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Responding to Feedback - Page 6

Written by Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet

Traditional and Progressive – striking a balance

One important feedback from this second draft version has drawn our attention back to the suggestion of a ‘creative’ service. While many approved of the restoration of more traditional material (itself a legitimate ‘reform’ activity), others felt that the new draft offered little that was ‘new’ or sufficiently ‘progressive’. Two particular requests were made. One was to give a more prominent place within the service for contemporary issues, like human rights and environment concerns. We had gone some way towards this by providing the prayers for interfaith dialogue and international understanding within the body of the Shabbat morning service as options after the Torah reading. We have since added another prayer which addresses social and environmental issues. But the second request was more difficult to address. There are many who find the certainties expressed in the traditional liturgy, particularly about God’s intervention in human events, more challenging. Could we produce materials that could be used as an alternative to the traditional prayers for occasional use, or simply as reflective commentaries on them? If printed within the actual Shabbat services these could lead to even more page skipping, so a ‘reflective Amidah’ and other passages that offer alternatives to the major sections of the Shabbat Morning Service, have now been added in a special place as a concluding part of the main services section of the Siddur.

Yet another issue has been less to do with the content of the Siddur than the way in which the service itself is conducted. We come to synagogue carrying with us many experiences from our lives. These can be happy or sad matters, things that we celebrate or troubles that weigh us down. We may want the service to offer a very different world, one that is comforting or reassuring where we can set daily matters aside for a while; but sometimes we may want the opportunity to share with others the emotions that we bring with us. There are ways of leading a service that can meet either situation, depending somewhat on the nature of the congregation. We have provided in the Siddur a ‘welcome’ to the Shabbat services that encourages congregants to take some time before the service begins to prepare themselves. There are also natural ‘pauses’ in the flow of words, for example during the second and third paragraphs of the Sh’ma or in the silence at the end of the Amidah that can be used for more personal reflection if the service leader creates the necessary opportunity. But how far these are used is something congregations must decide for themselves. A small section of reflections for the ‘sh’liach tsibbur’, the service leader, has also been added to help address this element in the service.