Origins of Prayer

(4) And the priest shall take the basket out of thy hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD thy God. (5) And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous. (6) And the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. (7) And we cried unto the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression. (8) And the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders. (9) And He hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. (10) And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the land, which Thou, O LORD, hast given me.’ And thou shalt set it down before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God.

(11) And she vowed a vow, and said: ‘O LORD of hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of Thy handmaid, and remember me, and not forget Thy handmaid, but wilt give unto Thy handmaid a man-child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.’ (12) And it came to pass, as she prayed long before the LORD, that Eli watched her mouth. (13) Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard; therefore, Eli thought she had been drunken.

(3) If one is accustomed/fluent, he increases in supplications and petitions, and if one has uncircumcised lips, he speaks according to his ability and anytime he likes. And so, the number of prayers is as each to their own abilities. There are some who pray once a day, and there are those who pray many times. And everyone would pray facing the Temple. And this was the way of things from the time of Moses to Ezra.

(4) When Israel was dispersed in the days of Nebudchadnezzar the evil, they were in foreign lands and they had children in the foreign lands and their children spoke babble. And everyone’s language was this one and this one and languages were very mixed. And since the speaker was not able to speak all, they needed one language, rather that they should be confused. As it is said: “And half their children spoke in the language of Ashdod, etc” [Nehemiah 13:24]. And none knew how to speak “Yehudit” and spoke the language of the people. And because of this, when one prayed, his tongue was shortened to ask for his needs, or to give praise to the HKBH in the holy language until that their tongues were mixed up. And when Ezra and his Beit Din saw this was, they rose and instituted for themselves the 18 blessings in the order of three first praises to HaShem, and three last thanksgivings, and the middle there were in them requests on all the things that are like the foundations of every person’s desires/needs, man to man. And the needs of the community should be set in the mouths of all and they will learn them. And there will be a prayer, even the stutterers will pray wholly like the prayers of the smooth talkers, because this matter was set, all the blessings and prayers were ordered in the mouths of all Israel so that the whole matter was set in the mouths of the stutterer.

(3) Rabban Gamliel says: Every day a person must pray eighteen [blessings of Shemoneh Esrei]. Rabbi Yehoshua says: [One may say] an abbreviated [form of the] eighteen [blessings]. Rabbi Akiva says: If his prayer is fluent in his mouth, he must say eighteen; and if it is not -- an abbreviated eighteen.

(4) Rabbi Eliezer says: One who makes his prayer "set" [as though it is burdensome to him], his prayer does not constitute "pleading" [for Divine mercy]. Rabbi Yehoshua says: One who is traveling in a dangerous place should offer a brief prayer [and] say: Save, G-d, Your people, the remnant of Israel; at every period of transition let their needs be before You. You are the Source of all blessing, G-d, Who heeds prayer.

It was stated: Rabbi Yosi b. Rabbi Hanina said: The Patriarchs instituted the prayer.

Rabbi Yehoshua b. Levi said: prayer was instituted corresponding to the daily sacrifices.

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It was taught in accordance with Rabbi Yosi b. Rabbi Hanina: Abraham instituted the morning prayer, as it says, (Genesis 19:27)"Next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before the Lord." And "standing" is prayer, as it is said, (Psalms 106:30) "Pinhas stood and prayed."

Isaac instituted the afternoon prayer, as it is said, (Genesis 24:63) "And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening..." And "mediation" is prayer, as it is said, (Psalms 102:1) "A prayer of the lowly man when he is faint and pours forth his plea before the lord."

Jacob instituted the evening prayer, as it is said, (Genesis 28:11) "He encountered a certain place and stopped there..." and "encountered" is prayer, as it is said, (Jeremiah 7:16) "As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry of prayer on their behalf, do not plead with Me; for I will not listen to you."

It was taught in accordance with Rabbi Yehoshua b. Levi: For what reason did they say that the morning prayer is until midday? Because the daily morning offering was offered until midday.

And for what reason did they say that the afternoon prayer is until the evening? Because the afternoon daily offering was offered until the evening.

And for what reason did they say that the evening prayer has no fixed time? Because the limbs and and the fat that were not burned up by the evening were offered all night long.

And for what reason did they say that the additional prayer [Mussaf] can be said all day? Because the additional offering was offered all day.