Q: Why do we pray three times a day? Doesn’t that seem a bit excessive? Especially since the main part of the prayer, the Amida, is exactly the same as the morning, afternoon and evening prayer!

 

A: The three prayers are known as Shacharit (morning prayer), Mincha (afternoon prayer), and Maariv (evening prayer). There are two reasons given for why we do this.

 

1) In the Temple they would bring two daily sacrifices, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Then by night, they would burn on the alter any leftover parts of the animal that they didn’t manage to take care of during the day. Corresponding to these three daily events we pray in the morning, afternoon, and evening.

 

2) The three prayers were instituted by our three forefathers. Abraham prayed the morning prayer, Isaac did the afternoon Prayer and Jacob started the evening service.

 

On a deeper level, we do this to teach us that our connection to G-d should not be confined to times of light and clarity. We need to connect even when it's dark and difficult. The same is true the other way around. We shouldn’t only turn to God when we have problems when it is dark. Even when our life is bright and things are going well we need to remember to thank Hashem and connect to Him.

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