Wednesday, November 17, 2010

who made the takanah to daven?

This came up for discussion in the comments to the previous post, but since not everyone reads the comments, I’ll post it:

The gemara (Brachos 26b) debates whether tefilos avos tiknum – shacharis was instituted by Avraham, mincha by Yitzchak, ma’ariv by Ya’akov – or whether tefilos k'neged korbanos, tefilah corresponds to the korbanos of the tamid shel shachar, tamid shel bein ha’arbayim, and the burning of the leftover meat. Meaning, explains Rashi, that tefilos were instituted by the Anshei Knesses haGedolah to correspond to these korbanos.

The Rambam in Hil Melachim (ch 9) gives us a history of mitzvos. He enumerates the six commandments given to Adam, the mitzvos given to Noach, and continues with other mitzvos that were practiced by the Avos, among them the fact that Avraham davened shacharis, Yitzchak davened mincha, etc. It sounds like the Rambam subscribes to the view that tefilos were instituted by the Avos.

Yet, the Rambam in Hil Tefilia (ch 1) writes that our tefilos were composed by the Anshei Knesses haGedolah. The times for tefilah were established by the Anshei Knesses haGedolah. Here the Rambam sounds like he subscribes to the view that tefilos k’neged korbanos, i.e. insitutued by AnK"G.

How can the Rambam quote both opposing views in the gemara at the same time?

Stay tuned for an answer Rav Soloveitchik gave. Until then, think about it : )

1 comment:

  1. Is it to pashut to say that the Avos established the conceptual idea of tefillah, but the AKH established it formally/technically?

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