Although never discouraging private, incidental prayer, Judaism gives absolute priority to the formal worship of the community. Jewish law (halakhah) establishes that even individuals praying privately must first recite the fixed texts, meeting their own needs through added intentionality (kavvanah) before adding freely composed prayers only in restricted locations. This worship functions as a constant reminder to Jews of their existential situation: they are members of the people Israel, living a life enabled by God in a divinely created and maintained world, corporately heirs to the irrevocable covenants between God and Israel. The formal prayers grow from this relationship, expressing praise, petition, and thanksgiving to God, as well as reminding Jews of the expectations it places on them for a life lived constantly in the divine presence. In reciting these prayers, Jews locate themselves within a sacred history that extends from creation, through the exodus and...