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B. Although it may be prayed anytime during the day, Halachah prefers that Musaf be recited immediately after the Torah reading, which, on Shabbat and holidays, is right after Shacharit.
C. In our current exile, it replaces the Musaf sacrifice offered in the Holy Temple on Shabbat and holidays, just like other daily Tefillot replace the daily Temple offerings.
What are the contents of Musaf?
1. Be Happy
The Musaf service is essentially the Musaf Amidah (see below), but according to halachah, before an additional Amidah is recited, one is to praise G-d first. This is accomplished by reciting Chapter 145 of Psalms, commonly known as ashrei, after its’ opening word, which means “happy,” as in the beginning sentence “ashrei yoshvei beitechah,” or “happy are those who dwell in Your house.”
Since the musaf sacrifice cannot be offered today... we pray the musaf tefillah instead, which talks about... how we long for Moshiach, when we’ll be able to offer the musaf again
The Musaf Amidah follows the standard three-section Amidah format, sandwiching the middle section between the universal three-part Introduction (see What is Shacharit?) and the equally universal three-part Conclusion.
3. The Sacrifices
If you’ll see C above, you’ll see that tefillah is the ritual replacement for Temple sacrifices. Since the Musaf sacrifice cannot be offered today, because there is no Temple, we pray the Musaf tefillah instead, which—you guessed it—talks about the Musaf sacrifices and how we long for Moshiach, when we’ll be able to offer the Musaf again. It also talks about Shabbat and/or the holiday(s), because those are the only times that it’s said.
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