Baladi rite prayer

First printing

The Baladi-rite prayer book or Tiklāl remained in manuscript form until 1894, when the first printed edition was published in Jerusalem by the Yemenite Jewish community, which included the Etz Ḥayim commentary written by Rabbi Yiḥyah Salaḥ. Today, it is used primarily by the Baladi-rite congregations of Yemenite Jews in Israel and the Diaspora. Baladi is an Arabic word denoting "of local use" (i.e. Yemeni), as distinguished from the prayer-rite widely used in the north (i.e. Syria and the Land of Israel), which is called in Arabic شامي Shāmī "Levantine, Eastern".

Comparison with the Sephardic prayer rite

The Baladi-rite prayer differs in many aspects from the Sephardic rite prayer, or what was known locally as the Shāmī-rite prayer book, which by the 18th and 19th centuries was already widely used in Yemen, although only lately introduced into Yemen by Jewish travelers. 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.

The nineteenth century Jewish historiographer, Hayyim Habshush, has given some insights into the conflict that arose in the Jewish community of Sana'a on account of the newer Sephardic prayer book being introduced there. Yiḥya ben Shalom Ha-Kohen al-Iraqi, the son of one of the community's respectable leaders, had tried making it the standard prayer-rite of all Jews in Yemen in the early 18th century. This caused a schism in the Jewish community of Sana'a, with the more zealous choosing to remain faithful to their fathers' custom (i.e. the Baladi-rite) and to continue its perpetuation, since it was seen as embodying the original customs practised by Yemenite Jews. Out of a total of twenty-two synagogues in Sana'a, only three synagogues in the city chose to remain with the original Baladi-rite prayer, while the others adopted the Spanish-rite prayer with its innovations introduced by Isaac Luria. 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, 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.

According to Rabbi Yiḥyah Qafiḥ, 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 the sectarians and which was enacted many years later.

Rabbi Yiḥyah Salaḥ (1713 – 1805), judge and president of the court at Sana'a, considered the foremost exponent of Jewish law ever produced by Yemen, wrote an extensive commentary on the Baladi-rite Prayer Book in which he mostly upholds the old practices described therein (e.g. the practice of saying only one Mussaf-prayer during Rosh Hashanah, etc.), although he also compromises by introducing elements in the Yemenite prayer book taken from the books of the kabbalists and the Shulchan Aruch, and which had already become popular in Yemen. He is often seen praising the old Yemenite customs and encouraging their upkeep:

I have also with me a responsum concerning the matter of changing our prayer custom, which is in the Tikālil (Baladi-rite Prayer Books) for the version found in the Spanish-rite Prayer Books, from the Rabbi, [even] our teacher, Rabbi Pinḥas Ha-Kohen Iraqi, ... and he has been most vociferous in his language against those who would change [their custom], with reproofs and [harsh] decrees in a language that isn't very cajoling. May his soul be laid up in paradise[.]

Textual development

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 Siddur—is a history of recensions and later interpolations, with the addition of elements taken from the Siddur of Rabbi Saadia Gaon and of Rabbi Amram Gaon, the printed Sephardic siddurs, 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) to the time of Rabbi Yiḥya 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 Siddur 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 Siddur 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 and the Tikūn Ha-ṭal (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," i.e., the Psalms readings beginning with לכו נרננה, etc., and the liturgy לכה דודי, followed by בר יוחאי, and יגדל אלהים חי. Originally, the practice was to begin the Sabbath prayer on the night of the Sabbath by reciting only “mizmor shir le'yom ha-shabbath” (Ps. 92). 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. Included in the Tikūnei Shabbat book were the special readings for the nights of Shavu'ot and Hoshanna Rabba.

The texts of old Yemenite Siddurs 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. For example, in all older Yemenite Siddurs copied by Bashiri is found the version גואל ישראל (He who redeems Israel) in the second blessing after Qiryat Shema in the evening prayer and on the night of Passover, that is, in the present-progressive tense instead of in the past tense (גאל ישראל), although the requirement made by Rava in the Talmud (Pesaḥim 117b) calls for saying it in the past tense. Scholars point out that the Yemenite practice was the original custom in Yemen before Rava's interdict.

