Tefillah 007

14:
As I suggested in a previous shiur, the material to be included in the 'compulsory' study that each Jew must undertake daily was gradually expanded. You will recall that the original selction was most modest from the quantitative point of view (however impressive it may be from the qualitative point of view): the Aaronic blessing from the Torah, the list of acts of kindness which we are required to perform for each other from the Mishnah, and its expansion in the Gemara.

15:
In an addendum to the second book of Mishneh Torah Rambam includes a resumé of the daily and seasonal prayers that were current in his time and place. He mentions that

Parashat Tzav which Rambam mentions as a popular custom refers to a passage from the Torah [Numbers 28:1-8] which details the sacrifice of the daily public offering in the Bet Mikdash when it was standing. Presumably this was the custom as a reminder that the synagogue services were parallel to those ancient ceremonies.

15:
This gradually unleashed a completely new trend. Piety yearned for the restoration of the sacrificial system and it became customary in pietistic circles to add passages from our classical sources that recounted in considerable detail the course of the daily morning ritual in the Bet Mikdash. These passages were interspersed with prayers that the reading of the ceremony be accepted by God in place of their actual peformance which was not now possible. Readings from Leviticus and Exodus were added, then followed a baraita concerning the incense and its composition and many other such passages, both regular and seasonal. These were followed by the study of chapter 5 of Tractate Zevaĥim from the Mishnah, which details exactly where each sacrifice was offered. All this was then concluded with the study of the introduction to Sifra. Sifra is a collection of halakhic midrashim on the book of Leviticus and the introduction details the expansion of Hillel's seven rules by which halakhic development may be extrapolated from the written Torah into thirteen rules by Rabbi Yishma'el. (The curious may read about Hillel's rules in Avot 1:12, Avot 052 and the following shiurim.)

16:
This whole expansion can be found in Orthodox prayerbooks to this day, though in some western congregations much of it is omitted. However, Conservative prayerbooks – which are our particular concern in these shiurim – took an altogether different tack, as we shall see, God willing, in our next shiur.

To be continued

Mark Lehrman writes:

I recall learning that one is to refrain from studying Torah on the morning of Tisha B'av (i.e., prior to mincha); would this same restriction (minhag only?) require that we omit Birkhot ha-Torah from the shacharit service of Tisha B'av ? I suspect not, since neither Siddur Sim Shalom nor The Metsuda Siddur addresses this question.

I respond:

Some people have the custom of omitting from Birkhot ha-Shaĥar the benediction She-asah li kol tzorki because the Gemara allocates that benediction to be recited when putting on shoes – and we do not wear leather shoes on Tish'ah b'Av. However, the orthodox do read all the passages mentioned above, presumably because their recitation will, sadly, remind the worshipper that the Bet Mikdash, where all these ceremonies were held, is no more.

The situation in Conservative congregations is more interesting. As we shall see in our next shiur, God willing, modern Conservative siddurim have replaced all that study concerning the temple ritual with ethical readings which afford spiritual uplift. It seems to me that it would be appropriate to omit them on Tish'ah b'Av and to make do with the minimal study: the Aaaronic blessing and the two passages that are concerned with acts of kindness (Sim Shalom page 64, Va'ani Tefillati pages 19-20).

In Tefillah 006 I wrote: In Va'ani Tefillati the last paragraph of this long quotation is omitted – because the theme of this last paragraph is a plea to God to restore Israel to its ancestral home, which is not deemed appropriate for those who have been thus restored.

Meir Noach asks:

Why would it still not be appropriate since so much are people live outside of Israel?

I respond:

As far as I am aware the siddur Va'ani Tefillati is the first modern siddur to recognize that the worshipper is no longer in 'exile' nor even in the 'diaspora'. Those using the Masorti siddur Va'ani Tefillati, who are reciting their prayers somewhere in the State of Israel, are giving expression to the fact that they have been privileged to end their separation from the holy land, that what our ancestors only dreamed about and prayed for so earnestly has become possible for us. Thus, in many passages the siddur is 'updated': where Jews in the diaspora pray that God 'lead us upright to our land' Masorti Jews pray that God 'lead is upright in our land' and so forth. However, those praying from siddur Va'ani Tefillati do not forget their brethren in the diaspora. In many prayers where Jews living outside Israel pray that God 'restore us to our ancestral land' (for instance in the Mussaf Amidah on Shabbat and YomTov) the Masorti prayerbook asks God to 'restore our dispersed to our ancestral land'. Va'ani Tefillati is a prayerbook for the modern Conservative Jew who is living in the State of Israel, with all the ideological ramifications that are implied in this singular change in the destiny of the Jewish people.