By Jonathan Keren-Black, Editorial Team
Leader, World Union Edition.
WHAT’S NEW?
- Full
of meaningful new poems and prayers to allow creative input to every
service
- Fresh,
understandable and prayerful new translations
- Services
and material for Shabbat, Festivals, weekdays and home use
- Entirely
degendered language – no ‘mankind’, ‘Lord’, ‘King’, ‘Master’ or ‘He’
- All
Hebrew is also transliterated alongside
- Explanations
and source notes at the bottom of every page
- Use of
traditional formulations in innovative and meaningful ways
- Beautifully
laid out, indexed and easy to use
- A
wonderful new resource for every Jewish family
In 2007, the Central Conference of American
Rabbis produced their beautiful and long-awaited new Siddur, Mishkan T’filah,
for the North American Reform Jewish community.
Here in Australia, as well as in New Zealand and South Africa, our 30 or
so congregations have been using Gates of Prayer since its introduction, and
naturally, these books were getting tired, both in terms of content and
physical wear. It was clear that we too would
need to replace them – but with which Siddur?
Would we continue the pattern and adopt the new American book, their
replacement for Gates of Prayer?
There are several significant differences
between our communities and those in the States; of course, we are in the
Southern Hemisphere, so our seasons are ‘reversed’ – references to Pesach as a
springtime festival need certain explanations or qualifications, for example,
and our ‘rainy season’ is between Pesach and Simchat Torah, the Northern
Hemisphere’s summer. We are a minority
within a minority – a small part of a small Jewish community which mostly
considers itself orthodox. Perhaps
partly for this reason, we tend also to be more traditional – all men as well
as many women wear tallitot and kippot, and in many communities the norm is to
chant the Torah. We also use the
adjective ‘Progressive’ as opposed to ‘Reform’ – as part of the World Union for
Progressive Judaism, our regions are the Union for Progressive Judaism,
Australia, New Zealand and Asia, and the South African Union for Progressive
Judaism. Six of the congregations have
‘Progressive’ in their titles, and whilst twelve use the title ‘Temple’, none
of them uses ‘Reform’ (although of course our Zionist Youth Movements are
called ‘Netzer’, an acronym whose final letter is from the Hebrew ‘Reformi’).
For some time, discussions were taking
place about replacing Gates of Prayer, and whether we could produce our own
Siddur, but the conclusion was that we did not have the resources. There was some concern however that if each
congregation went off and selected its own replacement, we would lose one of
the common features which makes us part of a movement – congregants would feel
less ‘at home’ when visiting our other communities, and what book would we use
when Rabbis or the whole movement met for conferences? In 2003, therefore, a survey was undertaken
amongst the UPJ Rabbis to see whether one book would still be able to
accommodate our range of beliefs, practices and preferences. The indication was that it could, and so a
process was commenced with the congregations, led by a consultant, to rank our
preferences and priorities. We concluded
that, though we could not produce a new book from scratch, we could adapt one
of the new Progressive Siddurim from Britain or America to suit our needs, if
we could get their permission. The book
that came closest to our requirements was Mishkan T’filah, partly because it was
the natural progression from Gates of Prayer, partly because of the
comprehensive transliteration, and partly because of its attractive and
innovative layout.
The Rabbis of Victoria together with some
lay members formed the Editorial Committee, and initial funding was given by
the Victorian Union for Progressive Judaism, so that Rabbi David E. S. Stein
could be engaged on our behalf as project editor, and sample pages of the Sh’ma
and T’filah could be prepared, to present to the UPJ and the SAUPJ. In due course the project came under the
umbrella of the UPJ region, with the support of the SAUPJ, and new creative
materials were sought and considered from both regions. The new version was not adapted to be
exclusive to the Southern Hemisphere – rather it was intended to be usable by
any English-speaking community across the Jewish world, and hence permission
was sought from the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and granted, to call
it the ‘World Union Edition’ – the first time, we believe, that there has been
a ‘World Union Siddur’. A working
principle has been to keep the pagination essentially the same as in the
American version, to enable the two books to be used in the same services.
So what are the differences?
Perhaps not all our community is aware of
the World Union for Progressive Judaism, or that it is the largest body of
synagogue-affiliated Jews in the world, so the book, retitled ‘A Progressive
Siddur’, commences with a brief history and introduction to it. Unless ‘Classical Reform’ is intended,
‘Reform’ is also changed to ‘Progressive’ throughout the notes.
One of the challenges with a book of 702
pages, packed with such a rich variety of material, is being able to locate it
as easily as possible, so we have added several new indexes. The first is on the rear of the Contents
page, where we have added a Contents list in alphabetical order. Similarly, from pages 682-8, we have created
an index of all the English readings, by category, so if for example you are
preparing a service with a theme of Environment, or Justice, you can readily
locate pieces that might be suitable. We
have also added an index of Psalms (page 624), and Sayings from Pirkei Avot (page
689).