Changes to the original Yemenite text

Among the later changes made to the text of the Baladi-rite prayer book is the wording Kether Yitenu (Hebrew: כתֿר יתנו‎), etc., said during the Ḳeddushah (i.e. the third benediction in the prayer itself) at the time of the Mussaf prayer, as is the custom of Spain (Sepharad) with only minor variations. In spite of its wide acceptance in Yemen, among both Baladi and Shāmī congregations, Rabbi Yiḥyah Qafiḥ (d. 1932) did not accept this innovation, but rather ordained in his place of study to continue to say Naqdishakh (Hebrew: נקדישך‎) in all of the prayers, just as had been their accepted tradition from the Great Assembly. The Yemenite adaptation of saying Kether during the Mussaf—although not mentioned in the Order of Prayers prescribed by Maimonides—is largely due to the influence of Amram Gaon's Siddur, which mentions the custom of the two Academies in Babylonia during the days of Natronai ben Hilai to say it during the third benediction of the 'Standing Prayer.' The practice of saying Kether during the Mussaf is also mentioned in the Zohar ("Parashat Pinḥas").

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 Siddur before the Morning benediction, and the praise which appears further on and known as Barukh shʾamar (ברוך שאמר), which appears immediately following a short praise composed by Judah Halevi, Ha-mehulal le'olam (Heb. המהולל לעולם) and which is said before the recital of the selected Psalms (zemirot). These, among other innovations, have long since been an integral part of the Baladi-rite Siddur.

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"); 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. In today's Baladi-ride Siddur, an interpolation of eighteen verses known as Rafa'eini Adonai we'erafei (Heb. רפאיני יי' וארפא) has been inserted between the prosaic Song of the Sea and Yishtabaḥ, just as it appears in the Tiklāl Mashta, compiled by Rabbi Shalom Shabazi in 1655, although the same verses do not appear in the Tiklāl Bashiri compiled in 1618. 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 Rosh Hashanah (Kol Nidre).

Moreover, in the older handwritten Baladi-rite prayer books, in the first blessing following the Ḳiryat Shĕma, or what is called in Hebrew: אמת ויציב‎ = emeth wayaṣiv, the original Yemenite custom was to say only eight waws in the opening lines of the blessing, just as the blessing appears in Maimonides' Seder Ha-Tefillah (Order of Prayer), and not as it is now commonly practised to insert seven additional waws in the blessing for a total of fifteen. These changes, like the others, are directly related to the dissemination of Sephardic Siddurs in Yemen, and influenced, especially, by the writings of Rabbi David Abudirham.

Lurianic Kabbalah

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 Siddur. The proclamation "Adonai melekh, Adonai malakh, Adonai yimlokh le'olam wa'ed" said by some each day before Barukh shĕ'amar is from the teachings of Isaac Luria. The saying of Aleinu le'shebeaḥ (Heb. עלינו לשבח "It is for us to praise the Lord of all things", etc.) at the conclusion of the prayer, although originally said only during the Mussaf-prayer on Rosh Hashanah, is also an enactment made by Isaac Luria, Rabbi Moshe ben Machir and Meir ben Ezekiel ibn Gabbai.

Shulchan Aruch

The Shulchan Aruch has also left an indelible mark upon the Baladi-rite prayer in certain areas. Yiḥyah Salaḥ (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), 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 ben Ephraim Karo's specification that it be cited in the Morning Prayer. Yiḥyah Salaḥ 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.”

