Judaist+Prayer

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Over and over again, the Bible recounts countless instances in which God’s people have called out to Him with prayer, and have been rewarded with an answer demonstrating God’s power and divine intercession in man’s life. In the book of Acts, prayer is revealed as having its own set time, indicating the importance of it in the Jewish culture and their dependence on God.

**Jewish Background on Prayer **
 There are a few instances in the Bible that constitute the specific times of prayer. The first mention of it is found in Psalm 55:17: "Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice." David prayed to the Lord numerous times throughout the day, keeping his mind forever dwelling on the person of God. Also in the Old Testament, Daniel prayed in the same manner. "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he had done aforetime."1 One might argue that David and Daniel were both righteous men after God’s own heart, and that this does not necessarily account for the way that the other Israelites felt about prayer. However, since it is written in the Bible-God’s inspired work through the hands of men-it holds power and describes the patterns of the faithful. In Acts 3:1, “…Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer-at three in the afternoon.” Again, in 10:3, Cornelius “at about three in the afternoon had a vision.” God called out to him and commanded him to request the presence of Peter, who also had a vision at noon (10:9), and returned back to Cornelius’ house four days later at three PM (10:30). While it may just be a pattern, God provided fruitfully all of these times. He rescued David and brought him through trials victorious, granted Daniel safe passage in the den of lions, worked a miracle in the name of Jesus through Peter and John to a paralytic so that His name would be glorified, and provided Cornelius’ vision so that the Gospel message could go out to the Gentiles as well as the Jews.

 The nature of Jewish prayer has several guidelines that help them stay focused and meditating on God. Out of the five fixed orders of prayer services daily, there are three that are focused around the //Amidah// prayer-the //Shaharit, Minhah, and Ma’ariv//. These essential three are the basic daily prayers, and correspond to “the order of sacrifices in the Temple: //Shaharit// corresponds to the daily offering (//Talmid)// brought in the morning; //Minhah// to the //Tamid// offering brought toward dusk; and //Ma’ariv// to the flesh of sacrifices burnt on the altar during the night hours.2 The //Amidah,// so called because it is read standing 3 opens with words of praise, fills the middle with personal and general needs, and closes with words of thanksgiving. It has remained pretty much untouched since its creation in the second temple period and serves as the “core of Jewish prayer.”4 The three prayer services also correspond to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob respectively, setting up the way each service should be conducted regarding their meaning and purpose.2 The other prayer on Sabbaths was known as //Minhah//, “which in Hebrew means ‘additional’ and is meant to be the counterpart of the additional sacrifices on these special days.” Finally, //Ne’ilah// is the last prayer of Yom Kippur, the last day of the year.5 Although there are three set prayer times, pious Jews do not have to attend all of them. This would be extremely difficult to observe if working at a job that did not allow them to take time off. Jews are allowed to combine the last two prayers of the day by saying the afternoon one late, and the evening prayer early.6 Since our modern culture has a different standard of the definitions of day and time, it is necessary to understand how the Jews used to view the schedule of their lives. Each day, instead of starting and finishing at 12, begins with the rising of the sun and concludes with the setting. There are 12 “relative hours” of sunlight and darkness, each altering length with the summer and winter phases. A typical day will begin at six AM, have afternoon begin four relative hours later, and then conclude the day with evening and nightfall.5

 Just as Peter and John went to pray in the synagogue together, there was an emphasis on community praying. “One of the basic principles of Judaism is that ‘all Jews are responsible for one another.’”7 They prayed for each other and held one another accountable to live a life as holy as possible. “When praying alone, one cannot recite certain prayers, cannot respond ‘amen’ (the affirmation of prayer and of the relationship which it asserts), and cannot hear or read the Torah scroll.”8 Public prayer in a community always took place in a “holy congregation”, with a //Minyan// of ten or more men.9 In Acts 16:13, this point is made when the Apostle Paul enters Philippi and is unable to gather in a synagogue with the Jews. There was a very small population of Jews present, and no amount of women could make up for the ten men.10 It may have been possible that Peter and John were planning on meeting up with other men to pray together before meeting the paralytic on the way. However, since the synagogue was a “portable sanctuary” and the religious process was so highly held, “wherever two or three gathered to speak the words of Torah there the Shekinah (Holy Spirit) was present.”11

