It is customary to hold all three daily prayers in the house of mourning, throughout the entire shiva (apart from Shabbat), in order to enable the mourners to pray with a minyan and recite Kaddish without having to leave the house.

Prayer in the house of mourning differs in certain aspects from the ordinary prayer in the synagogue. If the mourner can do so, he should serve as the prayer leader. The Tahanun prayer is omitted, and Psalm 20 [Lamnatze’ah], which is generally said in the morning service between Ashrei (Psalm 54) and Uva LeTzion, is not recited. Furthermore, in the Uva LeTzion prayer, the verse: “And as for Me, this is My covenant” (Isaiah 59:21) is omitted.

At the end of prayers, it is customary to add Psalm 49, which discusses death in general. On days when Tahanun is not said, Psalm 49 is omitted, and instead one recites Psalm 16, which speaks of God’s providence and how He protects us from death.

The most common practice is for the prayer leader to omit the recitation of the priestly benediction during the repetition of the Shemoneh Esrei. Similarly, in Israel, where the priests pronounce this benediction on a daily basis, the most common practice is for them to omit this benediction in a house of mourning. However, there are some who do recite the priestly benediction even in a house of mourning.

It is customary to bring a Torah scroll to a house of mourning, so that the Torah reading can be conducted during the morning services of Mondays and Thursdays (as well as on other days of the year that the Torah is read) during the shiva. There are small, portable arks that are designed specifically for houses of mourning and similar situations. It is very important to be extra careful with the sanctity of the Torah scroll and bring it in and place it in the house of mourning in a dignified manner. If this is not possible, one should consider not bringing a Torah scroll to the house of mourning at all, and instead to pray in the synagogue on days when the Torah is read.

Some have a custom not to transfer a Torah scroll from one location to another unless it will be read in the new place at least three times. Therefore, in a house of mourning too, they should try to read from the scroll no less than three times. Typically, during a shiva, it is read twice during the week, on Monday and Thursday morning, and again in the afternoon prayer of Shabbat.