Early Medieval Prayer

Prayer as a Genre of Jewish Writing

Prayer, a complex human phenomenon, is one of the most vital genres in Jewish writing. At once a performative practice and a set of literary and sometimes musical compositions, prayer enables individuals to articulate their spiritual life in direct relation to the divine. But Jewish prayer is also explicitly communal worship; many prayers are couched in the plural “we,” and some cannot even be said at all without a quorum of ten (traditionally ten men, a minyan). While literary texts cannot capture the experience of prayer, the words offer a glimpse into the rich variety of Jewish prayer practices. 

The Significance of the Prayer Service to Understanding Jewish History

While not all Jews recited daily prayers or went to synagogue, even in the medieval period, familiarity with the Jewish prayer service would have been widespread, more so than rabbinic scholarship, more than an interest in philosophy, and more even than knowledge of the biblical text. Written prayer books were rarely used. Instead, memorized prayers were recited aloud. Even one who was illiterate or who could read only with difficulty may have been able to follow along with the words of the service. The importance of the liturgy, then, including those prayers meant for private devotion, as a reflection of Jewish religious feeling is hard to overstate.