Daily Talk

The Prayer That Creates You

Here is something the Rambam takes for granted that should shatter us: he ends all of Sefer Ahavah—the book about loving God—not with a teaching about love itself, but with instructions. Thousands of words about how to say prayers. The precise blessings. The exact order of the Shemoneh Esreh. When to add this phrase, when to omit that one. What the chazan says. What the congregation responds. How the confession works. Minute after minute of technical detail.