THE INVENTION OF FIXED PRAYER

(1) To pray daily is a commandment, as it is said, "And you shall serve the Lord, your God" (Exodus 23:25).

The service, here referred to is, according to the teaching of tradition, Prayer (= Amidah), as it is said, "And to serve Him with all your heart" (Deuteronomy 11:13), on which the sages asked:

"What may be described as service/worship of the Heart?

And they answered: Prayer".

The number of prayers is not prescribed in the Torah.

No form of prayer is prescribed in the Torah.

Nor does the Torah prescribe a fixed time for Prayer.

(2) Hence, women and slaves are under an obligation to pray, this being a duty, the fulfillment of which is independent of set periods.

The obligation in this precept is that every person should daily, according to his ability, offer up supplication and prayer; first uttering praises of God, then, with humble supplication and petition ask for all that he needs, and finally offer praise and thanksgiving to God for the benefits already bestowed upon him in rich measure.

(3) One who was fluent, would offer up many prayers and supplications.

If one was slow of speech, he would pray as he could and whenever he pleased.

Thus also, the number of separate services depended on an individual's ability.

One would pray once daily; others, several times in the day.

All, however, turned during prayer to the Sanctuary, in whichever direction that might be.

This was the uniform practice from the times of Moses to those of Ezra.

(4) When the people of Israel went into exile in the days of the wicked Nebucednezzar, they mingled with the Persians, Greeks and other nations. In those foreign countries, children were born to them, whose language was confused. Everyone's speech was a mixture of many tongues. No one was able, when he spoke, to express his thoughts adequately in any one language, otherwise than incoherently, as it is said, "And their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod and they could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people" (Nehemiah 13:24).

Consequently, when anyone of them prayed in Hebrew, he was unable adequately to express his needs or recount the praises of God, without mixing Hebrew with other languages.

When Ezra and his Council realized this condition, they ordained the Eighteen Benedictions in their present order.

The first three blessings consist of praises of God and the last three, of thanksgiving to Him. The intermediate benedictions are petitions for the things which may stand as categories of all the desires of the individual and the needs of the community.

The object aimed at was that these prayers should be in an orderly form in everyone's mouth, that all should learn them, and thus the prayer of those who were not expert in speech would be as perfect as that of those who had command of a chaste style.

For the same reason, they arranged [in a fixed form] all the blessings and prayers for all Jews so that the substance of every blessing should be familiar and current in the mouth of one who is not expert in speech.

(5) Thus, too, they ordained that the Services of Prayer should be equal in number to the Sacrifices—two services of prayer daily, corresponding to the two daily offerings. And for the day on which an additional offering was ordained, they instituted a third prayer, corresponding to the additional offering.

The Service which corresponds to the daily morning sacrifice is called the Morning Prayer. The Service which corresponds to the Afternoon Sacrifice is called the Afternoon Prayer, and the Service corresponding to the Additional offering is called the Additional Prayer.

(6) So also they ordained that a person should recite one service of Prayer at night, since the portions of the animal offered up as the Afternoon Sacrifice were consumed on the altar throughout the night, as it is said, "This is the law of the burnt offering; this it is that which goes up on its firewood upon the altar all night" (Leviticus 6:2). And in this sense it is said, "Evening and morning and at noon will I meditate and cry aloud, and He has heard my voice" (Psalms 55:18). The Evening Service is not obligatory like the Morning and Afternoon Services. Nevertheless all Israelites, wherever they have settled, have adopted the practice of reciting the Evening Service and have accepted it as obligatory.

(9) The number of these services may not be diminished but may be increased.

If a person wishes to pray the whole day, he may do so.

And the prayers he adds are accounted to him as if he brought free-will offerings. He must accordingly add in each of the middle blessings a thought appropriate to the particular blessing. If this is done in one of the blessings only, that is sufficient, the object being to make it manifest that the prayer is voluntary and not obligatory.

In the first three and last three blessings there must be no addition, diminution or change.

(Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Prayer, 1:1-9)

ALL HIS DEEDS

A person should direct his heart and actions entirely for the sake of knowing God...

(Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Deot, 3:2)

SERVING GOD BECAUSE OF LOVE

Whoever serves God out of love, engages in the study of the Torah and the observance of commandments and follows the paths of wisdom... does the true thing because it is true... as Scripture says: "You shall love the LORD your God" (Deut. 6.5)...

And what is the proper love?

He shall love the Lord with an exceeding great and very strong love so that his soul be tied to the love of the Lord, finding himself in a constant tremor, as if he were suffering of lovesickness, when his mind is free because of love for that woman, being continuously obsessed with her, whether he is sitting down, or whether he is standing up, even when he is eating and drinking...

This is what Solomon meant when he said: "For I am love-sick" (Song of Songs 2.5). One can only love the Holy One, blessed is He, according to the knowledge that he knows Him. According to that knowledge will that love be; if it be small, the love will be small; if it be abundant, the love will be abundant. It is, therefore, necessary for man to dedicate himself to understand and acquire intelligence in the sciences and reasonings which make known to him his Creator, according to the capability that he has...

(Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentance, 10:2-3)