The Baladi-rite Prayer is the oldest known prayer rite used by Yemenite Jews. A siddur is known as a tiklāl (, plural tikālil) in Yemenite Jewish parlance. "Baladi", a term applied to the prayer rite, was not used until prayer books arrived in Yemen in the Sephardic rite.Tobi, et al. (2000), p. 38
The Baladi version that is used today is not the original Yemenite version that had been in use by all of Yemen's Jewry until the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th,Gaimani, Aharon (2014), p. 83 but has now evolved with various additions under the influence of Sephardi siddurs and the rulings passed down in the Shulchan Aruch. In the middle of the 18th century, Yiḥyah Salaḥ tried unsuccessfully to create a unified Baladi-rite prayerbook, since he devised a fusion between the ancient Yemenite form and Sephardic prayer forms that had already integrated into Yemenite Jewish prayers a hundred years or so years before that.
The Baladi-rite tiklāl contains the prayers used for the entire year and the format prescribed for the various blessings (benedictions) recited.Qorah, A. (1987), p. 96 (Hebrew); Ratzaby, Yitzhak (2001), Orach Chaim vol. 3 (Section 105, note 15) Older Baladi-rite tikālil were traditionally compiled in the supralinear Babylonian vocalization,Gavra, Moshe (1988), pp. 258–354; Shows photocopies of different Yemenite Prayer books, the earliest from the year 1345 (now preserved at the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York, MS. no. 3015), and the latest from 1656, all of which bear Babylonian supralinear punctuation. although today, all have transformed and strictly make use of the Tiberian vocalization. The text, however, follows the traditional Yemenite punctuation of Hebrew.
First printing The Baladi-rite tiklāl remained in manuscript form until 1894, when the first printed edition (editio princeps) was published in Jerusalem by the Yemenite Jewish community,Greidi, S. (1995), pp. 71–72 which included the ʿEtz Ḥayyim commentary written by Yiḥya Salaḥ. Today, it is used primarily by the Baladi-rite congregations of Yemenite Jews in Israel and the Jewish diaspora. Baladi is an Arabic word denoting "of local use", as distinguished from the rite widely used in the northern Arab-speaking world, which is called in Arabic Shāmī "Levantine".
Comparison with the Sephardic prayer rite The Baladi-rite prayer differs in many aspects from the Sephardic rite prayer, or what was known locally as the Shāmī-rite prayer book, which by the 18th and 19th centuries was already widely used in Yemen, although only lately introduced into Yemen by Jewish travelers. Their predilection for books composed in the Land of Israel made them neglect their own hand-written manuscripts, though they were of a more exquisite and ancient origin.Qorah, A. (1987), pp. 16–17
The nineteenth century Jewish historiographer Hayyim Habshush gave some insights into the conflict that arose in the Jewish community of Sana'a on account of the newer Sephardic prayer book being introduced there. Yiḥya, the son of one of the community's most respectable leaders, Shalom ben Aharon HaKohen al-Iraqi (known as al-'Usṭā - "the artisan"),Yosef Qafih, his edition of the Yemenite Haggadah, p. 10 whose father served under two Zaydi Imams between the years 1733–1761 as the surveyor general of public buildings, had tried to make the Sephardic prayer book the standard prayer-rite of all Jews in Yemen in the 18th century. This caused a schism in the Jewish community of Sana'a, with the more zealous choosing to remain faithful to their fathers' custom (i.e. the Baladi-rite) and to continue its perpetuation since it was seen as embodying the original customs practised by Yemenite Jews. Of twenty-two synagogues in Sana'a, only three in the city chose to remain with the original Baladi-rite prayer. The others adopted the Sefardic rite tefilla introduced by Isaac Luria.Qafih, Y. (1989), vol. 2, s.v. Qorot Yisra'el be-Teman by Hayyim Hibshush, p. 718 and Sefunot; online edition: Sefunot, volume 2, Jerusalem 1958, page רסז (p. 275 in PDF pagination) (Hebrew), in which the author writes, The above is told through the lens of Hibshush who writes of Yiḥya, the son of Shalom (al-'Usṭā). However, Yosef Qafih, the editor of Hibshush's Qorot Yisra'el be-Teman cited above, tells not of the son Yiḥya, but of Shalom ben Aharon HaKohen Iraqi (Qafih's edition of the Yemenite Haggadah [אגדתא דפסחא, 5719], p. 10-11) as did the court of Sana'a in their 5671 (1911) response to Abraham Isaac Kook (Masa' le-Teiman (Hebrew: מסע לתימן; Tel Aviv, 5712), p. 197: "ובזמן שעמד הנשיא ר' שלום עראקי שהיה משנה למלך הערבי המולך בצנעה. והיו ידיו רב לו לעשות כרצונו וביד חזקה הכריח קהילות רבות להתפלל ע"פ סידור האר"י נוסח ספרד ולעזוב סידור התפילה להרמב"ם. וגם שלא לגלח בימי העומר וכיוצא בענינים אלו. וקצת קהילות עמדו על עמדם ולא אבו לשמוע לו."). Cf. Qorah, A. (1987), pp. 16–18 (Hebrew pagination), who writes (p. 17 ): "In the days of the Minister, Shalom (al-'Ousta), a few of the wise men of that generation saw [fit] that it was best that the entire congregation would pray like the custom found in the land of Israel [namely] in the prayer-rite of the Sephardic Prayer Books, and their counsel was that those unto whom the Baladi-rite Prayer Book (Tiklāl) was still fluent in their mouths, that the Nasi would provide them with Sephardic Prayer Books so that all would be accustomed to praying with one prayer-rite, and the Nasi consented to this [advice]. Then were those Rabbis stirred who held fast to praying as the Tiklāl [i.e., Baladi-rite], and at their head was Yehuda ben Shelomo al-Sa'adi [d. 1740] and the Judge Pinhas ben Shelomo Ha-Kohen al-Iraqi of blessed memory, and they wrote proclamations in the form of rabbinic decisions [saying] that it is forbidden to change the customs of [their] fathers that were established according to the words of the Geonim of old and the 'Composition' of Maimonides that came after them." By the time of the Jewish community's demise, owing to mass immigration in the mid-20th century, most synagogues in Sana'a had already returned to praying in the Baladi-rite,Gaimani, Aharon (2014), p. 84 albeit, in the vast majority of towns and villages across Yemen they clung to their adopted Sephardic-rite as found in the printed books of Venice, Thessaloniki, Amsterdam and, especially, the Tefillath Haḥodesh and Zekhor le-Avraham tikālil printed in Livorno.Tobi, Yosef (2001), pp. 31–32; Gavra, Moshe (2010), p. 337
