Shema Koleinu: hear our voice

A whole Amidah in one line

The Mishnah (the earliest written record of the Oral Law) says a person walking through a dangerous place prays a short prayer instead of the full Amidah. Rabbi Yehoshua's version begins: "Save Your people, the remnant of Israel." The Gemara adds more versions. One says: "Your people's needs are many and their minds are limited. Give each person enough to live on." Every version ends with the words this blessing ends with: "Blessed are You, Hashem, who hears prayer."

Rejected on everything but this

Nachum the Mede was a great sage, but Rav Acha bar Minyumi complained to Abaye (a teacher in the Gemara) that every ruling of his was met with "better if that were lost and never said." Abaye pointed to one ruling of his that people do follow: a person asks for personal needs in Shome'a Tefillah. Rav Acha answered that this one does not count, because it rests on an old argument between much bigger sages. The Rabbis settled that argument the same way, and the Gemara says that is the law.

The catch-all

Abudarham (a Spanish scholar who wrote a commentary on the prayers in the 1300s) passes on a view that the 13 middle blessings are six for the person, six for the people, and this one stands for all of them. He also lists what can be said here. Forgot to ask for rain in the blessing for the year's crops? If you remember before this blessing ends, ask for it here. Praying alone on a fast day? The Aneinu prayer ("Answer us") goes here.

The food prayer has older parts

The paragraph printed here for asking for a living is built from old pieces. "Feed me my allotted bread" is from Mishlei (the book of Proverbs) 30:8. "From the horns of wild oxen to the eggs of lice" is from the Gemara's picture of God's day, when part of it goes to feeding the world. The Shelah (Rabbi Yeshayahu Horowitz, an author of the early 1600s) quotes an older book that records a custom of saying a prayer with these same opening words before washing for a meal. We could not trace who wrote the whole text.

After David comes prayer

The Gemara explains the order of the middle blessings as a chain. Once Jerusalem is rebuilt, David comes. Once David comes, prayer comes, as Yeshayahu says: "I will bring them to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer." So the chain puts prayer right after the blessing about David's kingdom.

What if you are not good enough to ask?

Rabbi Shlomo of Radomsk (a 19th-century Chassidic rebbe in Poland) passes on a teaching he heard from his own teacher, the rebbe of Przedborz. It starts from Rashi (the main medieval commentator on the Torah): when Moshe pleaded with God, he asked for a free gift, and even the righteous ask that way. So what can ordinary people do, who have no merits to point to? Exactly this. Ask for a free gift, even if you are not worthy, and anyone can pray. Now read "be gracious to us" again.

אך מה יעשו הפשוטי עם אשר אין להם זכות ... יכול כל האדם להתפלל

Even when no words come

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master who died in 1810) taught a daily habit: set aside an hour to talk to God alone, in the language you actually speak, because your heart is moved by words you know. Then he adds something for the days you freeze. If you cannot open your mouth at all, wanting to speak is itself "very good." You can even pray about that, and ask God to open your mouth. He says this is open to everyone, from the least to the greatest.

וַאֲפִלּוּ אִם לִפְעָמִים נִסְתַּתְּמִין דְּבָרָיו ... זֶה בְּעַצְמוֹ טוֹב מְאֹד

Hard to pray for people you do not feel for

In Bamidbar the Israelites say, "we cried out to Hashem and He heard our voice," and add that Egypt hurt "our fathers" too. Rashi learns from this that our ancestors grieve in their graves when trouble comes to Israel. Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, who gave his sermons in the Warsaw Ghetto around 1941, adds that without compassion for Israel it is hard to pray for them, and hard for the prayer to work. So the ancestors cried out too, and God heard their voice together with ours.

בלא רחמנות על ישראל קשה להתפלל בעדם וקשה שתפעל התפילה

Praying together changes the hour

The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) asks when a moment counts as "an acceptable time," the phrase from Tehillim 69: "my prayer to You, Hashem, in an acceptable time." Its answer: when the community is praying. Then the community has got that time ready, and it is a moment for asking. Now read "our voice," "our prayer" and "every mouth of Your people" again.

אֵימָתַי אִקְרֵי עֵת רָצוֹן. בְּשַׁעֲתָא דְּצִבּוּר קָא מְצַלָאן

Where is your mind when you ask?

Rabbi Elazar Azikri, a kabbalist in 16th-century Tzfat, writes that God deals measure for measure. When you call to Him in trouble, would you want Him to turn His heart away from you? Then when you pray, he says, your own heart should turn away from your everyday business. Now read "do not turn us away empty" again.

הטוב בעיניך כשתקראנו בצרתך שיפנה לבו ממך כביכול גם אתה כשתתפלל יפנה לבך מעסקיך

Can I ask for anything I want here?

Yes. The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 8a) rules that a person asks for his own needs in this blessing. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) adds that it can hold any request, since it covers all of them. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of law from around 1900) says it is a general blessing, not a specific one. The Rambam (Maimonides, 1100s) sets one limit: no personal requests in the first three or the last three blessings of the Amidah.

Should my requests go here or at the end of the Amidah?

Both are allowed. The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 8a) says that after the Amidah you may add requests, even as long as the Yom Kippur confession. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, from around 1900) quotes the Chayei Adam (a law guide from the early 1800s): for requests you say every day, it is better to put them after the last blessing than inside this one. Then Kaddish or Kedushah can be answered after the closing verse. Inside a blessing, one view in the Shulchan Aruch is not to run long.

My siddur prints a livelihood prayer here. Should I say it?

The Aruch HaShulchan agrees that the Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) teaches asking for food every day, even if you are rich. He objects to a fixed text like "You are the One who feeds and sustains" printed inside the Amidah, and says to say it after the closing verse instead. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) says what the Zohar and the Arizal (a Kabbalist of Tzfat in the 1500s) teach, to confess and ask for food here, may be done every day, and is a mitzvah.

Where in the blessing do my own words go?

The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch) says to start the blessing first and add your words after it begins. The Aruch HaShulchan says to add them before the closing line. This siddur's note puts the livelihood prayer just before "ki atah shome'a" ("for You hear"). The Sha'ar HaKavanot (the Arizal's teachings, written down by a student), as the Kaf HaChaim reports, puts a short confession a few words earlier, at "do not turn us away empty."

I am fasting today. Where does Aneinu go?

An individual says it inside this blessing, just before "ki atah shome'a," with no closing line of its own. That is the Shulchan Aruch and the Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice). The Re'eh prayer's Halacha cards cover which prayers of the fast day it goes in. If you forget it, the Shulchan Aruch says you do not go back.

I forgot to ask for rain earlier. Is this the place?

Yes, if you notice before this blessing. The Shulchan Aruch rules that you are not sent back: you ask for rain here instead. The Barech Aleinu prayer's Halacha cards give the full rules, including what to do if you notice later. One point they leave out: a note in the Shulchan Aruch says that if you are also fasting, the request for rain comes before Aneinu.