www.reformjudaism.org.uk

Church of England Newspaper

In the Church of England Newspaper, Reverend John Bowden tells of his experiences sharing in the creation of the new siddur. He writes:

“[The new siddur] is a world away from its predecessor. Only the title, ‘Forms of Prayer’, remains the same. Open it, with its text printed in black and blue and the marvellous clarity of the page layout, and one is immediately won over. It will be a joy to use. The controversial passages of transliterated Hebrew are not intrusive, and the informative footnotes which provide commentary on and explanation of material, together with various brief introductions, are just right.”

A Window into the Jewish Soul

Sharing in the Creation of a New Jewish Prayer Book

John Bowden

The thousands of copies of the new Siddur, the Prayer Book of the Movement for Reform Judaism, have been printed and bound and will soon be in the hands of communities. A complex project lasting almost eight years has been brought to a successful conclusion. And I feel particularly proud to have played a small part in it. Involvement has brought my deep admiration for those who have created the new Siddur, from its content to its format and typography; it has opened my eyes to the vast array of skills needed to bring about this major development; and it has brought me new friendships and deepened my spirituality. This involvement has been a unique privilege, since I am not a Reform Jew, nor indeed a Jew at all, but an Anglican theologian and priest.

I owe my role to a close and long-time friend, Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield, Head of the Movement for Reform Judaism, with whom for well over twenty years I have been a member of an important Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue group. He thought that I could make a contribution as someone who had spent his life in religious publishing and who had close connections with the Reform Movement. The international and interfaith SCM Press Ltd, from which I retired as Managing Director in 2000, just as work on the new Siddur was beginning, had published several books by Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet, its architect, as well as pioneering collections of essays by women rabbis, and from the start I felt at home. The original plan had been that the Siddur should be produced in a more ‘professional’ way than its predecessor and that I should be ‘project manager’. However, it soon became evident to me that this was a project that would go its own way, and I felt much happier with the role of consultant: listening at meetings, making contributions where I was asked or had something to say, and being available when needed. In particular I struck up a close friendship with another key figure in the project, Rabbi Elaina Rothman, who felt able to have confidential conversations with me about how things were progressing and discuss how problems might be overcome.

The Siddur contains Daily Services and Sabbath Services and prayers for special occasions and for use in the home, along with the Psalms, hymns and a study anthology. The edition to be replaced was published in 1977 under the editorship of Jonathan Magonet and Rabbi Lionel Blue to replace one dating from 1930, and its appearance had been regarded as a radical departure from its predecessors, emphasizing what differentiated the Reform Movement from other traditions of Judaism, sometimes at the expense of common features. It was also in appearance a book of its time, so if the planned Siddur was really to be new, major questions had to be faced. The first steps towards its creation were taken in 1998, but the planning and work proper began in 2000.

That winter saw the first meetings of a small group which was to become the Steering Committee, responsible for planning, supervising and implementing the project. Over seven years it met around sixty times, usually at 8.15 a.m. on a Monday morning, not least because its members, like the others involved in creating the Siddur, had to fit this in on top of their other work; alongside it an Editorial Committee was created, in whose hands was responsibility for the content of the Siddur. The Steering Committee started with basic questions such as the length and possible format of the Siddur, production and other costs, ways of financing it, timetable and so on, and a basic scheme was arrived at. However, this proved premature; it soon became clear that there were more fundamental issues. In particular there were those in the Reform Movement who questioned whether a new Siddur was needed at all. Why not keep the old one?

The answer was that, just as the existing Siddur was separated by a generation and more and by the Shoah and a world war from its predecessor, now it lay a generation back and had been followed by unprecedented change in every aspect of human life. But this case for a new Siddur had to be made, and it was important that as many people as possible should have a say in the form that the book should take. That meant that there had to be widespread consultation and a concerted programme of promoting the idea of a new Siddur. One frustrating side-effect of this was that the original timetable had to be extended by two years, but in the end it was eminently worth while.

The beginning of the consultation programme was marked by an important meeting in June 2001, representing a cross-section of communities, at which all the relevant issues were raised. An important feature of it was the presentation of a variety of new Siddurim from the United States, Europe and elsewhere, to show the wide range of possibilities. The Steering Committee continued this review of parallel publications to the end and it proved helpful.

Key questions were raised at the first consultation. How far should a new Siddur go yet further in the direction of the ‘new’ and include e.g. commemorations of life-cycle events, and how far should it recognize the attachment of many congregants to the ‘old’ and restore some traditional forms that had been eliminated in the 1977 Siddur? How should the Deity be addressed? How far, if at all, should inclusive language be introduced? And, most controversially, should transliteration of Hebrew be used?

The process of consultation went on to include many other meetings and, even more important, repeated visits over years by members of the Steering Committee to communities up and down Great Britain, tirelessly explaining what was happening, showing material as it became available, answering questions, removing misunderstandings and generating enthusiasm. It was encouraging to see the results of all this hard work: as time went on initial hostility turned to acceptance, understanding and even enthusiasm. Of course this enthusiasm had to be channelled into potential sales; assessing the number of copies likely to be sold was vital, so consultation also took on the aspect of marketing. More importantly, it also became an educational process; early draft services were made available and there was careful explanation of their features and how they could be made best use of.

