Siddur

The siddur is the prayerbook used by Jews the world over, containing a set order of daily prayers. There is a separate entry on the prayers that appear in the siddur, and when they are said. This entry discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur as we know it today has developed.

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The earliest parts of Jewish prayer are the "Shema Yisrael" (Hear O Israel) (Deuteronomy 6:4 et seq) and the set of 19 blessings called the Shemoneh Esreh or the Amidah (Hebrew, "Standing Prayer".)

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The name Shemoneh Esreh, literally "eighteen", is an historical anachronism, since it now contains nineteen blessings. It was only near the end of the Second Temple period that the 18 prayers of the weekday Amidah became standardized. Even at this time their precise wording and order was not yet fixed, and varied from locale to locale. Many scholars now believe that parts of the Amidah came from the Hebrew apocryphal work Ben Sira.

Jew: The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity; and often a combination of these attributes....

Deuteronomy: Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible. It is part of Judaism's Torah - the first segment of the Tanakh. It later became part of Christianity's Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is Devarim דברים ("words"), which comes from the opening phrase "Eleh ha-devarim" ("...

Amidah: The Amidah ("Standing"), also called the Shemoneh Esreh ("The Eighteen"), is the central prayer in the Jewish liturgy that observant Jews recite each morning, afternoon and evening. It is also part of the additional (Musaf) service, which is held after the morning Torah reading every Shabbat and on...