MISHKAN T’FILAH… IT’S REALLY HERE!

After much anticipation — and lots of not-so-patient waiting — our new Reform prayer book, Mishkan T’filah, has finally arrived. We will begin using the new book at our 8:00pm Friday evening services and all of our Shabbat morning services beginning at the end of this month. The new prayer book combines both contemporary Reform philosophy and theology with essential elements of traditional Jewish prayer to create a new worship service designed to elevate our prayers and communal worship experience.

The principle of traditional Jewish communal prayer is that worshippers gather as a community but pray as individuals. While Jews can pray alone, it is considered essential that the liturgy be recited in the midst of community.

One of the most important results of this style of worship is that every person has responsibility for his/her own prayers. Because each person is praying on their own — even though they are standing with others — everyone must be versed in the “choreography” of the service: when to stand or sit, when to bow or turn, when to pray the entire prayer themselves, or when to pray responsively with the leader.

When the early Reform movement began creating its own liturgy, it imposed the Jewish worship service on the Protestant paradigm. Traditional Jewish worship is “through-composed;” that is, it moves seamlessly from beginning to end with the worship leader keeping the congregation more or less together, while everyone recites their individual prayers — occasionally punctuated by a short, responsive liturgy. Protestant worship is a mosaic: there are small bits executed by the minister, liturgist, choir, soloist, congregation or organist. When these individual bits are put together, they form an entire worship service.

The early Reformers divided up the liturgy and assigned parts — some to the reader/minister, some to the cantor, some to the choir, and some to the congregation. In the prayer books they gave specific instructions as to when to stand, sit, read or sing so that soon the individual worshippers lost the knowledge they had held for centuries.

Mishkan T’filah presents us with the opportunity to reclaim that knowledge and regain ownership of our own prayers. It means making decisions about what we believe, understanding the liturgy, and learning the choreography of prayer. Those people who think it is simply a return to Orthodox practice miss the point. In reality, it returns us to the most essential principle of Reform observance: informed choice.

Mishkan T’filah enhances the majesty of our services and allows us to take full responsibility for our individual
prayers as we worship in the midst of community. Yes, it will take a little more work…but doesn’t anything that’s truly worthwhile? I had a teacher who, when class got tough, would shout “courage!” I urge you to have courage and patience, and to ask lots of questions as together we begin this adventure of seeking the Divine in new ways.

L’shalom,
Andrew Bernard
Cantor