SYNAGOGUES
Congregation Shir Tikvah
proudly presents
Cantor Harold Orbach
in an evening of
Musical Entertainment
New Siddur Reflects Voices
Of The Reconstructionist Soul
t".
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Features Editor
I
Saturday, November 11 at 8:30 p.m.
All music lovers welcome!
Performance will take place at 3633 W. Big Beaver. Road
(between Adams and Coolidge) iniloy (Northminister
Presbyterian Church).
Admission: $7.50 per person.
For information call 643-6520 or 646-2719.
Join us
for our 17th Annual
Invitational Art Show
GALA RECEPTION
Friday, November 3rd - 8-11 p.m. - $5
HIRMING1- 14k8t TEMPLE
AUT SI-1 ow
Saturday & Sunday, November 4th & 5th
10-Noon Free
Noon-5 $2.00
The Birmingham Temple
28611 W. Twelve Mile
(between Middlebelt & Inkster)
Farmington Hills
BARBARA KOPITZ
DESIGN ASSOCIATES, INC.
RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL INTERIOR DESIGN & FURNISHINGS
Designs published in:
House & Garden Magazine
Monthly Detroit
Detroit Free Press
Detroit News
The Eccentric Newspapers
Home Planners
BARBARA KOPITZ, ASID
Builder/Architect
Terry Ellis, Associate Designer
355 S. Woodward
Suite 280, Birmingham
by appointment 644-0700
50
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1989
t's called the Voice of the
Soul, and it contains
gender-neutral pronouns
for God, recollections of
ancestors as alternative
prayers for the Amidah, and
modern poems that accom-
pany traditional brachot,
blessings.
Kol Haneshamah, Voice of
the Soul, is the Reconstruc-
tionists' new prayer book
and its first Siddur since
1945. It recently was mailed
to the 65 U.S. Reconstruc-
tionist congregations, in-
cluding T'Chiyah in Detroit.
, "The new Siddur seeks to
reflect Jewish history of the
past half-century while re-
maining faithful to the prin-
ciples of Reconstructionism
as a movement within
Judaism," said Rabbi Ar-
thur Green, president of the
Reconstructionist Rab-
binical College in Wyncote,
Pa.
These principles include
removing from , the Siddur
all prayers that call for the
reestablishment of sacrifices
and those referring to in-
dividual reward and
punishment and bodily res-
urrection.
Reconstructionism was
founded in 1945 by Rabbi
Mordecai Kaplan, a pro-
fessor at the Jewish Theolog-
ical Seminary, who sought to
adapt Judaism to the in-
tellectualism of the modern
age. For Rabbi Kaplan,
Judaism was a civilization,
not a religion, and Jews
were not "the chosen peo-
ple."
The Union of Orthodox
Rabbis of the United States
and Canada publicly burned
the first Reconstructionist
prayer book and denounced
Rabbi Kaplan as an atheist.
Yet Rabbi Kaplan con-
tinued to be a prominent
force in modern Judaism un-
til his death in 1983. He of-
ficiated at the first bat mitz-
vah.
Today, about 60,000 men
and women — 1 percent of
the American Jewish
population — identify as
Reconstructionist.
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling,
executive director of the
Federation of Reconstruc-
tionist Congregations and
Havurot, said an editorial
committee, comprising men
and women, began work two
years ago on the new Siddur.
One of the differences bet-
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An illustration from Kol
Hahesamah
ween the new Reconstruc-
tionist Siddur and Reform,
Conservative and Orthodox
prayer books is that Kol
Haneshamahoffers literary,
not literal, translations of
Hebrew, Rabbi Liebling
said. Translated by Joel
Rosenberg, a poet and pro-
fessor at Tufts University,
the result is a more "pray-
able language," he said.
Kol Haneshamah also con-
tains a variety of commen-
tary on the prayers, in-
cluding a historical perspec-
tive; scholarly views, focus-
ing on the nature of the
prayer; a spiritual approach,
assessing the intention of
the prayers; and midrash,
with stories and explana-
tions.
Rabbi Liebling noted that
the Reconstructionist prayer
book, while it contains all
the elements of the tradi-
tional Friday night service,
is the only Siddur with
poetry in the original
Yiddish, art work and
musical notations. He ex-
plained, "Reconstructionists
see Judaism as a civiliza-
tion, and music, art and
poetry are all part of that."
Kol Haneshamah also lists
the names of the Jewish ma-
triarchs, Rebecca, Sarah,
Rachel and Leah, with those
of the Jewish patriarchs in
the Amidah, and, following
the Chasidic example, in-
cludes excerpts from the
Song of Songs.
Much of the traditional
language removed from the
first Reconstructionist
prayer book has been
reinstated in Kol
Haneshamah, Rabbi Liebl-
ing said. Examples of this
are a description of the par-
ting of the Red Sea and a
verse, contained in the
Sh'ma, warning that the
rains will stop as God's
punishment.
When the first Siddur was
compiled, Rabbi Liebling
said, the parting of the Red
Sea was omitted because
"we didn't want to en-
courage belief in a super-
natural God." Editors chose
to include it in Kol
Haneshamahbecause they
understood the occurrence as
"a metaphor for a place of
time and difficulty, which is
something we can all relate
to."
The Sh'ma verse in its
original is printed in the
new Siddur because the
editors viewed it in terms of
ecology, Rabbi Liebling said.
"We know that if we don't
follow the laws of the envi-
ronment, the rain willstop."
Such interpretations of
traditional liturgy reflect
the Reconstructionist view,
he said. "What we do is to
take traditional teachings
and try to understand them
in the modern world." 111
Adat Shalom Hosts
AAEJ Director
William Recant, executive
director of the American
Association for Ethiopian
Jewry, will speak on "Ethio-
0).
William Recant
pian Jewry: The Unfinished
Exodus" 7:30 p.m. Thursday
at Adat Shalom Synagogue.
The program is co-
sponsored by the synagogue's
Adult Study Commission and
Social Action Committee. It is
open to the community at no
charge.
Recant began his work for
the AAEJ in 1986. Since
then, he helped establish the
Congressional Caucus for
Ethiopian Jews.
Temple Beth El
Holds Blood Drive
Temple
Beth
El
Brotherhood will conduct its
semi-annual interfaith blood
drive 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 12.
Fr information, contact
Temple Beth El, 851-1100; or
Byron E. Siegel, 354-2500.
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