The Siddur Project

Shacharit: Entering Through The Veil

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (5) | Posted on March 21, 2007

In my post entitled Navigating the Siddur I gave a very brief outline of the contents of the daily prayers. Now I would like to narrow in just slightly and examine the morning prayers in more detail.

The reason I chose to focus in on the morning prayers is because the morning service is the most substantial. Because there is more content, it is easier to see the pattern and detect the intended path and progression of the service.

As I have mentioned before, the prayer services are designed to correspond with the daily sacrifices that were offered in the days when the Temple stood. To take the analogy a step further, standing before God in prayer can be compared to bearing a sacrificial offering in your hands and making your way through the courts of the Temple and nearer to the presence of God—even as near as the Holy of Holies itself, a place where under normal circumstances most of us would never even be permitted to enter.

My personal conclusion is that this pilgrimage of prayer is meant by the author of Hebrews when he encourages us to "draw near" in sacrificial terms:

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Yeshua, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19–22)

Seeing the prayers in this light should give us a deep sense of both awe and privilege. It should strike us as amazing that the high and exalted God whose very name is holy turns His ear to the lowly and contrite of heart. It should also give us a sense of thankfulness that our souls are rooted in Yeshua the Messiah, who makes it possible for us to approach God with confidence.

As inspiring as this truth is to us, it also poses a difficulty. If saying the morning prayers is something as significant and holy as standing before the Dwelling Presence of God in the inner chamber of His House, then it would seem right to have prepared our hearts and minds for the event. But to be honest, morning can be a very difficult time to do that. When most people wake up, they are not thinking holy thoughts. We are wiping crust out of our eyes and putting on our pants. Our minds are busy with figuring out all the things we have to get done that day. Our hearts are just not instantly prepared to be in the Holy of Holies.

So we make this pilgrimage in stages. We don't just barge into the Holy Place, but we methodically and steadily draw near step by step. Each of the elements of the daily prayer service corresponds with a section, a court, or division of the Temple. And as we ascend through each section, we draw closer to the Holy of Holies.

This is most visible in the morning prayers, the Shacharit service. Let’s take a look at the fundamental structure of the Shacharit prayers:

1. Preliminary Service
2. Praise Section: Pesukei Dezimrah
3. The Shema (Hear O Israel) and its Blessings
4. The Amidah (Standing Prayer)
5. Closing Section

The Amidah represents the peak of closeness in the prayers. The closing section can be seen as a retreat back into the outer courts.

Between each of these sections, a prayer called the Kaddish is recited, which serves as a transition from one section to the next. Some people wonder why this prayer is repeated so many times in the Siddur. But in the days of the Temple, people did not casually or thoughtlessly move from one court to another, especially since it meant an elevated level of holiness. The priests, for example, would recite the fifteen Psalms of Ascent--one Psalm for each step--as they ascended the stairs leading to the Nicanor Gate. Some of the stairs of the Temple were staggered in such a way that it would require a person to watch carefully what they were doing. This way the person would be reminded to think about the significance of their ascent. Like the stairs of the Temple, which were ascended thoughtfully and with great ceremony, the Kaddish marks a purposeful and grand transition between sections in our prayers, and alerts us to the fact that we are drawing one step nearer in holiness and intimacy. Each time you recite the Kaddish, imagine yourself ascending a staircase and passing through a beautiful gate of the Temple courts.

God willing, I will continue at a later time by stepping through each of these sections in more detail, showing how each of these sections relates to the sections of Temple.

Aaron Eby

2 Nisan 5767

About the Author: Aaron Eby writes for messiah magazine and other FFOZ publications. He is also the author of the forthcoming siddur project, as well as the forthcoming Hebrew lesson DVD.

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