Weekday liturgy

1
Weekday liturgy

• Shacharit (morning service)?
• Mincha (afternoon service)?
• Ma'ariv (evening service)?
• Mincha and Ma'ariv often said back to back.

2
Erev Shabbat (Friday Night) Service

• More relaxed, slower, with more music than
  regular weekday liturgy.
• Often sung with traditional melodies.
• Most synagogues have a cantor (hazan) who leads
  the singing, especially on Shabbat and holidays.
• Orthodox synagogues do not have choirs or music.

3
Erev Shabbat Service

• Kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming the Sabbath)?
• Study session or readings (in some synagogues)?
• Ma'ariv (evening service), modified for Sabbath

4
Kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming the Sabbath)?

• Service developed 16th century selected and
  ordered by Rabbi Moses Cordero
• Psalms 95-99 and 29
• Lecha Dodi
• Song welcoming the Sabbath queen written
• 16th century by Rabbi Cordero's brother,
• Solomon Halevi Alkabetz.
• Psalms 92 and 93

5
Ma'ariv for Sabbath

• Shema (Hear O Israel -- most important Jewish
  prayer refers to uniqueness of God)
• Short passage from Exodus (in some synagogues)?
• Amidah (silent standing prayer containing 18
  blessings center of Jewish liturgy, recited in
  all prayer services)
• Short passage on candle lighting (in some
  synagogues)?
• Kiddush (blessing on the wine)
• Aleinu (prayer said at end of all services in
  praise of God)?
• Mourners' kaddish (prayer for the dead)?
• End with yigdal or adon olam (hymns songs in
  praise of God).

6
Saturday morning services

• Torah reading
• Haftarah (smaller reading from one of the
  prophets)?
• Musaf (Additional Service) commemorates
  sacrifices in the temple

7
Havdalah (end of Sabbath)?

• Blessing on wine
• Blessing on spices
• Blessing on braided candle
• Blessing for God who distinguishes the sacred
  from the secular

8
Practices

• Prayer can be done in any language one
  understands, though Orthodox services are
  generally in Hebrew.
• Orthodox Jews often move their lips nearly
  inaudibly while praying.
• Also sway back and forth (shockling)

9

• Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a great 20th
  century theologian, described the Sabbath as a
  cathedral in time -- a place in time, rather
  than a spatial location, where Jews carry out a
  sacred rest and focus on being in the world
  rather than acting on or transforming the world.

10
Useful terms

• Kipah (Hebrew), Yarmulkeh (Yiddish) -- Skullcap
• Siddur (Hebrew/Yiddish) -- Prayer book
• Daven (Yiddish) -- pray Tfilot (Hebrew) --
  prayers
• Hazan (Hebrew/Yiddish) Cantor
• Minyan (Hebrew/Yiddish) quorum of 10 men
  required for certain prayers (in Egalitarian and
  liberal congregations, 10 men and/or women).

11
Shabbat Dinner

• Blessings
• Wine (kiddush)?
• Washing of hands (netilat yadaim)?
• Bread (hamotzi)?
• Birkat Hamazon Grace after meals
• Customary not to speak between washing hands and
  blessing and eating bread