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Word Journey

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Rabbi Arthur Green
compiles a mini-encyclopedia
of the basic vocabulary
of:Jewish spiritual life.

SHARI ZINGLE

Special to the Jewish News

n Rosh Hashanah, prayers are considerably
longer than those on other holidays. On Yom
Kippur, practically the entire day is spent in prayer.
Because of the great emphasis on prayer at this
time of year, it is helpful to gain a little perspec-
tive on the role of words often used in prayer.
In These Are the Words: A Vocabulary of Jewish
Spiritual Life (Jewish Lights; $21.95), Rabbi
Arthur Green explains the basic...vocabulary a per-
son needs to know — and why it is important to
know and use these words in Hebrew.
With 149 entries, Green's book not only con-
tains words used in prayer but core Hebrew words
that are shared and understood throughout the
Jewish world. For each term, he offers a defini-
tion, along with some history and etymology.
Green's premise for this book is his belief that
Hebrew and Yiddish have lost their place as
Jewish languages. "A new language of internation-
al communication has emerged within the Jewish
community," he writes. "It is called English.
"Simply rendering terms into English does
very little to help the reader," he says. "One has
to understand the associations each word evokes,
and this often depends on linguistic puns and
subtle interrelationships of words that are not
carried over in translation."
From Adonai ("My Lord") to zekhut (` 'merit"),
Green guides readers through his vocabulary list
in an effort to help them better understand
Judaism and its spirituality. He points out that
this list is also the vocabulary that people of
other faiths need to know to understand Judaism
and Jewish life.
Rabbi Green, a former president of the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in
Philadelphia, is currently Lown Professor of
Jewish Thought at Brandeis University. With the
approach of the High Holidays, Rabbi Green
shares, from his book, a baker's dozen of impor-
tant words that are valuable to prayer.

Y-1-1-W-11

This is the word beyond all words, the word that
has to come first, the source of cosmic and ver-
bal energy that underlies the existence of all the
others. The Torah calls Y-H-W-H the name of
God. What is its mystery? First, it has no vowels
or real consonants. The point is one of elusive-
ness or abstraction. Y-H-W-H is not a Supreme
Being you can grab hold of and be sure you've

9/29 WORD JOURNEY on page R44

2000

R42

SUZANNE CHESSLER

Special to the Jewish News

33

ver think that prayer, religious readings
and ritual especially during the High
Holy Days — could be more personally
meaningful? Two rabbis with links to
Michigan definitely do and have come up with
books to suggest their ideas.
Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, professor of liturgy at
Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and a consult-
ant scheduled to study Detroit area worship prac-
tices, is the author of The Art of Public Prayer: Not
for Clergy Only (Skylight Paths; $17.95). His
approach has to do with group experiences.
Rabbi Daniel Polish, former spiritual leader at
Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township and now
director of the Social Action Commission of the
Union of American Hebrew Congregations in New
York, is the author of Bringing the Psalms to Life:

How to Understand and Use the Book of Psalms

(Jewish Lights Publishing; $21.95). His approach
reaches to more private places.
"My book is for congregational ritual committees
or worship care committees," explains Hoffman, a
designer of Synagogue 2000, a nationwide initiative
that comes to Michigan this November to help con-
gregations develop their
prayer life.
"It sums up the entire
field of ritual studies as
that applies to worship,
and it allows people to
look objectively at their
community prayer life,
answer questions and
change their services to
provide the maximum
amount of spirituality for
the people gathered there."
fo,-
Hoffman's work
, \Tot
•
involves finding ways to
get people engaged in
prayer, and he offers
some general recommen-
datiOns: include people in
singing, give a sense of
community, provide
interactive experience
with Torah, personalize

services and provide more than one kind of service.
"Normally, I attend a Reform synagogue, but I
was raised in an Orthodox shul and have a comfort
level that puts me perfectly at home in worship of all
the movements," explains Hoffman. He has been
testing his principles for more than 30 years through
Chavurat Tikvah, a small congregation he estab-
lished with 20 families.
"There isn't a single movement that has a monop-
oly on the ability to bore people," he says, "and they
all can use the principles of how to make people
more involved with the spiritual side of prayer."
Hoffman, who attributes his love for prayer and ritu-
al to the rabbi who led his childhood congregation,
earned his doctoral degree in liturgy, the history and
development of prayers. His fascination was tied to the
stories that spoke to the inner life of the Jewish people.
As he works with congregations around the coun-
try, Hoffman thinks of change in two ways — addi-
tive and transformative. The first has to do with
bringing in new programs, and the second involves
thinking differently about synagogue life and being
purpose driven.
"When I called my book The Art of Public Prayer,
I used the word art with great care," explains
Hoffman, whose
Michigan work is
sponsored by the
Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan
Detroit. "I think it's
most useful to think
of ourselves as artists
who stand in an art
tradition. All artists
build on prior
artists.

'The 5171- of

Public
Prayer

o)nly

Lawrence A. Hoffman:
"What we do as
contemporary Jews
doe., not mean we throw out
our prayer books. We try to
keep continuity and respect
for the past at the same time
we stamp it with our own
artistic creativity for r our era.