Rabbinic Communal Prayer (Tefillah)

The most significant rabbinic liturgical innovation after the destruction of the Temple was the prescription of a communal petitionary prayer of eighteen benedictions to be recited three times a day by every individual. (This practice likely spread only gradually beyond rabbinic circles.) In rabbinic literature, this prayer was simply called Tefillah (Prayer); later, it became known as the Amidah (Standing [Prayer]) or the Shemoneh ‘esreh (Eighteen [Blessings]). Early rabbinic legal literature focuses on the structure, content, and mode of performance of this prayer sequence, with few specifications of wording (and those only of beginning and ending phrases). Occasional additions or changes to the prayer sequence are also spelled out. The literature makes a point of connecting the statutory thrice-daily prayer recitations with the twice-daily sacrificial offerings in the Temple, construing the former as a kind of substitute offering until the Temple could be rebuilt and its cultus restored. It also connects the rabbinic institution of daily prayer, as well as the themes of the prayers and their precise ordering, to scriptural verses in an attempt to establish scriptural precedent for rabbinic novelty.