From Ideology to Liturgy: Reconstructionist Worship and American Liberal Judaism (Monographs of the Hebrew Union College) 0878204504, 9780878204502

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Monographs of the Hehrew Union College Numher26 From Ideology to Liturgy: Reconstructionist Worship and American LiheralJudaism

An 1 Edward Kiev Lihrary Foundation Book

Monographs of the Hebrew Union College 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Lewis M. Barth, An Analysis of Vatican 30 Samson H. Levey, The Messiah: An Aramaic Interpretation Ben Zion Wacholder, Eupolemus: A Study offudaeo-Greek Literature Richard Victor Bergren, The Prophets and the Law Benny Kraut, From Reformfudaism to Ethical Culture: The Religious Evolution of Felix Adler David B. Ruderman, The World of a RenaissanceJew: The Life and Thought of Abraham ben Mordecai Farrisol Alan Mendelson, Secular Education in Philo ofAlexandria Ben Zion Wacholder, The Dawn ofOymran: The Sectarian Torah and the Teacher ofRighteousness Stephen M. Passamaneck, The Traditionaljewish Law of Sale: Shulh,an Arukh, lfoshen Mishpat, Chapters 189-240 Yael S. Feldman, Modernism and Cultural Transfer: Gabriel Preil and the Tradition ofJewish Literary Bilingualism Raphael Jospe, Torah and Sophia: The Life and Thought of Shem Tov ibn Falaquera Richard Kalmin, The Redaction ofthe Babylonian Talmud: Amoraic or Saboraic? Shuly Rubin Schwartz, The Emergence ofJewish Scholarship in America: The Publication of theJewish Encyclopedia John C. Reeves, Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony: Studies in the Book of Giants Traditions Robert Kirschner, Baraita De-Melekhet Ha-Mishkan: A Critical Edition with Introduction and Translation Philip E. Miller, Karaite Separatism in Nineteenth-Century Russia:Joseph Solomon Lutski's Epistle ofIsrael's Deliverance Warren Bargad, "To Write the Lips of Sleepers':' The Poetry ofAmir Gilboa Marc Saperstein, "Your Voice Like a Ram's Hom ,~. Themes and Texts in Traditionaljewish Preaching Emanuel Melzer, No Way Out: The Politics ofPolish Jewry, 1935-1939 Eric 1. Friedland, "Were Our Mouths Filled with Song':' Studies in Liberaljewish Liturgy Edward Fram, Ideals Face Reality:Jewish Law and Life in Poland 1550-1655 Ruth Langer, To Worship God Properly: Tensions Between Liturgical Custom and Halakhah inJudaism Nili Sacher Fox, In the Service ofthe King: Officialdom in Ancient Israel andJudah Carole B. Balin, To Reveal Our Hearts:Jewish Women Writers in Tsarist Russia Shaul Bar, A Letter That Has Not Been Read: Dreams in the Hebrew Bible Eric Caplan, From Ideology to Liturgy: Reconstructionist Worship and American Liberaljudaism

From Ideology to Liturgy Reconstructionist Worship and American Liberal Judaism

Eric Caplan

HEBREW UNION COLLEGE PRESS CINCINNATI

© 2002 by the Hebrew Union College Press Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Caplan, Eric, 1963From ideology to liturgy: Reconstructionist worship and American liberal Judaism / Eric Caplan. p. cm. - (Monographs of the Hebrew Union College; no. 26) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87820-450-4 (alk. paper) 1. Reconstructionist Judaism-Liturgy. 2. ReconstructionistJudaism-History. 3. Siddur (Reconstructionist). 4. Kaplan, Mordecai Menahem, 1881-1983. I. Title. II. Series BM660.C36 2002 296.4'5048-dc21 2002074202 Printed on acid-free paper in the United States of America Typeset by Posner and Sons Ltd.,jerusalem, Israel Distributed by Wayne State University Press 4809 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201

Contents Acknowledgments

viii

Introduction 1.

The Ideology of Mordecai M. Kaplan

9

2.

Kaplan as Liturgist: Reconstructionist Liturgy, 1941-1963

3.

An Institutional History of ReconstructionistJudaism

125

4.

The Ideology of Post-Kaplanian Reconstructionism

143

5.

Kol Haneshamah: The New Reconstructionist Prayerbook Series

164

6.

Kol Haneshamah and Other Contemporary LiberalJewish Liturgies 295

7.

Postscript: Contemporary Reconstructionism and American Spiritual Trends

46

367

Bibliography

373

Index of Persons Cited Index of Prayers, Piyyutim, and Hymns Cited Subject Index

399 403 407

The I. Edward Kiev Library Foundation In loving memory of Dr. 1. Edward Kiev, distinguished Rabbi, Chaplain, and Librarian of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, his family established a Library Foundation in September 1976 to support and encourage scholarship inJudaica and Hebraica. The Hebrew Union College Press is proud to add this work by Eric Caplan to the growing list of scholarly works supported by the Kiev Foundation.

To Rosana

Acknowledgments This book is based on my Ph.D. thesis, which was completed at McGill University under the supervision of Professor Barry Levy in the fall of 1998. It is hard for me to find words to express the extent of my gratitude to Barry. Beyond providing wise academic and professional advice, he has been a true friend. The university can be a lonely place and it has been a source of strength to know that he is only a phone call away. Professors Eugene Orenstein, Gershon Hundert, and Lawrence Kaplan contributed significantly to my education at McGill and continue to show interest in me. The Department of]ewish Studies provided a quiet work space without which I could not have completed the original research. It is a great source of pleasure to find myself working as a professor in the very department that has been so significant to my personal growth. Professor David Ellenson, the external examiner of my thesis, was immensely supportive and showed true kindness during my brief stay in Los Angeles a few years ago. I could not have pursued graduate work without the support of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Graduate Faculty of McGill University. Although this is my first book, it is hard for me to imagine that there exists a publisher more supportive than Hebrew Union College Press. Professor Michael Meyer, chair of the Publications Committee, steered the external review process with great kindness. The anonymous reviewers compiled detailed reports that served as a road map for the many revisions that this work has undergone these past three years. I am especially grateful to Professor Richard Sarason for reading the full manuscript on at least two occasions and providing numerous helpful suggestions. This book has been much enriched by his input. Barbara Selya, managing editor of the Press, took my fairly clear but non-poetic prose and made it infinitely more readable. She has been my main contact at the Press, showing great patience as I requested "just one more minor change." I hope to be able to thank all of you in person in the future. The most enjoyable aspect of researching this book was the many interviews conducted with the people involved in the creation of the liturgies discussed below. I was taken by the serious manner in which they approached viii