Education has become an ongoing emphasis; all community leaders and teachers, and their communities, will need to be shown how to make best use of all the new features of the Siddur, and in particular it has been planned to meet the needs of rising generations. Time and again young people were kept in mind in our discussions and were involved in consultations. To provide the necessary resources for an education programme, including an interactive Siddur website to include music, a scheme of sponsorship was devised: for a contribution sponsors could commemorate the life of a loved one, an anniversary or another important occasion within the Siddur itself. This met with a generous response. Moreover a compact edition of the Siddur intended for young people has been sponsored by the Karen Morris Memorial Trust, in memory of a much-loved youth worker who died all too early.

With all these crucial activities under way, it was possible to concentrate on the actual creation of the new Siddur.

How was the complicated typesetting to be done? Previous prayer books had been typeset by Cambridge University Press. and in an ideal world with aesthetics the priority that would have been the best option. But not only would it be expensive; it would involve extra production stages requiring more time and effort. As specimens of layout and text were being produced ‘in house’ by the gifted Marc Michaels, it gradually became evident that the whole Siddur could be set in this way, and indeed it was. The in-house typesetting also made possible the production of the draft versions needed for consultation, education and trial use in services. After considerable research the best printer was identified in The Netherlands.

Even more important was the question of the physical size and extent of the new Siddur. The old Siddur was a volume of some 600 pages with the dimensions of the average book; to make the extra space needed for the new features that would be included would not be too easy. A prayer book intended to be held in the hand perhaps for a considerable period of time should not be too heavy or too unwieldy. Alternative page-sizes which at first sight looked attractive were ruled out because they would not fit in existing synagogue bookcases. The weight of the paper to be used was another factor. Clearly the lighter the paper could be, the better, but with lightness comes the problem of ‘see-through’, what is printed on one side appearing through on the other, so there were limits here. In the end it was decided that around another 150 pages could be added and that the page area could be slightly increased horizontally and vertically.

I was very impressed how in addition to consideration of basic matters there was a concern to make the Siddur as attractive and user-friendly as possible. Not only the weight but the colour of the paper was carefully thought about. Since the text was to be printed in two colours, which were best to use to take account of the colour-blind? Was there anything in the layout which could be improved to facilitate reading by the dyslexic?

Another issue was that of illustrations. The 1977 Siddur had contained a series of line drawings, much treasured, of synagogues, many of which were destroyed in the Shoah. However, these would not have looked right in the new text. But what was to replace them? It is all too easy for illustrations to dominate a book and distract attention from features such as typography and layout, and the wrong choice would be a disaster. In the end Jonathan Magonet persuaded us that the best solution was to use calligraphy, and he obtained, often through the generosity of the artist, a series of illustrations by leading calligraphers, primarily associated with Jewish congregations in Europe which have grown up since the Second World War. And happily the synagogue line drawings have found a new home in the endpapers.

But what is the essence of the new Siddur? It is a world away from its predecessor. Only the title, Forms of Prayer, remains the same. Open it, with its text printed in black and blue and the marvellous clarity of the page layout, and one is immediately won over. It will be a joy to use. The controversial passages of transliterated Hebrew are not intrusive, and the informative footnotes which provide commentary on and explanation of material, together with various brief introductions, are just right. A standard calligraphic scheme introduces the main sections, and where cross-references are necessary, they are made by means of a miniature blue menorah and the relevant page number. Notably, the new services allow much greater flexibility in their use, and along with them are resources for reflections on the services, offering an approach for those whose language and assumptions belong to a very different understanding of the world, the universe and God, and providing some personal space. In keeping with this awareness of the world in which we live, the traditional ‘Lord’ is no longer used of God; it is replaced by other forms of address, depending on the context. The study anthology, too, has been completely revised and updated to reflect the present: the number of passages written by women is particularly notable. There is a far wider range of prayers at both the community and the personal level, and prayers to mark many life-cycle events; probably unique in a prayer book of this kind is concern for the animal world with which we co-exist, in the form of prayers for animal companions.

It was only at proof-reading stage that I realized just what had been created. Of course I had seen draft versions of parts of the Siddur, some of them in what was to be virtually the final format, but had not read them with close attention or grasped the whole scope of the book. I read the English of its 700-plus pages three times, never getting bored and fighting not to be distracted from my task of identifying errors and inconsistencies and caught up in the content of what I was reading. From beginning to end I was impressed by the riches of the Jewish tradition, ancient and modern, and its range. In much I felt at home: the psalms, of course, and also the many passages from other books of the Hebrew Bible which have found their way not only into Jewish but also into Christian worship. But there was so much that was new to me, in the forms of worship, in the study anthology and elsewhere, which I felt would not be difficult to make my own, and by which I would be enriched.

So the Siddur is finished, a fascinating chapter of my life has ended, and soon I shall be able to put another substantial book on my shelves. But it will not stand there as in an archive. It will be part of my collection of books on spirituality and I shall take it down and use it as I use my other favourite works.