As mentioned earlier, we have included a
few readings from our own area – for example on page 423, a beautiful
alternative to ‘Elohai’ describes ‘a flock of rosellas, with feathers of ruby
and emerald’. On page 427, a new poem
draws attention to the rainbow – and the environmental challenges we face; ‘We
have left it late to awaken’. On page
163, a new reflection about Shabbat from South Africa acknowledges that,
without a literal interpretation of creation, we might not have Shabbat to
celebrate! Occasionally, we have brought back a favourite reflection from Gates
of Prayer, such as ‘Creator of the Universe, grant me the ability to be alone’
on page 22, or borrowed one from another Siddur, such as Rabbi Jack Riemer’s
‘We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to banish war’ on page 187. In some cases these are additions, whilst in
others, they are substitutions. For
example, we did not feel comfortable with the image of the bomb from Yehudah
Amichai, on page 97 (‘The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters’), partly
because we hope it will become merely a memory during the lifetime of this
siddur, and substituted a less confronting Amichai poem, ‘Once I was sitting on
the steps near the gate at David’s Citadel’.
With a very high percentage of Holocaust
survivors in our communities, we felt it would not be appropriate to have Adolf
Hitler’s name with us at every service (page 526), and instead inserted a poem
by local survivor Maria Lewitt (page 529).
We were also well aware that this Siddur will be in use as the number of
survivors dwindles, and the Shoah moves from living memory into history, and
the very last reading tracked down and added was Rabbi Daniel Farhi’s powerful
‘To the Last Survivor’ (page 525).
Perhaps the most immediately evident change
when looking at the new edition is that we preferred to render the
Tetragrammaton (which we read in Hebrew as ‘Adonai’) as ‘Eternal’ or ‘Eternal
One’ in the translations, which is our best understanding of what God’s name
may allude to, rather than use ‘Adonai’ in the English.
In the second blessing of the T’filah, for
example on page 246, we have used the interpretive translation for ‘m’chayei metim’ of ‘You are the Source
of eternal life’, rather than the literal ‘You revive the dead’, on the basis
that, even after death, people may ‘live on’ in their children, the influence
of their deeds, people’s memories – the ripples that each of us cause, the
effects of which we can never know. We
have also changed round the brackets, so that long-standing Jewish tradition – m’chayei metim - is now the default, but
those who wish to continue with ‘m’chayei
hakol’ may do so. Interestingly, the
congregations that have commenced using the book have so far adopted the
traditional form (along with its liberal interpretation).
Both the use of ‘Eternal One’ and ‘Source
of Eternal Life’ follow the choices made by the UK Liberal movement’s ‘Siddur
Lev Chadash’ (London, 1995), and we also adopted their innovation with regard
to the next part of the second paragraph of the T’filah. Whereas Gates of Prayer had no mention of
rain, wind and dew, Mishkan T’filah has inserted them in the traditional Sephardi
manner, where one says ‘Mashiv haruach
umorid hagashem’ during the winter and ‘morid
hatal’ in the summer. A note at the
bottom of the page (246) tells you that Winter is ‘Sh’mini Atzeret/Simchat
Torah to Pesach’, and that Summer is ‘Pesach to Sh’mini Atzeret/Simchat
Torah. As already explained, however,
these seasons are reversed for the Southern Hemisphere. At least, therefore, the note needed to be
extended to ‘Winter in Israel is Sh’mini Atzeret/Simchat Torah to Pesach’, but
this is an imperfect solution and raises other issues. When it is winter, for example, in Australia,
and we are in the middle of deep drought, do we stop mentioning rain because it
is past Pesach? Is dew all we need? Are we disloyal to pray for rain in Israel
but not in our home country? This leads
to another question. We reject the idea
that God rewards us by making it rain – that is presumably why, even in Mishkan
T’filah, the second paragraph of the Shema is not included. If we believed that, we must believe also
that where there is drought, where people are dying of starvation (or flood, or
tsunami), God must be deliberately causing that as well, because they ‘deserve
punishment’, which we refute!
Actually these are not ‘prayers for rain or
wind or dew’; as the American version’s translations make clear, they are
really more acknowledging God’s role in nature: ‘You cause the wind to shift
and the rain to fall’. But the solution
to our problems was again found in the British Liberal Siddur. Whereas in the land of Israel, or Babylon, or
even Australia, sun is a given, in Britain they are perhaps more aware that it
too is a vital part of the agricultural cycle!
And so, instead of the service-leader having to work out which part of
the year they are leading the service in, we have added the permanent phrasing
‘Mashiv haruach umorid hageshem, mazriach
hashemesh umorid hatal’, translated as ‘You cause the wind to blow and the
rain to fall, the sun to shine and the dew to descend’ (this phrasing also
happens to suit the tune for the first two lines, so that it fits in easily!). As explained in the page note, ‘such wording
connects us not only to the seasonal cycle in the land of Israel, but also to
people everywhere, reliant directly on the rhythms of nature. The prayer becomes a reminder of human
dependence on the cycle of nature around the world, which indeed is ultimately
a matter of life and death.’
