December 28, 2007

Davening Primer 101




Dedicated in helping Jews of all levels of observance on the road to Baal Tshuvah (Returning to one's faith).


At davening.net, you will find primers in the prayer service structure, a "how to" guide in laying tefillin, keeping kosher, observing the laws of modesty as well as many other excellent resources.


Davening: To Daven, to pray. This is the term adopted widely to refer to the act of praying, as in "to daven Shacharit," to pray the Morning Prayer.


According to halakha (Jewish law), Jewish men are required to pray three times daily and four times daily on the Sabbath. Jewish women are required to pray at least daily, with no specific time requirement.


There are two popular theories about its origin of the word "Daven": The first is that it is related to the Aramaic word meaning "of our fathers". This refers to the tradition that Abraham instituted the practice of morning prayer, Isaac afternoon prayer, and Jacob evening prayer, as recorded in many places (Talmud: Tractate Berachot, folio 26b). The second theory is that it comes from Old French, in which case it is related to the English word "devotion", and entered Jewish vocabulary by way of Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak, the medieval French Torah commentator).

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