Editing Siddur (section)

==History==
The earliest parts of [[Jewish prayer]] books are the ''[[Shema Yisrael]]'' ("Hear O Israel") ([[Deuteronomy]] 6:4 ''et seq'') and the [[Priestly Blessing]] ([[Book of Numbers|Numbers]] 6:24-26), which are in the [[Torah]]. A set of eighteen (currently nineteen) blessings called the ''Shemoneh Esreh'' or the ''[[Amidah]]'' ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], "standing [prayer]"), is traditionally ascribed to the [[Great Assembly]] in the time of [[Ezra]], at the end of the biblical period.<ref>Berakhot 33a.</ref>

The name ''Shemoneh Esreh'', literally "eighteen", is a historical anachronism, since it now contains nineteen blessings. It was only near the end of the [[Second Temple period]] that the eighteen prayers of the weekday Amidah became standardized. Even at that time their precise wording and order was not yet fixed, and varied from locale to locale. Many modern scholars{{Who|date=March 2021}} believe that parts of the Amidah came from the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] [[apocrypha]]l work [[Book of Sirach|Ben Sira]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

According to the [[Talmud]], soon after the destruction of the [[Temple in Jerusalem]] a formal version of the Amidah was adopted at a rabbinical council in [[Council of Jamnia|Yavne]], under the leadership of [[Gamaliel II]] and his colleagues. However, the precise wording was still left open. The order, general ideas, opening and closing lines were fixed. Most of the wording was left to the individual reader. It was not until several centuries later that the prayers began to be formally fixed. By the [[Middle Ages]] the texts of the prayers were nearly fixed, and in the form in which they are still used today, albeït with significant variations across communities.

The Siddur was printed by [[Soncino family (printers)|Soncino]] in Italy as early as 1486, though a Siddur was first mass-distributed only in 1865.<ref name="Jager-JPost-2007">{{cite web |url=https://www.jpost.com/Features/Power-and-Politics-Prayer-books-and-resurrection |last=Jager |first=Elliot |date=April 17, 2007 |title=Power and Politics: Prayer books and resurrection |work=The Jerusalem Post |access-date=November 20, 2018}}</ref> The Siddur began appearing in the [[vernacular]] as early as 1538.<ref name="Jager-JPost-2007"/> The first English [[translation]] was published in London in 1738 by an author writing under the [[pseudonym]] Gamaliel ben Pedahzur; a different translation was released in the United States in 1837.<ref name="Jager-JPost-2007"/><!-- Does this edition use the term ''siddur''? Its title is also worth mentioning. -->

===Creation===
Readings from the [[Torah]] (five books of Moses) and the [[Nevi'im]] ("Prophets") form part of the prayer services. To this framework various Jewish sages added, from time to time, various prayers, and, for festivals especially, numerous hymns.

The earliest existing codification of the prayerbook was drawn up by [[Amram ben Sheshna]] of [[Sura Academy]] in [[Sawad]], the [[Abbasid Caliphate]], an area known as "Babylonia" in Jewish texts, about 850 CE (''Seder Rav ʿAmram''). Half a century later, [[Saadia Gaon]], also of Sura, composed a siddur (see [[Siddur of Saadia Gaon]]), in which the rubrical matter is in [[Judeo-Arabic]]. These were the basis of [[Simhah ben Samuel of Vitry]]'s 11th century ''Machzor Vitry'', which was based on the ideas of his teacher, [[Rashi]]. Another formulation of the prayers was that appended by [[Maimonides]] to the Book of Love in his ''[[Mishneh Torah]]'': this forms the basis of the [[Baladi-rite prayer|Yemenite liturgy]], and has had some influence on other rites. From this point forward all Jewish prayerbooks had the same basic order and contents.

Two authoritative versions of the Ashkenazi siddur were those of Shabbetai Sofer in the 16th century and Seligman Baer in the 19th century; siddurim have also been published reflecting the views of [[Jacob Emden]] and the [[Vilna Gaon]].

===Different Jewish rites===
{{main|Nusach (Jewish custom)}}
[[File:Sibir1.jpg|thumb|left|[[Nusach Ashkenaz]] Siddur from [[Irkutsk]], Russia, printed in 1918]]
There are differences among, amongst others, the [[Sephardic law and customs#Liturgy|Sephardic]] (including [[Spanish and Portuguese Jews|Spanish and Portuguese]] and [[Mizrachim]]), [[Yemenite Jews|Teimani]] (Yemenite), [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidic]], [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazic]] (divided into German, Polish and other European and eastern-European rites), [[Italian Jews#Italian rite Jews|Bené Roma or Italkim]], [[Romaniote Jews|Romaniote]] (Greek, once extending to Turkey, Crimea and the southern Italian peninsula) and also [[Persian Jews|Persian]], [[History of the Jews in Kurdistan|Kurdish]], [[Bukharan Jews|Bukharian]], [[History of the Jews in Georgia|Georgian]], [[Mountain Jews|Mountain Jewish]], [[Beta Israel|Ethiopian]] and [[Cochin Jews|Cochin-Jewish]] liturgies. Most of these are slight differences in the wording of the prayers; for instance, Oriental Sephardic and some Hasidic prayer books state "חננו מאתך חכמה בינה ודעת", "Graciously bestow upon us from You wisdom (''[[Chokmah|ḥochmah]]''), understanding (''[[Binah (Kabbalah)|binah]]'') and knowledge (''[[daat]]'')", in allusion to the [[Kabbalah|Kabbalistic]] [[sefirot]] of those names, while the Nusach Ashkenaz, as well as [[Spanish and Portuguese Jews|Western Sephardic]] and other Hasidic versions retain the older wording "חננו מאתך דעה בינה והשכל", "Graciously bestow upon us from You knowledge, understanding, and reason". In some cases, however, the order of the preparation for the Amidah is drastically different, reflecting the different halakhic and kabbalistic formulae that the various scholars relied on in assembling their prayer books, as well as the [[minhag]]im, or customs, or their locales.

