259. Standardizing Prayer

Tefillah u’Birkas Kohanim 1:4

When the Jews were exiled in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, they became scattered in Persia, Greece and elsewhere. The speech of those born in this exile became confused, incorporating several languages. The result was that no one was able to express himself clearly in any one language; they needed to mix languages as per Nehemiah 13:24, “Their children spoke half in the language of Ashdod and they could not speak the language of the Jews, just according to the language of the nations.” Therefore, when someone would pray, he would lack the ability to express himself in Hebrew without mixing in other languages. When Ezra and his court saw this, they instituted the eighteen benedictions (Shemoneh Esrei).

The first three brachos in the sequence are praises of God and the last three are expressions of gratitude. The intermediate brachos contain requests for all the things that are necessary for the individual and the community. These prayers were designed so that everyone could become familiar with them quickly. In this way, even those who were unable to express themselves would be able to pray with eloquence. This was why prayer was standardized.

Tefillah u’Birkas Kohanim 1:5

They also instituted that the number of daily prayer services would correspond to the number of daily sacrifices, namely two. On any day that there had been an additional sacrifice, they instituted a third prayer, corresponding to that as well. Shacharis corresponds to the morning sacrifice and mincha corresponds to the afternoon is sacrifice. The prayer corresponding to the additional sacrifice is called musaf.