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Introduction and Erev Shabbat - Page 2

Written by Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet Tuesday, 01 October 2002

A Prayer Book in the Making

The other factor that has been particularly highlighted in the United States and in some of the smaller congregations here is the need to help people participate more fully. This means having access to the Hebrew when it comes to passages which are read or chanted together. The case for transliteration is still open for debate but those who have used it in their own services argue quite strongly that rather than preventing people studying Hebrew as has been suggested, it offers a way of encouraging them to participate and then move beyond that to understanding the Hebrew now that they have managed to get their tongues around the actual language itself. So another aspect of the new prayerbook will be to have a limited amount of transliteration available on the page.

Some of these general issues can be seen in the draft Friday evening service. It was suggested that we needed three kinds of services: the ‘classical’ Reform; a chavurah style service; a ‘creative’ service.

The first drafts of the book produced two openings one beginning with Ma tovu and following the existing Friday evening, a second opening with Yedid Nefesh and the full set of traditional Friday evening psalms. However, it was noted that a great deal of duplication takes place in this way and that instead one should offer the option that is in the current fourth draft of two possible starting places and selecting from the options available to compose the kind of service one wanted. This also addresses the much more difficult problem of a ‘creative’ service since anything committed to paper ceases to be creative after the first time it has been used. So with all kinds of materials available in a structured form, congregations can choose at any given time how they wish to conduct any particular service, which moves the onus from the book and more into the educational process that we undertake to develop the styles, and particularly the music, of our services.

One of the consequences of the emphasis upon the chavurah style service is that it becomes far more of a ‘mantra’ where the chanting, singing and general emotional framework becomes an end in itself. (In a way this is simply a contemporary variation on the chorally sung services of another generation). However, a Reform tradition also seeks to bring content to our prayers so that yet again a fascinating tension exists between the creation of an atmosphere and an element of thoughtfulness and challenge within the service framework. Therefore it is very important that the structure be clear and strong as that provides the kind of security which, at the same time, allows people the freedom to take risks in terms of ideas and thoughts which may also be introduced.