www.reformjudaism.org.uk

Responding to Feedback

Written by Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet Monday, 01 January 2007

A Prayer Book in the Making

Six Years and Counting

When we began work on a new Siddur, more than five years ago, it was still to be the prayerbook of the ‘Reform Synagogues of Great Britain’. The latest draft carries the logo of ‘The Movement for Reform Judaism’. The change of name represents a move towards a more coherent view of what the movement stands for, while still respecting the autonomy of the individual synagogues. The same mixture of an overall vision that also acknowledges personal needs has underpinned the work on the new Siddur – with all the debates, choices, compromises, negotiations and prioritisations that this implies. The task of the editorial board, and ultimately the editor, has been to steer a course between these often contradictory concerns, accepting criticism and suggestions for improvement, but without losing sight of a coherent vision for the Siddur as a whole. For this reason it has been tested out by congregations more than any of its predecessors, with more responses to suggested improvements than ever before. (I speak out of the direct experience of co-editing the previous three volumes in the series!) But it has also been supported by the Editorial Board and Steering Committee, with lay leaders of the movement, more professionally and effectively than ever before. So where are we now?

Just to recap, we tried out a first draft Shabbat volume in an A4 format in September 2003, affectionately known as ‘the big blue floppy’. Behind it lay the request to produce a ‘new edition’, though with few initial guidelines, and this has meant that it has evolved over time in response to the felt needs of the movement. It should use ‘inclusive language’ as a mark of the movement’s commitment to gender equality, though hopefully ironing out some of the language problems of the Pilgrim Festival Book, our first full experiment in this direction. Bearing in mind the problem of the weight of that volume, the new Siddur had to be of a manageable size!

The new Siddur was to provide three kinds of service, responding to different needs within the movement. The first was intended to offer the ‘classical’ reform Shabbat service of the present Siddur so that congregations could continue their existing practice. A second was to reflect the move towards more traditional forms of service of some of our synagogues and the alternative minyanim and chavurah groups that have begun in recent years, especially within larger congregations. The third, but least defined, was to be a ‘creative’ service, though how it should operate and how remain ‘creative’ once fixed in print, was not clear.