The Amidah: Avos, Gevuros and Atah Kadosh

The Talmud (Berachos 33a) says: “The Men of the Great Assembly instituted for Israel blessings and prayers, sanctifications and havdalos.” In Megillah 17b a baraisa says that Shimon HaPakuli arranged the eighteen blessings in order before Rabban Gamliel in Yavneh, and Rabbi Yochanan says there (some say it too is a baraisa): “A hundred and twenty elders, among them a number of prophets, instituted eighteen blessings in order.” If they had already instituted them, what did Shimon HaPakuli arrange? The Talmud answers (18a): “they forgot them, and he went back and arranged them”.

The Rambam (Hilchos Tefillah 1) explains why words were fixed at all. To pray every day is a mitzvah of the Torah, but “the number of prayers is not from the Torah, and the wording of this prayer is not from the Torah”. The mitzvah is “that a person should plead and pray every day, and tell the praise of the Holy One, blessed be He, and afterwards ask for the needs he has, with request and supplication, and afterwards give praise and thanks”. In the exile of Babylon, he writes, the people’s speech became mixed with other languages, and many could no longer say their praise and their requests well. “When Ezra and his court saw this, they stood and instituted for them eighteen blessings in order”, “so that they would be set in everyone’s mouth, and they would learn them, and the prayer of those who stammer would be a complete prayer, like the prayer of those with clear speech.”

Where do the times of prayer come from? The Talmud (Berachos 26b) brings two answers. Rabbi Yosei the son of Rabbi Chanina said: “The prayers, the fathers instituted them.” And: “Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: the prayers, they instituted them to correspond to the daily offerings.” Both views are discussed there.

The Alter Rebbe (89:1) writes that the Men of the Great Assembly instituted three prayers a day, and: “They established two of these services — the Morning and Afternoon services — as obligatory, corresponding to the two mandatory daily offerings.” The Rambam says the same: “two prayers every day, corresponding to the two daily offerings”. And the first blessing of the Amidah carries the name of the fathers: Avos.

The Talmud (Berachos 34a) gives the plan of the Amidah in a parable: “The first ones: like a servant who sets out praise before his master. The middle ones: like a servant who asks a reward from his master. The last ones: like a servant who has received a reward from his master, and takes his leave and goes.”

The Alter Rebbe (112:1) explains it the same way: “The first three [are placed at the beginning] in order that one should open by setting forth the praise of the Omnipresent, like a servant who first sets forth his master’s praises and then asks him for a reward.” And: “The last three blessings are analogous to a servant’s taking leave of his master and departing [after] receiving his reward.” So the first three blessings are praise only: “By contrast, in the first three and the last three blessings, which set forth [G‑d’s] praises, one should not ask for the fulfillment of individual needs.”

On a weekday the middle has thirteen blessings of requests. On Shabbos we do not ask for our needs, and our siddur goes from Atah Kadosh straight to the blessing of the day, Yismach Moshe. So the Shabbos Amidah has seven blessings: the same three at the beginning and three at the end, and one in the middle. The middle one is Lesson 22.

Before the first blessing we say one verse: אֲדֹנָי שְׂפָתַי תִּפְתָּח וּפִי יַגִּיד תְּהִלָּתֶךָ. It is Tehillim 51:17, letter for letter. Does it not come between גָּאַל יִשְׂרָאֵל and the Amidah? The Talmud (Berachos 4b) answers: “since the Rabbis instituted to say ‘My Master, open my lips’, it is like a long prayer”. It is part of the Amidah itself. And the Talmud (9b) adds where the Amidah ends: “at the beginning he says ‘My Master, open my lips’, and at the end he says ‘May the words of my mouth be pleasing …’” (that verse is in Lesson 23).

The commentary on Chabad.org says of this verse: “Its recitation was ordained before the Shemoneh Esreh because it defines the fundamental approach to prayer as a whole and to the Shemoneh Esreh prayer in particular.” I come back to it in the meaning section.