Yiḥyah Salaḥ also initiated the custom of saying Ṣidqathekha, etc., 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 Shulchan Aruch, with Yiḥyah Salaḥ's endorsement of certain Halachic rulings, was also the cause for other Baladi-rite customs being cancelled altogether, such as the old Yemenite Jewish custom of saying a final blessing after eating the "karpas" (in Yemenite tradition, "parsley") on the night of Passover; and of saying a final blessing over the second cup of wine drunk on the night of Passover; and of making a distinction between the number of matzot that are to be taken up during the blessing when Passover falls on a Sabbath day, as opposed to when it falls on a regular day of the week; and the custom to drink a fifth cup of wine during the Passover Seder. Yiḥyah Salaḥ also changed the original Baladi-rite practice of gesticulating the lulav (the palm frond and its subsidiaries, viz. 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, 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). Not all changes in the siddur, however, were the result of Yiḥyah Salaḥ's own decision to force change in his community, but rather Yiḥyah Salaḥ chose to incorporate some of the Spanish rites and liturgies in the Baladi-rite prayer book since these same practices had already become popular in Yemen. One such practice was to begin the night of each Yom Tov (festival day) with the mizmor related to that particular holiday, although, originally, it was not a custom to do so, but only to begin the first night of each of the three Festival days by saying three mizmorim taken from Psalms 1, 2 and 150. The practice found its way into the Yemenite rite from the Spanish prayer books, whereas now the Yemenite custom incorporates both traditions.

Maimonides' influence

To what extent Maimonides’ writings actually influenced the development of the Yemenite prayer ritual is disputed by scholars. Some suggest that since the Baladi-rite prayer is almost identical to the prayer format brought down by Maimonides (1138-1204) in his Mishneh Torah that it is merely a copy of Maimonides’ arrangement in prayer. This view, however, is rejected by Rabbi Yosef Qafih (1917–2000) and by Rabbi Avraham Al-Naddaf (1866–1940). According to Rabbi Yosef Qafih, the elders of Yemen preserved a tradition that the textual variant used by Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah was copied down from the texts presented to him by the Jews of Yemen, knowing that they had preserved the ancient format of the prayers, with as few innovations as possible. Elsewhere, in the Preface to the Yemenite Baladi-rite prayer book, Siyaḥ Yerushalayim, Rabbi Qafih writes that Maimonides searched for the most accurate prayer rite and found the Yemenite version to be the most accurate. According to Rabbi Avraham al-Naddaf, when the prayers established by Ezra and his court (the Men of the Great Assembly) reached Yemen, the Jews of Yemen accepted them and forsook those prayers that they had formerly been accustomed to from the time of the Temple. 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). Later, penitential verse written by Rabbi Saadia Gaon, by Rabbi Yehudah Halevi and by Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra came to be incorporated in their prayer books. 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.

Rabbi Avraham al-Naddaf’s view is corroborated by an ancient Jewish source contemporaneous with Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah before his momentous work reached Yemen, in which Jewish scholars in Yemen had debated on how to arrange the second blessing after the Shema during the Evening Prayer. The source was copied down by Yiḥyah Salaḥ 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. Who is it that knows to do such a thing, save that man whom the spirit of the holy God is within him? For the Rabbis have spoken of only two blessings coming after it (i.e. after Qiryath Shema), but not three! Now, as for us, concerning our composition of the order of prayers, and its arrangement and its custom which was written in the language of our Sages and used by some of the students, we have asked this question during our debates on the aforesaid composition, and we were indecisive about it due to its ambiguity, but we arranged the verses after Hashkiveinu (Hebrew: הַשְׁכִּיבֵנוּ‎) in such a way that they do not conclude after them with a blessing employing God's name, and forthwith will we stand up in prayer. After your letter reached us, teaching us about its proper application, we returned to its proper application! We succeeded in our composition to write the verses in such a way as to be identical with that which was written by him! Even so, his words seem to be even more exact than our own, proof of which is shown by what is written in Tractate Berakhoth: Mar says he reads [the verses of] Qiryath Shema and prays. This supports what was said by Rabbi Yohanan, ‘Who is he that is a son of the world to come? He who juxtaposes the word, Geulah, in the Evening Prayer with the actual Amidah itself!’ Moreover, they have said: Although one must say Hashkiveinu (Cause us to lie down in peace, etc.) between Geulah and the standing prayer itself, this does not constitute a break in continuity. For since the Rabbis enacted the saying of Hashkiveinu (Cause us to lie down in peace, etc.) in that part of the benediction which comes directly after Geulah, it is as if the benediction of Geulah was protracted! Now had it been like our words, he should have rather said: Although the Rabbis enacted Hashkiveinu and certain verses which come after it, [etc]. But since he did not say this, except only Haskiveinu, learn from it that at the end he concludes [with a blessing employing God's name]! Now this blessing is as one continuous thing, and not two things.