I referred earlier to the fact that the
American version has not included the second paragraph of the Sh’ma, though it
has reintroduced the first half of the third paragraph ‘Vayomer Adonai’ in the morning services, and I believe this is
because tallitot are in more common use, and of course this is where the
tzitzit are referenced (eg page 236). We
have gone two steps further in the World Union edition – we have added the
third paragraph to evening as well as morning services – if it becomes the
congregation’s tradition to include it in the morning, they may well choose to
do so in the evening as well, even though tallitot are not worn then. However, we have also reintroduced the
missing second paragraph, once, into the book.
It is in the weekday morning service (page 66), so that it will not
‘accidentally’ become part of the regular Shabbat service, and as it says, it
is there ‘for completeness and for study’.
We are keen to encourage ‘Educated Choice’, and thus we need to assist
people in making those choices, and in this way, the second paragraph can be
read, studied and reviewed either privately or in community.
For similar reasons, we have often expanded
slightly upon the notes entitled ‘For those who choose:’, trying to give a
possible brief reason for a custom as well as noting it. And since we consider ‘Educated Choice’ to be
such a key principle of Progressive Judaism and a Progressive Jewish Prayer
Book, we have also highlighted these choices in blue.
A short article cannot explain the over
three thousand changes in the World Union Edition, but let me conclude with a
few more. The Torah section of the
services has been adapted so that it is more in line with Gates of Prayer, as
well as more aligned with the tradition.
The option of the full traditional Haftarah blessings (page 372-3) has
been reinstated as have the full blessings for the new month (page 378-9). The Aleinu section (page 586-591) has been
slightly revised to make it a little easier to follow, and the Mourner’s
Kaddish (page 598) has been reset to allow it to be used in a more traditional
manner, with congregational responses. For
those who wish to use it, Kaddish Shalem has also been included (page 262). The
Yizkor section (page 574) has been adapted so that it can also be used for a
Minyan service.
The section for Home and Synagogue (page
599) has been expanded – it now starts with ‘T’chinot’ – a selection of eight
new personal prayers, including ‘For taking an examination’ and ‘For
Depression’ (page 600-1). The ‘Birkat
Hamazon’ – Grace after meals - has been substantially expanded (page 604-609). A service for ‘Chanukat Habayit’ – Dedication
of a Home – has been included (page 617-8), as have prayers for lighting Shiva
and Yahrzeit candles (page 619), and prayers for Community and Interfaith
meetings (page 620), and there then follows a full version of ‘The Decalogue’
(page 621-2).
We are delighted with and proud of our new
Siddur, the World Union Edition of Mishkan T’filah, and know that it will serve
us as a rich and stimulating resource over the coming generation. We are immensely grateful to the CCAR for the
enormous job of developing Mishkan T’filah, and giving us permission to develop
the World Union Edition from it.
Based on the new book published in America a couple of years earlier, our version has over 2000 changes and revisions making it suitable for use in the Southern Hemisphere (as well as the rest of the world) - hence the name 'World Union Edition', as it can be used by any Progressive Jewish congregation around the world. All our congregations across Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are using Mishkan T'filah, which means 'A Tabernacle of Prayer'. 
The Tabernacle was the portable sanctuary that our Israelite ancestors built and carried with them through their 40 years of wandering in the desert, and subsequently took with them into the land of Canaan. Mishkan means 'dwelling' - they felt the spirit of God - sh'chinah - the 'dwelling presence' residing with them there. At that time, a key form of worship was animal sacrifices, but through the development of our religion, 'Prayer replaced Sacrifice' as the prophets teach us. For almost 2000 years, since the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, we have not sacrificed animals, and Progressive Judaism has no wish or plan to resume doing so, or indeed to build a new Temple in Jerusalem, so you will find no references to sacrifices in its pages. So 'Mishkan T'filah' appropriately brings together the earlier and later stages of Judaism, alluding even in its title to the way that the new is developed from the ancient.
Mishkan T'filah employs a novel structure - on the right hand page, you find the most traditional version of the hebrew text, alongside a transliteration into English letters for those whose Hebrew is not so great (yet)! On that side, you also find the faithful translation of the Hebrew. But on the facing page, you find creative alternatives, either new prayers, poems or readings. So every time you turn to a new double-page spread, the service leader has the option of the traditional reading in Hebrew or translation, or a more creative alternative. And even if the leader chooses one, you can still read another! You'll also find explanatory notes at the bottom, as well as information about the original sources of the prayers and readings. And finally, in the margin, you'll find a list of the sections of the service, highlighting the current page, so you'll know exactly where this prayer fits into the service.