From The Rabbi's Desk: Liturgy and the Siddur

AMI Member- Remind me again the purpose of having the same liturgy read on Shabbat?

Rabbi Isaac Soria:

The siddur was intended to help the average person pray. Not all people are good at praying. Many don’t know the what words to say or how to say prayers to God. Especially when some of these prayers were written which before the Holy Ghost was poured out on all flesh. Even religious Jews of the time such as Yeshua’s disciples were not good at praying, which is why they asked Yeshua to teach them to pray. Rabbis of the time had already begun to teach their Talmidim (disciples) who to pray, as did John. They had already began to form prayers such as the Kaddish and Amidah. Also, many common Jews did not know Hebrew and were not able to read the Tanakh in Hebrew or pray in Hebrew. Some of these prayers were call and response where the congregation would just say Amen to the prayer leaders spoken prayers and liturgy. It’s done similarly today with the cantor and rabbis. The idea being even if they couldn’t read Hebrew (either prayers or Scripture) or pray well at all, the siddur was there to help them pray and speak the words of prayer or at the very least so Amen when the leader read them.

The siddur is also there so that it is not expected that anyone has to “memorize” the prayers. Often in religious services, those who’ve memorized liturgy can get puffed up and “show off” or those who don’t have them memorized will feel embarrassed or “feel stupid” because they don’t know them by heart. The written siddur is there to help eliminate that sort of thing. No one has to memorize the blessings or prayers. We have the siddur their to read so that whether someone knows them already or doesn’t know the prayers and blessings can still participate and say the prayers along with everyone else without feeling inept or embarrassed.

The last thing is that the siddur is there for unity of God’s people. For normative Jews that means the whole house of Israel. For the Messianic body it means all believers. When you pray the prayers in the siddur, you know that you are praying the same prayers that all others Jews are praying around the world. That’s unity. Especially if you can pray them at roughly the same time.

Thankfully those who have the Holy Ghost have a Helper and Comforter who helps us pray, especially in tongues. Paul said  “the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” So the Holy Ghost is there to teach us and help us to pray, especially praying in the Spirit which is a higher form of prayer. But even those who have the Holy Ghost need natural help to pray many times. Paul said to pray with your spirit and understanding. Praying the Spirit means speaking in tongues. Praying with your understanding includes using a siddur.

Some Pentecostals like to boast that they don’t need any liturgy or anything to help them pray. But I’ve been in enough prayer meetings and prayer rooms to know that even Holy Ghost filled people need help praying. That’s were the siddur comes in. It’s really there to help you pray with your understanding until you get to the point in prayer that you are praying with and in the Spirit, which is the Biblical term for speaking in tongues.

Rabbi Michael Adams:

The liturgy and siddur connects us with our most ancient faith. We know we are saying prayers said for over many centuries, including the times of Yeshua and the Apostle's themselves. Using the Siddur gives us the ability to walk out our faith, fully Apostolic and Messianic, as the original Assembly did.

Rav Calev:

The liturgy enabled Jews to have a structure to live out their faith and take it anywhere. Though it is preferable to live in community, faith could be carried out through the liturgy and traditions even if a person was alone.