Statement

After the Temple's destruction, praying became a collective, organized activity. The texts of that prayer were worked out by the sages of the Mishnah and both Talmuds, and the Geonim fixed them in a prayer book used to this day. Since the Mishnah, communities pray three times a day, though the Mishnah debated whether the evening prayer was obligatory. The order rests on two pillars: the Shema with its blessings and the Amidah, or Tefilah, a sequence of blessings mixing praise and requests. For communal prayer the rabbis required ten adult men, the minyan; only in the twentieth century did some communities begin to count women.

References

1. p. 152

   supports · boxed feature · ch. 5

   Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman. The Jews: A History. 3rd edition. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2019.

   Section: A Brief Introduction to Jewish Prayer

   Verification anchor recorded · checked against the page text

2. p. 152

   supports · boxed feature · ch. 5

   Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman. The Jews: A History. 3rd edition. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2019.

   Section: A Brief Introduction to Jewish Prayer

   Verification anchor recorded · checked against the page text

3. p. 152

   supports · boxed feature · ch. 5

   Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman. The Jews: A History. 3rd edition. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2019.

   Section: A Brief Introduction to Jewish Prayer

   Verification anchor recorded · checked against the page text