According to Yiḥyah Qafiḥ (1850–1931), a Chief Rabbi of Yemen, the original Yemenite version of the Amidah is the format that was prescribed by the Great Assembly (), who enacted the prayer in the fourth century BCE, with the one exception of the Benediction said against sectarians, which was enacted many years later.Gaimani, Aharon (2014), pp. 83–92. It is worthy of mentioning that the Great Assembly comprised such men as Daniel, Nehemiah and Ezra, concerning whom the Jerusalem Talmud (Berakhot 17a) says, "One-hundred and twenty or so elders and among them eighty or so prophets enacted this prayer." Cf. Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 28b. Aside from the first three benedictions and the last three benedictions, none of the middle benedictions were at first arranged in any special order, until the first or second century CE, when they were finally given the set order that we have today (Rabbeinu Hananel, ibid.) Yiḥyah Salaḥ (1713–1805) wrote an extensive commentary on the Baladi-rite Prayer Book in which he mostly upholds the old practices described therein (e.g. the practice of saying only one Mussaf-prayer during Rosh Hashanah, etc.),The Yemenite custom of praying only one Mussaf-prayer during the Jewish New Year, rather than making first a silent prayer followed by a repetition of the prayer made aloud by the Shaliach Tzibbur, is described by Yiḥyah Salaḥ in his Tiklāl ʿEtz Ḥayyim, facsimile edition, published by Karwani Yaakov of Rosh Ha-Ayin, Vol. II, on the morning of Rosh Hashanah, s.v. , and which Yemenite practice is similar to a teaching brought down in the Jerusalem Talmud (Berakhot 36a – 36b). Yiḥyah Salaḥ makes use of harsh expletives while writing about the preservation of the original Yemenite Jewish practice: "'Moreover, it can be stated that the benedictions [made in our prayers] on New Year's day and on the Day of Atonement are different, for [on these days] the emissary of the congregation who leads them in prayer fulfills everyone's obligation.' Wherefore, it was thought by Rabbi Yonah that even if someone had turned his heart to other things while in the midst of [saying] a benediction, the emissary of the congregation [still] fulfills his obligation. Yet in the other blessings he does not [fulfill his obligation]. So has it been stated under this man's name. For our purpose, I have copied down all of his words where a lesson was to be learned by such words of an exemplary nature as far as several halachic practices were concerned. And in the Tiklāl that our teacher wrote, even the Rabbi, Yiḥya al-Bashiri of blessed memory, it is written in the Arabian tongue, of which this is its content: 'Let it be known that, throughout the entire course of the year, men ought to pray silently. After which, the emissary of the congregation prays with a loud voice in order to fulfill the obligation of those who do not know [the prayer themselves]. However, during the Mussaf prayer on the New Year's Day the custom is not to begin by praying silently, but rather the emissary of the congregation begins praying aloud and he fulfills the obligation of, both, those who know the benedictions in their entirety and those who do not know them. The reason for this being that the benedictions are long [during these days of the year] and not everyone is familiar with them as is the emissary of the congregation. Yet during the other days of the year, the emissary of the congregation does not fulfill the obligation [of any], except only of that person who knows not [the benedictions].' You have, herewith, been shown [the matter] so that you might know just how many great multitudes of men confirm our customs, even the custom of our ancient most forebears [as it has been passed down unto us] nearly since the days of the destruction, as it is generally held and accepted by us, [which is to say], the traditions of our forefathers. So who is it that after considering these mighty kings (who all agree with common consent, and all walk with perfect persuasion of the affirmative [saying] that there must be only one [Mussaf] prayer), will yet incline his thoughts, as it were, to contradict their practice? Certainly he ought to be apprehensive and wary lest they [come and] crush his skull…. Hear my son the instruction of thy father, and do not thou forsake the law of thy mother. Be attentive to this and note it.” END QUOTE although he also compromises by introducing elements in the Yemenite tiklāl taken from the books of the Kabbalists and the Shulchan Aruch, which had already become popular in Yemen.Qorah, A. (1987), p. 21, note 19 At first, Salaḥ was inclined to follow the Shami-custom, but afterwards retracted and sought to uphold the original Yemeni custom.Amar (2017), p. 10 He is often seen praising the old Yemenite customs and encouraging their continued observance:
Textual development