(יג) וְהָיָ֗ה אִם־שָׁמֹ֤עַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ֙ אֶל־מִצְוֺתַ֔י אֲשֶׁ֧ר אָנֹכִ֛י מְצַוֶּ֥ה אֶתְכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם לְאַהֲבָ֞ה אֶת־יְהוָ֤ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶם֙ וּלְעָבְד֔וֹ בְּכָל־לְבַבְכֶ֖ם וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁכֶֽם׃
(13) If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, loving the LORD your God and serving Him with all your heart and soul,
דתניא (דברים יא, יג) לאהבה את ה' אלהיכם ולעבדו בכל לבבכם איזו היא עבודה שהיא בלב הוי אומר זו תפלה
Since we learnt in a Baraisa "To love Hashem your G-D, and to serve Him with all your heart" what's the service that is done with the heart? You must say davening.
...ק"ש וברכת המזון דאורייתא ותפלה דרבנן
... ור' אלעזר אמר ספק קרא קריאת שמע ספק לא קרא חוזר וקורא ק"ש ספק התפלל ספק לא התפלל אינו חוזר ומתפלל
...the reading of the Shema' and the Grace after meals are ordained by the Torah, whereas Tefillah is ordained by the Rabbis.
...R. Eleazar said : If one is in doubt whether he has read the Shema' or not, he should repeat it ; but if he is in doubt whether he has said the Tefillah or not, he need not repeat it.
(א) מצות עשה להתפלל בכל יום שנאמר ועבדתם את ה' אלהיכם, מפי השמועה למדו שעבודה זו היא תפלה שנאמר ולעבדו בכל לבבכם אמרו חכמים אי זו היא עבודה שבלב זו תפלה, ואין מנין התפלות מן התורה, ואין משנה התפלה הזאת מן התורה, ואין לתפלה זמן קבוע מן התורה.
(1) It is a positive commandment to pray every day, as it is written: "You shall worship the Lord your God" (Ex. 23:25). By tradition, they learned that this worship is prayer, as it says: "and to worship God with all of your heart" (Deut. 11:13)—the sages said what is worship of the heart? This is prayer. The number of prayers is not biblical, the form of prayer is not biblical, and prayer has no biblically fixed time.
Ramban, Commentary to Sefer Hamitzvoth
"(This derasha) may be an asmakhta, or, it may be instructing us that included in the service (of God) is that we should learn Torah, and pray to Him in times of crisis, and our eyes and hearts should be towards Him alone like the eyes of slaves to their masters, and this is similar to when the Torah writes, 'And when you go to war in your land against the adversary that oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets; and you shall be remembered before the LORD your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies…' (Bamidbar 10:9)- and it is a mitzva to respond to every crisis which the community will face by crying out to Him in prayer…"
(9) When you are at war in your land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound short blasts on the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the LORD your God and be delivered from your enemies.
(א) מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה מִן הַתּוֹרָה לִזְעֹק וּלְהָרִיעַ בַּחֲצוֹצְרוֹת עַל כָּל צָרָה שֶׁתָּבוֹא עַל הַצִּבּוּר. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (במדבר י-ט) "עַל הַצַּר הַצֹּרֵר אֶתְכֶם וַהֲרֵעֹתֶם בַּחֲצֹצְרוֹת". כְּלוֹמַר כָּל דָּבָר שֶׁיָּצֵר לָכֶם כְּגוֹן בַּצֹּרֶת וְדֶבֶר וְאַרְבֶּה וְכַיּוֹצֵא בָּהֶן זַעֲקוּ עֲלֵיהֶן וְהָרִיעוּ:
(1) It is a positive commandment from the Torah to cry out and to sound trumpets for all troubles that come upon the community, as it is said, "upon an enemy who attacks you and you sound trumpets (Numbers 10:9)." That is to say, every matter that troubles you like famine, plague, locusts, and so forth, cry out because of them and sound the trumpets.