How one stands: the Alter Rebbe (95:1) writes that “one should position his feet next to each other … as if there were only one leg, in this manner resembling the angels of whom it is said, “Their legs are a straight leg,” i.e., their legs appear as one leg.” And (95:2): “There is an authority who says that when one stands up to recite Shemoneh Esreh, he should take three steps forward as if approaching a task that he must perform. It is proper to give weight to this view.” His translator adds: “Equally widespread is the practice of taking three steps back before taking these three steps forward” (Magen Giborim, as cited).

What one thinks: “When praying, one must concentrate in his heart on the meaning of the words” (98:1). “One should picture himself as if the Divine Presence abides before him”. The Alter Rebbe (101:1) asks for kavanah in all the blessings, and: “If he cannot concentrate in all of them, he should concentrate at least throughout the first blessing.” Avos is the one blessing where it counts the most. He adds that “In the present age we do not repeat Shemoneh Esreh because concentration was lacking, since it is likely that one will again fail to concentrate when repeating it.” And: “One should habituate himself to concentrate at least during the concluding phrase” of each blessing; “[These concluding phrases] comprise 113 words, as does the prayer of Chanah.”

How one speaks: the Talmud (Berachos 31a) learns it from Chanah’s prayer. “‘And Chanah spoke on her heart’: from here, one who prays must direct his heart. ‘Only her lips moved’: from here, one who prays must say the words clearly with his lips. ‘And her voice was not heard’: from here, it is forbidden to raise one’s voice in one’s prayer.” The Alter Rebbe (101:2): “One should not pray in his heart alone. Rather, he should articulate the words with his lips … He should not, however, make his voice heard … “Only her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard.”” And (101:4): “If, however, he recited that prayer in his heart alone without articulating the words, he has not fulfilled his obligation,” How to do each of these in practice, ask your rav.

The Talmud (Berachos 34a): “These are the blessings in which a person bows: in Avos, at the beginning and at the end; in the thanksgiving, at the beginning and at the end.” The Alter Rebbe (113:1) writes that these “are the blessings during which we bow: At the beginning and end of the first blessing”; the second pair is in Modim, Lesson 23. In our text, that is בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה at the start of Avos and again at מָגֵן אַבְרָהָם.

How: the Talmud (12a): “one who prays, when he bows, bows at baruch, and when he straightens up, straightens up at the Name”. The Alter Rebbe (113:4): “He should not bow from the waist with his head remaining upright, but should also bow his head like a bulrush.” (113:6): “When one bows, he should bow quickly, in one action. When he straightens himself, he should straighten himself deliberately, first his head and then his trunk, so that the bowing will not appear as a burden” And, according to the Kabbalah, “one should bend his knees as he says Baruch, and when he says Atah he should bow until all his vertebrae are extended.”

The commentary on Chabad.org explains the two movements: “When a person bends his knees, his head and torso are still erect.” “Bowing his head, by contrast, represents a more complete level of submission.” And: “The eighteen blessings of the Shemoneh Esreh parallel the eighteen vertebrae of the spinal column.” How to bow in practice, ask your rav.

Why these three words, and why only three? The Talmud (Yoma 69b): “Why were they called the Men of the Great Assembly? Because they restored the crown to its former place. Moshe came and said: ‘the great, the mighty and the awesome G‑d’. Yirmeyahu came and said: the nations are carousing in His Sanctuary; where is His awesomeness? He did not say ‘awesome’. Daniel came and said: the nations are enslaving His children; where is His might? He did not say ‘mighty’.” Then the Men of the Great Assembly came and said: “On the contrary, this is His might: that He conquers His inclination, that He is patient with the wicked. And this is His awesomeness: for were it not for the awe of the Holy One, blessed be He, how could one nation survive among the nations?” And they said all three again.

