Hebrew prayers
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Listed below are some Hebrew prayers and blessings that are part of Judaism that are recited by many Jews. Most prayers and blessings can be found in the Siddur, or prayer book. This article addresses Jewish liturgical blessings, which generally begin with the formula: Transliteration: ' Translation: "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 letter ...
, 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 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 Ray ...
, 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, and is the only service that the Talmud calls ''prayer''. It is said three times a day (four times on Sabbaths and holidays, and five times on Yom Kippur). 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 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, barley,
rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to both wheat (''Triticum'') and barley (genus ''Hordeum''). Rye grain is u ...
, 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. No ...
. After Birkat Hamazon, many Sephardic Jews of the
Spanish and Portuguese Portuguese and Spanish, although closely related Romance languages, differ in many aspects of their phonology, grammar and lexicon. Both belong to a subset of the Romance languages known as West Iberian languages, West Iberian Romance, which als ...
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


See also

* Berakhah * Birkat Hachama *
Shuckling ''Shuckling'' (also written as ''shokeling''), from the Yiddish word meaning "to shake", (compare with the German "schaukeln", to swing) is the ritual swaying of worshippers during Jewish prayer, usually forward and back but also from side to sid ...
* Siddur


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