How do Jewish people pray?

[coolcatholicguy]

I wouldn’t think they would do The Sign of the Cross. So how do they pray? Anyone know?

Thanks for the answers.

 

[daeve]

From what I’ve seen on TV and in person, they just start talking to God. They have formal written prayers like we do, and they pray spontaneously about whatever is happening at the moment, like we do. I think Catholics are pretty much the only ones who make a sign of the Cross.

 

[Mattapoisett64]

You should also keep in mind that we “borrowed” one of the key Jewish prayerbooks: the Psalms.

 

[GerardMajella]

The Jewish people pray three times per day. Their prayer book is called a “Jewish Siddur”. The morning service is called Shacharis. The afternoon service is called Minchah, and the evening service is called Maariv. You can purchase an Orthodox Jewish Siddur online through any major Jewish publishing house, such as Art Scroll.

The Jews pray with tefillin - both on the arm and on the head. Tefillin are leather boxes with straps that contain Biblical passages. Go to Wikipedia if you want to see pictures and learn more details. Tefillin is in response to Old Testament commandments, no longer applicable in Catholic theology. The Jews also pray while wearing a prayer shawl.

In the morning, the Jews wash their hands in a ritual fashion, not unlike when a priest washes his hands at Mass.

Jews also do not believe in worshiping idols, and some consider statues, such as those found in Catholic Churches, to be idol worship.

Jews believe in praying with a minyan, which is a group of at least 10 people. Many of the prayers utilized are identical to Catholic prayers, with slight variations. Of course, Jewish prayers reference only God as a single divinity, and not as a Trinity - though I have seen references to the Holy Spirit in some of their writings. Orthodox Jews pray in Hebrew, considered to be the “holy tongue” according to Judaism.

The similarities between prayers in a Jewish Siddur and Catholic prayers is actually quite astonishing. If you study the Jewish Siddur, you will find dozens of similarities. This is not that surprising, considering that many of the first Christians were Jewish, and our Savior was a Jew.

Jews also believe that all prayers should be directed to God only, and not to intercessors such as saints, Christ, or Mary.

The Jews also have special prayer services at their festivals. You would have to read up on each of these individually - Rosh Hashanah, Purim, etc.

The Sabbath is celebrated from Friday evenings to Saturday evenings. The Sabbath is a sacred day for the Jews, and no work may be done on this day. On Friday evening, the Jews break bread and share wine, just as Christ did at the Last Supper. There are special prayer services just for the Sabbath.

Lastly, the Jews also pray using the Tehillim, or the Book of Psalms. The Psalms may be read daily, and are broken down into a Monday through Sunday format, or in 30 day increments for an entire month.

That’s a short overview - and certainly gives you some details to research. I’ll do my best to answer any questions. I find these topics fascinating. Thanks.

 

[dzheremi]

No, Jewish people would certainly not “cross” themselves as we do. But if you know anything about the Eastern Churches, particularly the Syriac Churches, the parallels between the modes of prayer are very, very strong between the Mirazhim (Eastern Jews) and the Syriac Christians, as certain groups of the Eastern Jews also retain Aramaic as a liturgical language. Even their Hebrew retains certain phonological features that have been lost in modern “Ashkenazi” pronunciations.

Listen to these videos and judge for yourself.

“Shema’ Yisrael” in Yemenite style (Hebrew - Aramaic - Arabic)

Yemenite reading from the book of Genesis (Hebrew - Aramaic - Arabic)

Syriac Orthodox Divine Liturgy, Sydney

Syriac Orthodox Prayer, Mor Sewerios Malki Murad (Jerusalem)