Reading in my Koren Siddur, I am working on the Hebrew words. I noticed that in the petition for peace in the Mincha text for the weekday Amidah (the same is present in the Ma'ariv) the English reads "Grant great peace," whereas the Shacharit is translated the same way without the great (the רב). However, the Shacarit has the word (שים, sim) for... I think "grant" whereas the other two settings do not (however, I have not found an appropriate translation for the word through any dictionaries... help!).

Is there a difference with the underlying Hebrew text between the Shacharit, Mincha, and Ma'ariv texts or is this a typo?

  • Typo. The texts for the weekday amidot are identical. – Tatpurusha May 7 '14 at 0:52
  • @Tatpurusha, are there no differences? B/c there are other differences between these texts in my copy – Yochanan Michael May 7 '14 at 0:58
  • Can you post a picture of the page(s) in question with the facing Hebrew visible? – Tatpurusha May 7 '14 at 1:22
  • @Tatpurusha, not exactly... I'm a little technologically stinted. I will try to use my fiance's phone. How would I submit that on here? – Yochanan Michael May 7 '14 at 1:33
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    Also, which Koren siddur is it? Sefardi? Sefard? Sacks? Ashkenaz? – Tatpurusha May 7 '14 at 1:44

There are two variants of this paragraph that have come down through tradition, a longer one that begins שים שלום and a shorter one that begins שלום רב.

Ashkenazi tradition utilizes both by assigning one to Shaharit and the other to Minhah and Ma'ariv (or just to Ma'ariv in some Hasidic versions). (This is similar to the way that Ashkenazi tradition utilizes both variations, אהבה רבה and אהבת עולם, in the blessing that precedes Kriat Shma.) Sefaradim and some Hasidim use only שים שלום.

In terms of the translation of the words, שים is an imperative meaning 'put' (or 'grant'). The other version of the paragraph has instead תשים a second-person future tense form of the same verb (meaning, [you shall] / [may you] put / grant).

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