[Avodah] Retzei

[Jonathan Baker]

RMi:

> I also wonder when Retzei was written. Was it during AKG, at a time when there
> was a chanukas hamizbei'ach and ishei Yisrael, but no Devir built yet? In
> which case, perhaps the tefillah was originally written to be read one way
> (vehasheiv as ha'avodah lidvir beisekha. Ve'ishei Yisrael usfilasam...), but
> period was moved rather than changing the nusach outright.
 
> The problem with that idea is that there would have been no reason to keep the
> line "vehasheiv es ha'avodah" all the time of Bayis Sheini. The two versions
> make sense in their respective epochs, but what about the time in between?

Baer talks about this.  He says that it was originally the bracha made
by the kohanim over the daily korbanot (tamid/musaf/etc.), but that 
after the Destruction, extra phrases were added to make it into a memorial.
The original ending was that which we use for Duchaning ...ot'cha naavod.
The old nusach of EY still said it this way, although they had some other
phrases added to make it into a memorial.  I hope to put up a blog post
about this sometime today.
 
--
        name: jon baker              web: http://www.panix.com/~jjbaker
     address: jjbaker at panix.com     blog: http://thanbook.blogspot.com