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Fair Deepening the spiritual connection
New Conservative Jewish prayer book connects the past and present
Having updated the High Holy Days prayer book, Mahzor Lev Shalem, more than five years ago, the Conservative Jewish movement has published a new daily prayer book, Siddur Lev Shalem, under the auspices of the Rabbinical Assembly.
The revised text includes new insights into traditional texts, amended Hebrew transliterations — the conversion of text from one language to another — and revisions to make it more egalitarian and LGBT-friendly.
“Many people entering the synagogue want to pray, but the traditional prayer book can be difficult to understand, hard to enter into for many, save the most learned,” said Rabbi Edward Feld, who served as senior editor of the new prayer book and also edited the High Holy Days prayer book. “This siddur offers an entree to congregants to meditate on the prayers in personal, meaningful ways. The translation does not use baroque expressions, but speaks in a contemporary prayerful voice.”
Feld who is the rabbi-in-residence at the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan and education director of rabbis for Human Rights–North America, was a member of a committee of rabbis and cantors who used their understanding of the needs of their congregants to create the new prayer book, he said.
Rabbi Jan Urbach, the spiritual leader of the Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons, in Bridgehampton, who also served on the committee, said that a revised version was “definitely necessary.” “With the new High Holy Days prayer book, the feedback on that was enormous, and there was a hunger for a prayer book to make more meaning of the prayers,” Urbach said. “The book is more traditional and more contemporary, and it helps people engage with our traditions and connect it to their personal lives.”
On the right side of the book, the historical origins of the prayers are explained in context with the liturgy, and on the left side are poems and prose by around 500 contemporary and classical authors to help readers understand the more complex prayers, which the rabbis hope deepens readers’ spiritual connection.
