Instructions for Prostration during Prayer

When he finishes the prayer, he takes three steps backwards. He says, shalom, shalom, left and right. Afterwards he says, Lord of all the worlds, forgive my sins and the sins of your entire nation of Israel, with mercy, as it is said, God, Listen! God, Forgive! Listen, as does a man whose master observes him. And so shall he bow down in the place of his prayer, and make known his needs before his Creator and Lord. He begs abundant forgiveness for his parents and for all of Israel.

If he bows down in ‘aqedah before his Creator, it shall be on his left side. His left temple must be on the ground, his two hands wrapped under his right side, and so also his two feet. However, his right hand should hang free. He lies like a lamb, bound for slaughter, such that he sacrifices his impulse before his Creator. He subdues his neck before his Creator, remembering the binding of our forefather Isaac.

This is ‘aqedah. However, the way of genuflection and kneeling is like a shepherd [giving his account]. He falls on his knees with his two hands spread before heaven, and his face hanging free. This is the way of kneeling, as it says, He knelt upon his knees before the entire congregation of Israel, and he spread his hands towards heaven (2 Chronicles 6:13). However, bending is the basis of everything, for if one does not bend his full height, he is not able to bow, nor to kneel, nor to do ‘aqedah, as it says, they bent themselves with their faces to the ground (2 Chronicles 7:3), and it says, and when he finished the sacrifice, the king [and all that were present with him] bent themselves (2 Chronicles 29:29).

So also bowing is done generally with the head. However, bowing is [at] the head of all prayers, and with it one finishes, as with all prayer, for it is the beginning and the end.

Sometimes it is mentioned first: come let us bow and bend ourselves, etc. (Psalms 95:6); sometimes it is mentioned at the end: they bent themselves with their faces to the ground on the pavement, and they bowed (2 Chronicles 7:3). Every prostration on the ground is with the feet, the hands, and the face. In earlier times, they prostrated themselves only in the Temple, but not in a place that is set aside for prayer. This is how the Sages interpreted [the verse], do not set up a paved stone [even maskit] in your land, so as to prostrate yourselves upon it (Leviticus 26:1).

However, today, when even the scent of idolatry has been abolished, it is permissible to prostrate oneself in a place set aside for prayer, from the verse: it does not say, and David came to the head of the mountain, where he had prostrated himself, but rather where he [regularly] prostrates himself (2 Samuel 15:32)—a place set aside for prayer.

Source: Oxford Bodleian Library MS Heb.g. 2, fols. 48a–49a.