Listed below are some

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

prayers and blessings that are part of

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in th ...

that are recited by many Jews. Most prayers and blessings can be found in the

Siddur A siddur ( he, סִדּוּר ; plural siddurim ) is a Jewish prayer book containing a set order of daily prayers. The word comes from the Hebrew root , meaning 'order.' Other terms for prayer books are ''tefillot'' () among Sephardi Jews, '' ...

, or prayer book. This article addresses Jewish liturgical blessings, which generally begin with the formula:

Transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

: '

Translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

: "Blessed are You, our God, King of the universe..."

Pronunciation

In the transliterations below, ' is used to refer to the sh'vah, which is similar/equivalent to ə; a mid-word

aleph Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac , Arabic ʾ and North Arabian 𐪑. It also appears as South Arabian 𐩱 and Ge'ez . These lett ...

, a

glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...

; and a mid-word ayin, a voiced pharyngeal fricative ʕ similar/equivalent to Arabic . Whenever ''`'' is used, it refers to ayin whether word-initial, medial, or final. 'H/h' are used to represent both he, an English h sound as in "hat"; and ḥes, a voiceless pharyngeal fricative ħ equivalent to Arabic . Whenever 'ḥ' is used, it refers to ḥet. Resh is represented by an 'r,' though it's equivalent to Spanish 'r,' Spanish 'rr,' or French 'r,' depending on one's dialect. In all other regards, transliterations are according to the modern Hebrew pronunciation, based on the

Sephardi Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

tradition.

Daily prayers

Waking up

Pesukei d'zimra

This portion of the prayers acts as an introduction to the morning prayers. The following is the order of Nusach Ashkenaz:

Shema and its blessings

The Shema prayers is said every day in Shacharit and Maariv. There are always two blessings before the Shema, but after the Shema in the day there is only one blessing, and at night there are two (or three in some communities).

Amida

The "standing

rayer Rayer is a surname. Notable people with this surname include: * Christian Rayer (born 1945), French motorcycle racer * Ellie Rayer (born 1996), English field hockey player * Francis G. Rayer (1921-1981), British science fiction writer * Mike Raye ...

, also known as the ''Shemoneh Esreh'' ("The Eighteen"), consisting of 19 strophes on weekdays and seven on Sabbath days and 9 on Rosh haShana Mussaf. It is the essential component of

Jewish services Jewish prayer ( he, תְּפִלָּה, ; plural ; yi, תּפֿלה, tfile , plural ; Yinglish: davening from Yiddish 'pray') is the prayer recitation that forms part of the observance of Rabbinic Judaism. These prayers, often with ...

, and is the only service that the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

calls ''prayer''. It is said three times a day (four times on Sabbaths and holidays, and five times on

Yom Kippur Yom Kippur (; he, יוֹם כִּפּוּר, , , ) is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day' ...

). The source for the Amida is either as a parallel to the sacrifices in the Temple, or in honor of the Jewish forefathers. The prayer is divided into 3 sections, blessings of praise for God, requests for our needs (or exalting the holiness of the day for Shabbat and Yom Tov) and finally blessings of thanksgiving.

Praise

Middle blessings

On a regular weekday there are 13 blessings that ask God for our needs. A small number of rabbis, such as

David Bar-Hayim David Hanoch Yitzchak Bar-Hayim (Hebrew: דוד חנוך יצחק ב"ר חיים; born Mandel; born 24 February 1960) is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi who heads the Shilo Institute (''Machon Shilo''), a Jerusalem-based rabbinical court and institute ...

based on fragments from the

Cairo Geniza The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the ''genizah'' or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, ...

say only 12 blessings here.
On fast days in the times of the Talmud there were a number of additional blessings, and in communities today a 14th blessing is added to the Chazzan's repetition on fast days. On Shabbat and Yom Tov there is only a single blessing. During Mussaf of Rosh HaShana there are 3 blessings in the middle, each built around 10 verses from the Tanach around a particular theme.

Thanksgiving

Additions during the repetition

Concluding prayers

Kaddish

An Aramaic prayer which focuses on the idea of magnification and sanctification of God's name. There are five versions of kaddish for different purposes.

Additional poetry used regularly in prayers

Other prayers

Blessings on the mitzvot

Shabbat

These blessings are also relevant to the festivals with some minor changes to the wording.

Holiday blessings

When any of these blessings are done for the first time that year, the blessing of she'he'cheyanu is said.

Mitzvot not associated with festivals

Blessings on pleasures, sights and sounds

Blessings during a meal

''N'tilat Yadayim'' (Ritual washing of hands)

The hands are ritually washed before partaking of certain staples of life. In the Ashkenazic tradition and some Sephardic and other communities, it is done before eating bread. In some Sephardic rites and in the German community originating in Frankfurt it is done before drinking wine and or eating bread, alone or with the wine (such as would be done before a Sabbath or festive meal) at which time this blessing is said: After washing but before drying the hands, the following blessing below is said.

Blessing prior to food

After the meal

The combined blessing of Birkat Hamazon is made only after eating a meal containing

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

(including matza) made from one or all of

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

, rye, oats,

spelt Spelt (''Triticum spelta''), also known as dinkel wheat or hulled wheat, is a species of wheat that has been cultivated since approximately 5000 BC. Spelt was an important staple food in parts of Europe from the Bronze Age to medieval times. N ...

. After Birkat Hamazon, many Sephardic Jews of the Spanish and Portuguese rite recite Ya Comimos or sing

Bendigamos Bendigamos is a hymn sung after meals according to the custom of Spanish and Portuguese Jews. It has also been traditionally sung by the Jews of Turkish descent. It is similar in meaning to the Birkat Hamazon that is said by all theistic Jews. Bend ...

. These prayers are similar in content to Birkat Hamazon.

Blessings for smells

Blessings on sights and sounds

Blessings on special occasions

References

External links

Judaism 101: Common Prayers and Blessings

Sidduraudio.com: Texts and Audios of selections from the Siddur

Brochos.com – A comprehensive guide to blessings
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Jewish Prayers And Blessings Jewish blessings