their task, and by the holiness of the act of creating and editing liturgy itself. They answered my questions honestly and thoroughly; I felt engaged both as a scholar and as a person. I am especially grateful to David Teutsch, Arthur Green, Ira Eisenstein z'l, Leila Gal Berner, Rami Shapiro, Mordecai Liebling, and Lee Freidlander. The National Office of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation provided much needed support, and the staff of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College did everything in their power to make my many visits enjoyable. I am grateful as well to the 1. Edward Kiev Library Foundation for its generous grant to Hebrew Union College Press in support of my book's publication. There are many reasons why this book is dedicated to my wife, Rosana. It is one of the ironies of academic life that while research is essential to one's career, it is hard to find the time to get it done. I could not have researched and written this book without her willingness to be "primary care-giver" of our children during the many summers, weekends, and evenings when I was largely unavailable. Rosana was deeply supportive of my decision to enroll at McGill, although it meant our delaying starting a family and required her to put off pursuing graduate studies of her own. She has lived the many ups and downs that the writing of this book has entailed these past ten years, and has been my greatest friend. Eric Caplan

ix

Introduction Lawrence A. Hoffman has argued convincingly that liturgy is a primary vehicle for the articulation of a community's sense of self.! A prayerbook is embraced if the ideological message contained within it mirrors people's self-understanding and religious inclinations. To be adopted, it need not be a perfect reflection of group identity, but it must be perceived as the best translation currently available. Through repeated use, the book's message acts as a socializing agent to heighten the ideal image it represents. 2 In this sense, prayerbooks are not merely reflections of current identity, but mechanisms for imparting ideas considered desirable. Since liturgy reflects the community it serves, it is only logical that it must evolve as the group's sense of self changes. Minor shifts in group identity call forth minor liturgical revisions. A few new prayers are included, the book is reformatted, and some customs are altered or added. Major changes to a community's self-image lead to the creation of completely new liturgies that supplant the texts that preceded them. 3 While new prayerbooks include material from the past, it is generally edited in a significant manner and presented in a substantially new way. A considerable amount of original material is often included. The basic order of rabbinic Jewish prayer (nusa4 ha-tefillah) took form between 70 C.E. and 600 C.E., and was closed to further significant revision by the religious leadership of BabylonianJewry of the ninth and tenth centuries.Jewish liturgical creativity, however, did not cease in the centuries that followed. The siddur Gewish prayerbook) was enriched and expanded through the incorporation of piyyutim, a highly stylized form of religious poetry that originated in Byzantine Palestine and flourished especially in medieval Spain and 1. Lawrence A. Hoffman, "The Liturgical Message," Gates ofUnderstanding: A Companion Volume to Shaarei Tefillah: Gates of Prayer, Lawrence A. Hoffman ed. (New York: Central

Conference of American Rabbis/Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1977) pp. 131-168. Also see in this regard, Hoffman's Beyond the Text: A Holistic Approach to Liturgy (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1987). 2. "The Liturgical Message," p. 146. 3. Ibid., pp. 133-134; Beyond the Text, p. 69.

2

From Ideology to Liturgy

Franco-Germany. Jewish mysticism also left a considerable mark on the prayerbook. Particularly influential in this regard were the German pietists of the twelfth century (lfasidei Ashkenai) and the Lurianic mystics of the sixteenth century. But the liturgical creativity of the Middle Ages did not alter, in any significant sense, the basic nusa~ ha-tefillah mandated by the Babylonian Geonim. While Jews in the medieval period endured expulsions, forced conversions, and numerous other hardships, these did not uproot the fundamental faith-assumptions or self-perceptions of the community. Nor did they lead to the creation of significantly different forms of communal organization or to changes in the basic manner in which Jews and non jews interacted. Accordingly, the inherited nusa~ ha-tefillahretained its relevance. In contrast, the radically different socio-political position of the Jews in the modem world and the significant reformulations of Jewish identity and revisions of traditional Jewish doctrine that have taken place within modernizingJewish movements have precipitated the creation of liturgies that take a more radical approach to the inherited nusa~ ha-tefillah. Although many prayerbooks conforming fully to customary usage have been produced during the modem age, it is the creation of reformed liturgies that serves to distinguish this era from the previous centuries of liturgical development. Over 150 reformed siddurim were published in Western Europe alone between 1816 and 1967.4 Indeed, the social and cultural integration of the Jews of nineteenth-century Western Europe rendered troubling many aspects of the inherited liturgy. The newly enfranchised Jews viewed their non Jewish countrymen as brethren committed to the shared values of the Enlightenment. They were thus often bothered, for example, by the ~leynu, which presents the Jews as essentially different from their Christian neighbors. Seeking to integrate fully into the newly opened surrounding culture and not wanting their commitment to their European homelands to be questioned, many were wary of continuing to chant prayers asking God to rebuildJerusalem and ingather theJewish exiles. Stripped of all relevance, these passages could no longer be prayed wholeheartedly. In the New World, the openness and tolerance of American society has caused non-Orthodox AmericanJews to react somewhat similarly to these aspects of the traditional siddur text. Psalm passages that can be read as denigrating other nations have been seen uniformly as troubling, and the ~leynu has been edited or paraphrased. Although Conservative and ReconstructionistJews have generally maintained the prayerbook's customary references to 4. Jakob J. Petuchowski, Prayerbook Reform in Europe: The Liturgy ofEuropean Liberal and R.eformJudaism (N ew York: The World Union for Progressive Judaism, Ltd., 1968) pp. 2-20.

