The Movement for Reform Judaism

Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet is the Editor of our new Siddur which will be published next month. During the 8 year process of creating the siddur, Rabbi Magonet has kept a diary which traces the development of the book and many of the debates, dilemmas and challenges provoked by the venture. This final entry comes 'On the Eve of Publication'...

What’s In A Name?

The last diary sounded a positive note, because the major work of editing and preparing the layout of the Siddur had been completed. What remained were the technical processes of getting final agreement from the Assembly of Rabbis and the Movement Board so that we could move ahead with arrangements for printing.   These were achieved with only one issue suddenly emerging for major discussion amongst the rabbinic colleagues, namely the choice of a name for the new volume.

The debate was sparked off by concerns about the name ‘Iyyun T’fillah’ ‘Devotion in Prayer’. Though it has this positive connotation as one of the activities ‘whose interest we enjoy in this world, while the capital remains for us in the world to come’ (Shabbat 127a), there is, inevitably, a different rabbinic tradition as well. This one understands the phrase to mean ‘calculating the results of prayer’, as if we had entered a negotiation with God. Those in favour of the title argued that in our own time this ambiguity accurately reflects something of our own difficulties with prayer so that it should nevertheless be used.  We even addressed this issue by changing the translation to ‘engaging with prayer’, which accommodates these and other possible meanings. Nevertheless, concerns were still expressed.  A number of counter suggestions were made, amongst them retaining the old title ‘Seder Ha-t’fillot’, ‘Forms of Prayer’ that goes back to the original version of the Reform Siddur, and its Sephardi predecessors. It was decided that such an important issue required a proper voting procedure within the Assembly of Rabbis which was undertaken in stages, eventually excluding all other names except these two.  By a narrow margin ‘Forms of Prayer’ won and is indeed the title of our new Siddur. However, so as not to lose the valuable ideas that arose from this debate, we have retained ‘Iyyun T’fillah’ as the title for the meditations before the services and the reflective passages.

Some Weighty Decisions   

With the editorial decisions completed, the search began for a printer. Already from the beginning of the work on the Siddur one of the greatest concerns was the weight of the book, especially given the heaviness of the Pilgrim Festival volume. The current Siddur has 620 pages whereas the High Holyday prayerbook has 1050 but was printed on particularly light paper.  Had the same paper been used for the Pilgrim volume (at 920 pages) the weight should not have been such a concern.   But how large would the Siddur be when all the Shabbat and Daily services, special occasions, life cycle materials, not to mention the various anthologies – Study, Psalms, Pirke Avot, had been included?  The final count was 756 pages which made it significantly larger than the current Siddur, but nowhere near the size of the other volumes. It was clear that everything would depend on the weight of the paper used.  But then another consideration entered into the equation.  We had long hoped that it would be possible to introduce a second colour for various purposes, and it turned out that with the advances of technology this would hardly affect the cost of the book. But two colours on such special paper required very particular printing abilities – and the most obvious place where such could be found lay in the publishers of Bibles and Christian orders of service. Our search eventually took us to Holland where a company called Jongbloed had printed, as well as Christian materials, a Hebrew/Dutch Bible edited by Rabbi David Lillienthal. With his recommendation the connection was made and, after exploring more than a dozen other possible specialist printers in the UK and across the globe, this was agreed.  

Of course that was only the beginning of a whole series of considerations. Firstly, if there was to be a second colour, for example to distinguish passages that were only read occasionally so that it would be easier to skip over them, what colour should it be? It had to be a colour that would be clear to people who were colour blind;  it should be dark enough to be clearly visible, but not so dark that it could not be distinguished from black in the poor lighting that may occur in some synagogue buildings. So various shades of blue were tried out with people with different visual problems till we settled on the version now in print.

I cannot claim to understand the technical difficulties in transferring the word-processed version with which we had been working into the appropriate form for the printer. I can only admire the patience and skills needed to sort out a variety of problems with our Dutch counterpart. Moreover at various stages, peculiar letters kept popping up on the Hebrew page, or others would suddenly become amalgamated with one another in the course of transmission. All these too were finally sorted out as the number of versions of each section of the text to be proof-read and corrected rose to twenty. The task of proof-reading was shared amongst a number of colleagues, rabbis and scholars who paid particular attention to the Hebrew and transliteration, others who focused on the English, and yet others who checked the details and consistency of cross-references, footnotes, punctuation and layout.   Let no-one take for granted the final state of the prayer book where every single page has had to be carefully composed and examined.

