Making the prayers your own TB Avodah Zarah 8

Even though the wording of the requests in the Amidah are fixed, the rabbis insisted that we just don’t repeat these words without any meaning like a parrot. We’re supposed to take the opportunity to personalize our own prayers. The question when and where to add our private prayers begins on daf TB Avodah Zarah 7b is answered on daf 8. This sugiyah begins with a disagreement between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua. Do you begin your prayers with your own personal supplication or do you end your prayers with your own personal supplication?

“Rabbi Eliezer says: A person should request his own needs first and afterward recite the Amida prayer, as it is stated: “A prayer of the afflicted, when he is faint and pours out siḥo before the Lord. O Lord, hear my prayer” (Psalms 102:1–2). These verses indicate that one first requests help concerning his afflictions and pains, and only afterward pours forth his siḥa. And siḥa means nothing other than prayer, as it is stated: “And Isaac went out to meditate [lasuaḥ] in the field” (Genesis 24:63).

“Rabbi Yehoshua says: One should pray first and afterward request his own needs, as it is stated: “I pour out siḥi before Him, I declare before Him my trouble” (Psalms 142:3), which teaches that first one pours forth his siḥa, and only afterward speaks of his own troubles.” (TB Avodah Zarah 7b, Sefaria.org translation)

The Gemara rejects both approaches and suggests that the most appropriate blessing to add one’s personal prayers is in the 16^th blessing Shomay’a Tefilla, שׁוֹמֵֽעַ תְּפִלָּה, which concludes Praised are you God who hears prayers.” “Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: The halakha is that a person requests his own needs during the Amida prayer in the blessing ending: Who listens to prayer.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Of course, this isn’t the only position.

“Rav Yehuda, son of Rav Shmuel bar Sheilat, says in the name of Rav: Although the Sages said that a person requests his own needs in the blessing ending: Who listens to prayer, that is not the only option. Rather, if he wishes to recite at the conclusion of each and every blessing personal requests that reflect the nature of each and every blessing, he may recite them.

“Similarly, Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi says that Rav says: Although the Sages said that a person requests his own needs in the blessing ending: Who listens to prayer, if he has a sick person in his house he recites a special prayer for him during the blessing of the sick. And if he is in need of sustenance, he recites a request during the blessing of the years.

“Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says: Although the Sages said that a person requests his own needs in the blessing ending: Who listens to prayer; but if one wishes to recite prayers and supplications after finishing his Amida prayer, even if his personal requests are as long as the order of the confession of Yom Kippur, he may recite them.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Some prayer books add a formula in the blessing for healing and in the blessing for sustenance to help the worshiper begin to personalize his prayers. Different prayer books will have different versions of these formulas. I’ll share with you the formula found in the Israeli Conservative prayer book, Ani Tefilati.

“May it be Your will before you Hashem, our Lord and the God of our ancestors that You send quickly a complete healing from Heaven, a healing of soul and a healing body to the sick person (add the person’s name here) amongst all the rest of the ill in Israel and in the world.” (My translation)

“May it be Your will before you Hashem, our Lord and the God of our ancestors that You that you give to every individual ample livelihood and to every person adequate business.” (My translation)

The 19 benedictions and the added insertions are only the beginning to personalize your prayers. The bottom line to make prayers meaningful one mustn’t just be a parrot and just repeat the words in the prayer book. Pour out your heart before God wherever you wish.