Introduction

3

the ingathering of the exiles, American Reform siddurim continue to be wary of this liturgical sentiment. Aesthetic norms ofJewish worship have also been molded to reflect those prevalent in the surrounding society. While in pre-modem worship services Jews freely prayed at their own pace, services today are characterized by a greater sense of unity and decorum. In imitation of the norms prevalent in the Protestant church, the rabbi delivers a weekly sermon of religious or socio-political relevance. In the nineteenth century, an organ often accompaniedJewish worship and a choir was featured prominently. The growing informality of western society during the last few decades has led to a worship style that better facilitates group participation. In many liberal synagogues, the organ is now replaced by the guitar; the choir by the collective voice of the community. For manyJews in the nineteenth century, exposure to rationalism, scientific inquiry, comparative religion, and biblical criticism called into question a number of the beliefs expressed in the traditional liturgy. In Germany, although the early reformers still believed to some extent in divine revelation, most did not see all Torah passages as the word of God5 and largely rejected traditional Jewish positions on the afterlife, the physical resurrection of the dead, and the existence of a personal messiah. Yet only the vernacular text of the prayerbook generally reflected these views. An official government- sanctionedJewish community continued to exist in post-emancipation Germany. Reformers did not want to break away from it to create sectarian houses of worship and opted, for the most part, to work towards the transformation of existing synagogues. The presence of community members who wished to see the traditional formulations perpetuated made it difficult for reformers to institute all of the changes in the Hebrew text demanded by their theology. BelieVing thatJudaism must evolve slowly if a lasting change was to take place, they refrained from forcing traditionalists to acquiesce to their views. As a result, in most German reformed prayerbooks, references to the existence of angels and miracles were largely preserved. And the Musaf service, whose main fixture is a description of the sacrificial service and request for its reinstitution, was maintained, albeit in altered form. The absence of a government-sanctionedJewish community in the United States and the "congregationalist" orientation of American Protestantism 5. See, in this regard, The Rise ofReformJudaism: A Sourcebook ofits European Origins, Gunther Plaut, ed. (New York: The World Union for Progressive Judaism, Ltd., 1963) pp. 125-133; Michael A. Meyer, Response to Modernity: A History ofthe Reform Movement inJudaism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988) pp. 98-99.

4

From Ideology to Liturgy

helped encourage the creation of independent synagogues consolidated around a fairly homogeneous theological point of view. Not surprisingly, prayerbooks created in American liberal circles have generally been more radical than their German antecedents. ReformJudaism has reduced or removed from the Hebrew text references to miracles, an,gels, the revelation of the Torah at Sinai, the existence of a personal Messiah, the physical resurrection of the body after death, and biblical understandings of divine reward and punishment. ReconstructionistJudaism has largely followed Reform's lead in removing these elements, but a fuller version of the traditional nusalf, ha-tefillah is presented. In contrast, Conservative Judaism has instituted few changes in the text of the inherited Hebrew prayers. A close reading of the English translation and supplementary prayers, however, makes clear that its prayerbooks bear equal testimony to the radical changes that have taken place in liberal understandings of traditional Jewish doctrine. Non-Orthodox prayerbooks continue to be issued at a fairly impressive rate in the United States. The Reform movement, for example, significantly revised its official daily, festival, and Sabbath liturgy in 1975 and its high holiday liturgy in 1978. The movement, however, has already begun working on a new prayerbook, with a projected publication date of 2005. American liberal Judaism's ongoing liturgical creativity is fueled by its desire to place in worshippers' hands a meaningful text that reflects continually changing sensitivities and aesthetic norms. Many factors have motivated the recent demand for new liturgy: the feminist critique of the language used to address God; issues surrounding the horrors of the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel; increased interest in mysticism and spirituality; the growing informality of English usage; the thirst for novelty; renewed affirmation of liturgical forms rejected previously; and the growing number ofJews who lack synagogue and Hebrew literacy. As Paul F. Bradshaw and Lawrence A. Hoffman have noted,6 economic growth and computer technology have made it possible for religious leaders to respond to this demand. Liturgical creativity is evident in the Christian world as well. All of the major American Protestant denominations have issued revised prayerbooks during the last twenty-five years. In America, as in nineteenth-century Germany, reformed prayerbooks have been published by individual rabbis as well as by national movements. Prior to the publication of the first official Reform prayerbook in 1895, significant new liturgies were produced by Isaac Mayer Wise (Minhag Ameriqah, 6. The Changing Fact o/Jewish and Christian Worship in North Amm°ca, Paul F. Bradshaw and Lawrence A. Hoffman eds. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991) p. xii.

Introduction

5

1857), David Einhorn (Olal Tamid, 1858), and Leo Merzbacher (Seder Teflllah, 1855).7 Benjamin Szold's more traditional Avodal Yisrael (1864), revised by MarcusJastrow in 1873, can be seen as a precursor of Conservative liturgy. Its approach to the editing of the inherited nusal! ha-tefillah is more radical, however, than the editorial bent of liturgies subsequently published by the Conservative movement in the twentieth century. 8 Since the 1950s, important Reform and Conservative liturgies have been published by Max D. Klein (Seder Avodah, 1951), Sydney Greenberg and Jonathan D. Levine (Likrat Shabbat, 1971), and Congregation Beth El of Sudbury, MA (Vetaher Libenu, 1980). Significant feminist liturgies have been compiled by Margaret Moers Wenig and NaomiJanowitz (Siddur Nashim, 1976), and Marcia Falk (The Book ofBlessings, 1996). This study examines the interpretation and adaptation of the traditional Jewish liturgy and creation of new prayer texts and forms of worship within ReconstructionistJudaism. Reconstructionism, which emerged in America in the mid 1930s, appealed originally to second-generation American Jews of Eastern European origin who felt strong emotional ties to Jewish culture but had difficulty reconciling modem belief with traditional Jewish theology. It is based on the philosophy of Mordecai M. Kaplan (1881-1983), who denied the divine origin ofJewish practice but valuedJewish ritual for its role in forging and maintaining group consciousness, cultivating appreciation for the gifts of life, and sensitizing people to the presence of the divine force in the universe. Kaplan believed that inherited rituals should only be altered if they are morally problematic, impractical, or aesthetically unpleasing. Although he criticized the Reform movement for denyingJewish peoplehood and diminishing Jewish ritual usage, he felt that the challenges of modernity neccessitated a more radical approach to Jewish life than that entertained by Conservative JudaismY Completely rejecting Jewish chosenness, he forwarded a thoroughly non-supernatural view of God. Liturgical creativity has been a hallmark of Reconstructionism since its inception, and the movement has been continually responsive to changing American religious and cultural sensitivities. Thus all facets of liturgical mate7. Merzbacher's work was revised by Samuel Adler in 1864. Wise revised Minhag Amen:qah in 1872. 8. For an explanation of this methodological shift, see Eric L. Friedland, "The Historical and Theological Development of Non-Orthodox Prayerbooks in the United States" (Diss. Brandeis University, 1967) pp. 139-140. 9. Kaplan's view of the existing movements in AmericanJudaism is succinctly delineated in the opening chapters of his first book,Judo.ism as a Civili;:tltion (1934; Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of AmericalThe Reconstructionist Press, 1981) pp. 91-169.

