rubyhwa.blogg.se

It meets us "in the field," at our desks and in our factories ― and it is always inconvenient.

It stops us in the middle of work, shopping, school, and all other usual tasks that life places upon us. Mincha is also connected with being "in the field." Shacharit and Maariv are possible to be prayed outside of the time constraints of our mundane everyday tasks. And since the Torah describes this event as happening "before evening," Jewish tradition placed the time of Mincha as being in the afternoon before the time of the sun setting. The rabbis are of the opinion that the conversation was between Isaac and God. Converse with who? The Torah itself is silent on the subject. The rabbis of the Talmud deduced the role of Isaac in creating Mincha from the verse in the Torah that tell us that "Isaac went out to converse in the field" (Genesis 24:63-65). It's an oasis of spiritual time in a tough workday, a moment of calm and focus on priorities. Abraham created the prayer time for Shacharit, Isaac for Mincha and Jacob for Maariv. Our Sages attribute the origin of our three daily prayer services to our patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But in that fact alone lies perhaps its major importance and necessity. It is not the length of Mincha that has caused this, but rather its inconvenience in coming in the middle of a busy working afternoon. Mincha is usually a 10-to-15-minute prayer service, but for much of the Jewish world, it has become almost a forgotten prayer service. Aleynu is a reaffirmation of Jewish goals and a hope for the better world for all humankind. It is composed of the recitation of Psalm 145, the Amidah, a prayer of repentance and the concluding prayer to all Jewish prayer services, Aleynu. The shortest prayer service of the day takes place in the afternoon, or at least just before sunset, and is called Mincha. It is much shorter in length than Shacharit, but nevertheless includes again within it the basic Shema and Amidah prayers. The Maariv prayer takes place at night, after sunset. It is the longest of the three daily prayers and contains within it the basic affirmations of Judaism ― the Shema, the Amidah and the ideas of repentance, self-improvement and loyalty to God and Israel. The Shacharit prayer takes place in the morning. Jews are bidden to pray three times daily to God.