Customer Reviews

The Book of Blessings

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(5)

 

 

A previous reviewer asked "Do you really want an atheist prayer book?" As a matter of fact I do, and plenty of other Jews do, too. This book contains wonderful, poetic blessings to be used in the religious rituals and home observances of non-theistic Jews (Yes we do exist!). As much as this book distresses orthodox Jews, it is equally distressing to stridently atheistic ones, who take offense at Falk's use of phrases such as "the source of life." For the vast majority of us who occupy the middle ground, this book is indeed a blessing. Only one complaint, the book is a bit too large. I'd like a smaller model (and it could be done, there's a lot of white space) that I could take with me when I travel.

Marcia Falk has done a remarkable job, demonstrating a lot of chutzpah (self-confessedly so) by doing a single-handed job at producing a new prayerbook, a siddur, with a guide, order of service, liturgy and commentary for daily, weekly, and monthly rituals. However, Falk is quick to acknowledge her debt to poets, artists, scholars and friends, past and present, who informed her work. No one produces ritual, prayer and liturgy out of nothingness. Falk's subtle and profound understanding of the rhythms of life, in a particularly Jewish manner, shines forth on every page of this book. No one was more surprised than Falk at the direction of the development of the book into a siddur, as Falk had planned a more simple and less structured format.

`If human language is, in large measure, what gives us our humanity--allowing me to communicate with you, distinguishing us from other parts of creation--then Hebrew is sign and symbol of my particular human identity, giving me my home as a Jew.' Falk presents her blessings and prayers in dual language, both Hebrew and English, with transliterated Hebrew as a pronunciation guide for those who wish to experiment with hearing and saying the prayers in Hebrew but have not studied the language. And the heart of all these prayers is blessing.

`If you are looking for the heart and soul and bones of Hebrew prayer, you will find them all in the blessing.' Blessing (b'rakhah) is a special kind of prayer, a particular invocation of God's power, a way of creating new power and new life, a way of enriching our awareness of what we have, who we are, and who we may become, while reconnecting us with the past.

Falk admits to originally beginning to write her own blessings to get a more inclusive language and more diverse imagery in her personal prayers, as the traditional forms were heavily weighted in hierarchical and patriarchal terms. However, in her continuing spiritual and theological development, she came back around to re-embrace the old compositions which now held new validity -- thus, this collection is one of variety of style and form.

The daily cycle includes blessings upon awakening, blessings for meals, blessings at the end of the day, and daily psalms. The weekly cycle includes Sabbath Eve and Sabbath Day blessings, as well as a form for welcome the new week as the Sabbath departs. The monthly cycle takes place around the Rosh Hodesh festival, awaiting and then celebrating the arrival of the New Moon. Falk then provides an interesting commentary, with historical and contemporary voices incorporated, into the meanings of these cycles, and the use of prayer rituals in conjunction with them.

Falk found that, after making presentations and periodical publications of her blessings, they began to be incorporated informally and communally by different groups. `Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, havurah-style, feminist, progressive, and unaffiliated Jews. It wasn't long before people were extrapolating from them to write new blessings of their own.' Each of these prayers and blessings tends to be very short. This adds to the intensity of lyric and spiritual power. They are useful for study and for practice. Beautiful in language and meaning, these blessings will be a blessing to you, too.

`May the blessings of peace and kindness,
graciousness, goodness and compassion
flow among us
and all the communities of Israel,
all the peoples of the world.

As we bless the source of life
so we are blessed.'

Finally, a prayerbook which acknowledges and includes the diverse range of conceptions of divinity which have been present in Jewish tradition since the beginning! The G*d addressed in Falk's prayers is male, is female, and is more than either male or female. Her innovations are not limited only to the English versions either, a welcome find for those who wish to try out fresh angles on the liturgy but do not want to abandon prayer in Hebrew. The only shortcoming is that Falk was in some cases a bit too quick to replace the original prayer with a new poem or prayer, rahter than revising it, such as the Mourner's Kaddish. However, all-in-all this is a great leap forward for modern liturgy!

I'm not sure what the people were expecting when they bought this book of BLESSINGS, yes blessings. This collection of blessings, meditations, poetry or whatever gives a different view that may reach one of our borderline lost Jews. This may be a little off the orthodox or conservative mark but it does reach the many of us that are looking for just something else besides the same old Amida, said twice. I am a male that goes to Minyan (daily services) and wraps teffilin daily. I do not have a problem bringing a little 60's or 70's views into today's praying. "The Lord spoke to Moses saying"... when you look upon the fringes, well maybe this book will save one of our children from those other groups looking to convert them.

Instead of seeing the paperback edition of THE BOOK OF BLESSINGS as an eviscerated, atheized collection of feminist poetry masquerading as a prayer book, it is best to see it as a language for disenfranchised Jews to recover their native spirituality. Not all disenfranchised Jews however, just those who for reasons of gender and/or sexuality have been excluded from the language of Jewish community, or those whose sensibilities and associations preclude them from seeing themselves as members of a chosen clan, or those who can no longer (if they could ever) keep company with a Supreme Being.

Marcia Falk's blessings, which are best seen and used as part of particular daily, Sabbath, or festival services, come from a Jewish spirit at its most welcoming and its most tentative. Tentative in that she is unwilling to say more than her experience can substantiate about Divinity, commensurately not arrogating more for the Jewish people than can be ethically claimed in a non-theistic universe.

For those who've longed for an intellectually credible, contemplative but non-theistic faith inclusive of all conditions of Jews and open to life with and among non-Jews, this gem of a book is worth its moderate price several times over.

Marcia Falk's book is a sensitive, poetic revisiting of Jewish liturgy. She's gone far beyond simply taking the male gender out of the liturgy--she's rethought the prayers and opened them up to embrace values of inclusiveness and interconnectedness. A poet in both English and Hebrew, and an impeccable scholar, Falk has created a treasure that not only enriches Judaism but offers prayers and poems that can work for many earth-based spiritual traditions. I also deeply appreciated the wealth of women's poetry translated from the Yiddish.

What the previous reviewers have written is all true, so it depends on your personal choices. I do not mean "pagan Judaism" to be derogatory. It is what I learned at my mother's knee, especially the careful watching of the moon's phases. I find Falk's nature poetry to be especially meaningful when I contemplate God's creation (one can use the capitalization) from my place in Wisconsin and thank the Supreme Being and Creator for His/Her/Its wonders.I use this as a springboard. I learned some of the traditional prayers long ago and sometimes prefer to use them, sometimes I use Falk's.All in all, a very useful tool.

This is a wonderful book for finding alternative prayers. My son and I have been putting together a prayer book for his bar mitzvah and we used several of Marcia Falk's English readings. The Hebrew takes some getting used to because it is not traditional. I like that though -- I like that Ms. Falk put lots of thought and work into making a prayer egalitarian in both Hebrew and English and not by just adding the names of the mothers.

This book breathed new life into my religious practice. We use some of the blessings in our Shabbat dinner now. It's beautiful and inspiring.

There are some wonderful additional blessings included in this book. Each of us must decide if these should replace or compliment the traditional.