6

From Ideology to Liturgy

rials developed by the Reconstructionist movement are analyzed as vehicles for conveying and expressing that creativity and changing ideology, including translations, supplementary readings, commentaries, rubrics, and layout. Although a number of articles have been written on specific aspects of Reconstructionist liturgy,1O this is the first systematic and comprehensive analysis of official Reconstructionist prayer materials ever to appear. ll Our discussion begins with an examination of the ideology of Mordecai M. Kaplan, who served as editor-in-chief of the first Reconstructionist prayerbooks and whose ideology they conveyed. Emphasis is placed on those facets of Kaplan's thought that are most relevant to understanding his liturgical work. To the extent that Kaplan's personal journey molded his ideology and is thus relevant to our discussion, a brief biographical sketch of his life prior to the publication of his first comprehensive philosophical statement, Judaism as a Civilization (1934), is included. Chapter Two analyzes the first Reconstructionist liturgies, published between 1941 and 1963, focusing primarily on the Sabbath liturgy. These services allow the most room for the incorporation of supplementary materials relating to a wide variety of themes. While the high holiday liturgy, for example, must concentrate on repentance, Sabbath services can be molded in many directions, and its liturgy reveals a more comprehensive picture of Re10. Eric L. Friedland ("Historical and Theological Development") and Ira Eisenstein ("Kaplan as Liturgist," 1heAmericanjudtlism ofMordecaiM Kaplan, Emanuel S. Goldsmith, Mel Scult and Robert M. Seltzer eds. [New York: New York University Press, 1990], pp. 319-331) have written good overviews of Mordecai Kaplan's liturgies. Neither author, however, catalogues all of the changes Kaplan made or discusses his supplementary material in a significant manner. Arnold Eisen has written a short survey of the Friday night volume of the Kol HanesMTTUJh prayerbook series ("AmericanJudaism: Changing Patterns in Denominational Self-Definition," Studies in Contemporary jewry: An Annual Vol. 8, Peter Y. Medding ed. [New York: Oxford University Press, 1992], pp. 21-49), and David Ellenson has discussed that volume's response to the founding of the State ofIsrael ("Envisioning Israel in the Liturgies of North American LiberalJudaism," David Ellenson, Between Tradition and Culture: 1he Dialectics ofModernjewish Identity [Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994], pp. 153-178). The Kol HanesMTTUJh prayerbooks have been reviewed by a variety of scholars including Neil Gillman (Conservativejudtlism, Fall 1990, pp. 61-65), Eric L. Friedland, Were Our Mouths Filkd With Song: Studies in LiberalJewish Liturgy (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1997, pp. 244-258), and ArnoldJacob Wolf ("The New Liturgies," judtlism, Spring 1997, pp. 235-242). 11. This study confines itself to an analysis of prayerbooks published by the official movement. The independent liturgies produced by Rabbis Ron Aigen and Rami Shapiro and the numerous prayer supplements prepared on a continuous basis by Rabbis Leila Gal Berner, Arnold Rachlis, Lee Friedlander, Larry Pinsker and others are not dealt with. Although the original research proposal envisioned including these materials, it soon became clear that they constituted too large a body of work to be dealt with properly within this project.

Introduction

7

constructionist ideology. In order to evaluate the uniqueness of the Kaplan prayerbooks, they are compared to the contemporaneous liturgies of Reform and Conservative Judaism. Chapter Three is divided into two sections. The first summarizes institutional developments within Reconstructionism from the publication ofjudaism as a Civilk;ation until the founding of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) in 1968. The second brings this institutional history to the present time. Although some of the information included in this chapter sheds little direct light on the liturgies to be discussed, it is provided to help fill the academic void that results from the lack of a systematic treatment of the history of the Reconstructionist movement. Chapter Four delineates important ideological developments within the movement since 1968. The inauguration of the RRC marked the transference of movement leadership from Kaplan's followers to a younger generation, born after World War Two. It was this generational shift that necessitated and facilitated the creation of the new series of Reconstructionist prayerbooks, Kol Haneshamah. The delineation of important ideological trends in post-1968 Reconstructionism provides the background for understanding certain aspects of the Kol Haneshamah prayerbooks and thus contributes significantly to our understanding of them. Chapter Five is devoted in its entirety to an examination of the liturgies that comprise the Kol Haneshamah series. Frequent reference is made to interviews conducted with the main fashioners of these texts, which contribute much to our understanding of the ideolOgical considerations that guided them. Chapter Six compares KolHaneshamah to the contemporaneous liturgies of Reform, Conservative, and RenewalJudaism. The close ties between the leadership of the Reconstructionist movement and the Jewish Renewal community make this last comparison especially interesting. As in Chapter Two, situating the Reconstructionist liturgies in the wider American Jewish context provides a picture of both Reconstructionism's uniqueness and its shared liturgical culture. Comparisons of recent Reform and Conservative liturgies with their 1940s predecessors serve to illustrate developments within American non-OrthodoxJudaism in general. In the Postscript, relevant insights from the general study of American religious life are cited in an attempt to place the liturgical materials surveyed in an even larger cultural context. Although comparisons between liturgies are made throughout the work, each prayerbook is analyzed separately in an attempt to illustrate its uniqueness. While some issues are addressed in all American liberal Jewish prayerbooks, others appear only in a given liturgy; it was feared that these aspects would be lost in a thematic treatment. The decision to present each

