Tefillah 059

69:
Our study of the Amidah brings us now to the fourth of the seven benedictions. On all Sabbaths of the year and on all festivals that derive directly from the Torah the Shaĥarit (morning) Amidah consists of seven benedictions. The first three and the last three are essentially the same as their weekday counterparts. However, on ordinary weekdays thirteen benedictions are sandwiched between the first three and the last three; on Sabbaths and festivals these thirteen are replaced by one sole benediction. The sages call this benediction K^edushat ha-Yom, which means "the sanctity of the day" (as different from K^edushat ha-Shem, God's sanctity, which was the subject of the previous shiur).

70:
The subject of this fourth benediction, as its name implies, is the sanctity of the holy day in question. The concluding b^erakhah of this benediction varies: on the three pilgrim festivals (Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles) the concluding b^erakhah reads as follows:

However, on Shabbat the concluding b^erakhah reads:

The reason for this dichotomy is theological. While the festivals themselves were instituted by God, it is Israel that decides exactly when those festivals shall fall. While the Torah, for instance, requires the festival of Passover to begin on 15th Nisan it is the permanent calendar, instituted by the president of the Sanhedrin Hillel II more than 1600 years ago, that determines exactly when Nisan 15th will fall. (And before the institution of the permanent calendar it was the Sanhedrin itself that declared the beginning of each month.) It is for this reason that the concluding b^erakhah of this benediction on festivals celebrates God as the institutor of the festivals through the sancity of the people of Israel.

71:
Before we return to the Shabbat morning Amidah let us take the opportunity offered by the imminent arrival of the festival of Rosh ha-Shanah to illustrate the above point. Rosh ha-Shanah mist fall on 1st Tishri. Being the first day of the month that day should coincide with the occlusion of the moon (or, rather, the visible new moon). The occlusion of the moon will occur at around 7 am Jerusalem time tomorrow (Tuesday). That would mean that the festival should begin on Tuesday evening. However, it is postponed by one day because of a calendrical rule which stipulates that the first day of Rosh ha-Shanah may not fall on a Wednesday. (This is in order to prevent Yom Kippur falling on a Friday, which would entail two Sabbath days falling one after the other, causing great difficulty.) So here is another example of Israel deciding when the festivals shall be observed in actual fact.

72:
However, Shabbat is different. Israel has no control over when Shabbat falls. It is God who instituted the Sabbath and it is God who determined when it shall be observed: every seventh day with absolute regularity. (When the French introduced their Revolutionary Calendar in 1793 each month consisted of three 'decades' of ten days each. Thus during the lifetime of that calendar, for the Jews in France, Shabbat fell on a different day every week. This past Shabbat would have fallen on the second day of the third 'decade' of the month Fructidor.) Since it is God who determines when Shabbat shall occur, the concluding b^erakhah of the K^edushat ha-Yom benediction on Sabbaths celebrates God as the sole and direct sanctifier of Shabbat.

73:
On festivals the text of the K^edushat ha-Yom benediction is unchanging: the same text is used for all the Amidahs of the festive day (except for Musaf, where the text is expanded). However, Shabbat is different and the introductory paragraph of this fourth benediction is different for each Amidah. There is one version for the evening Amidah, a second for the morning Amidah, yet another for the Musaf (additional) Amidah and a fourth for the afternoon Amidah. (In the ancient ritual of Eretz-Israel the same wording was used during all Shabbat services for the private Amidah, with a minor modification for Musaf.)

74:
Since our present study concentrates on the Sabbath Morning Service, we shall address the fourth benediction of the Shaĥarit Amidah for Shabbat. The benediction consists of four parts:

• An introductory paragraph;
• A quotation from the Torah;
• A paragraph to conclude the Torah quotation;
• A concluding paragraph which is standard for every Sabbath Amidah.

For your convenience here is a translation of the text. (The Hebrew text can be found in Siddur Sim Shalom on page 117 and in Siddur Va'ani Tefillati on page 347.)

Introductory paragraph:

Quotation from the Torah:

Paragraph to conclude the Torah quotation:

Standard concluding paragraph:

To be continued.

This is the last shiur in the Halakhah Study Group series before the festival of Rosh ha-Shanah, which begins on Wednesday evening. I wish everybody a very happy New Year. May this coming year be a year of peace, development and spiritual growth; a year during which, by improving the spiritual quality of the way we lead our lives, we shall hasten the golden age to come when "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea" [Isaiah 11:9]. May we all be inscribed for a good year. Amen.