Retzeh in Musaf

A prayer no forefather started

The Avot and Parashat HaTamid pages tell the Gemara's two views on where the daily prayers come from. The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) then asks: on the view that Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov set them up, who set up Musaf? It answers that the forefathers set up the prayers and the Rabbis tied them to the offerings. Rashi (the main commentator on the Gemara, died 1105) spells it out: the Rabbis looked at the Musaf offerings, found no prayer matching them, and set one up themselves.

Retzeh follows the day's own blessing

A weekday Amidah has 19 blessings. The Rosh Chodesh Musaf has seven: the first three, one middle blessing for the day, and the last three. The Tur (a law code, Spain, 1300s) gives that order. On a weekday, Retzeh follows the blessing that asks God to hear our prayer, and the weekday Retzeh page explains why. Here Retzeh follows the blessing about the day's offering itself.

A word from the Torah reading

Ishei, the fire-offerings, is not the prayer's own coinage. Earlier in the service you heard the Rosh Chodesh Torah reading from Bamidbar 28. It has God say "My offering, My food, for My fire-offerings (ishai), My pleasing smell," then "this is the fire-offering (ha-isheh) that you shall bring," and later calls the offering for each Rosh Chodesh lamb "a fire-offering (isheh) to Hashem." Same word, now in the prayer.

One extra word: meherah

This text says "and accept their prayer meherah (quickly), with love." Sefard siddurim print the line both ways, and the weekday Retzeh page leaves the word out. Older books have it: Machzor Vitry (an early prayer book from France, around 1100) and Abudarham (a Spanish commentator on the prayers, 1300s). The Beit Yosef (Rabbi Yosef Karo's commentary on the Tur) also writes "quickly" when he explains one way to read the line. In each, "quickly" goes with "accept."

The prayer for what you cannot do yet

Rabbi Natan of Breslov (the closest student of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, a Chassidic master who died in 1810) says Musaf is prayed only for the offerings we once had to bring in the Temple. We cannot bring them now, so we pray to be able to. Then he widens it. Whatever mitzvah feels far from you, he writes, pray to be able to keep it. That is exactly what Musaf is. Until you get there, he says, the prayer counts as if you had done what is yours to do. Now read this blessing again.

תְּפִלַּת מוּסָף מִתְפַּלְּלִין רַק עַל הַקָּרְבָּנוֹת שֶׁהָיִינוּ צְרִיכִין לְהַקְרִיב בְּבֵית-הַמִּקְדָּשׁ... שֶׁזֶּהוּ מַמָּשׁ תְּפִלַּת מוּסָף שֶׁמִּתְפַּלְּלִין שֶׁנִּזְכֶּה לְקַיֵּם מַה שֶּׁאֵין אָנוּ יְכוֹלִין לְקַיֵּם עַתָּה

Two heads, level

The verse about the Rosh Chodesh Musaf offering says "on the heads of your months" (Bamidbar 28:11). Rabbi Chaim of Chernovitz (a Chassidic master whose Torah commentary was printed in 1820) hears two "heads" in the plural. Picture a father who loves his child so much that he lifts him until their heads are level. On Rosh Chodesh, he writes, so much of God's kindness shines on Israel that God lifts the roots of our souls up to that height, so to speak. The verse then asks us to bring ourselves close.

ונקרא ובראשי חדשיכם תרין ראשין כי ראש הבן והאב שוין

Picture it, then bow

The Kuzari is a classic book of Jewish thought by Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi, a poet who lived in Spain about 900 years ago. He walks through the Amidah in order. This blessing, he says, asks to see the Divine Presence eye to eye, as the prophets and the people who left Egypt did. He says to picture in your heart that the Presence stands in front of you, and to bow toward it, the way Israel bowed when they saw it. That, he writes, is the bow of the next blessing, Modim.

וְיַחֲשֹׁב בְּלִבּוֹ שֶׁהַשְּׁכִינָה נִצֶּבֶת נֶגְדּוֹ וְיִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לְנִכְחָהּ

Say it with longing

Rabbi Alexander Ziskind of Grodno wrote a guide to serving God in the 1700s, and in it he goes through the Amidah blessing by blessing. He says this blessing should be said with great heartbreak. At "may our eyes see," he says to think with great longing, I am waiting and hoping for the day You return to Zion, and adds that it is good if a person can even shed tears from the longing. At the ending, he says to thank God in your mind: I know You will return Your Presence to Zion, and I ask You to bring that return close.

ובודאי ראוי לאומרה בשברון לב מאד

Do I say Ya'aleh Veyavo in Musaf?

No. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) tells you to add Ya'aleh Veyavo in Retzeh at Maariv, Shacharit and Mincha on Rosh Chodesh. It does not list Musaf. The Rambam (Maimonides, 1100s) also lists only those three. Musaf on Rosh Chodesh, he writes, has its own shape: the first three blessings, the last three, and a middle one about the Rosh Chodesh offering that ends "who makes Israel and the new months holy."

I said the regular Amidah instead of Musaf. Does it count?

The Mishnah Berurah rules that it does not, even if you added Ya'aleh Veyavo, because Musaf must mention the day's offerings. You pray again. The Arukh HaShulchan (a law code from around 1900) calls this obvious, citing the Magen Avraham (a commentary, 1600s). The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s), following the Pri Chadash (a commentary, late 1600s), is lenient if you said Ya'aleh Veyavo: have in mind to be covered by the prayer leader's repetition of Musaf, and if you cannot, you need not go back.

I skipped the Rosh Chodesh verses in Musaf. Do I go back?

After the fact, no. The Ran (a Spanish rabbi of the 1300s) writes that even without those verses and without the line "as You wrote in Your Torah," you are covered. His source is the Yerushalmi (the Gemara of the Land of Israel): even saying "we will make our offerings before You, in the daily offerings and the Musaf offering" is enough. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, 1500s) quotes this in his notes on the Tur (an earlier code). His note on the Shulchan Aruch says the same about Musaf, in the laws of Shabbat.