(ב) וְדָבָר זֶה מִדַּרְכֵי הַתְּשׁוּבָה הוּא. שֶׁבִּזְמַן שֶׁתָּבוֹא צָרָה וְיִזְעֲקוּ עָלֶיהָ וְיָרִיעוּ יֵדְעוּ הַכּל שֶׁבִּגְלַל מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם הָרָעִים הוּרַע לָהֶן וְגוֹ'. וְזֶה הוּא שֶׁיִּגְרֹם לָהֶם לְהָסִיר הַצָּרָה מֵעֲלֵיהֶם:
And this of the ways of repentance, that during a crisis they should scream and cry out and they should know that their condition is a function of their bad behavior… and this is what will cause the removal of the crisis from them…"
עומק יותר יש בענין, כי הנה האדון ברוך הוא... להיות לו עסק בעולם וליקשר בעניניו, וזה ממה שמקיימו במצבו האנושי... והנה זה באמת מצד אחד ירידה לו ולעניניו, אבל היא ירידה המצטרכת לו, וגורמת לו עליה אחרי כן... כי הנה כפי מה שירבה להסתבך בעניני העולם, כך מתרחק מן האור העליון ומתחשך יותר. והנה הכין הבורא יתברך שמו תיקון לזה, והוא מה שיקדים האדם ויתקרב ויעמוד לפניו יתברך וממנו ישאל כל צרכיו... ותהיה זו ראשית כללית ועיקרית לכל השתדלותו, עד שכאשר יימשך אחר כך בשאר דרכי ההשתדלות, שהם דרכי ההשתדלות האנושית, לא יקרה שיסתבך וישתקע בגופניות וחומריות.
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Derech HaShem (The Way of God, Translation by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan), pp.65, 287
The deeper plan of God’s wisdom … was to arrange things so that even though man must be immersed in the physical, he should be able to attain perfection through his worldly activities and the physical world itself. It is precisely through these that he attains a pure and lofty state, and it is therefore his very lowliness that elevates him. For when he transforms darkness into … sparkling brilliance, he is then able to attain unparalleled excellence and glory …
[However] the more he becomes entangled in worldly affairs, the more he darkens himself spiritually and divorces himself from the highest light. God therefore prepared a remedy for this, namely, that man should initiate all worldly endeavors by first bringing himself close to God and petitioning Him for all his worldly needs … This initiation is most important for all human effort. When a person subsequently engages in various forms of human activity, he will not become entangled and immersed in the physical and material
Rav Soloveitchik ("Redemption, Prayer and Talmud Torah," Tradition 17:2, pp. 67-68)
What is the structure of liberation through prayer? We find, upon analysis, that the process of redemption of the individual and the community through prayer. is similar to the redemption from Egypt, as described by the Zohar. There are three stages:
1) No prayer at all - the silence of atrophy, the absence of a need-awareness;
2) An outcry, a voice, saturated with suffering and sadness;
3) The birth of the word, i.e., the birth of prayer through the word.
It is in the second stage, with the awakening of the need-awareness, that prayer makes its entry. This level of intermediate prayer is not yet tefillah but tze’aka a human outcry: Shomeia kol tze’aka "Hearer of outcry" - is a Divine attribute. There is, as yet, no word, no sentence; although the emotional awareness has awakened, the logos of need is still dormant, silent. There is not yet a clear understanding of what one is crying for. There is distress and loud human weeping. Tze’aka is primordial prayer,
the voice restored, the word still lacking. In the final stage, the word appears; the outcry is transformed into speech. Man, at this level, not only feels his needs but understands them as well; there is a logic of prayer which opens up to man when he is in possession of the word.
At this stage prayer is not just a shriek or a cry anymore. It is rather a well-defined thought, a clear conception. Tze’aka turns into tefillah. We do not know the exact semantics of the term tefillah. Yet one thing is clear: the term is related to thinking, judging, discrimination. In short, prayer is connected with the intellectual gesture. The hierarchy of needs, clearly defined and evaluated, is to be found in the text of the Amidah, where not only the emotional need-awareness, but also the logos of need and with it the human being himself are redeemed. The outpouring of the heart merges with the insights of the mind. To pray means to discriminate, to evaluate, to understand, in other words, to ask intelligently. I pray for the gratification of some needs since I consider them worthy of being gratified. I refrain from petitioning God for the satisfaction of other wants because it will not enhance my dignity.
Tze’aka is not only a phenomenological idea, but a Halachic-religious reality. Tefillah, though it represents a more advanced awareness, does not replace tze’aka, but co-exists with it. Man, even the most sophisticated and educated, frequently resembles the baby who cries because of pain, but does not know how to alleviate the pain.
In halakhic liturgy, prayer at the stage of "tze'aka" is called "Selichot." There are four distinctive characteristics of "Selichot":
1. Recital of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy;
2. Confession;
3. Repetition of short sentences, distinguished by simplicity of form;
4. Reading of prophetic verses of petition or praise.
The main distinction between "tefilla" (represented by the Shemoneh Esreh) and "tze'aka" (as represented by "Selichot") consists in the absence of strict formulation in the case of "Selichot.” Prayer as tze’aka lacks the gradual development of theme, the structural formalism, and the etiquette-like orderliness which Halacha required of the mispallel, the prayerful person.
While "tefilla" is a meditative-reflective act, "tze'aka" is immediate and compulsive.
Based primarily on Rabbi David Brofsky, Hilkhot Moadim and Hilchot Tefilla