אֲשֶׁר בִּדְבָרוֹ מַעֲרִיב עֲרָבִים Who by His word brings on evenings: The three key Jewish beliefs are creation (that God made the universe), revelation (that God speaks to mankind), and redemption (that God rescues humanity, teaching us how to act with justice and compassion). The blessings surrounding the Shema are constructed on this pattern. This, the first, speaks of creation – heaven and earth, light and darkness, day and night. The next speaks of revelation, God’s gift of the Torah to the children of Israel. The third, immediately after the Shema, speaks of redemption (“who redeemed Israel”). The siddur is our tutorial in belief, teaching us to see the world through the eyes of faith.

אַהֲבַת עוֹלָם With everlasting love: Nothing more eloquently refutes the idea that Judaism is a dry, legalistic religion than this magnificent poem in which the people of Israel pour out their thanks for the gift of Torah and its “commandments, decrees and laws of justice.” Here, law becomes love and love becomes law. God unites us to Him by teaching us how to act in accordance with His will – which becomes in turn “our life and the length of our days.”

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל Listen, Israel: Shema means not only “to hear” but also “to listen, understand, internalize, respond and obey.” It is translated here as “Listen” because listening is active, while hearing is passive. This, the most famous line of Jewish prayer, is a call to action on the part of the mind, emotion and will. It asks us to reflect on, strive to understand, and to affirm the unity of God. God speaks in a “still, small voice” (I Kings 19:12), and to serve Him is to listen with the totality of our being. Secular terms for understanding are permeated with visual images. We speak of insight, foresight, vision, observation, perspective; when we understand, we say “I see.” Judaism, with its belief in an invisible, transcendent God, is a culture of the ear, not the eye. The patriarchs and prophets did not see God; they heard Him. To emphasize the non-visual nature of Jewish belief, it is our custom to cover our eyes as we say these words.

THE FRIDAY NIGHT AMIDA On Shabbat and Yom Tov, the Amida, the “standing prayer,” consists not of nineteen but seven blessings (in Musaf of Rosh HaShana, nine). The first and last three are, with minor variations, the same throughout the year. The seventh (middle) blessing is dedicated to the special “sanctity of the day.” Uniquely on Shabbat, this blessing is different for each of the three services; evening, morning and afternoon (the Musaf prayer is in a category of its own). The quality of time on Shabbat is different from other days: like a symphony, it has several movements. On Friday evening, we speak of the Shabbat of creation; in the morning, of the Shabbat of revelation, as it was commanded on Mount Sinai; and in the afternoon, we look forward to the Shabbat of redemption. Thus in the evening, we think of the birth of time; in the morning, of historical time, the remembered past and the living present; and in the afternoon, of the culmination of time, and the World to Come of which Shabbat is the foretaste. Shabbat becomes a journey through the three phases of faith: God’s creation of the universe, His self-revelation to humanity, and His redemptive acts – collectively summoning us to build a world at peace with itself because it is at peace with God. Another interpretation sees in the three stages of Shabbat the three parts of a wedding: first betrothal, kiddushin; then the marriage itself, symbolized by joy; then yiḥud, the coming together of the bride and groom (Abudarham). This idea, reflected in the language of the Amida, accords with the mystical understanding of Shabbat as a bride, and the day itself as a marriage of heaven and earth.

אַתָּה קִדַּֽשְׁתָּ You sanctified: As signaled above, the Friday evening blessing speaks of creation: “You sanctified the seventh day for Your name’s sake, as the culmination of the creation of heaven and earth.” It refers to the beginning of time: the seventh day of creation when God rested and the universe was young. It also uses the word “sanctified,” the key word of the betrothal declaration under the bridal canopy.

וַיְכֻלּוּ הַשָּׁמַֽיִם וְהָאָֽרֶץ So the heavens and the earth were finished: These three verses conclude the biblical account of creation. They contain thirty-five (5 × 7) words. The entire creation narrative (Gen. 1:1–2:3) is constructed in multiples of seven. The word “good” appears seven times, the word “God” thirty-five times, and the word “earth” twenty-one times. The opening verse contains seven words, the second fourteen, and the complete text 469 (7 × 67) words. From the very outset, seven dominates, as if to signal from the beginning that the seventh day was the culmination and purpose of creation: “last in deed, first in thought.” וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ And declared it holy: This is the first time the word “holy” appears in the Torah, indicating that time, not just space, is holy. The sages noted the similarities between Shabbat and the Sanctuary (mishkan) constructed by the Israelites in the wilderness. The thirty-nine categories of work performed in the building of the Sanctuary are the same as those forbidden on Shabbat. Shabbat is thus a “sanctuary in time,” and Israel, the “eternal people,” is the nation called on to sanctify time.

מָגֵן אָבוֹת בִּדְבָרוֹ By His word, He was the Shield of our ancestors: A summary of the seven blessings of the Amida, which is unique to Friday evening. Tradition ascribes it to the fact that in Babylon – where synagogues were, for the most part, outside town – going home at night was fraught with danger. This prayer was added for the benefit of latecomers, so that the congregation could leave together.

קידוש Kiddush. As Kiddush is usually said “where we eat the meal,” in order to avoid a blessing “said in vain,” the wine is not drunk by an adult but by a child. The custom of saying Kiddush in the synagogue goes back to an age when the synagogue was also a hostel for visitors, who ate their meals nearby.

יִגְדַּל אֱלֹהִים חַי Great is the living God: A poetic setting of Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith, written by Rabbi Daniel bar Judah (Rome, fourteenth century), each line representing one of the principles. Like Adon Olam, the presence of Yigdal in the siddur reminds us that it is not only a book of prayer but also the supreme book of Jewish faith. Judaism contains little systematic theology. We speak to God more than we speak about God. Yet Judaism is a faith whose distinctive beliefs find their home in the prayer book. We do not analyze faith in academic detachment. We sing it, affirming faith with joy.