Search

Several years ago I published part of a fine Qerovah for the afternoon prayer of Tish'a Be'Av (S. Elizur, 'From Mourning to Comfort: On an Ancient Custom in the Afternoon Prayer of Tisha B'Av', Tarbiẕ, 73 [2003], pp. 125-138). I recently discovered the missing parts, which comprise three stanzas, and I am publishing them here. This section also deals with the `spiritual' nature of the Sabbath as conceived in various Jewish sources, especially Jewish Hellenistic writers of the Second Temple period, but also in rabbinic and Samaritan writings, and the metamorphosis this conception underwent in Christianity. The second section deals with the evidence provided by some of the prayers in AC VII regarding the history of the Hebrew benedictions of the Amidah as well as other Jewish prayers. The main Jewish benedictions studied in detail are: the benediction of Jerusalem embedded in AC VII, 31; the Sabbath benediction; the benediction of Thanksgiving (Modim); as well as Selihot, Nishmat, and Al ha-Nissim. It is demonstrated that liturgical formulations of these benedictions that occur in late and less reliable liturgical sources existed as early as the third century CE., if not earlier, for they are included in AC VII. The examination of AC VII sheds new light on one of the most important methodological problems in the study of Jewish liturgy, namely, whether one can differentiate the earlier from the later strata, and the extent to which we may rely on medieval versions of benedictions and sporadic references to them in rabbinic literature to map the development of ancient Jewish liturgy. The prayers in AC VII are much longer and more elaborate than the Amidah benedictions. A long Hebrew benediction on food occurs in a liturgical papyrus from Dura Europus dated to the third century CE, It is therefore conceivable that longer benedictions in Hebrew had existed in ancient times alongside shorter ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]