8

From Ideology to Liturgy

prayerbook as a structural whole necessarily causes thematic overlap, but every effort has been made to see that this does not obstruct the flow of the discussion. Many of the alternative formulations of the traditional nusa~ ha-tefillah discussed below were first suggested in reformed liturgies of the nineteenth century. The reader who is interested in the history of particular liturgical changes is directed to the footnotes, where frequent reference is made to prior versions of prayers discussed. To place these historical references within the body of the text would render more complex an already detailed description of the liturgies and contribute little to this work's main task: the uncovering of the ideology reflected in Reconstructionist worship texts. All references to traditional Ashkenazi prayer usage below refer to Philip Birnbaum's Ha-Siddur Ha-Shalem (New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1949). Unless otherwise noted, all English translations of the traditional Ashkenazi text are also taken from this work. English biblical quotations are usually taken from Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures: The New jPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1988). Exceptions are indicated in the text or in the footnotes.

1 The Ideology of Mordecai M. Kaplan The only kind ofJewish religion acceptable to Jews who find it impossible to regard the Torah as of supernatural origin is one which deliberately endeavors to conform to the highest dictates ofreason and conscience. l

Mordecai M. Kaplan was born in 1881 in the small Lithuanian town of Swentzian on the outskirts ofVilna. Although the ideals oftheJewish enlightenment {Haskalah} had begun to infiltrate the community, Jewish life in nineteenth-century Swentzian mostly followed traditional patterns set in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Poland. Mordecai's father, Israel Kaplan, was learned in Torah and spent most of his time out of town, studying and teaching in various yeshivot. Kaplan's mother, Anna, supported the family by running a small general store. Kaplan was sent to all-day Jewish school {qede~ at an early age and was raised in a cultural milieu in which Jewish observance permeated and molded every aspect of daily life. 2 Probably in response to economic discrimination againstJews, the Kaplans left Swentzian in 1888. Israel Kaplan went to New York to serve as a judge {dayan} in the rabbinical court of its new Chief Rabbi, Jacob Joseph, while Anna Kaplan and the children moved temporarily to Paris to live with her brothers who had settled there previously. In Paris, Kaplan was sent to public school and supplementary Hebrew school, thus first encountering western culture and the challenge of living in two civilizations.3 By the summer of 1889, Israel Kaplan felt sufficiently secure economically to send for his family, 1. Mordecai M. Kaplan, The Future ofthe AmericanJew (1948; New York: The Reconstructionist Press, 1981) p. 165. 2. Mordecai M. Kaplan, "The Influences That Have Shaped My Life," The Reconstructionist,June 26, 1942, p. 28. 3. Ibid., p. 29. Mel Scult suggests that the Kaplans may have left Swentzian because of Israel Kaplan's inability to find permanent employment. See Mel Scult,Judaism Faces The Twentieth Century: A Biography ofMortkcai M Kaplo.n (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993) p. 27.

9

10

Prom Ideology to Liturgy

who joined him to live on the Lower East Side. But controversy surrounding the collection of a tax for the supervision of kosher meat soon led to the dissolution of the Chief Rabbinate and forced Israel Kaplan to eke out a living as a rabbinical supervisor in local slaughtering houses. 4 It is possible that Kaplan's later negativity regarding the Orthodox establishment can be traced, in part, to witnessing his father's difficulties as its employee.s As it was decided that young Mordecai would become a rabbi, his secular education in America was postponed until he had acquired sufficient grounding inJewish studies. Kaplan did not, in fact, begin serious general education until age twelve. 6 Even then, his Jewish education was not slighted, and he studied Talmud daily with his father and Hebrew and Bible with a hired tutor. 7 A few months before his Bar Mitzvah, Kaplan was admitted to the part-time preparatory program of the Jewish Theological Seminary, thus beginning formally his education towards rabbinical ordination. But the Seminary's curriculum departed significantly from the norm of traditional Orthodox rabbinical education. Jewish history, archaeology, Hebrew grammar, and medieval Jewish philosophy were taught, in addition to Talmud and codes. 8 The fact that Israel Kaplan selected this school for his son and allowed him simultaneously to pursue secular studies at City College, and later at Columbia University, indicates that Kaplan was not raised in an environment hostile to secular education.9 4. Mel Scult, "Mordecai M. Kaplan: His life," in Dynamicjudaism: The Essential Writings of Mordecai M Kaplan, Emanuel S. Goldsmith and Mel Scult eds. (New York: Schocken BookslThe Reconstructionist Press, 1985) p. 3. 5. Richard libowitz, "Kaplan and Cyrus Adler," in The Americanjudaism ofMordecai M. Kaplan, Emanuel S. Goldsmith, Mel Scult and Robert M. Seltzer eds. (New York: New York University Press, 1990) pp. 135-136. 6. Kaplan attended public school for a few months upon arriving in the United States. In addition, some secular subjects were taught at Yeshivat Ek Chaim, which he attended in the years prior to beginning his studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary (Jeffrey S. Gurock and Jacob J. Schacter, A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community: Mordecai M Kaplan, Orthodoxy, andAmericanjudaism [New York: Columbia University Press, 1996] pp. 13-14). 7. "The Influences That Have Shaped My life," p. 29. Kaplan's lack of free time as a child might account for his reported inability to relax in later life. See, for example, Ira Eisenstein, ReconstructingJudaism: An Autobiography (New York: The Reconstructionist Press, 1986) pp. 161-162. 8. "Mordecai M. Kaplan: His life," p. 4. 9. Israel Kaplan was, in fact, drawn at an early age to the ideals of the Jewish enlightenment. He wanted his son educated at the JTS so that he could be a truly American rabbi (A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community, pp. 10, 21). Mordecai Kaplan began his studies at City College in 1895.