Someone once led the prayer before Rabbi Chanina and added praise after praise: “the great, the mighty, the awesome, the powerful, the strong …” Rabbi Chanina asked him: “Have you finished all the praises of your Master?!” and told him (Berachos 33b): “These three that we say, had Moshe our teacher not said them in the Torah, and the Men of the Great Assembly come and instituted them in the prayer, we could not say them.” He gave a parable: a king of flesh and blood who had a thousand thousand gold dinars, and they praised him for silver ones. “Is that not a disgrace to him?”

The verse Moshe said is Devarim 10:17. The commentary on Chabad.org notes: “Significantly, in Devarim 10:17, the source for these words of praise, not only do the terms hagadol hagibor lack a connecting vav, they are also written chaseir, in short form,” “In most siddurim, however, a vav is included in all three terms.” In Nechemiah 9:32 the three words are written with the vavs, as we say them.

The Mishnah (Berachos 5:2): “we mention the might of the rains in the resurrection of the dead”, that is, in the second blessing. Why there? The Talmud (33a): “since it is equal to the resurrection of the dead, therefore they set it in the resurrection of the dead”. The Alter Rebbe (114:1): “[The Sages] placed this mention in the blessing that praises G‑d for resurrecting the dead, because the rains are considered as equivalent to the Resurrection.” And why “the might of the rains”? “Rabbi Yochanan said: because they come down with might” (Taanis 2a).

It is a mention, a praise, not yet a request. Rabbi Yehoshua says in the Mishnah (Taanis 1:1): “I too did not say to ask, but to mention: ‘He makes the wind blow and brings down the rain’ in its season.” The request for rain is in a weekday blessing. When we begin and stop, the Alter Rebbe writes (114:1): “During the Mussaf Service of Shemini Atzeres, we begin mentioning [the granting of] rain in the second blessing and we do not cease until the Mussaf Service of the first day of Pesach.”

And dew? The Talmud (Taanis 3a): “For dew and winds the Sages did not oblige one to mention them; and if he comes to mention them, he mentions. What is the reason? Rabbi Chanina said: because they are not held back.” The Alter Rebbe (114:3): “The Sages did not require that dew and wind be mentioned,” and “Dew is something that is always sought. … there are places where it is customary to mention it in the summer,” and (114:6): “Even though dew is never withheld, mentioning it is still a praise of G‑d, like the mention of rain. For just as rain [brings] life to the world, so too, dew [brings] life to the world,”. Our siddur prints, in small letters, בקיץ before מוֹרִיד הַטָּל and בחורף before מַשִּׁיב הָרוּחַ וּמוֹרִיד הַגֶּשֶׁם: in summer we say “He brings down the dew”, in winter “He makes the wind blow and brings down the rain”. If one is in doubt what he said, or said the wrong one, ask your rav.

Between Gevuros and Atah Kadosh our siddur prints, in small letters: בחזרת הש”ץ אומרים כאן קדושה, “in the chazzan’s repetition, the Kedushah is said here”, with a note: קדושה לש”ץ בחזרת התפלה, “the Kedushah is for the chazzan, in the repetition of the prayer”. The Siddur Sefard has the same instruction: בחזרת הש”ץ אומרים קדושה. When we pray the Amidah quietly, we go from מְחַיֶּה הַמֵּתִים straight to אַתָּה קָדוֹשׁ. So the text of this lesson goes straight on too, and the Kedushah is Lesson 24.

The commentary on Chabad.org compares the Kedushah of the repetition with the one in the blessings before the Shema (Lesson 19), and cites the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, 59:2 (as cited): “The latter is merely a description of the angel’s praise of G‑d, while the Kedushah of this blessing is an actual statement of praise by the Jewish people.”

One more thing to know. In the Ten Days of Teshuvah the close of Atah Kadosh changes: our siddur prints הָאֵל הַקָּדוֹשׁ in the line, and then, in small letters for those days, הַמֶּלֶךְ הַקָּדוֹשׁ. If one is unsure what he said, ask your rav.