Customer Reviews

Mahzor/Machzor Lev Shalem -New Gender Neutral Conservative High Holiday Prayerbook for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

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About once a decade a major new edition of the mahzor - the prayerbook for the Jewish high holy days - comes out. Orthodox mahzorim tend to be "complete", in the sense of having as many prayers from disparate Jewish communities across Europe as possible - as long as only prayers written before 1700 are concerned. They also tend to ignore half of the Jewish community (women!), the emergence of the State of Israel, or allow for much in the way of new liturgy in the past couple of centuries (despite the fact that the traditional, historical Jewish practice was to constantly add new prayers, and occasionally remove older ones.)

In the early 1970s Rabbi Jules Harlow, of the Rabbinical Assembly, edited the now common "Mahzor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur." Freeing itself from Orthodox constraints, it removed many old prayers that were felt to be outdated (which has its advantages and disadvantages) and allowed for the addition of newer material. There was little commentary or instruction; instead, the editors focused on the translation, feeling in most places it would be sufficient. It has somewhat fewer poems than other traditional and conservative machzorim. The translations are more poetic and less literal.

However, the Rabbinical Assembly in 2010 published a totally new replacement "Mahzor Lev Shalem." This new Mahzor presents a complete liturgy, restoring many traditional prayers that had not been included in the Silverman or Harlow editions of the mahzor, yet it also offers options to use the creative liturgical developments presenting the theology and gender-equality of non-Orthodox Judaism. It contains a variety of commentaries from classical and modern-day rabbis, gender-sensitive translations, and choreography instructions (when to sit, stand, bow, etc.)

It offers more literal translations of the prayers than previous non-Orthodox mahzorim. English transliterations are offered for all prayers and lines recited aloud by the congregation. The page layout surrounds prayers with a variety of English commentaries and readings, as one finds in classical rabbinic commentaries.

In a first, this book was designed to be used by Conservative, non-denominational and Traditional-Egalitarian synagogues and chavurot. By leaving out certain texts and choosing other included options, it also can be used in Orthodox or Reform congregations!

Truly a masterpiece, I hope this finds a place in the pews of synagogues of all denominations.

An excellent machzor and resource for a new age. Annotations and modern commentary make the liturgy accessible and meaningful.

The vendor was amazing in getting the item to me in a much faster time frame than indicated on the Amazon site. The book more than meets my expectations and I would not hesitate to order again with LevineJudaica through Amazon. It is much more than a prayer book, as it is filled with explanations, commentaries and relevance to today's world.

This Machzor represents all that is wrong with the modern world, and what has infected the liberal movements, i. e. rationalism and relativism. Indeed, it is a relativist's field manual, rather than a prayerbook. It is so lovingly bedizened in a politically correct, post-denominational wrapping. Yes, Torah views are placed beside atheistic views and other competing views as one choice to consider. In line with the modern slide into subjectivism the nod is given to alternative readings from Leviticus 18 for Yom Kippur afternoon, as well as a meditation during Yizkor for victims of abusive parents. Where is the faith one would actually believe in, be willing to fight for and, if need be, die for---something solid and real apart from oneself.