Hannah חנה
her prayer at Shiloh became the model for how prayer itself is to be said
Elkanah had two wives; Peninnah had children, Hannah had none. Every year they went up to Shiloh, and every year the same thing repeated: the rival taunted her, Hannah wept and would not eat. Her husband said words the text leaves without comment: am I not better to you than ten sons?
At Shiloh she stood by the doorpost of the sanctuary and prayed "in bitterness of soul," without a sound: her lips moved, no voice was heard. Eli the priest, sitting there, decided she was drunk and said so. Her answer is one of the most restrained replies in Scripture: no, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD. Eli answered with a blessing.
Her vow was this: if You give me a son, I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life. Samuel was born; when he was weaned she brought him to Shiloh and left him there for good, "and he bowed there to the LORD."
Her song of thanksgiving—"my heart exults in the LORD"—is read as the haftarah on the first day of Rosh Hashanah.
The Talmud (Berakhot 31a) derives from her prayer the rules that hold in halakhah: one must pray with directed intent, with the lips moving but the voice not heard, and standing beside a wall. Megillah 14a counts Hannah among the seven prophetesses of Israel.
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Tanakh
- Shmuel I 1:9–18 — the silent prayer and Eli's rebuke
- Shmuel I 1:24–28 — she brings her son to Shilo and leaves him there
- Shmuel I 2:1–10 — Chana's song; the haftarah of the first day of Rosh Hashanah
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Berakhot 31a — the rules of prayer derived from her prayer
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.