The Last Word on Hebrew   

While all this was going on I began consolidating approaches to a number of artists and calligraphers who had been invited to offer their work. The idea of using Hebrew calligraphy arose in response to the concerns about transliteration and the fear that we were undermining people’s commitment to the language. Why not make Hebrew such a major feature of the book through the illustrations that people would be encouraged to study it themselves? To that end we have even include a small Hebrew alphabet at the back of the book. But then a second ideological suggestion occurred. We had decided that the pictures of synagogues that had adorned the 1977 edition, in part as a reminiscence of communities destroyed by the Shoah, would not be used again. But why not invite artists from those communities that had been rebuilt or created in Europe since to the war as a look towards the future. In the event we were delighted to find contributors from Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Russia, Spain and Switzerland, as well as the UK, Israel and the USA. Among its many other innovations, this is the first Siddur to make a conscious commitment to the newly emerging European Jewish society.   However, for those who felt a great affection for the synagogue illustrations, we decided to include them, in a tinted form, as the inside covers of the book, so that they are still present.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All   

For a couple of years the Steering Committee had been considering the number of possible different editions of the Siddur that might be needed. Top of the list was a large print version for use in synagogues for people with impaired vision. The only snag was that a full-blown edition of over five hundred pages in an A4 size would be a massive weight and quite unusable.   In the end we have settled for a practical volume that can be used for the Friday Evening and Shabbat Morning services, and this may serve not only for this purpose, but even be a useful pulpit volume.      

At the other end of the scale, we have long wanted a ‘pocket’ version of the prayer book that people could take with them on holiday, or use at conferences, youth camps etc.   Thanks to the generous support of the Karen Morris Memorial Trust such a ‘compact edition’ is also being printed and will be given to all students going to university as well as being available for RSY-Netzer and Jeneration.     

Early on in the debate about transliteration the suggestion was made of producing a version of at least the Shabbat services without the transliteration for use by children preparing for the Bar- or Bat-mitsvah. Not all congregations felt the need for this so the numbers that might be printed would be very small, and therefore extremely expensive. A possible solution that is still being worked on is to have an electronic version available for those who wanted it which could be printed either as a whole, or page by page as needed.   

In addition to all the above, we are currently working on producing a ‘Thanksgiving after Meals’ booklet for use in the home and for special occasions such as weddings, as well as a new edition of the Daily Prayerbook for use particularly at shivas and a new Funeral Book.      

Alongside all this direct work on the book itself, a separate committee has been working on the music, collecting melodies for all the existing and new songs and sung texts, but also allowing for the possibility of new compositions.     

One of the major pieces of work has been to collect sponsorship for the new Siddur to ensure that further educational work and developments can continue. By finding 36 major sponsors, following the tradition of the ‘lamed-vavniks’, the thirty-six righteous people who sustain the world, and a host of other individuals and communities who have made dedications, this funding has been secured.   

The creation of a new Siddur offers an unprecedented opportunity for the renewal of our religious services, as well as for education in the history and understanding of our liturgy. An educational programme is already in development both to help prepare for the use of the new Siddur and to encourage further development in years to come.

Amen Selah   

For the editor, the Editorial Board and the Steering Committee, the major phase of our work is now completed. The fate of the Siddur from now on will be in the hands of the rabbis, the communities and all who come into contact with it. For all of us involved in this project over more than seven years, it has been a very important part of our lives, one of those rare opportunities to harness creativity, spirituality and practical skills in the service of our faith in God and the destiny of the Jewish people. Spelling this out sounds grandiose, but all of us have been touched by the seriousness of our task, and we can only pass it from our hands in the hope that it will touch the lives of others.

'Forms of Prayer' will be published in May 2008. If you haven't yet ordered your copy, please contact your synagogue office. The siddur is also available to people who are not members of synagogues. To place your order, please call 0208 349 9484 or click here to buy on-line.