מקורה המקראי של תפילת העמידה בשבת ומועד

Nehemiah chapters 8-9 describe, for the first time, a formal service consisting of recital of the Torah and communal worship in the form of standard prayer. The latter contains the following elements: 1. a declaration of God as Creator of the Universe (Neh. 9:6); 2. a statement concerning God's sovereignty over the Universe AT(ibid.); 3. the hosts of heaven worshipping the Lord (ibid.); 4. the election of Abraham (Neh. 9:7); 5. the Exodus and the giving of the Law at Sinai (Neh. 9:9-13); 6. the giving of the Sabbath (Neh. 9:14); 7. supplication (Neh. 9:15-31). These elements constitute the main kernel of the Amidah) prayer on the Sabbath and on the Festivals, independent of Temple Worship. On the other hand, the last three benedictions of the Amidah: (1) the prayer for the acceptance of the ritual, the so-called AHJE (avodah); (2) thanks to God (hodayah); (3) the benediction of peace, connected with the priestly blessing are well attested in the sources describing Temple worship (cf., e.g., Mishnah Tamid 5:1, Rosh Hashanah 4:3). The weekly benedictions, such as redemption, health, fertility of the land, ingathering of the exiles, reestablishment of judgment, cursing of the dissidents, blessing of the righteous, building of Jerusalem, reestablishment of the Davidic dynasty and the wish for the acceptance of prayer, are all national in character. They are suitable for temple usage, as is now known to us from other nations, such as in Mesopotamia, the Hittites and the Greeks. The requests of the sixth, seventh and eighth benedictions: wisdom, repentance and forgiveness, are a kind of plea for admittance which I dealt with elsewhere (Tarbiz, 48 (1979), pp. 186-200 (Hebrew). All these bear the stamp of standard liturgy, regularly used in the communal service. In addition, there were individual prayers, recited before or after communal worship, and containing such requests as deliverance from sin and temptation, provision of daily bread, forgiveness for sins, etc. These individual requests usually opened with a prayer for the coming of God's Kingdom and the sanctification of His name. Thus, The Lord's prayer' (Mat. 6:9-15; Luke 11:2-4) belongs to the individual type of prayer and, therefore, cannot be considered as a replacement of the formal, communal service that was recited in the temple and in the synagogue. It should rather be seen as a private prayer, existing side by side with standard communal prayer.