Before I talk about my opinions about the new prayer book Mishkan T’filah let me give you the background on this Siddur…
In 1994 two rabbis of the Reform Movement received a grant to find out about the feelings of reform worshippers… the results of the majority that were surveyed was that the movement felt a need for a new prayer book, one that would include more translations and transliterations of the Hebrew but also one that would include some feminist views. The main purpose of the prayer book is that “It would be important for the editor(s) to focus less on personal style and instead be able to respond to the diversity of the Movement’s expectations. Those expectations? A prayer book that would help us re-engage our Jews in meaningful worship. How? Offering a balance of creativity and beauty, theology and purpose.” (http://urj.org/mishkan/faq/ )
The Reform movement has been working on the Siddur for almost 14 years and it is just now coming into a printable version that congregations can purchase.
I first saw a version of the prayer book in 2004, the rabbi of my congregation introduced the Saturday morning Shabbat Minyan to a soft copy with many errors in it and gave us a disclaimer that it was a work in progress and this was just the Shabbat section of the book. I opened it up to see that every prayer has a two page spread…
I didn’t like it, the book itself has too many page turns for my taste, for every prayer we see the Hebrew and its transliteration, a translation of the prayer, two alternative English readings for the prayer, and commentary on the bottom that discusses different things about the prayer on the page. I felt like instead of praying from a Siddur, I was praying from a text book. Despite all the things I don’t like about the new Siddur I do like that there are more Hebrew options in it much like earlier prayer books of the reform movement an unlike the grey Gates of Prayer that many reform congregations have used in the past years. It made me really excited to see that the entire T’fliah was in every service. I liked that I could choose as much Hebrew or as little as I wanted and if I wanted to pray solely in Hebrew I would still feel fulfilled.
The next version of the Siddur that I saw was in 2006, it was a much thicker copy; it included all weekday and Shabbat services. Since they were introducing it at OSRUI- one of the reform Jewish overnight camp- I was able to see the service in a much different context one that was filled with music and different versions of our daily prayers. At first I was very unhappy with it still; there were still too many page turns. However, as the summer continued and I became more accustomed to it, I learned which pages I liked and which alternatives I found meaning in. At the end of the summer I really found that I had come to really enjoy praying out of this new Siddur and that when the final copy was in place, and the last few kinks had been fixed, I would want a copy of Mishkan T’filah.
My biggest concern with the Siddur is no longer about the page turns but rather what it says about where Reform Judaism is going… in this Siddur there are excerpts from all of the movements, poetry from many authors, and prayers that have not been included in a reform Siddur for many years.. This makes me think… I respect the decisions about the Hebrew as I prefer more Hebrew than English when I prayer, I like it that for those who don’t read or understand Hebrew they can read it in transliteration and can understand it through translation, I am confused as to why we have included readings and poetry from the other movements… this is my concern.
If you would like to read more about Mishkan T’filah go to http://urj.org/mishkan/ to find out more.
I hope this blog entry wasn’t too boring and if you have any ideas or comments I would love to hear them.. Have a great second week of classes!!
3 comments:
Not dull at all, Carly--it's quite interesting. What's fascinating to me here is that the previous prayerbook of the movement, Shaarei T'filah, had some of the same problems: numerous versions of each service, often with significantly different ideologies.
It also brings up the question, though: what's a prayer book supposed to *do*--within a movement, a community, or to a specific person? Why do people even bother to create prayerbooks?
hey carly, I totally agree with you about the new prayer at first i hated it- actually I called it the ADHD pray book because well it has so many different fonts, quotes, prayers, and the lay out was horrible! but as it is evolving it is getting better, though i will say it still bugs me how they are trying to gender neutralize and change wording around so much because I personally do not feel that is really important and because i learned the prayers the one way, it distracts me when they insert the new wording!
I slightly disagree with both comments already posted. I orginally was going to write how I completely disagreed with the whole point of view but now I can kind of see where you are coming from in the blog and both comments.
I do not believe the new Siddur is that interesting. It definitely has some necessary items like the few poems and excerpts that can keep some people entertained, but I believe what the Reform movement is trying to produce is a relaxed Siddur that leaves many openings for the varying Reform Jew. I do like JMC's question about what the purpose of a prayer book is supposed to do. And a prayer book should do just that, assist one in prayer, so if the Reform Rabbis who came up with this Siddur believe that including missions of the various movements direction and poems and such, then I guess that is where the Reform Movement wants to go as well.
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