"People don't really understand what they are saying anymore and the service is too long and boring, lets take out some of the unnecessary parts of the Tefilla and lets also say more of it in English so we can all understand what we are saying"
Agree or Disagree?
A Brief History of Prayer.
Tefillah is one of the three pillars of Judaism: Torah, Avodah (prayer) and practising kindness. Formalized prayer as we know it today, was established by the Men of the Great Assembly about 2,500 years ago in response to the impact of the First Temple destruction and Babylonian exile. The result was the siddur, including the Amidah, as well as fixed times for prayer.
אמר רבי יוחנן ואמרי לה במתניתא תנא מאה ועשרים זקנים ובהם כמה נביאים תיקנו שמונה עשרה ברכות על הסדר
Rabbi Yoḥanan said, and some say that it was taught in a baraita: A hundred and twenty Elders, i.e., the Men of the Great Assembly, and among them several prophets, established the eighteen blessings of the Amida in their fixed order.
The Amidah was originally composed by great prophets and Torah scholars known as the Men of the Great Assembly. This unique group was comprised of the greatest Torah scholars and prophets of the generation, who lived between the First and Second Temples (around the 4th century BCE). They led the Jewish people during the transition from the exile in Babylonia and Persia to the return to the land of Israel, and oversaw the building of the Second Temple, one of the most significant of these enactments was the standardizing of Jewish prayer in the form of the Amidah.
וצריך אתה לדעת כי מימות משה רבינו עד אנשי כנסת הגדולה היתה התפילה בישראל בלתי מסודרת בתיקון שוה לכלנו, שהיה כל א‘ וא‘ עושה מליצה ומתפלל לעצמו כפי ידיעתו וחכמתו וצחות לשונו, עד שבאו אנשי כנסת הגדולה ותקנו תפילה זו של שמונה עשרה כדי שתהיה תפילה מסודרת שוה לכל ישראל.
Rabbeinu Bachya, Kad HaKemach
You should know that from the days of Moshe Rabbeinu until the period of the Men of the Great Assembly, prayer in Israel was not arranged in a definite order for everyone alike. Each individual prayed for himself according to his knowledge, wisdom, and clarity of expression. This was the general practice until the Men of the Great Assembly ordained the Amidah, so that there would be a set prayer for all the people of Israel alike.
Why did the Men of the Great Assembly standardize Jewish prayer?
כיון שגלו ישראל בימי נבוכדנאצר הרשע, נתערבו בפרס ויון ושאר האומות, ונולדו להם בנים בארצות הגויים; ואותן הבנים נתבלבלה שפתם, והיתה שפת כל אחד ואחד מעורבת מלשונות הרבה.
וכיון שהיה מדבר, אינו יכול לדבר כל צרכו בלשון אחת אלא בשיבוש, שנאמר ”ובניהם חצי מדבר אשדודית וגו‘“ נחמיה יג,כד, ואינם מכירים לדבר יהודית וכלשון עם ועם.
ומפני זה, כשהיה אחד מהן מתפלל, תקצר לשונו לשאול חפציו או להגיד שבח הקדוש ברוך הוא בלשון הקודש, עד שיערב עימה לשונות אחרות. וכיון שראה עזרא ובית דינו כך, עמדו ותיקנו להם שמונה עשרה ברכות על הסדר.
Rambam, Hilchot Tefillah 1:4-5
When Israel was exiled in the time of the wicked Nebuchadnezzar, they mixed with Persia, Greece and the other nations. They had children in those foreign lands. Those children spoke mixed languages and each person’s language was made up of many different languages.
When a person would speak he would not be able to express himself properly because of the language confusion. This is the meaning of the verse “and their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the language of Jews, but according to the language of each people” (Nechemiah 13:24).
Because of this, when each person would pray, he would be unable to fully express all his needs or to say the full praise of God in Hebrew without using other languages as well. When Ezra and his court saw this they arose and established for them the Amidah blessings and their order.
אנשי כנסת הגדולה תקנו תפלה זו של שמונה עשרה, כדי שתהיה מסודרת בפי הכל, ולכך תקנוה בלשון פשוט מובן, כדי שלא יתבלבלו הרעיונים בהבנת הלשון ושיהיו כל ישראל שוין בה בין חכמים ובין טפשים.
Rabbeinu Bachya, Commentary to Parshat Eikev 11:13
The Men of the Great Assembly instituted this prayer of the Amidah in order that it should be fluent in every mouth. Therefore they instituted it using simple language, in order not to confuse the ideas with their understanding of the language, and so that all of Israel would be equal in prayer, whether they were clever or foolish.
One monumental accomplishment of the Men of the Great Assembly was the formulation of a universal Jewish prayer service. Today, the centre piece of every service is the prayer known as the Amidah (literally the “standing” prayer). It and its attendant prayers were apparently absent in the First Temple era. The need for such a formalized prayer only first arose when the Jews went into exile in Babylon. During the exile, the communal experience of the three-times-a-year pilgrimage to the Temple left a vacuum. Without the Temple, essential nutrients in the peoples’ religious diet were lacking. Therefore, the leaders in Babylon codified a system of prayer that substituted for the Temple service. They based this on the prophetic verse, “Our lips will substitute for sacrifices” (Hosea 14:3). When the Jews returned from Babylon to the Land of Israel and rebuilt the Temple, they brought along with them the prayers they had learned in Babylon. The Men of the Great Assembly arranged, placed in order, edited, and formulated the words of the Amidah, as well as its accompanying prayers. This arrangement continued through the entire Second Temple era and has continued until today. Although the individual synagogue system was inferior, it successfully compensated for the shift in Jewish life away from the centralized Temple system. Now, with the stamp of approval from the Men of the Great Assembly, Jewish prayer became possible in each community, by each individual, no matter how far away he/she was. Instituting prayer this way not only substituted for the Temple service but compensated for the loss of its central place in Jewish life.
