Customer Reviews

Paths of Faith: The New Jewish Prayer Book for Synagogue and Home : For Weekdays, Shabbat, Festivals & Other Occasions

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Collected and translated by Rabbi Chaim Stern, Paths Of Faith: The New Jewish Prayer Book For Synagogue And Home is a new prayer book written and prepared especially for the Jewish Sabbath, religious weekday services, festivals, and other high and holy occasions, as celebrated and honored by Reform Jewish Congregations throughout North America. All of the prayers and all of the songs are bilingually presented in both Hebrew and English, making Paths Of Faith a completely accessible and very highly recommended resource intended for both the home and the synagogue.

Readers may be confused by the description of this book as the `long-awaited new prayer book' of the Reform movement because of the authorship by Stern. It is not. That siddur is called Mishkan T'filah (Tabernacle of Prayer) and has not yet been made available to the public. No slight intended to Mr. Stern, who has apparently incorporated the same changes agreed by the Reform movement into his version, but this really should be made clear in the description of the book.

It's interesting that this prayer book is still listed for sale here, as I recently attempted to purchase it and was told by Amazon that it was not available (after I waited for three months). I love Amazon, but if this book is not findable it shouldn't be listed here for sale. It's disappointing to order a book one really wants only to be told it can't be located.

The language is gender-neutral, many of the readings and prayers are modern. And yet this book offers an excellent alternative to often hard-to-follow and entirely male-focused traditional Siddurim.

But there is also something missing. In the rush to correct the exclusion of all female pronouns and to recognize the matriarchs along side the patriarchs as we pray, something was lost. It's hard to find and identify some time-based prayers here. And much of the personal communion with G-d so present in a traditional Siddur has been replaced by the group or community focus the editors of this volume seem to favor.

As a woman, it's a better choice for me than a Siddur that talks only about our forefathers and not our foremothers, or one that seems anxious to use the male "he", "King", or "Lord" as often as possible (despite our knowledge as Jews that G-d has NO gender!). But it's still not quite what I was hoping for.

Un excelente SIDUR que refleje el espiritu de la plegaria judía desde la perspectiva del judaismo progresista . En general sigue la estructura y distribución tradicional del sidur reformista. Los cambios introducidos en la AMIDA y el texto postrero al SHEMA parecen interesantes