Responding to Feedback - Page 4
Written by Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet
| Article Index |
|---|
| Responding to Feedback |
| Informed Choice |
| So, What's New? |
| A New Layout |
| Feedback and Responses |
| Traditional and Progressive |
| The Siddue as a Whole |
| What Remains to be Done |
| All Pages |
A New Layout
At this point we noted the formidable problems of producing a layout which could include the Hebrew and English text, the notes and transliteration, as well as guidelines for the service. It is to the credit of Marc Michaels that he managed to produce a layout that successfully achieved all this and more, with the transliteration available on the page for those who needed it without disturbing those who preferred to use the more prominent Hebrew text. A major change was from having Hebrew and English on facing pages, to two columns. This was based on current awareness about ease of reading when the eye makes fewer movements across the page.
In general, the prayers have been laid out in justified columns, whereas the poetic texts, like the Psalms and songs, are unjustified, which gives each page its unique internal shape. In a few of the Psalms we have retained the layout of the previous edition, with the Hebrew and English on facing pages, where this helps illustrate the structure of the Psalm. (See, for example, Psalm 92, where its assertion of God’s unique power above all, is placed in a short four-word verse at the geometrical centre of the Psalm.) Where there are ‘alphabetical acrostics’, in the Psalms or songs, we have enlarged the appropriate letters. Occasionally we have drawn attention to interesting features of the text by using bolder letters, for example in the second paragraph of the Sh’ma. In such cases the notes on the page usually explain the reason. (Since introducing the latest draft format we have also added numbers to the verses of Psalms and songs to make it easier to select the ones to be read or sung in a particular service.) Certain major passages, like the Sh’ma and the beginning of the Amidah, have been printed in a larger font to give them more prominence. Incidentally, the font size throughout the draft is larger than in the current Siddur to make it easier to read. To help distinguish the ‘kamats katan’, the one that is pronounced ‘o’ instead of ‘ah’, we have added a small circle above the appropriate letter – as well as using a ‘kamats’ with a longer tail. These detailed elements may well go unnoticed but have each been the result of considerable thought about adding to the ease of use, or greater understanding, of the text itself.
The draft format only includes the Shabbat services, though it indicated the other sections that will appear in the final volume. The size of the page is slightly larger than that of the current Siddur but the book as a whole should be only slightly longer (between 300 to 500 pages fewer than in either the Festival or High Holyday volumes.)
This second draft was launched in May/June 2006 for the next round of feedback. It has been tried for various lengths of time by almost all congregations in the movement. Indeed, some intend to use it till the new Siddur itself appears, and are preparing their bar- and bat-mitzvah classes with it. The editor, the chairman of the Editorial Board, Rabbi Steven Katz, and of the Steering Committee, Rabbi Elaina Rothman, together with Jenny Pizer and sometimes David Jacobs, have together visited over twenty congregations, some more than once, as well as movement conferences and Council meetings and RSY-Netzer, to give presentations of the Siddur and get direct feedback.
