According to tradition, the Amidah in embryonic form dates back to the Great Assembly in the time of Ezra following the Jews’ return from Babylon. Several centuries later, it was canonised in a fuller form by Shimon HaPakuli in the days of Rabban Gamliel II.
It is often called the Shemoneh Esreh, “Eighteen", because it originally consisted of eighteen blessings (now, nineteen). It has a three-part structure: 1. praise (blessings 1–3); 2. requests (blessings 4–16); and 3. thanks (17–19). Each of these has a tripartite form. The first and last sections each contain three blessings. The middle section is composed of twelve blessings, six personal requests and six collective ones. The first three personal requests are for spiritual goods (wisdom, repentance and forgiveness). The second are for physical goods (deliverance, healing and livelihood). The first three national requests are for physical events (ingathering of exiles, justice, and an end to internal conflicts). The second three are for the nation’s spiritual needs (the righteous and pious, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the restoration of the Davidic monarchy). One blessing, “Listen to our voice” (the sixteenth, last of the “request” blessings), stands outside this structure because it is a prayer about prayer itself. It is also the point at which individuals can add their personal requests.
Blessing 1: Patriarchs. In these opening chords we refer back to the dawn of our people’s history – the days of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In so doing, we echo Moses, who constantly referred to the patriarchs when praying for forgiveness for the people. GOD’S love for, and covenant with, those who first heard His call is the supreme ground on which we stand when we turn to Him in prayer. The paragraph ends with a reference to Abraham, who was the first person to heed GOD’S call. For Your sake, O GOD of life – the phrase literally means “Living God". The translation, however, conveys the poetic structure of this short but powerful prayer: four phrases, each ending with the word chayyim, “life.”
Blessing 2: Divine might. The fivefold reference to the resurrection of the dead reflects the controversy between the Sadducees and Pharisees in the late Second Temple era. The Sadducees rejected belief in resurrection; the Pharisees, whose heirs we are, affirmed it. Belief that those who died will one day live again is one of Judaism’s great principles of hope, set out in the vision of Ezekiel of the valley of dry bones that came to life once more. Jews kept hope alive; hope kept the Jewish people alive.
Kedushah. The Kedushah is the supreme moment of holiness in prayer. It takes several different forms. Common to them all is that they are built around the two supreme mystical visions in the Hebrew Bible, of Isaiah (6) and Ezekiel (1–3). The prophet sees GOD enthroned in glory, surrounded by angels singing His praises. Isaiah hears them singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts: the whole world is filled with His glory.” Ezekiel (3:12) hears them singing, “Blessed is the Lord’s glory from His place.” Together they constitute the most sublime expression of prayer as praise in the presence of GOD.
In the morning, Kedushah is said three times at different points in the service. There is Kedushat Yotzer, which appears in the first of the three Shema blessings (page 62), Kedushah de-Amidah, said here during the Leader’s repetition; and Kedushah de-Sidra, towards the end of the service. The first and third do not require a minyan and are said sitting. The second requires a minyan and is said standing. The reason is that the first and third are descriptions of the song of the angels; the second is a re-enactment. We stand, feet together, rising on our toes, as if we too were angels.
In the Kedushah we move beyond the priestly prayer-as-sacrifice and the prophetic prayer-as-dialogue to prayer as a mystic experience. So holy is it that in Israel in ancient times it was said only on Shabbat and festivals. The Zohar interprets Jacob’s vision of a ladder stretching from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending (Genesis 28:12), as a metaphor for prayer, and this, too, is part of the meaning of Kedushah. We have climbed the ladder from earth to heaven. As the leader repeats the prayer on behalf of the entire community, we reach the summit of religious experience.
Blessing 3: Holiness. The threefold reference to holiness (“You are holy and Your name is holy, and holy ones praise You daily”) mirrors the threefold declaration of the angels in Isaiah’s vision: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts”. Kadosh, “holy", means “set apart, distinct". When used of GOD, it refers to His transcendence, the fact that He stands outside nature, creating and sustaining it. When used of Israel, it means that we too are summoned to stand apart from the idols of the age, living instead in close and continuous proximity to GOD.
The first three paragraphs of the Amidah form a composite unit. The first speaks of the beginning of covenantal time in the days of the patriarchs. The second is about the end of time: resurrection. The third is about holiness, beyond space and time.
Blessing 4: Knowledge. This is the first of the “request” blessings. King Solomon, when asked by GOD to name the thing he most desired (i Kings 3:5–15), asked for wisdom; so do we. Knowledge is prior to emotion, because “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9). Untutored emotion can be misdirected, even destructive.
This paragraph replicates the structure of the Amidah as a whole. It begins with praise (“You grace humanity with knowledge”), proceeds to request (“Grace us with the knowledge”), and ends in acknowledgement (“Who graciously grants knowledge”).
Blessing 5: Repentance. Knowledge and understanding allow us to see where we have drifted from the right path of life. So we ask GOD to help us find the way back to repentance.
Blessing 6: Forgiveness. Repentance involves asking GOD to forgive us. This applies to sins between us and GOD. Sins between us and our fellow human beings are only forgiven when we have apologised to, and tried to obtain the forgiveness of, those we have wronged. Knowledge, repentance and forgiveness are the three primary needs of the mind and soul.
Blessing 7: Redemption. The commentators explain that this request is not for national redemption, the subject of later blessings. Here the reference is to release from personal crises: captivity, persecution, misfortune or affliction. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch distinguishes between the first two phrases thus: “Look on our affliction” refers to suffering not caused by others, while “Plead our cause” refers to those who seek our harm. Rational argument is often insufficient to cure hatred; therefore we place our fate in the hands of GoD, asking Him to heal hostility (Rabbi J.H. Hertz). For Your name’s sake – may we be spared suffering not for our own sake but so that we may be free to worship You without distraction (Rabbi Jacob Zvi Mecklenburg). Redeemer of Israel – in the present, as opposed to the blessing immediately prior to the Amidah, which refers to acts of Divine redemption in the past.
Answer us: A special prayer to be said on public fasts (Ta’anit 11a). The Leader recites it at this point in the repetition of the morning and afternoon Amidah. Individuals say it in the afternoon only, as part of the 16th blessing, without the concluding benediction.
Blessing 8: Healing. We pray that medical treatment be successful, and that GOD Himself be part of the healing process. We are both body and soul: the health of one affects that of the other.
Blessing 9: Prosperity. We pray for GOD’S blessing on our efforts to earn a livelihood. Israel’s agriculture depends on rain, so this blessing includes – during the winter months – a prayer for rain. Israel is a land that teaches its inhabitants the need for prayer. Grant dew and rain – unlike the praise “He makes the wind blow and the rain fall” (page 76), which we begin saying on Shemini Atzeret, the actual prayer for rain is said later to coincide with the rainy season itself. In Israel, it is said from 7 Cheshvan. Outside Israel, it is said from the 60th day after “Takufat Tishri” the Jewish equivalent of the autumnal equinox.
Blessing 10: Ingathering of exiles. With this paragraph, the requests change from individual to collective hopes. They begin with three prayers