Most Jews read the siddur, a Hebrew word meaning "order," implying the order of prayers, with little or no comprehension of what they are reading. They are no different than Christians and Muslim. All fail to fulfill the purpose of prayer. The Hebrew word for prayer is tefillah, which is based on a root that means "to judge oneself." Prayer in Judaism is more than a petition, the basic meaning of the Latin and Greek word upon which "prayer" is based. It is a time of reflection, of inner judgment, of considering change and improvement.
The siddur is an anthology of widely divergent ideas that were composed by Jews - and non-Jews in some instances, like the ma tovu ohalekha prayer that is at the beginning of the siddur - with different ideologies over a long period of time. The siddur contains pieces from the Bible, such as Psalms, and poems written in the sixteenth century by mystics, such as the prayer welcoming the Sabbath called in Hebrew lecha dodi. By incorporating such a wide spectrum of views, the rational and the mystical, old and relatively new, Jews are capable, if they understand the prayers, to reflect on what is being said, the history of their religion, the concerns of its adherents, see if and how the prayers relate to their lives, and ask themselves whether the prayer they are reading can help them develop themselves and improve society.
Since their printing of the revolutionary Tanach in 1962, Eliyahu Koren and Koren Publishing have helped usher Jewish printing into a new era of artistry and spirituality. In 1981 they furthered the legacy with the first printing of the Koren Siddur, a prayer book that treated the prayers as poetry laying them out in an artistic way that made them easier to read and understand.
Now with the help of the Chief Rabbi of England Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, that wonderful siddur has been translated into English providing a beautiful and informative prayer book that appeals to the modern Zionist Jew. The font is the same beautifully designed font Eliyau used in 1981, and is printed in what Koren Publishing calls their "Bible" paper, which has added high cotton and linen fibers to increase strength yet maintain thinness.
Some of the innovative features of this new siddur include emphasizing the phrasing of the Tefilot with line breaks. Likewise, blessings are presented in two lines in order to emphasize the meaning. As a surprise, the Hebrew text of the prayers is on the left hand side of the page and the English is on the right. This, say the editors, allows the text to flow more freely. There are many additional prayers included, such as the Hallel which appears in the service for Yom Haatzmaut, Israel Independence day.
An annotated prayer book, the source for many of the texts of various prayers is located in the margins, as opposed to the body of the text in other Siddurim. Also included is a halachic guide for visitors to Israel that emphasizes the centrality of Jerusalem.
Most notably the translation conforms with the modern Israeli pronunciation of Hebrew. That means the hard taf sound not the soft ess which is a hallmark of Ashkenazi pronunciation. A Zionist Siddur, the Koren Sacks Siddur has been endorsed by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis.
All in all this is a special siddur that will only add to the legacy of Koren and bring a new way of thinking about prayers to a new generation of Jews.
Does the new Koren Siddur improve upon these matters and aid Jews in better understanding what they are reading?
The answer is an emphatic "yes." Indeed this is one of the primary purposes of the new siddur. It aids Jews in acquiring all of the above-mentioned benefits by its manner of presentation, its translations and its commentaries. The following innovations of this new siddur are a small sample of how this siddur enhances its users' period of prayer and their understanding of Judaism.
* Both the Hebrew and English are written with a beautiful font especially designed to enhance the siddur.
* Both the Hebrew and English are generally written with poetic spacing that, unlike run-on sentences, prompts the reader to think and consider the meaning of each phrase, as in the mourner's kaddish:
Magnified and sanctified
may His great name be,
in the world He created by His will.
* There is a rational acceptance of the existence of the State of Israel and the United States, which is absent from the currently widely-used siddur. There are services for Yom Hazekaron, Israel's Memorial Day, Yom HaAtzma'ut, Israel's Independence Day, and for Yom Yerushalayim, the day commemorating the reunion of Israel's capital Jerusalem.
* Highly significant is the English translation and commentary of Sir Jonathan Sacks, the chief rabbi of the British Empire. Rabbi Sacks introduces the siddur with an instructive thirty-two page Understanding Jewish Prayer. Rabbi Sacks' English is impeccable, unlike the yeshiva-type English contained in the currently popular siddur.
* Unlike this currently popular siddur that openly promotes a mystical ideology and a world-view where God is present in everyday affairs and manipulates individuals, groups and nations like puppets to do His will, Sacks' translation and commentary is open-minded and reasonable. For example, while discussing Israel's Independence Day, he mentions the mystic Nachmanides' view (in his commentary to Leviticus 18:25) that Jews only fully fulfils the divine commands (mitzvot) when they perform them in Israel. Sacks writes, among other things: "Interpreted non-mystically, this means that the Torah represents the architecture of a society, it is not just a code for the salvation of the soul. The Torah includes laws relating to welfare, the environment, the administration of justice, employer-employee relations, and many other matters not normally thought of as religious. It is less about the ascent to heaven, than about bringing heaven down to earth in the form of a just, gracious and compassionate social order." This world-view stands in stark contrast to that advocated in the currently popular siddur.
* The new siddur contains a Guide to the Reader section that is an excellent introduction to how Hebrew should be pronounced and explains how the editors of the siddur made pronunciation easy by inserting clues in the Hebrew text. An example is that the emphasis on all Hebrew words should be on the last symbol except where the editors placed a small line next to the vowel in words that are not so pronounced.
* There is a section explaining how the services differ in Israel.
* There are 66 pages of 490 instructions on the laws of prayers.
* The editors of the new siddur recognize, as they should, that there have been centuries of debate as to the wording of some prayers. Two pages delineate these differences.
* Many people do not know when and how to respond to certain prayers - for example, should one say "amen." This is addressed.
* There are charts indicating what prayers could be said for special occasions, such as the birth of a child, for an illness and for guidance.
* Many synagogue attendees cannot read Hebrew and do not know how to navigate through a siddur, so the editors placed an English transliteration of the two types of mourners' kaddish as the last pages of the siddur.
* It is refreshing and characteristic of the Koren Siddur to read on page 26 that Jews "believe that every human being is equally formed in the image of God," men and women, Jew and non-Jew.
These are just some of the many innovations introduced in the Koren Siddur. Synagogues should replace their current prayer books and give their parishioners this magnificent volume.
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