Thursday, April 03, 2008

An honest question on the design scheme of our davening

Has it occurred to you that we Jews are expected to say that exact same prayers every day, and that the centerpiece of each of those prayers is also exactly the same? Every day the same shachris, the same mincha, and the same maariv, each with the same Amidah at its core. Christian prayer doesn't work this way and even the Catholic liturgy provides for some flexibility.

Why doesn't ours?

I guess what I am attempting to discover is this: What were chazal (or whoever: not the point) attempting to accomplish when they made our liturgy so repetitive? What was the goal of this design?

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