It doesn’t actually say that we don’t compose new prayers after the anshe knesses hagedola, but it’s a matter of logic. Prayer is a personal conversation with God. Rav Soloveichik called it a “du siach” from the yiddish familiar word for you. The anshe knesses hagedola included prophets. That was the only reason they were able to write a shmoneh esrei. A prophet knows how to talk to God, we don’t. You mention piyutim. THey are another story. The paytanim did not write something and then walk into shul, give a klop and say “we’re saying this now.” They wrote for themselves and for kirvas elokim. Then people slowly started using their compositions in davening — sometimes after they died. Even then, there were thousands of piyutim written by great people — including paytanim like Yehuda HaLevi and Elazar HaKalir — that never made it into the machzor. How many of you have ever heard “Kah Shimcha” by Yehudah Halevi?
Menu