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Siddur

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The siddur (plural siddurim) is the prayerbook used by Jews over the world, containing a set order of daily prayers. A separate article, Jewish services, discusses the prayers that appear in the siddur, and when they are said. This entry discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur as we know it today has developed.

Reading from a siddur
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Reading from a siddur

Contents

History of the siddur

The earliest parts of Jewish prayer are the "Shema Yisrael" (Hear O Israel) (Deuteronomy 6:4 et seq), and the Priestly Blessing (Numbers 6:24-26), which are in the Torah the earliest part of the Hebrew Bible. A set of 18 (currently 19) blessings called the Shemoneh Esreh or the Amidah (Hebrew, "Standing Prayer"), is traditionally ascribed to the Great Assembly in the time of Ezra, at the end of the Biblical period.

The name Shemoneh Esreh, literally "eighteen", is an historical anachronism, since it now contains nineteen blessings. It was only near the end of the Second Temple period that the 18 prayers of the weekday Amidah became standardized. Even at this time their precise wording and order was not yet fixed, and varied from locale to locale. Many scholars now believe that parts of the Amidah came from the Hebrew apocryphal work Ben Sira.

According to the Talmud, soon after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem a formal version of the Amidah was adopted at a rabbinical council in Jabneh, under the leadership of Rabban Gamaliel II and his colleagues. However, the precise wording was still left open. The order, general ideas, opening and closing lines were fixed. Most of the wording was left to the individual reader. It was not until several centuries later that the prayers began to be formally fixed. By the middle-ages the texts of the prayers were nearly fixed, and in the form that they are still used today.

Creating the siddur

Readings from the Torah (five books of Moses) and the Prophets form part of the prayer services. To this framework were fitted, from time to time, various prayers, and, for festivals especially, numerous hymns.

The earliest existing codification of the prayerbook was drawn up by Rav Amram Gaon of Sura, Babylon, about 850 CE. Half a century later Rav Saadia Gaon, also of Sura, composed a siddur, in which the rubrical matter is in Arabic. These were the basis of Simcha ben Samuel's "Machzor Vitry" (11th century France), which was based on the ideas of his teacher, Rashi. From this point forward all Jewish prayerbooks had the same basic order and contents.

Different Jewish rites

There are differences between, amongst others, the Sephardic (Spanish and Portuguese), Ashkenazic (German-Polish), Italki (Central and South Italian) and Romaniote (Greek) liturgies; see further discussion under Nusach in the Minhag article.

The Mahzor of each rite is distinguished by hymns (piyyutim) composed by authors (payyetanim) of the district. The most important writers are Yoseh ben Yoseh, probably in the 6th century, chiefly known for his compositions for the day of Atonement; Eleazer Qalir, the founder of the payyetanic style, perhaps in the 7th century; Saadia Gaon; and the Spanish school, consisting of Joseph ibn Abitur (died in 970), ibn Gabirol, Isaac Gayyath, Moses ibn Ezra, Abraham ibn Ezra and Judah ha-Levi, Moses ben Nahman (Nahmanides) and Isaac Luria.

Complete versus weekday siddurim

Some siddurim have only prayers for weekdays; others have prayers for weekdays and Shabbat (the Sabbath). Many have prayers for weekdays, Shabbat, and the three Biblical festivals, Sukkot (the feast of Tabernacles), Shavuot (the feast of weeks) and Pesach (Passover). The latter are referred to as a Siddur Shalem (complete siddur).

Variations and additions on holidays

There are many additional liturgical variations and additions to the siddur for the Yamim Noraim (The Days of Awe; High Holy Days, i.e. Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur). As such, a special siddur has developed for just this period, known as a mahzor (also machzor). The mahzor contains not only the basic liturgy, but also many piyutim, Hebrew liturgical poems.

Popular siddurim

Below are listed many popular siddurim used by religious Jews.

  • The Metsudah Siddur: A New Linear Prayer Book Ziontalis.
  • The Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the British Commonwealth, translation by Rabbi Eli Cashdan (the new version of the "Singer's Prayer Book")
  • The Artscroll Siddur, Mesorah Publications (In a number of versions and fairly popular today.)

(Characterised by relative absence of cabbalistic elements:)
  • Book of Prayer: According to the Custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews David de Sola Pool, New York: Union of Sephardic Congregations, 1979
  • Book of prayer of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation, London. Volume One: Daily and occasional prayers. Oxford (Oxford Univ. Press, Vivian Ridler), 5725 - 1965.

Balkan Sephardim

(Usually characterised by presence of cabbalistic elements:)

North African and Middle Eastern Sephardim and Mizrachim

(Usually characterised by presence of cabbalistic elements:)

Chabad, while ethnically ashkenazic, are chassidic Jews. Their nusach is called HaAri. While previous Nusach HaAri Siddurim had been arranged by the famous kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed, the Chabad siddur was altered for general use, correcting textual errors, by Alter Rebbe, Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the first Chabad Rebbe, called Siddur Torah Or. He later made a new edition without the Kavanot (meditations) that made Nusach HaAri so mystical which accounted for 70% of the Siddur, called Siddur Tehillat HaShem''. A few other derived Siddurim have been made by other outside of Chabad, such as the Ben Ish Chai.

  • Siddur Torah Or
  • Siddur Tefilot Mikol Hashanah
All are currently published by Kehot Publication Society [kehotonline.com].

  • Sabbath and Festival Prayer Book edited by Morris Silverman with Robert Gordis, 1946. USCJ and RA
  • Weekday Prayer Book Edited by Morris Silverman, 1956. USCJ
  • Weekday Prayer Book Ed. Gershon Hadas with Jules Harlow, 1961, RA.
  • Siddur Sim Shalom Ed. Jules Harlow. 1985, 980 pages, RA and USCJ.
  • Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals Ed. Lawrence Cahan, 1998, 816 pages. RA and USCJ.
  • Siddur Sim Shalom for Weekdays Ed. Avram Israel Reisner, 2003, 576 pages. RA and USCJ.

All of the following published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis:
  • Olat Tamid: Book of Prayers for Jewish Congregations
  • The Union Prayerbook
  • Gates of Prayer: The New Union Prayer Book
  • Gates of Repentance: The New Union Prayer Book
  • Mishkan T'filah [Tabernacle of Prayer]: A Reform Siddur

  • Ḥadesh Yameinu (Renew our days): a book of Jewish prayer and meditation, edited and translated by Rabbi Ronald Aigen. Montreal (Cong. Dorshei Emet), 1996.
  • Kol Haneshamah Prayerbook series, ed. David Teutsch:
  • *Shabbat Vehagim: The Sabbath and Festivals, Reconstructionist Press; 3rd edition (August 1, 1998)
  • *Limot Hol: Daily Prayer Book, Reconstructionist Press; Reprint edition (September 1, 1998)
  • *Kol Haneshamah: Prayers for a House of Mourning, Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (October 10, 2001)
  • *Kol Haneshamah: Mahzor Leyamim Nora'Im, Fordham University Press; Bilingual edition (May 1, 2000)

See also

References

External links

 

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