 The structure of public prayer as mentioned above seems to have originated in the second temple period as a means of restoring the Jewish heritage and relationship with God. After the exile and at the beginning of the Second Temple Period, the Israelites forgot some of their old traditions and even spoke broken Hebrew, polluted with languages from other nations not their own. Ezra began to teach the people everything they might have forgotten, and the Sages of the Great Assembly (unknown scholars) worked together in unifying the people once again for the purpose of bringing worship to God.12 They were responsible for the formation of the //Amidah//, the morning, afternoon, and evening times for prayer, and the Torah readings as part of the service on Holy Days, Mondays, and Thursdays.3 Ezra read from the scriptures on the Sabbath (Nehemiah 8:1), but Mondays and Thursdays were special because those were the days when the farmers from out of town would come into market, and were thus able to attend the synagogue.  This works out perfectly in accordance with the //aggadah//, which states that just like a man can live without food for only three days, man cannot go without reading the Torah for more than three days. This cycle of gathering would prevent them from missing any more than they needed to.13 The Sages of the Great Assembly also constituted that wherever there were ten or more Jewish men, the community was to erect a synagogue as a place of prayer, since the Temple could not house the multitude.14 Here is where most of the community bonding took place and the Israelites became united amongst each other. It was “the most important factor in enabling Judaism to grip an entire race”, and purposed to “hear the Law and learn it accurately.”15 They understood the significance and power in meeting together before the great and sovereign God. Through studies, the evolution of the synagogue is predicted to have taken place in the Greek period, about 330 B.C., placing the constitution of the synagogue prayer times between 330 and 200 B.C. so as to be in line with the compilation of the Psalms.16

**Prayer related to Christians **
 The hour of prayer is especially interesting when looked at in the light of Jesus’ crucifixion. On the Mount of Olives, Jesus prayed three times before being arrested (Luke 39-46). In Mark 15:25, we find that Christ was crucified “at the third hour”, and darkness came over the land “from the sixth hour until the ninth hour” (15:33). This was when He offered up his soul and died. It would have corresponded with the daily sacrifice-He was the ultimate Passover Lamb. God, however, showed his victory over death and sin when He resurrected Jesus up from the grave three days later. Luke 23:14-15 shows Pilate and Herod’s inability to find any fault with Jesus worthy of death. However, since it was custom that no work could occur on the first and last day of Passover, and only those resulting in relieving financial loss could be done during, the Jews urged that Pilate have Jesus killed before the night began the Festival.17 Since God is Sovereign, He planned it out to occur this way, though provided a counterexample in Acts 12. James the brother of John was put to death at the pleasure of the Jews, and urged on by their actions, Herod continued to pursue Peter. He captured him during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is combined with Passover, and therefore was going to wait for the Feast to end before killing him. This was when God supernaturally provided a way for Peter to escape prison and death, unlike in Jesus’ case. Jesus had to die to be the ultimate sacrifice for humanity’s sin, and one reason God might have planned his crucifixion to occur at Passover and at a prayer time was for emphasis. Prayer is communication between God and man, and through Jesus’ death, He provided the ultimate method to commune and have fellowship with Him-through His son.

 As mentioned numerous times throughout the Bible, Judaist prayer encompassed many aspects of the ancient Jews’ lives. It was valued and given specific times during the day, so that their minds would stay focused on the truths of God. With the attempts at keeping the nation together and unified, separate from other religions that would attempt to tear them apart, the leaders in the Second Temple Period had a great impact on the formulation of prayer times, even impacting prayer today. Jesus, though not emphasized specifically in the Bible with having anything to do with the Jewish time of prayer, was epitomized as the Paschal Lamb and constituted everything that the Jewish people have ever striven for-their Hope and Messiah. Bibliography
 * 1) Daniel 6:10
 * 2) Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, //A Guide to Jewish Prayer// (Tel Aviv: Miskal Publishing, 1994), 84.
 * 3) Chaim Pearl and Brookes, //A Guide to Jewish Knowledge// ( London: Jewish Chronicle Publications, 1956), 62.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, //A Guide to Jewish Prayer// (Tel Aviv: Miskal Publishing, 1994), 49.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rabbi Dr. Shmuel Himelstein, //The Jewish Primer// (New York: The Jerusalem Publishing House, 1990), 32.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rabbi Dr. Shmuel Himelstein, //The Jewish Primer// (New York: The Jerusalem Publishing House, 1990), 31.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rabbi Dr. Shmuel Himelstein, //The Jewish Primer// (New York: The Jerusalem Publishing House, 1990), 38.
 * 8) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Samuel Heilman, //Synagogue Life// (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973), 68.
 * 9) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, //A Guide to Jewish Prayer// (Tel Aviv: Miskal Publishing, 1994), 50.
 * 10) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Bruce, //The New International Commentary on the New Testament// (Grand Rapids: Eerdman Publishing Co., 1954), 232.
 * 11) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Phillip Sigal, //Judaism: the Evolution of a Faith// (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988), 98.
 * 12) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, //A Guide to Jewish Prayer// (Tel Aviv: Miskal Publishing, 1994), 48.
 * 13) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rabbi Dr. Shmuel Himelstein, //The Jewish Primer// (New York: The Jerusalem Publishing House, 1990), 42.
 * 14) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, //A Guide to Jewish Prayer// (Tel Aviv: Miskal Publishing, 1994), 286.
 * 15) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">William Fairweather, //The Background of the Apostles// (Minneapolis: Klock and Klock Christian Publishers, 1977), 25.
 * 16) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen, //Blessed Are You: A Comprehensive Guide to Jewish Prayer// (Northvale: Jason Aronson Inc., 1993), 22.
 * 17) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rabbi Dr. Shmuel Himelstein, //The Jewish Primer// (New York: The Jerusalem Publishing House, 1990), 106.

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