Siman 112

Even though in the middle blessings each individual may add any request when necessary, in the first three and the last three it is forbidden to add. For the first ones are similar to a servant who recounts praise before his master, and since he is arranging His praises, may He be blessed, how could he interrupt with a request pertaining to himself? And so too the last ones, where he gives thanks to his master, and how could he interrupt with requests? However, this applies to the needs of an individual. But the needs of the community are permitted. Therefore, we say "Ya'aleh V'Yavo" in the Avodah blessing, and during the Ten Days of Repentance we say "Zokhrenu L'Chayim," "Mi Khamokha," "U'Khtov," and "B'Sefer...". And on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we lengthen with "U'Vken Ten Pachdekha...". For the community is very beloved before the Holy One, Blessed be He, and to them permission was given to interrupt, but not to an individual. Our teacher, the Beit Yosef, wrote that one should not say piyyutim or krovot. And it is not similar to what the Men of the Great Assembly instituted in all those we enumerated, whose power is great. But our teacher, the Rema, wrote that there are those who permit it, since they are the needs of the many. And so it is the custom in every place to say them. Thus far his words. And so is the simple custom and one should not change it. And we have already written in siman 68 that one of the great figures abolished the piyyutim in his place, and he did not complete his year (Bach, ibid.).

We say in Megillah (17b): One hundred and twenty elders, and among them several prophets, instituted the eighteen blessings in order. And it is stated in the Aggadah: What is "in order"? This is the order of the world. For the eighteen blessings of the prayer were always instituted one after the other; once the Men of the Great Assembly came, they assembled them and instituted them in their order. When Avraham was saved from Ur Kasdim, the ministering angels opened and said "Magen Avraham." When Yitzchak was bound, they said "Mechayeh HaMeitim." When Yaakov came and encountered the gates of mercy, and sanctified the name of the Holy One, Blessed be He, they said "HaEl HaKadosh." When Gavriel taught Yosef seventy languages, they said "Chonen HaDa'at." When Reuven returned in repentance regarding the incident of Bilhah, they said "HaRotzeh BiTshuvah." When Yehudah performed the incident of Tamar, and said "Bring her out and let her be burned," and said "She is more righteous than I," and that iniquity was forgiven him, they said "Chanun HaMarbeh Lisloach." When the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Israel in Egypt "And I will redeem you," they said "Goel Yisrael." When Raphael healed Avraham, they said "Rofeh Cholei Amo Yisrael." When Yitzchak sowed and found a hundredfold, they said "Mevarech HaShanim." When Yaakov came to Egypt, and the tribes were gathered with Yosef, they said "Mekabbetz Nidchei Amo Yisrael."

When the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Moshe "And these are the ordinances," they said "King who loves righteousness and judgment." When the Egyptians drowned in the Reed Sea, they said "Who breaks enemies and humbles the arrogant." When the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Yaakov and Yosef "He shall place his hand upon your eyes" and it was afterwards fulfilled, and Yaakov relied upon His word, they said "Mainstay and assurance for the righteous." When Shlomo built the Beit HaMikdash, they said "Who builds Yerushalayim." When Israel crossed the Reed Sea and sang a song, they said "Who causes the horn of salvation to flourish." When Israel sighed and cried out, and Hashem heard their groaning, they said "Who hears prayer." And when the Shekhinah descended into the Mishkan, they said "Who restores His Shekhinah to Tzion." When Shlomo brought in the Ark, and was answered and gave thanks, they said "The Beneficent is Your Name and to You it is fitting to give thanks." And when Israel entered the Land, and it was fulfilled for them "And I will grant peace in the Land," they said "Who blesses His people Israel with peace." (The Beit Yosef brought this from the Shibbolei HaLeket and from the Orchot Chaim, see there.)

The Tur wrote in siman 113 in the name of his brother, our teacher Yechiel, that the pious of Ashkenaz would count all the words in each and every blessing of the eighteen blessings: in the first blessing forty-two words, in the second fifty-one words (this is with "mashiv haruach umorid hagashem"), in the third fourteen, in the fourth seventeen, in the fifth fifteen, and in the sixth and seventh he did not count the number of words. However, in the book Peri Etz Chaim by the Ari, of blessed memory (page 60a), he also counted the words, and wrote the number equal to the Tur, see there. And he wrote that in the sixth there are twenty words, and in the seventh seventeen, see there. (And in the first blessing he wrote forty-eight, and this is with the verse "Adonai sefatai tiftach".) And in the eighth, the Tur and the Peri Etz Chaim wrote twenty-seven words, and in the ninth thirty words, and in the tenth ten. And in the eleventh the Tur did not count, and in the Peri Etz Chaim he wrote twenty-four words. And in the twelfth, which is the blessing "Velamalshinim," they wrote twenty-nine words, and in the thirteenth forty-two words, and in the fourteenth twenty-four, and in the fifteenth twenty. And in the sixteenth, which is "Shema Koleinu," the Tur did not count, and in the Peri Etz Chaim he wrote thirty-five words. And in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth, the Tur also did not count, and in the Peri Etz Chaim he wrote in the seventeenth thirty-four, in the eighteenth eighty-six, and in the nineteenth even in the Peri Etz Chaim it is not clarified, see there. And behold, the Tur wrote regarding all this allusions and plain-meaning intentions, and in the Peri Etz Chaim he wrote regarding this great and awesome secrets, see there.

And behold, although we have no knowledge at all, and would that we might direct the interpretation of the words according to their plain meaning. Nevertheless, every Jewish man must understand the great value of the Shemoneh Esrei prayer, for Shimon HaTzaddik was among the remnants of the Anshei Kneset HaGedolah, as we learned at the beginning of Avot, and the greatness of his stature is well known in the Shas as is explained in Yoma (39b) and at the beginning of Tamid. And how much more so the Anshei Kneset HaGedolah themselves, and certainly the prophets among them. And if they labored with their holy spirit to arrange the prayer, how many awesome intentions are within them! And every single word stands at the height of the universe. Therefore, happy is the man who prays with focused attention to those holy matters.