<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><!--StartFragment--><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:
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<!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:
16.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">In the gemara B'rochos 26b R' Yossi ben
Chanina says: T'fillos Ovos Tiknum (the t'fillot were instituted by the ovos).
Abraham established the shacharis service (B'reshis 19:27); Yitzchok, the
mincha service (B'reshis 24:63) and Yaakov, the maariv service (B'reshis
28:11).</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:21.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:16.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">What is
fascinating is that it is brought down interestingly in S'forim that the second
letter in Avraham is <i>beis</i> and it stands for <i>boker </i>(morning);
the second letter in Yitzchok is a <i>tzaddik</i> and it stands for <i>tzaharayim</i> (afternoon);
the second letter of Yaakov is <i>ayin</i> and stands for <i>erev, arvis</i> (evening).
So you see just in the names, the second letters of Avraham, Yitzchok and
Yaakov, they say, alludes to Shacharis, Mincha and Maariv. (If you take the first letters of their names you get <i>Aleph, yud yud</i>: One God). The text of davening
that we have today were instituted by the <i>anshei knesses hag'dola</i> at the
beginning of the second beis hamikdash. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3">In contrast in the same gemara, R. Yehoshua b. Levi maintains that the origins of three daily services are to be found in the precedent of the daily sacrificial service (Korban Tamid) in the Temple: morning and afternoon (Shemos 29:38-39). Ma'ariv, according to this model, corresponds to the remaining limbs and fat of the afternoon sacrifice which continued to burn on the altar all night long until consumed. </font> </p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; "><p align="justify"><font size="3"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">A parallel source in Bereishit Rabba 68:9 records these two views and includes a third as well (quoted elsewhere with slight variations): "Rabbi Shmuel ben Nachman said: the three services correspond to the three changes in the day. At nighttime one must say: 'May it be Thy will God my Lord to bring me forth from darkness to light.' In the morning one must say: 'I give thanks to Thee God my Lord for having brought me forth from darkness to light.' In the afternoon one must say: 'I give thanks to Thee God my Lord, for just as I merited to see the sun in the east, so too You merited me to see the sun in the west.'"</font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> </font></p></span>
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