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Repetition of the Shemonah Esrei


It is the custom in the synagogue to almost always say the Shemonah Esrei twice: First silently for those who which to pray their own prayers, and then again led by a prayer leader. This repetition was so that those who were unfamiliar with the prayers may say them together with the prayer leader. In this way we have today a unit of prayer in both the Synagogue and Mosque which includes four prostrations, two at the beginning and two at the end, repeated for a minimum of two times.

The Islamic unit of prayer is a ra’akat. The raka'ah can be described as follows:

  1. Standing
  2. Saying Fatiha the first surah of the Qur'an
  3. Bowing down with hands resting on knees (ruku)
  4. Standing up from bowing
  5. Going in prostration (sajdah) once
  6. Lifting the face up from prostration but sitting on the ground
  7. Doing a second prostration (sajdah) and then standing up

Points 1-7 define one raka'ah. The shortest Muslim prayer must have two raka'ats, so like the repetition of the Shemoneh Esrei it has total of four prostrations.

But the correspondence goes further than that. The Jews of Arabia held like Rabbi Joshua ben Levi who taught: “The Tefilloth were arranged to be said in between the two times we recite Kriyas Shema each day.” (Talmud Brakhoth 4b). It is reasonable to assume that this was Sadducean custom as well, because it reflects a literalist tendency, i.e. that Scripture declares that the Shema prayer should be said when rising up and lying down to sleep. This means that main fulfillment of the commandment to recite the Shema and its accompanying blessings were said in the morning and evening, raising the number of prayers from three to five. These people did not “combine Geulah with Tefillah”, but recited five mandatory prayers, instead of three.

This of course means that according to this custom the Shemonei Esrei prayer did not have any preparatory prayers. There is a teaching that Prayer should be preceded by Torah learning. So those who fulfilled the commandment of reciting the Shema upon rising and going to sleep, would recite the Shema before the three regular prayers as preparatory material and in fulfillment of the commandment to precede Torah learning by prayer. In recognition of this custom, the Sages instituted that the Barchu prayer should be recited before reading the Shema in the same way the Barchu prayer is said before each reading of the Torah.

In order that each prayer should be preceded by Torah learning, Barchu and one paragraph of the Shema and its prayers was said before each repetition of the Shemoneh Esrei, and it is reasonable to assume before each prostration. This is called Lifros et HaShema, to recite the Shema as Torah learning in pieces before each prostration (Talmud Megila 4a).

Here is a map of the bowing in Jewish prayer according to modern Rabbinic Tradition. It is no longer our custom to Lifros et HaShema, with the exception of saying Barchu after the sunset prayer to invite and additional prostration. It is the custom of those (even today) to say Barchu to recite only the first three blessings of the Shemoneh Esrei. One could speculate that this would be a single prostration, corresponding to a 3rd raka`at, a custom that Islam continues to observe.

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