Tefilah & Zeaka w/ Noah

(1) It is a positive commandment from the Torah to cry out and to sound trumpets for all troubles that come upon the community; as it is stated (Numbers 10:9), "upon an enemy who attacks you and you sound trumpets." That is to say, [with] every matter that troubles you — such as famine, a plague, locusts and that which is similar to them — cry out about them, and sound the trumpets.

(2) And this thing is from the ways of repentance. For when a trouble comes and they yell out about it and sound [trumpets], everyone will know that it was because of their evil deeds that this bad was done to them. As it is stated (Jeremiah 5:25), "It is your iniquities that have diverted, etc." And this is what will cause them to remove the trouble from upon them.

(3) But if they do not cry out and sound [trumpets], but rather say, "What has happened to us is the way of the world, and this trouble is merely happenstance" — it is surely the way of cruelty, and it causes them to stick to their bad deeds. And the trouble will add other troubles. About this is it written in the Torah (Leviticus 26: 27-28), "but walk arbitrarily with Me. Then I will (also) walk arbitrarily with you in fury." That is to say, "When I will bring upon you troubles — if you will say that it is arbitrary, I will increase the fury of this arbitrariness."

(4) And it is (a rabbinic commandment) from the words of the Scribes to fast for each trouble that comes upon the community until they are granted mercy from the Heavens. And on these fast days, we yell out with prayers and supplicate and sound only the trumpets. And if they were in the Temple, they would sound trumpets and the shofar. The shofar blows short and the trumpets blow long, since the commandment of the day is with trumpets. And we only blow with the trumpets and the shofar at the same time in the Temple, as it is stated (Psalms 78:6), "With trumpets and the blast of the horn raise a shout before the Lord, the King."

(1) To pray daily is an affirmative duty, as it is said, "And ye shall serve the Lord, your God" (Exodus 23:25). The service, here referred to, according to the teaching of tradition, is Prayer, as it is said, "And to serve Him with all your heart" (Deuteronomy 11:13), on which the sages commented, "What may be described as Service of the Heart? Prayer". The number of prayers is not prescribed in the Torah. No form of prayer is prescribed in the Torah. Nor does the Torah prescribe a fixed time for Prayer.

(2) Hence, women and slaves are under an obligation to pray, this being a duty, the fulfillment of which is independent of set periods. The obligation in this precept is that every person should daily, according to his ability, offer up supplication and prayer; first uttering praises of God, then, with humble supplication and petition ask for all that he needs, and finally offer praise and thanksgiving to the Eternal for the benefits already bestowed upon him in rich measure.

(3) One who was fluent, would offer up many prayers and supplications. If one was slow of speech, he would pray as he could and whenever he pleased. Thus also, the number of separate services depended on an individual's ability. One would pray once daily; others, several times in the day. All, however, turned during prayer to the Sanctuary, in whichever direction that might be. This was the uniform practice from the times of Moses to those of Ezra.

(4) When the people of Israel went into exile in the days of the wicked Nebucednezzar, they mingled with the Persians, Greeks and other nations. In those foreign countries, children were born to them, whose language was confused. Everyone's speech was a mixture of many tongues. No one was able, when he spoke, to express his thoughts adequately in any one language, otherwise than incoherently, as it is said, "And their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod and they could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people" (Nehemiah 13:24). Consequently, when anyone of them prayed in Hebrew, he was unable adequately to express his needs or recount the praises of God, without mixing Hebrew with other languages. When Ezra and his Council realized this condition, they ordained the Eighteen Benedictions in their present order. The first three blessings consist of praises of God and the last three, of thanksgiving to Him. The intermediate benedictions are petitions for the things which may stand as categories of all the desires of the individual and the needs of the community. The object aimed at was that these prayers should be in an orderly form in everyone's mouth, that all should learn them, and thus the prayer of those who were not expert in speech would be as perfect as that of those who had command of a chaste style. For the same reason, they arranged [in a fixed form] all the blessings and prayers for all Jews so that the substance of every blessing should be familiar and current in the mouth of one who is not expert in speech.

(5) Thus, too, they ordained that the Services of Prayer should be equal in number to the Sacrifices—two services of prayer daily, corresponding to the two daily offerings. And for the day on which an additional offering was ordained, they instituted a third prayer, corresponding to the additional offering. The Service which corresponds to the daily morning sacrifice is called the Morning Prayer. The Service which corresponds to the Afternoon Sacrifice is called the Afternoon Prayer, and the Service corresponding to the Additional offering is called the Additional Prayer.

(6) So also they ordained that a person should recite one service of Prayer at night, since the portions of the animal offered up as the Afternoon Sacrifice were consumed on the altar throughout the night, as it is said, "This is the law of the burnt offering; this it is that which goeth up on its firewood upon the altar all night" (Leviticus 6:2). And in this sense it is said, "Evening and morning and at noon will I meditate and cry aloud, and He hath heard my voice" (Psalms 55:18). The Evening Service is not obligatory like the Morning and Afternoon Services. Nevertheless all Israelites, wherever they have settled, have adopted the practice of reciting the Evening Service and have accepted it as obligatory.

(7) So, too, they instituted a service to be recited after the afternoon service, close to sunset, but only on a fast day, the purpose being to add petitions and supplication on account of the fast. This Service is called "the Closing" [service]—an allusion to the fact that the sky is closed to the sun which is at that hour of the day invisible—this service being recited near sunset.

(8) Thus the Services recited daily are three; namely, the Evening Service, the Morning Service and the Afternoon Service. On Sabbaths, Festivals and New Moons, they are four—the three daily services and the Additional Service. On the Day of Atonement, they are five services, the four just mentioned and the Neilah, the closing service.

(9) The number of these services may not be diminished but may be increased. If a person wishes to pray the whole day, he may do so. And the prayers he adds are accounted to him as if he brought free-will offerings. He must accordingly add in each of the middle blessings a thought appropriate to the particular blessing. If this is done in one of the blessings only, that is sufficient, the object being to make it manifest that the prayer is voluntary and not obligatory. In the first three and last three blessings there must be no addition, diminution or change.

(10) A congregation does not hold a voluntary service, because the community never brought a free-will offering. Additional services (those recited on Sabbaths, Festivals and New Moons), may not be recited twice [even by a private individual], once by way of discharging an obligatory duty and once voluntarily, because the additional sacrifices were never brought as free-will offerings. One of the Geonim decided that it is forbidden to recite any voluntary service on Sabbaths and Festivals, since on those days no free-will offerings were brought but only those that were obligatory.