Today we have the result of very little research but a mind wandering throughout synagogue services on the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana.
In terms of the Jewish liturgy through the year, one thing that we don't do very much is repeat prayers. There are very few times when we are told "say this x number of times". Usually, when we pray, we say and we move on. There are exceptions through the year. Based on my zero research and doing this entirely from memory, our repetitions through the year are limited to two verses said when the Torah is taken out of the ark on a holiday which happens on a weekday, and a few statements made during the sanctification of the new moon. That's it. While there are prayers that we say more than once a day, each time we say it is a discrete instance, separate from the others.
Then we hit the high holidays and suddenly we are swamped with prayers that we repeat. Before we blow the shofar, we say a chapter of Psalms 7 times. When we do kaparot, we recite it 3 times. Yom Kippur is bookended by the repetitions (three times for Kol Nidrei and then the culminating repetition of the Sh'ma and other phrases 3 and 7 times at the end). Suddenly, we say things over and over.
What is it about the high holidays that makes repetition so essential?
Somebody doesn't say Korbanot every morning.
ReplyDeleteNot that part, that's true. I am curious as to whether the source for saying these 3 videos rses 3 times is the same as the authority who established the other instances.
ReplyDelete