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Bowing
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A
With regard to bowing, the Gemara relates:
When Rav Sheshet bowed he bowed
all at once,
like a cane,
without delay.
When he stood upright he stood upright like a snake,
lifting himself slowly, demonstrating that the awe of God was upon him in the manner that he bowed and stood upright (
HaBoneh
).
Berakhot 12b:1
Rabbi Yitzḥak bar Naḥmani said: It was explained to me
directly
from Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi
himself differently:
An ordinary
person, conducts himself
as we said; a High Priest
bows at
the beginning of each and every blessing; the king, once he has bowed
at the beginning of the first blessing,
does not rise
until he concludes the entire prayer,
as it is stated: “And it was that when Solomon finished praying
all of his prayer to the Lord,
he rose from before the altar of the Lord…
Berakhot 34b:2-5
Since Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi’s opinion based the
Amida
prayer on the spinal vertebrae, the Gemara cites another statement of his that connects the two:
Rabbi Tanḥum said
that
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said:
In those blessings where one is required to bow,
one who prays must bow until all the vertebrae in the spine protrude.
Establishing a different indicator to determine when he has bowed sufficiently,
Ulla said:
Until
he can see a small coin [
issar
],
on the ground before him
opposite his heart
(Rav Hai Gaon)…
Berakhot 28b:18-19
The Gemara asks:
What are the circumstances of bowing in which there is tarrying, and what are the circumstances of bowing in which there is no tarrying?
The Gemara answers: With regard to bowing
in which there is no tarrying, that is merely kneeling.
As for bowing
in which there is tarrying,
that is prostrating oneself while
spreading
one’s
arms and legs
in total submission. The Gemara asks:
And what is the measure of
that
tarrying? Rabbi Yitzḥak bar Naḥmani and one
other Sage
who was with him disagree about this…
Shevuot 16b:7-8
(Deut. 26:16:) “This day the Lord your God is commanding you to perform.” This text is related (to Ps. 95:6), “Come, let us bow down and bend, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker!” But is not bending included in bowing down; and bowing down in bowing? So what does the instruction mean by “let us bow down and bend and kneel down?” Moses simply foresaw that the Temple was going to be destroyed and that the firstfruits were going to cease. He arose and arranged for Israel to pray three times on every day, because prayer is more pleasing to the Holy One, blessed be He…
Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tavo 1:1
And it is apparent that a male hyena is distinct from a female one,
as it is taught
in a
baraita
:
A male hyena after seven years metamorphoses into an insectivorous bat [
atalef
]; an insectivorous bat after seven years metamorphoses into a herbivorous bat [
arpad
]; a herbivorous bat after seven years metamorphoses into a thistle [
kimosh
]; a thistle after seven years metamorphoses into a briar [
ḥo’aḥ
];
and
a briar after seven years metamorphoses into a demon…
Bava Kamma 16a:22
Rebbi Lia, Rebbi Yasa in the name of the great Rebbi Aḥa: If he prayed and he found himself in “He Who hears prayer”, he may assume that he prayed with intent. Rebbi Jeremiah in the name of Rebbi Eleazar: If he prayed without intent and he knows that the second time he will pray with intent, he may pray a second time; otherwise he should not pray. The great Rebbi Ḥiyya said: I never managed to pray with intent, but one time I made an effort to concentrate and I started to think and said to myself, who enters first before the king…
Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 2:4:16
With regard to one’s intent during prayer,
it was taught
in a
baraita
that
Rabbi Yehuda said: This was the custom of Rabbi Akiva, when he would pray with the congregation he would shorten
his prayer
and go up, due to
his desire to avoid being an
encumbrance on the congregation
by making them wait for him to finish his prayer.
But when he prayed by himself
he would extend his prayers to an extent that
a person would leave
Rabbi Akiva alone
in one corner
of the study hall
and
later
find him
still praying
in another corner…
Berakhot 31a:18
Related
ראו גם
Prostration
Prostrating Oneself
Aleinu
Prayer
Praise
Idolatry
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Bows
Amidah
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