Mishkan T'fillah (5)

[cellio]

This Shabbat was day 6 with Mishkan T'fillah, the new (draft) siddur. I don't have a lot of new observations this week; mostly more re-inforcement of previous observations (and one new experiment we tried).

Specifically:

• Translations need to be translations, not vague adaptations. My patience for this sort of thing is basically non-existent.
• Some of the (properly-labelled) adaptations and interpretive readings are very nice.
• I really like the layout (modulo some nits).
• They break the formatting conventions in a few places, and it's confusing.
• I'd rather that they use more pages than shrink things down to hard-to-read sizes. Some of the older members of our group are having problems with some of the small print.

Some people have complained that with this layout, the person leading the service has to be more of a leader and guide people to the right places. I think this is a good thing; I want the person leading the service to have that kind of flexibility, and anyone in that position ought to be qualified to do it. If we're releasing into the wild rabbis who can't follow a service without an extremely-blatant guide, we're doing something wrong. (Note that I don't believe the premise of that last sentence.)

Our group experimented with having the entire group read (in unison) some of the English stuff. We already did that for certain key parts (most prominently, the translation of the Shema); for the rest of the service, our custom is to go around the circle taking turns. I don't like group reading; people have to spend effort staying "in sync", so they pay less attention to the actual words. I hope we don't continue that experiment -- but we had to try it once, for the sake of completeness.

The service also ran long enough this week that we lost the rabbi's talk (which is usually about 10 minutes, not long); we had to finish in time for the rabbi to go to the bar-mitzvah service after ours. This was disappointing. I think the solution is to reduce the number (or length) of English readings that are basically translations; there are a number of places where we read the Hebrew and then read the translation, and I'd rather we didn't do that so much. (This comment pre-dates the new siddur, actually.) I said something like that to the rabbi, but we didn't really have time to discuss it. Maybe we can discuss it next time we get together to learn talmud.

I hope that I'll be able to borrow a copy of this siddur while writing up my formal evaluation. It would be handy to be able to refer to specific texts, page numbers, etc. I hope they'll welcome that level of feedback.

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Comments

[cellio]

Another factor is that in most Reform and many Conservative services, the group doesn't have much drift because most of the davening is done together, whereas with Orthodox services you're mostly davening on your own and coming together at certain points. So a person walking into an Orthodox service late needs some sort of hint (when I've been in that situation I've just bummed a page number from someone near me), but someone coming into a Reform service will get a clue pretty quickly even without explicit page numbers. (Ok, maybe I'm inappropriately assuming that if you hear "baruch she-amar" you know to turn to the beginning of p'sukei d'zimra, or whatever. I sometimes forget that I know the formal order of service better than many others.)

I'd guess that 90% of our group is there at the beginning. And the rabbi does give page numbers periodically -- not every page, of course, but often enough that people seem to do ok.

I suppose the new layout is potentially confusing, and maybe my expectations of participants are too high. You should be willing do to a little work yourself, and not demand spoon-feeding from the leader. Consider: a typical spread in this siddur has the Hebrew (and translit) on the right page, a translation below that, and two or sometimes three short readings (visibly separated) on the left page. Either page might have small notes at the bottom. Now, if you're in a minyan that never reads the commentary aloud, and you know you're on the right pair of pages (because, say, you just read the Hebrew there, or were told to turn to that page), and the leader starts reading English, then you have three (or four) candidates for where he is. You should be able to find the right spot to follow in just a few words. Or you could just listen, in which I seem to often be alone. Yeah, if you're going to go from reading Hebrew on one page straight to something in English on the next pair of pages, without the intervening Hebrew, then you'd better call out a page number. We don't tend to do that, but other congregations might. Our Hebrew density is pretty high for Reform, from what I've been told.

I don't always want to wait for psalm 150 to catch up with p'suke. On the other hand, maybe I should just go through the psalms at my own pace anyhow...

Can't you just start at the beginning and then jump to 150 when you hear it? Doing all of them is commendable but not halacha, right? So do as many as you can before the group gets to the end and you're fine, right?

[goljerp]

the leader starts reading English, then you have three (or four) candidates for where he is. You should be able to find the right spot to follow in just a few words. Or you could just listen, in which I seem to often be alone.

Hm. I see how this could be confusing, especially if for some reason one's english reading isn't that fast.

Can't you just start at the beginning and then jump to 150 when you hear it?

Sure. The thing is, usually the p'suke de zimra is done mostly in hebrew, with the leader saying out loud just the beginning/end of the psalm... except when he or she decides to sing part of one (in which case, everyone joins in). And I have this thing about wanting to conform, but also wanting to read the psalms that I like.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

whereas with Orthodox services you're mostly davening on your own and coming together at certain points. So a person walking into an Orthodox service late needs some sort of hint (when I've been in that situation I've just bummed a page number from someone near me)

I actually find far more freedom in Orthodox services than I do in Reform (only been to two reform services) or Conservative (most of my life was spent in Conservative services). Theoretically, one does not need a hint of the page numbers in an Orthodox service if one comes late... that is to say, you start at the beginning no matter when you walked in. In contrast, I felt immense pressure at a Conservative synagogue to be with the group...everything was strictly in sync and I never felt like I had the freedom to daven at my own pace. I find so much more meaning when I'm not forced into someone else's pace, or someone else's decisions about whether a particular section will be in Hebrew or in English, etc.

I know that others disagree...I know that some feel an intense pressure to hurry and catch up, but I guess I just don't look at it that way. I've always managed to catch up and if I hadn't, I'd just stay a few minutes longer to finish up.

Recently, of course, this has been a non-issue for me, because the nearest Orthodox synagogue is two and a half miles away from here and the weather and my health have kept me from wanting to make the trek, so I daven at home unless we're spending shabbos with friends.

[cellio]

I also prefer to have some time "to myself" during a service, even if it's only the silent Amidah. (Reform doesn't do silent + chazan's Amidah, just once, usually together. So I don't get that there, though our congregation at least inserts some silent time at the end to compensate.)

Theoretically, one does not need a hint of the page numbers in an Orthodox service if one comes late... that is to say, you start at the beginning no matter when you walked in.

I thought there were certain times where you pretty much had to be with the group (e.g. kedusha), and as a result there was a priority list for what to do and what to skip if you're in a hurry, which would mean you'd need a hint of how much time you have. Or am I conflating two things? Maybe that priority list doesn't apply to shul but only if you're on your own and in a hurry for some reason (e.g. I have to leave for work in 10 minutes; what can I pull off?).

Or maybe having to be together at certain points only applies to the ten men who make up the minyan (and hence, never to either of us)?