Amidah

The Amidah (Hebrew: תפילת העמידה, Tefilat HaAmidah, "The Standing Prayer"), also called the Shmoneh Esreh (שמנה עשרה, "The Eighteen," in reference to the original number of constituent blessings; there are now nineteen), is the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy. This prayer, among others, is found in the siddur, the traditional Jewish prayer book. As Judaism's central prayer, surpassed only by the Birkat Hamazon, the Amidah is the only prayer that is designated simply as tefila (תפילה, "prayer") in Rabbinic literature. The short version of the Amidah, designated for persons in a rush or under pressure, is called Havineinu. It consist of only seven brachot ("blessings"). To receite the Amidah is a mitzvah de-rabbanan (Aramaic: דרבנן) for it was first composed—according to legend—by the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah ("Men of the Great Assembly") in Israel, no original textual version or fragment has survived, though.