Transliteration - Page 3
Written by Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet
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| Transliteration |
| A Common Practice Elsewhere |
| A Positive Element |
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Ultimately, if the desire is to make our services more welcoming, accessible and participatory then transliteration can be an important and positive element of the new siddur. If the principle is accepted, then comes the question: how little or how much should be transliterated. Those in favour of minimal transliteration feel that it should only be the ‘main’ prayers that are included – though there is a degree of debate about what are the ‘main’ prayers: obviously the Shema, Amidah, Bar’chu, Torah and Haftarah blessings, probably Alenu and Kaddish. Inevitably there is a counter-argument that some of these one learns pretty much by rote through hearing them on a regular basis, so what needs to be transliterated instead are the less familiar passages, especially the songs that can help create a prayerful atmosphere – though since no two congregations sing exactly the same pieces, this makes selectivity even more problematic.
While these ‘ideological’ and ‘practical’ issues need to be debated, further considerations arise about the possible impact on the length and hence the weight of the book. Adding transliteration clearly takes up space, and something has to go if we are to keep the original size of the 1977 Siddur (but printed on the original correct weight of paper!).
By now it must be clear, as with other issues, that to accommodate so many different views, a careful compromise will have to be made. The Prayerbook committee have accepted that transliteration is to be incorporated, and if it is to be effective it should cover the whole of the Shabbat evening and morning services as these are the ones where greatest participation is needed. A few other places, like the grace after meals, will also have it. This will be the case in the final draft volume which will be tried out by congregations, which will also be an opportunity to see how the layout can accommodate both the transliteration and the explanatory notes in a helpful way.
Ultimately the use of transliteration belongs to a strategy that seeks to include more people in our worship services, though the frustration of trying to read it may itself encourage people to move on to Hebrew. The challenge will now be to make it a valuable tool for educating and engaging people in the deeper issue of understanding the prayers that we are reading.
