A: Yes, prayer is essential to Jewish worship. In fact, a common term for synagogue is "bet tefillah" - house of prayer. A large part of the service is recited prayer. One term for prayer is Avodah She-Ba-Lev, service in the heart, based on the phrase "to serve him with all your heart" as mentioned in Deuteronomy 11:13. This phrase constitutes a part of the Shema, a basic affirmation of Jewish faith taken straight from the Bible, and itself a keystone of the Jewish religious service. Prayer has been an important element of Jewish faith since Abraham. The Bible contains at least 85 prayers of individuals, not including the book of Psalms. Psalms is mostly a book of prayers and calls to worship written for (or at least used for) the ancient temple service. Since the destruction of the temple, prayer has assumed an even more vital role in rabbinic Judaism, since they must take the place of the Temple sacrifices. In Talmudic times (the first few centuries after Christ), a Jewish congregation would appoint a leader to lead in prayer. Many synagogues today have professional cantors, who actually sing the prayers.

Of course, prayer is not limited to the synagogue. The strictly observant Orthodox or Conservative Jew prays on a regular schedule (compare the habits of the prophet Daniel).  Although Jewish prayer was once spontaneous, traditional Jewish prayer has become heavily formalized, and Orthodox Jews keep prayer books (called a siddur), with all the traditional prayers printed out.  The practice of using prayer books seems to be only about 1,000 years old, however. There is a prayer for virtually any occasion, from getting up in the morning to eating bread to marking the anniversary of the death of a relative. The preference is to pray in Hebrew, although it is not forbidden to add special requests or thanks in one's own language. Certain prayers, such as the Mourners Kaddish, are traditionally recited in Aramaic.

Many of these daily prayers are fairly short and are intended simply to thank the Lord for common blessings. They typically use the formula "Blessed art Thou, Oh Lord King of the Universe, who . . ." followed by some appropriate phrase  such as "bringeth forth bread from the earth" or "causest the bands of sleep to fall upon mine eyes. " Such prayers are called "berachot," the Hebrew word for blessings. Berachot which mark the keeping of a certain commandment also contain the phrase "who sanctifies us through his commandments" as in "Blessed art Thou, Oh Lord King of the Universe who sanctifies us through his commandments and commands us to bind phylacteries."

Prayer is definitely an important part of both Biblical and post-Biblical Judaism.