The Evening Prayer

Maariv, also called Arvit, is the evening prayer service of Judaism, recited after nightfall. Its name derives from the Hebrew for evening, and it is understood to correspond to the nighttime burning of the remains of the Temple offerings, its institution traditionally ascribed to the patriarch Jacob, who is described as encountering God at a place when the sun had set. Like the morning and afternoon services it centres on the recitation of the Shema with its blessings and on the silent Amidah, the standing prayer of benedictions.

Maariv has a distinctive standing in Jewish law. Where the morning and afternoon prayers are treated as obligatory, corresponding to sacrifices that were required, the evening prayer was originally considered voluntary, since the nighttime burning it parallels was not a fresh offering but the consuming of what remained. The Talmud preserves this debate, and although Maariv was universally accepted as a fixed service long ago, traces of its once-optional character survive in the details of its law, for instance in the rule that a prayer omitted at Maariv is treated differently from one omitted at the obligatory services.