Let’s Pray

Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and moan, and He will hear my voice. Psalm 55:17 NASB

Evening and morning and at noon – I have always wondered why Judaism calls for prayers three times a day and Islam calls for prayers five times a day.  Here is the justification for the Jewish sequence:

Abraham initiated the quest for God.  He was a creative religious personality—the father of all those who set out on a journey of the spirit to an unknown destination, armed only with the trust that those who seek, find.  Abraham sought God before God sought him.  

Isaac’s prayer is described as a siḥa, literally, a conversation or dialogue.  There are two parties to a dialogue—one who speaks and one who listens, and having listened, responds.  Isaac represents the religious experience as conversation between the word of God and the word of mankind.

Jacob’s prayer is very different.  He does not initiate it. . . Jacob literally ‘encounters’ God as we can sometimes encounter a familiar face among a crowd of strangers.  This is a meeting brought about by God, not man.  That is why Jacob’s prayer could not be made the basis of a regular obligation.[1]

Thus, the actions of the patriarchs become the foundation of the thrice-daily prayers of Judaism.

In addition, justification is provided by a Talmudic reading of some texts:

Deuteronomy 11:13: The command to “serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” The Talmud interprets this “service of the heart” (Avodah sheb’Lev) as prayer, establishing it as a biblical commandment. 

While the general obligation to pray is derived from Deuteronomy 11:13, the tradition of praying at specific times of the day (morning, afternoon, and evening) is supported by other biblical texts and rabbinic interpretation. 

Psalms 55:18 (Psalm 55:17 in some translations): “Evening, morning, and noontime, I speak and moan, and He hearkened to my voice.”

Daniel 6:11 (Daniel 6:10 in some translations): This verse describes the prophet Daniel praying “three times a day” facing Jerusalem.

1 Chronicles 23:30: Mentions the Levites were to “stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord. They were to do the same in the evening.”

Perhaps David prayed three times every day, although this particular psalm doesn’t actually say that he repeated the actions daily, unlike the verse in Daniel.  But I wonder how we can ascribe this religious practice to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  In fact, I can’t think of a single verse that actually says Isaac prayed at all.  There are verses where God interacts with Isaac, but does Isaac initiate conversation with God?  We might even say the same thing about Jacob who seems more to be the recipient of God’s intervention than a man who sought God’s help.  Nevertheless, it understandable that the patriarchs were enlisted in the justification of daily prayers.

History teaches us that this thrice-daily ritual was formalized in the Second Temple period by Ezra.  He may have based his decision on the hints in the Torah, but whatever the reasoning, from that point forward praying three times a day became an obligation.

Islam’s requirement of five daily prayers was actually a compromise.  Muhammad was given the command to repeat fifty prayers daily, reduced to five on the advice of the Prophet Moses and negotiations with Allah, but the religious ritual wasn’t finally established until the 8^th Century.  Since Jews and Muslims shared a common living space during the 6^th to 8^th Centuries, we must wonder if Islam’s requirement wasn’t influenced by the precedent of Judaism.  

All of this challenges praying practices in Christianity.  Catholic clergy follow specific prayer rituals but ordinary parishioners do not.  Protestants, “protesting” Catholicism, leave the matter to the individual.  So, tradition dictates a wide range of daily obligations when it comes to prayer.  The real question is the primary one: what does the Torah say?  Can you find any commandment requiring a particular number of daily prayers, or what those prayers should be?

Topical Index: prayer, daily, Psalm 55:17