Based on this testimony it is evident that the Talmud, along with Maimonides’ order of the prayer as transcribed in his Mishneh Torah, have been used together to establish the final textual form of the Baladi-rite prayer commonly used in Yemen. 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. Rabbi Saʻīd ibn Daoud al-ʻAdeni, in a commentary which he wrote on Maimonides' Mishneh Torah (ca. 1420 – 1482), writes of the final blessing said over wine: "What is found in the writings of most of the geonim is to conclude the blessing after drinking the fruit of the vine by saying, ['Blessed art Thou, O Lord], for the vine and the fruit of the vine,' and thus is it found written in the majority of the prayer books in the cities throughout Yemen." However, today, in all the Baladi-rite prayer books, the custom after drinking wine is to conclude the blessing with the format that is brought down in Maimonides, "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, for the land and for its fruits", showing that Maimonides' impact over the development of the Yemenite Siddur has been vital.

Distinguishing features

The Baladi-rite prayer in its current textual form, at least in its uniqueness as a text that stands in a distinct category of its own and that does not fully conform with any other version, belongs without question to the Babylonian or eastern branch of the prayer ritual variants, a branch whose first clear formulation came through Rabbi Saadia Gaon and his Siddur. By simple comparison with other prayer-rites of other Jewish communities, the Yemenite version shows distinct signs of antiquity, in which, generally speaking, it is possible to say that it is the version least adulterated of all prayer versions practised in Israel today, including the original Ashkenazi version. In spite of a general trend to accommodate other well-known Jewish traditions (e.g. Sephardic, etc.), the Baladi-rite prayer book has still retained much of its traditional distinguishing features. Among them:

Megillat Antiochus

One of the more salient features of all the older Baladi-rite prayer books, as well as those compiled by Rabbi Yiḥya Bashiri, is the Aramaic Megillat Antiochus with Saadia Gaon's Arabic translation, the original Aramaic being written by the elders of the Schools of Shammai and Hillel.

Tractate Avoth

According to 16th–17th century Yemenite prayer books, many Yemenites, but not all, recited but only the first chapter of Avoth after the Shabbath Minchah prayer, doing so throughout the entire year. Beginning with the 17th century, external influence—just as with the Shami prayer text—brought about completely changed customs, with the prevalent custom today being to read the entire tractate throughout the Sabbaths between Passover and Shavuoth, a chapter each Shabbath. Rabbi Yosef Shalom Koraḥ was quoted as pointing out that in the synagogues of Rabbi Yiḥye Qafih and Rabbi Yiḥye al-Abyadh, rather than apportioning the learning for the Sabbaths between Pesaḥ and Atzeret, they would learn the entire tractate with Maimonides' commentary during the two days of Shavuoth.

First night of Shavuoth

The old Yemenite siddurim did not mention anything unique about the night of Shavuoth compared to other holidays; the practice relating to the Tikkun came to Yemen only from approximately the second half of the eighteenth century. Furthermore, while in most of the synagogues in Yemen they would learn the "Tikkūn" printed in Machzorim and Sefardic Siddurim, in some they would learn the Sefer Hamitzvot compiled by Maimonides, while by Rabbi Yihya Qafih it was learnt in its original Arabic. Even among the Baladi-rite congregations in Sana'a who embraced Kabbalah, they received with some reservation the custom of the kabbalists to recite the "Tikkūn" all throughout the night, and would only recite the "Tikkūn" until about midnight, and then retire to their beds.

Other features peculiar to the Baladi-rite

Selections from siddur

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): (Open window for text)

Nishmath Kol Hai is recited on the Sabbath day, and dates back to the 1st century CE:

Published siddur editions

Baladi as original Yemenite custom

Although the word "Baladi" is used to denote the traditional Yemenite Jewish prayer, the word is also used to designate the old Yemenite Jewish custom in many non-related issues treating on Jewish legal law (Halacha) and ritual practices, and which laws are mostly aligned with the teachings of Maimonides' Code of Jewish Law, as opposed to the Shulchan Arukh of Rabbi Joseph Karo.