the tradition-oriented Conservative-style service. The distinguishing features of the liturgy are found in the affirmation of a Judaism without supernaturalism and in the denial of the Jewish people as the Chosen People.

Until recently, the most popular work in the English-speaking Orthodox community was Simeon Singer's Authorized Daily Prayer Book, which first appeared in 1890. Also influential have been J.H. Hertz's 1941 annotated and enlarged edition of the Singer prayer book and Philip Birnbaum's Daily Prayer Book (1949) and High Holyday Prayerbook (1951). The Rabbinical Council of America has endorsed David de Sola Pool's Traditional Prayer Book for Sabbath and Festivals (1960) and the Art Scroll Siddur, which includes prayers for the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces and has grown considerably in popularity in recent years. Many Sephardi congregations worship with Sephardi prayer books edited by David de Sola Pool. Others use prayer books published in Israel. The Syrian Jews of the United States have published a number of prayer books for their own use.

Contemporary prayer books have responded to the two most cataclysmic events of Jewish life in this century: the Holocaust and the reestablishment of the State of Israel. As early as 1961, the Conservative and Reconstructionist prayer books included services for the commemoration of these events. Since then, many homemade liturgies have been printed by individual congregations and communities, some in cooperation with Christian churches. Virtually all of the recently published prayer books include memorial services for Yom ha-Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and Sabbath and holy day petitions on behalf of the State of Israel, as well as services for Yom ha-Atsma'ut (Israel Independence Day, on 5 Iyyar).

Creative liturgies, with a growing sensitivity to social issues and spiritual seeking, have also been designed and printed for experimental prayer settings. Thematic, orchestrated and choreographed interreligious and multi-media services have been produced by clergy and laity for congregations and schools, camps, and ḥavurot. Since the 1980s, the Jewish personnel in the US Armed Forces have had a unified prayer book for the first time in American Jewish history. The result of a joint effort on the part of an interdenominational rabbinic commission, this unique and promising volume combines the Hebrew text of the De Sola Pool Siddur with interpretive translations and readings in English from the Shaaré Tefillah: Gates of Prayer. In Israel, Shelomo Tal's Rinnat Yisra'el in Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Ḥasidic versions are widely used.

---

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a book containing prayers
  Synonym: prayerbook

---

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)