The Amidah
The standing prayer at the centre of every Jewish service.
The standing prayer at the center of every service, still called the Shemoneh Esrei, the eighteen, though its weekday form long ago grew to nineteen blessings. It moves through praise, petition, and thanks, prayed quietly by each worshipper and then, in traditional congregations, repeated aloud by the leader. On Shabbat the weekday petitions give way to blessings about the day itself.
The Amidah is the core of each of the three services. Its other name, Shemoneh Esrei, means eighteen, though the weekday form long ago grew to nineteen blessings. It moves through praise, then petition, then thanks, and it is prayed standing and facing Jerusalem.
Each worshipper says it quietly, and in traditional congregations the leader then repeats it aloud. On Shabbat and festivals the weekday petitions give way to blessings about the day itself, so the prayer is shorter on the days that are otherwise fullest.
It is prayed with the feet together and with three steps taken back at the end, small choreographies that mark it out from the prayers around it.
Does it have a text?
It has a fixed text, and it is the prayer most shaped by rite: the Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Nusach Sfard forms differ in wording and in the order of some blessings. It is not printed here, and the reason is set out on its own page, which is worth reading before assuming the absence is an oversight.
When it comes up
Other forms of prayer in Jewish
- Shacharit, Mincha and Maariv — The three daily Jewish services, and the fixed liturgy each one follows.
- The Shema — Less a petition than a declaration, and the prayer that bookends a Jewish day and a Jewish life.
- Kaddish — An Aramaic praise of God's name that marks the joints of every service, and that mourners recite.
- Berakhot — The short fixed blessings said over food, drink and ordinary acts.
- Jewish prayers of healing and memory — Mi Sheberach for the sick, and El Malei Rachamim for the dead.
This page describes a practice. It does not tell you how to perform it, or whether you should. Practice varies by region, community and household far more than a page like this can carry, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed anything here. The full dossier names its sources.