Baladi-rite prayer

[3] Older Baladi-rite prayer books were traditionally compiled in the Babylonian supralinear punctuation,[4] although today, all have transformed and strictly make use of the Tiberian vocalization.

The Baladi-rite prayer book or Tiklāl remained in manuscript form until 1894, when the first printed edition (editio princeps) was published in Jerusalem by the Yemenite Jewish community,[5] which included the Etz Ḥayim commentary written by Rabbi Yihya Saleh.

Their predilection for books composed in the Land of Israel made them neglect their own hand-written manuscripts, though they were of a more exquisite and ancient origin.

Yiḥya, the son of one of the community's most respectable leaders, Shalom ben Aharon HaKohen al-Iraqi (known as al-'Usṭā - "the artisan"),[7] whose father served under two Zaydi Imams between the years 1733–1761 as the surveyor general of public buildings, had tried to make the Sephardic prayer book the standard prayer-rite of all Jews in Yemen in the 18th century.

[8][9] By the time of the Jewish community's demise, owing to mass immigration in the mid-20th century, most synagogues in Sana'a had already returned to praying in the Baladi-rite,[10] albeit, in the vast majority of towns and villages across Yemen they clung to their adopted Sephardic-rite as found in the printed books of Venice, Thessaloniki, Amsterdam and, especially, the Tefillath Haḥodesh and Zekhor le-Avraham prayer books printed in Livorno.

[11] According to Rabbi Yiḥyah Qafiḥ (1850–1931), a Chief Rabbi of Yemen, the original Yemenite version of the Amidah is the format that was prescribed by the Great Assembly (Hebrew: אנשי כנסת הגדולה), who enacted the prayer in the fourth century BCE, with the one exception of the Benediction said against sectarians, which was enacted many years later.

While the ancient format of the Amidah may have seen little changes since its enactment by the latter prophets, the history of the Yemenite Baladi-rite prayer book—as can be said about every prayer book—is a history of recensions and later interpolations,[17] with the addition of elements taken from the Siddur of Rabbi Saadia Gaon[18] and of Rabbi Amram Gaon, the printed Sephardic tefillot,[19] as well as elements taken from liturgies found originally in the Land of Israel.

Most of these changes began to make their way into the current Baladi-rite prayer book over a two-hundred year period, from the time of Rabbi Yiḥya Bashiri (d. 1661) who published his Tiklāl Bashiri in 1618 (a copy of which was made and published under the name Tiklāl Qadmonim)[20] to the time of Rabbi Yihya Saleh (d. 1805), the latter of whom incorporating in the Baladi-rite version elements taken from Kabbalah, as prescribed by Isaac Luria (Ari), as well as certain liturgical poems taken from the Sephardic prayer books.

In the title page of one Yemenite prayer book completed in 1663 by the notable scribe and kabbalist, Rabbi Isaac b. Abraham Wannah, the copyist makes note of the fact that, aside from the regular customs of the people of Yemen, some of the entries in his prayer book have been culled "from the customs of the people of Spain who have it as their practice to add in the prayers the Tikūn Ha-geshem[21] and the Tikūn Ha-ṭal[22] (special emendations made for rain and for dew so that they may not be withheld), as well as the Tikūnei Shabbat Malkah as is practised by the people of the Land of Israel,"[23] i.e., the Psalms readings beginning with לכו נרננה, etc.,[24] and the liturgy לכה דודי, followed by בר יוחאי, and יגדל אלהים חי.

[25] The first recorded mentioning of Tikūn Ha-ṭal (said before the Mussaf-prayer on the first day of Passover) in any extant Yemenite prayer book appeared only in 1583.

[27] The texts of old Yemenite prayer books copied by Rabbi Yihye Bashiri are an invaluable source for comparing the variae lectiones (Textual variations) of liturgy before the redaction of the Babylonian Talmud.

Scholars point out that the Yemenite practice was the original custom in Yemen before Rava's interdict,[28] the memorial of which also being brought down in the Jerusalem Talmud.

[34] Notable changes occurring in the Baladi-rite prayer book during the geonic period are the additions of Adon ha-ʿolamim (אדון העולמים‎), which mark the opening words in the Baladi-rite tiklāl before the Morning benediction, and the praise which appears further on and known as Barukh shʾamar (ברוך שאמר‎),[35] which appears immediately following a short praise composed by Judah Halevi, Ha-mehulal le'olam (המהולל לעולם‎)[36] and which is said before the recital of the selected Psalms (zemirot).

In subsequent generations, other additions have been added thereto, such as the Yotzer verses that are said on the Sabbath day (i.e. those verses which mention the creation, hence: yotzer = "who createth");[37] and the last blessing made in the recital of Ḳiryat Shĕma (i.e. the second blessing thereafter) on the Sabbath evening, since in the original prayer text there was no difference between Sabbaths and weekdays; Likewise, the modern practice is to chant the prosaic Song of the Sea (שירת הים‎) before one recites Yishtabaḥ, although in the original Baladi-rite prayer the song came after Yishtabaḥ, seeing that it is not one of the songs of David.

Another custom which has found its way into the Yemenite prayer book is the practice of rescinding all vows and oaths on the eve of Yom Kippur (Kol Nidre).

[42] These changes, like the others, are directly related to the dissemination of Sephardic tefillot in Yemen, and influenced, especially, by the writings of Rabbi David Abudirham.

[43] No doubt the greatest changes to the Baladi-rite prayer book have come in wake of kabbalistic practices espoused by Isaac Luria, which have since been incorporated in the Yemenite tiklāl.