The Ideology of Mordecai M. Kaplan

11

In fact, it was at home that Mordecai was fIrst led to question Orthodox belief. Israel Kaplan, a learned talmudist, was frequently visited by the biblical scholar Arnold B. Ehrlich, who was interested in learning from Kaplan how biblical words were understood in later rabbinic texts. Ehrlich, who accepted the conclusions of biblical criticism and at one time was charged with apostasy, in turn shared his beliefs openly with the Kaplan household.I° Contact with Ehrlich led Mordecai to abandon his "belief in the Mosaic authorship of the Torah and in the historicity of the miracles"ll and to begin the process that would eventually lead to his divorce from Orthodoxy. Israel Kaplan was not pleased by these developments and sought to channel Mordecai's intellectual curiosity into more acceptable pursuits by hiring a teacher to tutor him in Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed. He did not, however, attempt to stop his son's questioning of the tradition, which Kaplan attributed to his father's "emphasis on intellectual honesty."12 Kaplan received his B.A. from City College in 1900, where he concentrated mostly on the study of Greek and Latin. It was during his subsequent M.A. studies at Columbia University that he was exposed to the new academic disciplines of sociology and anthropology that so largely influenced the direction of his developing thought. Kaplan studied intensively with the sociologist Franklin H. Giddings, who argued that consciousness of kind, or "we-feeling," formed the basis of group life and led to the cultivation of collective values and ideas. When applied to religiOUS life, this meant that religion was not the product of divine revelation, but of group creativity emerging gradually from shared life experience. 13 This realization solidifled Kaplan's earlier belief in the human origins of the Bible and served as the basis for his argument that reconstituting the Jewish community was a prerequisite for continuedJewish creativity and vitality. When Kaplan graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1903, he accepted a pulpit at an Orthodox synagogue, KehillatJeshurun, in New York. Despite his doubts regarding key Orthodox beliefs, he felt that he could take the position in good faith. He was religiously observant and planned to avoid discussing troubling theolOgical questions. 14 Since rabbinic ordination from JTS was not deemed equivalent to the traditional hatarat hora 'ah (literally "per10. "Mordecai M. Kaplan: His Life," p. 4. 11. Mordecai M. Kaplan, "The Way I Have Come," in Mordecai M Kaplan: An Evaluation, Ira Eisenstein and Eugene Kohn, eds. (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1952) p. 289. 12. "The Influences That Have Shaped My Life," p. 29. 13. "Mordecai M. Kaplan: His Life," p. 5. 14. "The Way I Have Come," p. 290.

12

From Ideology to Liturgy

mission to instruct [in legal matters]") granted by an Orthodox yeshivah, KehillatJeshurun appointed Kaplan "minister" instead of "rabbi." Even so, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis (Agudath Ha-Rabbanim) strongly objected to the appointment of a Seminary graduate and launched a campaign against him. To appease the Union, KehillatJeshurun hired M. Z. Margolis as Rabbi. Kaplan's responsibilities, which included running a five-day a week afternoon Hebrew school and delivering an English sermon twice a month, were not altered. 15 Kaplan was eventually named "rabbi" in 1908, after receiving the hatarat hora 'ah from Rabbi Yitzhak Reines, the founder of an innovative yeshivah near Vilna and a central figure in Russian Orthodox Zionism. 16 Although Kaplan's position at KehillatJ eshurun was now thoroughly secure, he began to feel increasingly uncomfortable as the leader of an Orthodox congregation. Observing the Jewish life of his congregants, Kaplan concluded that the younger generation no longer believed in the divine origin of the tradition and could see no other rationale for living as aJew. Since the Orthodox establishment refused to address this issue, he felt it was contributing to the disaffection ofJews from Judaism. Kaplan knew that he could not express this view from the pulpit of KehillatJeshurun and felt that by posing as an Orthodox rabbi he was being hypocritical. Kaplan saw no way out of his predicament and grew sufficiently disillusioned with Orthodox Judaism to consider quitting the rabbinate and following a career in law or selling insurance. l ? He realized that he could not continue in the Jewish ministry without developing aJewish theology based on "some tenable faith which would not be refuted by established facts."18 Such a theology would not only help keep the new generation within the tradition but provide himself with a replacement for the traditional one in which he had ceased to believe. InJune of 1909, Solomon Schechter offered Kaplan the position of principal of the newly-reconstituted Teacher's Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary. In light of his discomfort at KehillatJeshurun, Kaplan gladly accepted Schechter's job offer. Upon the death of Joseph M. Asher in 1910, Kaplan also assumed the position of Professor of Homiletics and Midrash. 19 Kaplan's 15. Judaism Faces the Twentieth Century, pp. 66-76, 87-88. 16. "The Influences That Have Shaped My Life," p. 30;Judaism Faces the Twentieth Century, p. 25. 17. Ibid., p. 31. 18. "The Way I Have Come," p. 294. 19. Pamela Susan Nadell, ConservativeJudaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary (New York: Greenwood Press, 1988) pp. 147-148. Kaplan, however, did not break all ties to KehillatJeshurun and served as guest rabbi between 1909-1911 (A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community, p. 71).

The Ideology of Mordecai M. Kaplan

13

belief that teachers and rabbis could not be effective educators without possessing a credible Jewish ideology from which to approach the tradition encouraged him to grapple further with the problems of modemJewish identity. Devoting much of his teaching time to analyzing the tradition in order to uncover its meaning for the modemJew, he gradually developed many of the ideas that later formed the core of his ftrst major book,fudaism as a CiviliQllion. 20 Kaplan never hid the fact that his ideology was a direct response to the crisis he perceived in AmericanJudaism, and its pragmatic and programmatic bent clearly can be traced to this fact. As he wrote in the preface to Judaism asa CiviliQ,llion, "In my search for a way to check the devastation of theJewish spiritual heritage, I rediscovered Judaism. "21 In addition to teaching at the Seminary, Kaplan served as the chair of the Education Committee of the short-lived New York Qehillah.22 When its surveys revealed that only twenty percent of the Jewish community received a Jewish education at any given time, Kaplan grew more certain that theJews' will to perpetuate themselves as a distinct group was disappearing quickly. In a free society such as that of the United States, he felt, this process could be halted only by making Jewish life so attractive that Jews would wish to be associated with it voluntarily.23 To this end, he suggested the expansion of synagogue activities to include social, cultural, and athletic programs that would attractJews back to the institution, widen the scope ofJewish life, and make Jews feel more positive about theirJewish identity. Kaplan's previously discussed sociological understanding ofJudaism led him to believe that the sense of community that would arise out of these shared recreational activities would create the "we-feeling" needed to insure increased interest inJewish survival and the rejuvenation ofJewish religion.24 20. "The Influences That Have Shaped My Life," pp. 31-32; ReconstructingJudaism: An

