Shalom! My name is Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg Ezra-Habonim, Niles Township Jewish Congregation in Skokie. This is the third of my series of the daily prayer service. This is about men have the afternoon service. What has Minha come from? Well, first, the tradition says that Isaac invented it. It says, he was walking and meditating in the garden before he met his bestrode Rebecca, and that is the basis of the afternoon prayer. The sages also say that it is based on the sacrifice of the Minha, the afternoon sacrifice that was offered by our ancestors in the holy temple until the temple was destroyed, the second one in the 7DCE.
The name comes from the book of Kings where it mentions the Minha a couple of times and so, we get the Minha in the book of kings, we got the Miha sacrifice in the temple, so we have this afternoon service. There is a great rabbi in the 15th century named Nabala Turim who talked about the very great significance of this very short service. It is in the morning, we just getting up, we might have a little more time even though we are rushing to get on with the day and the evening in Mariv we finished the day pretty mush and so, we have a little more flexibility. And the heart of the day, though we are anxious to get on with our business and so, we should absolutely take time to ponder and reflect and praise God in the heart of the day.
Now, that tradition says, you should Minha anytime between 12:30 pm and sunset, although it is best really between 3:30 and 4:45, but people find time whenever they can for that very brief service. Now, what is so short about it? Well, it begins with Psalm 145 called the ashray. the Talmud says, we should recite the ashray three times a day. We do it twice in the morning service and once now at Minha and we have the half kaddesh, Y’t kedah, yid kadash. And then the 19 partitions of the amidah, it is the same amidah we so in the evening and pretty much the same we do it as the one in the morning. The main difference between this service and the other two is there is no Shema and none of the prayers before and after the Shema.
Now, that is because the Torah says that we recite the Shema when lie down at night and we arise up which interpreted the morning. And so, there is no shema, it is just the Amidah, preceded by the ashay followed by the Aleinu in the mourners Kadesh. In some Synagogue, some of the time, say a prayer called the Takulnum. So, that is the Minkah Service, only a key prayer. The only one who wears the prayer shawl is the priest who is leading the service. He would say it with no blessing. We only read Torah and Minkah on Shabbat and on fast days. Elohim like Yom Kipur. Otherwise, we do not read the Torah at Minkah time. So, that is basically the essence of the very short prayer service. Minkah, it is beautiful to take time in the afternoon to praise God with the Minkah service.
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