Shabbat Liturgy
A guide to Shabbat services and what makes them unique.
By Rabbi Daniel Kohn
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standard weekday liturgy in its structure and in many of its themes. A
number of the themes interwoven throughout the liturgy of Shabbat
emphasize certain larger spiritual values of Judaism; in order to
explore them, we must turn our attention first to a structural
characteristic of Shabbat liturgy.
On Shabbat, Requests Yield to Thanks
On weekdays, the central portion of the 19-blessing Amidah prayer–fully13 of its blessings–contains temporal requests, such as those for a
prosperous livelihood, a bountiful year for produce, and for true
justice to be enacted on earth. This entire section is replaced on
Shabbat with a single blessing that emphasizes the special holiness of
the day.
Called in Hebrew kedushat ha-yom (“the sanctity of the day”), this paragraph is repeated in each of the Amidah prayers recited on Shabbat–at Ma’ariv (evening service), Shaharit (morning service), at the additional Musaf service, and at Minhah
on Shabbat afternoon. In it, worshippers thank God for the gift of
Shabbat and say: “Grant that we inherit Your holy gift of Shabbat
forever, so that Your people Israel who sanctify Your name will always
find rest on this day. Praised are You, Adonai, who sanctifies Shabbat.”
Why Not Ask for Things on Shabbat?
Why are there no individual or communal requests made of God onShabbat? After all, it might seem that such a holy day would be an
especially propitious time to ask — and possibly receive — whatever one
might request of God. An ancient midrash (rabbinic interpretation) deals with this precise question when it offers the following scenario:
“Why does a person not pray ‘Blessed are You, Adonai,
Healer of the people Israel’ [one of the 13 weekday petitionary
blessings] on Shabbat? Lest they remember a sick loved one and then
become sad on the holy Shabbat which has been set aside as a day of rest
and delight. Therefore, on Shabbat we consciously choose to enjoy and
celebrate the unique sanctity of the day” (from Midrash Tanhuma,
Parashat Vayera).
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Rabbi Daniel Kohn, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, was ordained
from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1991. He is the
author of several books on Jewish education and spirituality who
currently writes and teaches throughout the San Francisco Bay area.
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