The Origins of Jewish Prayers

I present here the results of my research of more than forty years into the origins of Jewish prayer in the first five centuries of the Common Era, known also as the epoch of early rabbinic Judaism, the time of the Mishnah and the Talmud, the era of the Tannaim and Amoraim, and the time of Jesus and early Christianity.

I provide here my analysis of the textual evidence on the subject mainly from the books of the rabbis, the Mishnah, the Tosefta and the Talmud.

I discuss in my book God's Favorite Prayers how difficult it is to recover the history of Jewish prayers, especially because the religious leaders who propounded them sought to convey the notion that the prayers are timeless, without visible origins.

These studies are my conclusions over many years of research and study to present the origins of the greatest prayers of the Jewish people.