Shalom. I am Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg of the Ezra-Habonim, Niles Township of Jewish Congregation. This video will be about Jewish prayer.
And just to explain the organization and structure of the evening service. The rubrics of our prayers come from the ancient sacrifices that our ancestor offered. The evening sacrifice and they are actually optional and therefore evening service is very short and part of it was optional for a long time. It begins with the call of the prayer the Barchu it was prepared actually even before the normal weekday. And we do the Barchu also in the morning service. After the Barchu there are two basic paragraphs before the Sh’ma. Consider this sort of a block with the Sh’ma in the middle and protection on both sides.
In the evening just as in the morning, the first prayer before the Sh’ma is about God and nature. The prayer is slightly different but they are both about God and nature. The next prayer, the second prayer before the Sh’ma, the one right before the Sh’ma in the morning and the evening is about God, thanking God for the gift of the Torah and commandments.
Now, one is called Ahava Olam, the other is Ahava Rabba, but they are both about thanking God for the Torah and commandments. The Neshamah are some congregations recite at standing and some sitting. The old joke is in one congregation, half of the people are standing, half are sitting, and they are fighting and screaming all the time. They ask the oldest member 96 years old, what was that tradition? He says the tradition was always to argue. Why they should stand or sit? The ones who sits, they should sit because it is basically off from the Bible and you study the Bible sitting. There were four moment when they started standing for the Sh’ma because of the holiness with the prayer and because it is so significant. Any case the Sh’ma’s from Deuteronomy, gone there is a sentence that said “Quietly except for your own people were.” Barukh sheim k'vod malkhuto l'olam va'ed, and then three paragraphs.
The first is the V'ahav'ta and it has 10 commandments in it, not the 10 but 10 other commandments to love God in all ways and to feel in Mezuzah and to teach your children. And the middle paragraph called the V'hayah im shamo'a and then the final paragraph Vayo'mer Adonai involving the fringes.
And in the morning when males and females who were wearing the tallits with fringes, they would take the tallits to their lips and kiss it every time they said Tzitzit. Then in the evening, there are two prayers after the Sh’ma, in the morning there is only one. The first one is Ga’al Yisrael, thanking God is the redeemer and the second one is called the Hashkivenu, this is not done in the morning, but it is done every night of the year and they asks God for protection throughout their night in throughout their lives. And in reference to illusion to the world become.
And following the Sh’ma block you prepare for the Amidah. The Amidah is basically the same during the weekday, morning, noon and night. The first three blessings and the last three are done all of the time even on the Sabbath and they are basically not changing. Most Jews have a different – when they ask a blessing for the morning and afternoon and night. You maybe familiar with Sim Shalom which is done in the morning and Shalom Raav which is done at night, but they were all peace prayers. The first is always the forefathers, the Avot, the second is called Kapparot and it ends with the resurrection, God would resurrects the dead. The third is always the Kedusha, sanctification of God’s name.
Now at night the, Amidah is done completely silently as opposed to the morning and afternoon when it is also done out loud by the person leading services. Now in the middle, there are 13 petitions. They are asking God in the plural for various things that we ask God for things. On the Sabbath and holidays we do not have those 13 petitions because we do not want to ask God for anything to do any work so those 13 are substituted by a single prayer celebrating the Sabbath or holidays. And then you end with three paragraphs which say Modim and either Sim Shalom or Shalom Raav. And have not you have 19 blessings on the weekday and the evening service.
Now at one time, we did not have that. Before you do that, there was 18 Biblical phrases and sentences and the Rabbis put those and as a substitute for the full 19 blessings of the Amidah and that is because that was done before the 19th prayer was added. But the Jewish people wanted the full Amidah so the Rabbis family had to give in and put one in. And not only the service ends the way they always do whether they are full Kaddish, the Aleinu prayer and then the Mourner’s Kaddish.
Now on Shabbath, before all of this, there is another brief service called the Kabbalah Shabbath which has 6 Psalms from the Bible plus the famous prayer, the Lecha Dodi as we welcome the Shabbath bride and you always end on Sh’ma and holiday with a hymn Yibida or at some sort there are guys doing it along.
So that is basically the structure of the evening service. And the only other big change or be on Yom Kippur, there is an extra paragraph added which you all know is called Kol Nidre. Hope that explains the basic structure of the evening service.
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