This is the idea of saying that “the three daily prayers were established by the Forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchok, and Yaakov.” On a deeper level, the Forefathers represent love and fear of Hashem, and awakening mercy on our soul.
In the prayers, there are three kinds of verses:
1- Verses describing Hashem’s Kindness that help us awaken a love for Him in reciting Shema. These correspond to Avraham, who embodied the love of Hashem. This brings a person to want to increase in learning Torah and performing Mitzvos, since Torah and Mitzvos are the way to express his love of Hashem in a tangible and practical way, by connecting to Hashem. Even throughout the day when he is involved in material matters, his inner desire will be to connect to Hashem and his material matters will be secondary to his Torah study and Mitzvah performance.
2- Verses describing Hashem’s Might and Power. These help us awaken a feeling of fear and awe for Hashem, corresponding to Yitzchok, who embodied fear of Hashem.
3- Verses requesting that Hashem have mercy on our souls, corresponding to Yaakov who embodied the service of awakening mercy from Hashem. The mercy is needed because we are spiritually insensitive to the truth [that there is nothing beside Hashem], and therefore, our hearts are dulled to the love of Hashem. We ask Hashem to open our mind and heart to perceive His true Oneness and experience a true love of Him. This will enable us to be completely dedicated to Torah study and Mitzvah performance as being the main goal of our life. This is the meaning of “Yaakov who redeemed Avraham.” “Yaakov,” which represents awakening mercy from Hashem on our Divine soul, redeems “Avraham,” which represents our love of Hashem.
The Tzemach Tzedek adds: There is another opinion in the Gemara (Brachos 26b) that the three daily prayers correspond to the three daily sacrifices in the Beis Hamikdash. The daily morning offering, the daily afternoon offering, and in the night, they would burn the fats and other designated parts of certain offerings on the Mizbeiach. The inner meaning behind saying that the daily prayers correspond to the daily offerings in the Beis Hamikdash is that the purpose of the daily prayers is not only to reconnect the Divine soul (descended from the Forefathers) with Hashem. It is also to refine and elevate the animal soul, which is the idea of a korban-offering.
Thus, the daily prayers accomplish two things: 1- Reconnecting the Divine soul with its Source in Hashem; 2- Refining and elevating the animal soul to have a connection to Hashem. These two concepts are the inner meaning behind the two opinions in the Gemara of whether the daily prayers correspond to the Forefathers or to the daily offerings in the Beis Hamikdash.