Some forms of the Sephardic rite are considered to be very overtly [[Kabbalah|kabbalistic]], depending on how far they reflect the ritual of [[Isaac Luria]] (see [[Lurianic Kabbalah]]). This is partly because the [[Tetragrammaton]] frequently appears with varying vowel points beneath the letters (unpronounced, but to be meditated upon) and different [[Names of God in Judaism|Names of God]] appear in small print within the final hei (ה) of the Tetragrammaton. In some editions, there is a Psalm in the preparations for the [[Amidah]] that is printed in the outline of a [[Menorah (Temple)|menorah]], and the worshipper meditates on this shape as he recites the psalm.

While the Ashkenazic rite does contain some kabbalistic elements, such as acrostics and allusions to the sefirot ("To You, God, is the greatness [gedullah], and the might [gevurah], and the glory [tiferet], longevity [netzach],..." etc.), these are not easily seen unless the reader is already initiated. It is notable that although many other traditions avoid using the poem [[Anim Zemirot]]h on the Sabbath, for fear that its holiness would be less appreciated due to the frequency of the Sabbath, the poem is usually sung by Ashkenazi congregations before concluding the Sabbath [[Musaf]] service with the daily psalm. The ark is opened for the duration of the song.

Hasidim, though usually ethnically Ashkenazi, usually use liturgies with varying degrees of Sephardic influence, such as [[Nusach Sefard]] and [[Nusach Ari]], in order to follow the order of the prayers set by [[Rabbi Isaac Luria]], often called "Ari HaKadosh", or "The Holy Lion". Although the Ari himself was born Ashkenazi, he borrowed many elements from Sephardi and other traditions, since he felt that they followed Kabbalah and [[Halacha]] more faithfully. The Ari did not publish any siddur, but orally transmitted his particular usages to his students with interpretations and certain meditations.<ref>Nusach HaAri Siddur, published by Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch.</ref> Many siddurim containing some form of the Sephardic rite together with the usages of the Ari were published, both by actual Sephardic communities and for the use of Hasidim and other Ashkenazim interested in Kabbalah. In 1803, Rabbi [[Schneur Zalman of Liadi]] compiled an authoritative siddur from the sixty siddurim that he checked for compliance with Hebrew grammar, Jewish law, and Kabbalah: some call this siddur "Nusach Ari", and is used by [[Chabad|Lubavitch Hasidim]]. Those that use Nusach HaAri claim that it is an all-encompassing nusach that is valid for any Jew, no matter what his ancestral tribe or identity,<ref>[https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=16091&st=&pgnum=12 Introduction] to [[Tehillat Hashem|Siddur Tehilat Hashem]].</ref> a view attributed to the [[Maggid of Mezeritch]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

The [[Mahzor]] of each rite is distinguished by hymns (''[[piyyut]]im''). The most important writers are [[Jose ben Jose]], probably in the 4th-5th century CE, chiefly known for his compositions for [[Rosh Hashanah]] and [[Yom Kippur]]; [[Yannai (Payetan)|Yannai]]; [[Eleazar Kalir]], the founder of the payyetanic style, perhaps in the 7th century; [[Saadia Gaon]]; the Spanish school, consisting of [[Joseph ibn Abitur]] (died in 970), [[ibn Gabirol]], [[Isaac Gayyath]], [[Moses ibn Ezra]], [[Abraham ibn Ezra]] and [[Judah ha-Levi]], Moses ben Nahman ([[Nahmanides]]) and [[Isaac Luria]]; and the Ashkenazic and French schools including [[Shimon bar Yitzchak]], [[Meir bar Yitzchak]] and many others.

The [[Isaac Luria|Ari]] recited only early piyyutim, such as those by [[Eleazar Kalir]], but did not like the Sephardic piyyutim.<ref>Magen Avraham OC 68, in the introduction to the simal.</ref>  Therefore, on holidays he would daven (recite the prescribed liturgical prayers) with Ashkenazim—as opposed to his practice the rest of the year to daven with Sephardim—in order to recite their piyyutim, which include many more earlier piyyutim.  For this reason, many Hasidim (such Belz and Viznitz) recite many piyyutim on Yom Tov and the sabbaths of the four special portions preceding [[Passover]] in accordance with the practice of the Ari.  However, in Sephardic communities which accepted most of the practices of the Ari, they never accepted the Ashkenazic piyyutim.