New Conservative prayerbook offers accessibility, inspiration

Congregation Kol Emeth in Palo Alto made the switch. So did Oakland’s Temple Beth Abraham, Berkeley’s Congregation Netivot Shalom and most of the Bay Area’s Conservative synagogues.

Over these High Holy Days, their congregants will pray using a new machzor.

More than 150,000 copies of the High Holy Days prayerbook “Mahzor Lev Shalem” have been presold, representing orders from nearly 130 affiliated congregations nationwide, including the Bay Area.

The strong interest might stem from “dissatisfaction with all previous machzors,” said Stuart Kelman, rabbi emeritus of Netivot Shalom and a member of the committee of 10 that produced the prayerbook.

“There was definitely a need for this,” said Rabbi Marc Bloom of Temple Beth Abraham. “There are a lot of positives. The cover is beautiful, the commentaries are beautiful, the general inclusivity and great quotes from tradition. Overall they did a beautiful job.”

“Lev Shalem,” which means “full heart,” is in part a response to two oft-heard criticisms of the Conservative movement: that it is too elitist and too intellectual. The editors of the book sought to address those concerns.

For starters, the entire Hebrew text is translated into English, and passages to be said aloud are transliterated to allow those without Hebrew knowledge to participate in group call and response.

The entire traditional text is included, with a few modifications. The matriarchs are included as an option on the same page as the traditional Amidah prayer that refers only to the patriarchs. Kelman says that’s progress from the most recent Conservative prayerbook, which relegates the matriarchs to a separate page.

For experienced worshippers who want a Hebrew text unencumbered by directions indicating where one should stand and sit, subtle signals like the icon of a bowing figure offer what Conservative leaders hope will be a rich, free-flowing davening experience.

Commentary and exposition fill the right side of each double-page spread. The left side features poems, meditations and alternative readings.

Ten rabbis and cantors spent 12 years putting together the machzor, meeting twice a month.

Each contributor took one or two assignments, and the entire group read and commented on each other’s work. Kelman wrote the commentaries for the evening and morning Sh’ma and its blessings.

The group also translated the Hebrew text into English and read it aloud to make sure it flowed, so those who cannot “feel” the meaning of the Hebrew can use the English for real prayer.

Some who saw early versions of the machzor, which was tested in six congregations, say it answers a need articulated by Conservative laypeople as well as clergy.

Netivot Shalom was one of the congregations selected to “test drive” portions of the machzor over the last few years. Rabbi Menachem Creditor says his congregants found it a big improvement.

“We ran a learning program a couple of weeks ago,” Creditor said. “Eighty people showed up to learn the machzor. The response from the community was one of overwhelming excitement for Rosh Hashanah.”

Along with the content modifications, “Lev Shalem” was designed to be aesthetically pleasing. It weighs less than 2 pounds, is printed on fine paper and uses a Hebrew font specially designed and copyrighted for the book.

“The layout is easy on the eyes,” said Rabbi David Booth of Congregation Kol Emeth, which purchased 1,100 copies. “People will have a very different experience with how they use the book: For beginners it provides a lot of the how-tos and directions; other people will read the critical and traditional commentary to enhance an already deep understanding of  prayer.”

Like the new daily and Shabbat prayerbook released concurrently by the Israeli Masorti movement, “Lev Shalem” is being presented as a prayerbook for all Jews rather than merely as a Conservative text.

“We’ve got everyone from [the late Israeli poet] Yehuda Amichai to the Lubavitcher rebbe,” said committee chair Rabbi Edward Feld of Northampton, Mass., senior editor of the project. “It does not represent any single theological perspective.”

Feld spent weeks poring through the rare book room at the Jewish Theological Seminary, mining more than 60 old prayerbooks for long-forgotten piyyutim, or liturgical poems, to include along with modern meditations.

On one page is an 11th-century poem on the new year by Joseph Ibn Abitur of Spain. On another is “For the Sin of Destroying God’s Creation,” JTS Dean Daniel Nevins’ environmentally sensitive version of the Al-Chet, the traditional confessional list of sins recited during Yom Kippur services.

The Conservative leadership hopes the new machzor will help worshippers deepen their synagogue experience. Those who produced it, however, have less lofty expectations of their first encounter with the book from the other side of the pulpit.

“In all likelihood,” Kelman said, “I’ll be looking for mistakes.”

Dan Pine is a j. staff writer and Sue Fishkoff writes for JTA.