Thoughts on Ekev: Worship of the Heart

In ancient times, worship of God often took the form of bringing a sacrifice. However, after the destruction of the second Temple in the year 70 CE, Jews could no longer bring sacrificial offerings, and therefore the rabbis decreed that prayers would substitute for the sacrifices. They set the times of the morning and afternoon prayers (Shacharit and Mincha) to correspond to the daily sacrifices of the morning (Tamid shel Shachar) and afternoon (Tamid shel Beyn Ha’arbayim) that used to be brought in the Temple.

But prayer must not be considered only as a substitute for sacrifices. Prayer existed in the Jewish tradition long before the Torah was given. The Talmud, basing itself on various Biblical verses, states that Abraham instituted the morning prayer, that Isaac instituted the afternoon prayer, and that Jacob instituted the evening prayer. Thus verbal prayer — as distinct from sacrificial offerings — has an independent, ancient origin in Jewish tradition and did not begin only as a replacement for burnt offerings to God.

Nevertheless, even though the patriarchs initiated the three daily prayers, their practice is not necessarily the basis for the requirement of prayer. We may theorize that in ancient times, when the Temple existed, prayer independent of sacrifice was practiced only sporadically, when the spirit moved a person to pray. In that case, the current requirement of prayer is a rabbinic law that was enacted to substitute for the Temple sacrifice.

The question of whether the requirement of prayer is based on Biblical or rabbinic law was hotly debated among the poskim (authorities on Jewish law), with many — perhaps most — authorities favoring a rabbinic origin. Others, most notably Moses Maimonides (Rambam, 1135-1204 CE) believe that prayer is a mitzvah de’orayta — a Biblical precept. But Maimonides does not attribute the legal basis merely to the patriarchs’ practice. Rather, Maimonides cites a verse in Ekev as the Biblical source for the mitzvah of prayer: “... and to worship Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 11:13). And, says Maimonides, what is worship of the heart? It is prayer.

In the view of Maimonides, then, the requirement to pray is a Biblical law, but the Torah doesn’t specify any times of prayer. The times of prayer are of rabbinic origin; and the rabbis set those times to correspond with the times of the Temple sacrifices.

References:

For Maimonides's view of the Biblical source for the requirement to pray, see Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Tefillah 1:1, and Maimonides, Sefer HaMitzvot, Mitzvah 5.

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