Autobiography, pp. 63-64, 66. 21. Mordecai M. Kaplan, Judaism as a Civi/iq.ztion: Toward a Reconstruction of American Jewish Lifo (1934; Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America/The Reconstructionist Press, 1981) p. xv. 22. The founders of the Qehillah sought to establish a comprehensive communal structure that would unite the city'sJewish population, harness the group's intellectual and material resources, and model the possibilities of ethnic life in America. See Arthur A. Goren, New YorkJews and the Qyest for Community: The Kehilb.zh Experiment, 1908-1922 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970). 23. "The Influences That Have Shaped My Life," pp. 32-33. 24. Mel Scult, "Becoming Centered: Community and Spirituality in the Early Kaplan," in The AmericanJudflism ofMordecai M Kaplan, pp. 53-54. Kaplan was not the frrst thinker to advocate the creation of synagogue centers. Kaplan did, however, provide the most convincing and thorough rationale for them. See, in this regard, pp. 57-59.

14

From Ideolo!5J to Litur!5J

In the spring of 1915, a number of former congregants of KehillatJeshurun informed Kaplan of their desire to build a synagogue on the West Side of Manhattan. Having moved to that neighborhood after becoming successful in the clothing business, they wanted to create a synagogue that would be fully Orthodox in ritual practice yet modem in its externals. Kaplan seemed to them the ideal person to lead this congregation, since he was well-known in the Jewish community, a gifted speaker who spoke fluent English with no foreign accent, university educated, and the holder of unimpeachable Orthodox credentials from Eastern Europe. Kaplan saw this as a golden opportunity to realize his ideas regarding a synagogue center and prevailed upon the group to undertake this massive project. In 1917, ground was acquired and the ftrst story of what would become a nine-story building was constructed.2.5 To reflect its wide mandate, the synagogue was named "The Jewish Center." Interestingly, when the building was completed, Kaplan hesitated to assume the role of rabbi. Work at the Seminary kept him quite busy, and he hoped to devote more time to his writing. Furthermore, Kaplan questioned the motives of the group and feared that they were more interested in creating a building to impress others than in cultivating Jewish culture. As aJew who had ceased to believe in many of the tenets of traditional Judaism, Kaplan informed them that he did not feel he should lead their congregation. The founding members of theJewish Center, however, were not bothered by Kaplan's views on evolution, biblical criticism, and sociology. They were practical people, unconcerned with ideology. As long as Kaplan agreed to run the synagogue as an Orthodox institution and continued to follow traditional observances, they saw no problem in his being their leader. Kaplan was truly excited by the possibilities of the JeWish Center. Having fully disclosed his unorthodox beliefs, he believed he was immune to potential charges of intellectual dishonesty, while his congregants' willingness to hire him implied they were at least open to his views. 26 As he still followed an Orthodox lifestyle, their demand that he maintain traditional practice posed no problem. When he suggested and the board agreed that his salary would be donated to the Teacher's Institute, Kaplan felt that this arrangement with the Center would allow him freedom of expression, and thus he accepted the pulpit.27 25. Ibid., p. 61. 26. Kaplan had reason to believe that leading figures in the Jewish Center might be less traditional than they appeared. Joseph Cohen, for example, expressed interest in the incorporation of English readings into the synagogue service. See, in this regard, A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community, pp. 96-97. 27. "The Influences That Have Shaped My life," p. 34; "Becoming Centered: Community and Spirituality in the Early Kaplan," pp. 63-69.

The Ideology of Mordecai M. Kaplan

15

Tensions between Kaplan and the Center's board surfaced rather quickly, however. To begin with, Kaplan used the pulpit to speak out against the competitive aspect of the capitalist system and to advocate the minimum wage, a five-day work week, and health insurance. His congregants, who all owned businesses, cringed when he described the supposed inequities of the current economic order and felt personally attacked. Kaplan had not been this vocal on economic issues previously, and a number of congregants began to label him a Bolshevik. 28 In truth, he did feel drawn to the Communist movement and often wondered if the quest for economic equality was not more worthy of his time than the attempt to reconstructJudaism. 29 He settled this tension by placing the call for economic morality at the center of his philosophy. His sermons at theJewish Center were an outgrowth of this process and reflected his overall concern with ethical questions. A further area of discord between Kaplan and theJewish Center's leadership was his growing willingness to express his Jewish ideology in print. The conflict came to a head in the summer of 1920, when Kaplan published an article in the MenoTahJouma~ in which he wrote that "Orthodoxy is altogether out of keeping with the march of human thought," and that "any religious idea that has come down from the past will have to prove its validity by being a means of social control and betterment. "30 As Mel ScuIt has pointed out, it is unclear how Kaplan felt that he could remain the rabbi of the Jewish Center while expressing non-Orthodox views so openly. Although he had never hidden his ideas from board members, he had never preached them from the pulpit. Kaplan's article drew fierce criticism in the Orthodox press and began a process which, by the end of the year, led to his resignation from the Center. 31 Kaplan's experience at the Jewish Center was a turning point in his career, for it forced him to complete his break with OrthodoxJudaism. 32 All of his subsequent endeavors in theJewish world were to be based openly on his personal Jewish philosophy. After Kaplan's departure from theJ ewish Center, a number of Center mem28. "Becoming Centered," pp. 80-81. 29. See, in this regard, Rebecca Trachtenberg Alpert, "The Quest for EconomicJustice: Kaplan'S Response to the Challenge of Communism, 1929-1940," in The AmericanJudaism ofMordecai M. Kaplan, especially pp. 394-396. 30. Mordecai M. Kaplan, "A Program for the Reconstruction ofJudaism," (reprinted in The Reconstructionist, October 23, 1970) pp. 8, 13. 31. "Becoming Centered," pp. 83-86. 32. Kaplan, however, continued to lecture to Orthodox Jewish groups who admired his understanding of the challenges facing Judaism in the modem era. See, in this regard, A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community, pp. 147, 152.

