The Authentic Version of the Sh’mone ‘Esre
Did Hazal claim that the Men of the Great Assembly enacted one fixed nusah? The Sages make no such claim, but numerous indications to the opposite exist in the Talmud and related sources. And even if, as certain Qabbalists have dubiously claimed, such a nusah once existed, we certainly cannot know today what that nusah was. It is clear that the Sh’mone ‘Esre was instituted in Eress Yisrael by the K’nesseth HaG’dhola, and that the nusah of Eress Yisrael more closely reflects the original liturgy as said by the Tannaim.