Tefillah 065

106:
It seems (though it cannot be proven) that originally the Amidah was public prayer only and that the personal Amidah recited by each individual, which has been the subject of the past fifteen shiurim in this series, was a later development. (We shall return to this question later, when we discuss the repetition of the Amidah.) I clearly remember that I was once asked to try and shorten the service on Rosh ha-Shanah; I suggested that we omit the silent Amidah and proceed to the repetition immediately. This was done only once because one of the women in the congregation complained bitterly, that in this way only the voice of the cantor is heard, "but my voice was not heard". It is but natural that the individual worshipper should want to have the opportunity to address something personal to God.

107:
One of the salient features of Jewish worship is its inclusive nature. By that I mean that the Jew does not, generally speaking, pray for "me" but for "us"; it is not "I" who praises God but "we" do so, and so forth. As we have seen, this is completely true of the Amidah, which is 'inclusive' in the above sense throughout. However, the sages were personally aware that they also wanted to address some private words to God. It was for this reason that the custom was introduced of providing an opportunity immediately after the Amidah of adding some personal petition.

108:
The Gemara [Berakhot 16b-17a] brings quite a few examples of the private prayers that some of the great sages were wont to add after their recitation of the Amidah. One of them, composed by a late Amora, Mar bar Ravina (4th century CE), gained particular favour and has become almost universal. Unfortunately, its universality means that it has become an integral part of the Amidah itself and the original function of personal and private prayer and meditation has been supplanted by a liturgical text, however beautiful. Here is the translation offered by Siddur Sim Shalom [page 120]:

(The same prayer can be found in Siddur Va'ani Tefillati on page 352.) The rest of the text was not composed by Mar bar Ravina. Indeed, even his original text has been "improved" by tradition which has removed a complete segment. Clearly, from very early times, it was considered to be 'politically correct' to expunge the following words which followed the words 'pursue Your mitzvot':

And he concluded his prayer with a quotation from the book of Psalms [Psalm 19:15]:

(This quotation had been recommended by Rabbi Yoĥanan as a suitable conclusion to the Amidah some two centuries before the time of Mar bar Ravina.)

109:
But, as mentioned above, this personal prayer is not the only one quoted in the Gemara and the individual worshipper may certainly add one of the others, or even replace the beautiful prayer of Mar bar Ravina with one of the others. Here is just a small selection of those personal prayers quoted in the Gemara [Berakhot 16b-17a]:

Other private prayers are mentioned in the same source and they have become 'standard' in different contexts. For example, The Amora Rav used to say the prayer which is now recited when Rosh Ĥodesh is announced on the preceeding Shabbat. It can be found in Siddur Sim Shalom on page 150 and in Va'ani Tefillati on page 353. The personal prayer of Rabbi Yehudah the President of the Sanhedrin is included in the early morning blessings for every day in traditional prayer books; however it has been omitted by both Siddur Sim Shalom and Va'ani Tefillati. See Avot 084. The personal prayer of Rava has become a standard prayer at the end of each Amidah on Yom Kippur.

110:
Unlike Siddur Sim Shalom, Siddur Va'ani Tefillati brings a selection of these private prayers after each Amidah in the prayer book: see pages 82, 147, 173, 310, 353, 394, 420, 445, 488, 497, 534. However, Siddur Sim Shalom does offer some newly created prayers or meditations which the worshipper may choose to use after reciting the Amidah. The one on page 120 is given in both Hebrew and English and the longer meditation is given in English alone on pages 121-122. This long meditation is, in fact, a paraphrase of the complete Amidah. However, while the rubric does call it a meditation it does not make clear that one who recites this meditation instead of the Amidah has not fulfilled their religious duty. While the Amidah may be recited in any language the version used must be an honest translation of the Hebrew original and not a 'version'. In his magnum opus on halakhah, Mishneh Torah, [Blessings 1:5] Rambam writes:

111:
Several people have asked why I have not offered the relevant stanzas of my 'Shiv'ata" for Shabbat. You can find the completed poem here. In our next shiur we shall, God willing, begin to discuss the repetition of the Amidah.