Yihya Saleh (1713–1805) mentions that the old-timers in Yemen were not accustomed to reciting Mizmor le'Todah (i.e. Psalm 100) in the Pesukei dezimra of the Morning Prayer (Shahrith),[47] although it too soon became the norm in the Baladi-rite congregations, based on a teaching in the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim § 51:9) and Rabbi Joseph Karo's specification that it be cited in the Morning Prayer.

Yihya Saleh agreed to insert it in his Baladi-rite prayer book, saying that it was deemed just and right to recite it, seeing that “there is in it a plethora of praise unto Him, the Blessed One.” Yihya Saleh also initiated the custom of saying Ṣidqathekha (צדקתך‎), etc.,[48] in his own synagogue immediately following the Amidah of the Afternoon Prayer (Mincha) on Sabbath days, in accordance with an injunction in the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim § 292:2), and which practice soon spread amongst other Baladi-rite congregations.

the myrtle and willow branches in one's right hand, and the citron fruit in one's left), enacting that instead of the traditional manner of moving them forward, bringing them back, raising them up, and lowering them down, while in each movement he rattles the tip of the lulav three times,[51] they would henceforth add another two cardinal directions, namely, to one's right and to one's left, as described in the Shulchan Arukh (Orach Chaim § 651:9).

In subsequent generations, both, in the Land of Israel and in Babylonia, the rabbinic scholars of Israel made additional innovations by adding certain texts and liturgies to the prayer format established by Ezra, which too were accepted by the Jews of Yemen (such as Nishmath kol ḥai, and the prosaic Song of the Sea, established by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai).

Eventually, when Maimonides came along and arranged the prayers in his Code of Jewish law, the Jews of Yemen saw that his words were in agreement with what they had in their own prayer books, wherefore, they received him as a rabbi over them, although Maimonides had only written the format that he received from the Men of the Great Assembly, and that it happens to be the original version practised formerly by the Jews of Spain.

The source was copied down by Yihya Saleh[64] from the glosses of the Baladi-rite Prayer Book (Tiklāl) written by Rabbi Yihye Bashiri (d. 1661), and who, in turn, copied it from the work of a Yemenite Jewish scholar, entitled Epistle: Garden of Flowers (רסאלה' בסתאן אלאזהאר), in which he wrote the following: Now what you have mentioned to us about the great geon, [even] our teacher and our Rabbi, Moses [Maimonides] (may his God keep him), how that by his magnanimity [he enjoins us] to say, Borukh shomer 'amo yisroel (Blessed be He who guards His people Israel ברוך שומר עמו ישראל), it is most correct what has been transmitted unto him.

Prior to Maimonides, the general trend in Yemen was also to follow the halakhic rulings of the geonim, including their format used in the blessings.

[99] The 'Standing Prayer' known as the Eighteen Benedictions, or Amidah, as prescribed in the Yemenite Baladi-rite tradition, and which is recited three times a day during weekdays, is here shown (with an English translation):[127] (Open window for text) [בקיץ] מוֹרִיד הַטָּל / [בחורף] מַשִּׁיב הָרוּחַ וּמוֹרִיד הַגֶּשֶׁם מְכַלכֵּל חַיִּים בְּחֶסֶד מְחַיֶּה מֵתִים בְּרַחֲמִים רַבִּים, רוֹפֵא חוֹלִים סוֹמֵךְ נוֹפְלִים מַתִּיר אֲסוּרִים וּמקַיֵּים אֱמוּנָתוֹ לִישֵׁנֵי עָפָר.

He that redeems and rescues; He that gives sustenance and shows mercy, even the G-d of all living creatures, the Lord of all generations that were ever born!

He that rules His world with loving kindness and His creatures with manifold tender mercies; Now the Lord God is the truth, He does not slumber, neither does He sleep.

Thou art He that arouses those that sleep, and awakenest those that slumber; He that upholds those that fall, who heals the sick, who loosens those that are bound; it is to Thee that we give thanks.

Were our mouths filled with song as the sea, our tongues with joyful praise as the multitude of its waves, and our lips with adoration as the spacious firmament; were our eyes radiant as the sun and the moon, and our hands spread forth like the eagles of the sky, and our feet swift as hinds, we would still be unable to thank Thee, O Lord our God, or to bless Thy name, our King, [as becometh Thee], be it for one measure of the thousands upon thousands, and the abundant myriads upon myriads of times which Thou hast done good unto us and unto our fathers in ages past!

If your soul be grieved [at the calamity that hath befallen us], please consider the events that have happened to the scholarly Rabbi, our teacher and Master, Yiḥya the son of the honorable Rabbi Yehudah al-Ṣa'adi, the President of the beit din for the [Jewish] communities in Yemen, who fought a just battle against those who make themselves pious, forsaking their own customs and their Yemenite fathers' customs, which have been the customary practice according to the handwritten Prayer Books that are called by us al-tikālil, and who grasp anew customs, found in the printed Machzors, in matters of the prayers and other customs... And also, [other] men, Talmidei Chachamim, had joined together with the President of the court, the honorable Rabbi Yiḥya al-Ṣa'adi, [in his fight] to abolish these new customs [which they had taken] upon themselves, but to no avail, for in their time there was a certain wise man great in Torah, stature (Hebrew: ובמעלה), and [knowledgeable in the writings of the] poskim, and above all was infatuated over the books of the kabbalists, [namely] the honorable Rabbi Yiḥya son of the esteemed Minister Shalom HaKohen al-Iraqi.