Later Variations
While the Amidah was originally composed by the Men of the Great Assembly, over time variations crept into the prayer. In addition, after the destruction of the Second Temple, certain key amendments needed to be made in the text of the prayers. In the second century of the Common Era, the Sages of the Jewish people finalized the version of the Amidah as we have it today (only very slight variations in wording still exist between Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Sephard, and Arizal versions of the text).
The man who undertook the task of unifying the text of the Amidah was Shimon HaPekoli.
Shimon HaPekoli was a contemporary of Rabban Gamliel, the first leader of the Sanhedrin (Jewish Supreme Court) once it moved to Yavneh after the destruction of the Second Temple (around 70 CE).
שמעון הפקולי הסדיר שמונה עשרה ברכות לפני רבן גמליאל על הסדר ביבנה.
Talmud Bavli, Berachot 28b
Shimon HaPekoli arranged the order of eighteen benedictions before Rabban Gamliel at Yavneh.
The Nineteenth Blessing – Birkat HaMinnim (Blessing Against Heretics)
The turmoil at the end of the Second Temple and its subsequent destruction was accompanied by the rise of a number of heretical movements among the Jewish People. Sensing the threat posed by these groups to the survival of traditional Judaism, an additional blessing was incorporated into the Amidah with the goal of preventing their intermingling within Jewish society. Birkat HaMinnim, the blessing against heretics, served to make those groups no longer feel comfortable praying in synagogues where the new blessing to the Amidah was added. This addition was also instituted under the auspices of Rabban Gamliel in Yavneh.
בימי רבן גמליאל רבו המינים בישראל, והיו מצירין לישראל, ומסיתים אותם לשוב מאחרי ה‘. וכיון שראה שזו גדולה מכל צורכי בני אדם, עמד הוא ובית דינו, והתקין ברכה אחת שתהיה בה שאלה מלפני ה‘ לאבד את המינים; וקבע אותה בתפילה, כדי שתהא ערוכה בפי הכול. ונמצאו הברכות שבתפילה, תשע עשרה ברכות.
Rambam Hilchot Tefillah 2:1
In the time of Rabban Gamliel the heretics increased amongst Israel, and they were harming Israel and leading them away from God. When he saw that this needed addressing more than the people’s other needs, he and his Beit Din arose and established a blessing that is a request from God to destroy those heretics. He fixed it in the Amidah in order that it should be well known in the mouths of everyone. Thus the total number of blessings is nineteen.
The man commissioned to author this 19th blessing was someone known as Shmuel HaKatan (Samuel the Small). The Talmud (Sanhedrin 11a) relates that he was called “the Small” not because of his physical stature but rather only in comparison to the prophet with the same name: Shmuel HaNavi. While the term implies that he was the lesser of two great men, the comparison itself is a tribute to his greatness. Below we shall explore the significance of his authorship. Alternatively, the name is a tribute to his great humility.
אמר להם רבן גמליאל לחכמים כלום יש אדם שיודע לתקן ברכת המינים? עמד שמואל הקטן ותקנה.
Talmud Bavli, Berachot 28b
Rabban Gamliel said to the sages “Is there no one who knows how to establish a prayer against the heretics?” Shmuel HaKatan stood up and established it.
Who was Shmuel HaKatan? Pirkei Avot, which records the main teachings of many Jewish leaders from Moshe Rabeinu through the time of the Mishnah, states that Shmuel HaKatan was known for repeating a particular verse from Mishlei (Proverbs). Considering his authorship of the blessing against heretics, his personal motto strikes us as surprising.
שמואל הקטן אומר (משלי כד) בנפול אויבך אל תשמח ובכשלו אל יגל לבך פן יראה ה‘ ורע בעיניו והשיב מעליו אפו:
Pirkei Avot 4:19
Samuel the Small would say: “When your enemy falls, do not rejoice; when he stumbles, let your heart not be gladdened. Perhaps God will see, and it will be displeasing in His eyes, and He will turn His anger from him [to you]” (Proverbs 24:17-18).
The Sages found it vitally necessary to add this paragraph. The infidel heretics had simply become too much. But only a man who bore no trace of personal animosity in his heart could set forth the words. In a prayer before the portals of Heaven, seeking Divine protection for the people of Israel in its historic destiny, that its life and faith might be safe, there was no room for personal vindictiveness or malicious hatred. Only Shmuel the “Little One,” humble and unassuming, formed it – the man who could not rejoice if a personal enemy fell. His words of prayer could flow from a pure love for his people, a yearning for their safety, and a desire to see their living Judaism guarded against inner destruction.
Key Themes
- The weakened state of the Jewish people after the destruction of the First Temple and exile to Babylonia led the Men of the Great Assembly to compose the Amidah. This body of towering scholars and prophets authored eighteen of the blessings of the Amidah in a manner and style that would be meaningful for both scholar and layman.
- The prayer was only finalized hundreds of years later, after the destruction of the Second Temple. In addition to amendments in the standard text, a new prayer was added to guard against the influence of heretics. This prayer was composed with sincerity and without a trace of vengeance by the great sage Shmuel HaKatan.