How to make Ṣalāt the Classical Jewish Way (Judeo-Ṣūfī Era Ḥassīdūt)by Mikhayah ben David

בשם יהוה הרחמן הרחם/بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Today, different Jewish communities make Ṣalāt different ways. Some trace back to Biblical sources to ascertain the way that works best for them. Some focus on the method of the Rambam which expands on the explanation of Rav in the Talmūd that one bow at the word barūkh in the Amīdah (Berakhōt 12a-b).

This method is relative to the Amīdah, standing prayer, but is not the most ancient method itself, as the Talmūd teaches that originally the obligatory prayer, three times a day, consisted only of the Shema` itself. We thus read therein that the obligation of reciting the Shema` itself is only of the single sentence itself. “What is meant by the Shema’? The first verse [alone]” (Sukkōt 42a). As well, “Our Rabbis taught: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one’: this was Rabbi Yehūdah the Prince’s recital of the Shema’” (Berakhōt 13b). In the same folio, we read that the first sentence alone was one which the ancient sages used to “take pains”:

Rabbi Ela the son of Rabbi Samuel ben Martha said in the name of Rav: If one said ‘Hear, O Israel, Ha’Shem our God, Ha’Shem is One’, and was then overpowered by sleep, he has performed his obligation. Rabbi Nahman said to his slave Daru: For the first verse prod me, but do not prod me for any more. Rabbi Yōsef said to Rabbi Yōsef the son of Rabbah: How did your father use to do? He replied: For the first verse he used to take pains, for the rest he did not use to take pains.

There is no contradiction between this and the prostrations of the Shemōneh Esrei (literally “eighteen”), the Amīdah (literally “standing”); they are simply different forms of prayer, composed in different eras. The sentence of the Shema’ itself predated the composition of the blessings and the Shemōneh Esrei, towards the beginning of the Second Temple Era. This, the Shema`-Ṣelah, is the most ancient form of Jewish prayer, that was used as a several-times daily meditation, to recalibrate the individual spiritually, and harmonize them – in sound and movement – with the Divine Oneness. The Shemōneh Esrei also known as the Amīdah, as well as any tefīllah thereafter, should be said, before the Shema`-Ṣelah, three times a day. The additional four prayer times, do not require the Amīdah.

Following the full, standing Shema` recitation and the Amīdah, one can say any tefillōt standing, before the Shema`-Ṣelah, including – should they wish – traditional Ṣūfī recitation of short suwar of the Qur’an. In fact, in the Talmūd Yerūshlamī, Rabbi Yose instructed that one must include something new in prayer every day (Berakhōt 8b), which was confirmed by Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Abbahu who asserted that the prayer should not simply be recited like a script of a letter. That is to say, that the Amīdah is for the purpose of focusing on matters of the content therein. The Shema`-Ṣelah follows, for those who walk in the footsteps of the Ḥassīdīm Rishōnīm, literally as a mantric form of zhikr/zachōr and hitbōdedūt.

We see such an apparent example of Shema`-Ṣelah, being performed apart from the Amīdah, being continued by Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum “when he recited the Shema` prostrated himself fully on the ground, without outstretched arms and legs for several hours, and he uttered groans, and all his limbs shook so that his tallīt would slide off him – though he wasn’t aware of that at all”.[1] It is clear from the context that this practice precluded the continuation of the V’ahavta, V’haya īm shamōa, Vayōmer and Amīdah, etc. Thus, it must have already been performed before this lengthy activity, spanning “several hours.”

It should be noted that this specific activity of Rabbi Teitelbaum describes the method of full prostration, which one can incorporate with these methods if they so desire. This booklet, however, will show the less extreme form of prostration, which is an easier method and is additionally alchemically advantageous for the purposes of allowing gravity to force energy from the base of the spine up to the brain. The form of prostration described herein will treat the Tanakh as the preeminent source, when postures are described explicitly as mirroring those practiced by the Muslim world today. Thus, we read “Elijah ascended to the summit of Mt. Carmel and prostrated himself on the ground, placing his face between his knees” (Alef Melakhīm/1 Kings 18.42). We thus maintain that this is the preferred posture for Ṣelah, whereas full prostration is preferred for ending a recitation session of any sort and going into a period of prolonged meditation of the kind described above.

The Tanakh, of course, makes frequent reference to prayer having postures, including prostration. In Daniel we read that he was seen in prayer postures and was thus placed under arrest. He did not kneel at his bed with his hands pressed together; he used the ancient postures of the B’nei Yisrael. 

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Yerūshalayīm, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did afore-time (Daniel 6.10).

Thus, we see that the Tanakh describes the Ṣelah postures – and the way that this text teaches is – as the most ancient way of the Ḥassīdīm Rishōnīm; employing the exact same postures as Muslims. Rabbeinū Aḅraham ben Maimonides explained and defended the Jewish origin of these postures. He had detractors - naturally, as his father did as well - who accused him of just synthesizing the practices of the Muslim world. These detractors described him as engaging in Muslim prayer postures, not merely those described by his father and the Talmūd for the Amīdah prayer. Rabbeinū Aḅraham, however, defended that these postures were well known and practiced since ancient times. The Ṣūfīs, he said, were practicing what Jews had and were still supposed to practice. His most often quoted response on this matter is: “Do not regard as unseemly our comparison of that to the behavior of the Ṣūfīs, for the latter imitate the prophets and walk in their footsteps, not the prophets in theirs.”[2]

While prostrations to the ground can and was at times done as a full prostration to the ground, it is not what will be shown in these postures. For instance, in Tehīllīm we read: “For our ego is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaves unto the land” (44.25). Yet we are also told “Come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before Ha’Shem our maker” (95.6). Feel free to do the full prostration, if you can do so fluidly. The smoothness of the transition is important with this method, as is the resonation of the words.

The reader will almost certainly find that the postures correlate with the words of the Shema` in a very logical way. The names that follow are the standard Arabic names used in the Muslim world to describe the postures. In terms of prayer times, we similarly see a correlation between the earliest Muslim sources and Judaism. Ja`farī fiqh follows the Jewish three prayer times like the Qur’ān itself says too (rather than five). Ja`farī does the same number of rak`ah as the Sunnī schools, but says the afternoon two and the sunset-night two are actually just big sets (making 3 altogether rather than 5). Thus, Tehīllīm says: “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice” (55.17). These three times are the only prayer times mentioned in the Qur’an itself, as well: the Dawn Prayer (24.58), Middle Prayer (2.238;17.78), and Night Prayer (24.58). The `Īṣunīyīm Jews performed many more rak`ah than these; 52 rather than 17 in 7 daily sets which break down to what is said in Tehīllīm: “Seven times a day do I praise You, because of Your righteous judgments” (119.164).[3]

[1] Buxbaum, Jewish Spiritual Practices, 170

[2] Aḅraham ben Maimonides, Kifāyat al-`Abidīn, Volume II, translated by Samuel Rosenblatt, Baltimore, 1938, 320

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