16

From Ideology to Liturgy

bers requested that he continue to serve as their rabbi by helping them found a breakaway congregation. Kaplan suggested instead that they help him form a society that would aim to "advance" Judaism, primarily by spreading his new ideas. While this group was excited by Kaplan's concept, they wished to create a synagogue that would cater to their religious and cultural needs as had the Jewish Center. A compromise was reached in which the envisioned institution, the Society for the Advancement ofJudaism (SAJ), would operate on two tracks: as a full synagogue center and as a society seeking to cultivate and organize like-minded groups to spread Kaplan'S thought. To this latter end, the Society founded the SAJJournal, which later evolved into The Reconstructionist. To emphasize the uniqueness of the SAj, Kaplan was referred to as "leader" instead of "rabbi." As at thejewish Center, Kaplan refused to take any form of remuneration for his work. He often used this financial independence to his advantage and threatened to resign from the Society if it did not follow his wishes. 33 The SAj opened in 1922 in a private house and later moved to larger premises on West 86th Street. Even though its membership was fairly small, it offered a wealth of recreational programming, reflecting Kaplan's continued support of the center concept. Freed from the constraints of an Orthodox pulpit, Kaplan instituted mixed seating, inaugurated the Bat Mitzvah ceremony in the United States, and introduced a number of liturgical innovations that were later given full voice in the first Reconstructionist prayerbooks. On the nationallevel, Kaplan succeeded in convincing a number of his former rabbinical students at the Seminary to affiliate their Conservative congregations with the SA]. The SAJ became a center ofleft-wing Conservative Judaism. 34 In addition to serving as the leader of the SA] and teaching at the Seminary, Kaplan spent much of the 1920s working in the newly-created School for JeWish Social Work and lecturing throughout the East Coast of the United States. It is thus not surprising that, although he had written numerous articles, 33. &coTlStructingjudaism: An Autobiography, pp. 67-68, 98. The term "leader" was taken from Felix Adler's Society for Ethical Culture. Kaplan admired Adler's work, although he criticized his renunciation of]ewish religion. See judaism Faces the Twentieth Century, pp. 79-81. It is unclear whether the 35 families that created the SA] understood Kaplan's philosophy fully. But according to Ira Eisenstein, Kaplan's congregants supported him devoutly because they sensed that he was making important statements and were excited to be associated with this enterprise. They felt that their ties to Kaplan placed them at the cutting edge of New York]udaism. See &coTlStructingjudaism: An Autobiography, p. 94. 34. Marc Lee Raphael, Profiles in AmericanJudaism: The Reform, COTlServative, Orthodox, and RLcoTlStructionist Traditions in Historical Perspective (San Francisco: Harper and Row Publishers, 1985) pp. 188-189.

The Ideology of Mordecai M. Kaplan

17

he had yet to publish a clear and all-inclusive statement of his Jewish philosophy. When in 1929 Julius Rosenwald, the President of Sears Roebuck and Company, donated $10,000 to sponsor a competition to solicit the best formulation of a program for AmericanJewish life, Kaplan seized the opportunity to commit his ideas to paper systematically. The contest was closed in April of 1931, and after two years of heated deliberations, Kaplan shared the award with two other recipients (one of whom was Eugene Kohn, who was to playa key role in the emerging Reconstructionist Movement).35 Kaplan used his portion of the prize money to help defray the cost of publishing the manuscript.Judaism as a CiviliZlltion appeared in May of 1934, and led to the formation of the Reconstructionist school of thought. Kaplan was to publish numerous other books before his death in 1983 at the age of 102,36 and left behind a cohesive and clear philosophy, remarkable in its consistency and scope. This philosophy forms the basis of Kaplan'S liturgical work, and its key components are discussed at length below. THE JEWISH IDEOLOGY OF MORDECAI M. KAPLAN Judaism and This- Worldly Salvation In the opening chapter ofjudaism as a Civilk/ltion, Kaplan wrote: "Before the beginning ofthe nineteenth century allJews regardedJudaism as a privilege; since then most Jews have come to regard it as a burden ... At its mildest, that crisis manifests itself as a sullen feeling of helplessness; at its worst, as bitter resentment and revolt. "37 Kaplan searched for the cause of this radical transformation in Jewish self-perception and concluded that it was partly a response to changed understandings of the goal of life. In the past, the difficulties of the human condition led people to despair of ever achieving self-fulfillment ("salvation") on earth. Since they believed that God was fundamentally good and had not created humanity to suffer, they posited the existence of a hereafter in which the faithful would be rewarded for their trials. Although Jews were often persecuted for their Judaism, few questioned their loyalty to it. They felt secure that as God's chosen people, the sole bearers of

35.judaism Faces the Twentieth Century, pp. 338-341. Due to the controversial nature of the book, the judges fought long amongst themselves before agreeing to give Kaplan the award. Some were bothered by its Zionism, others by its attack on ReformJudaism or its denial of the supernatural. 36. See Bibliography for a partial listing of his works. 37.judaism as a Civilk/ltion, p. 3.

18

From Ideology to Liturgy

God's revelation, they were more likely than others to enter the World to Come, the ultimate goal of life. 38 According to Kaplan, the Jews of his day questioned the existence of an afterlife. Progress in science and increased opportunities for self-expression had fostered the feeling that salvation could be attained in this world. Whereas Jews previously affirmed their religious tradition primarily because of its guarantee of ultimate salvation, they now abandoned it because it contributed little to their quest for this-worldly fulfillment. In fact, because of antisemitism, Jewish affiliation often prevented integration into American society where such fulfillment could occur. For Judaism to regain its importance in the life of the Jew, it would have to function once again as a means of salvation and provide opportunities for this-worldly self-expression and creativity.39 If it failed to do so, it had no chance of counteracting the strong pull of the surrounding culture in a society that had strippedJudaism of the mechanisms of social control that helped to preserve it in the pre-modern world. "The success of any proposed program ofJewish living will depend entirely upon the extent to which it leads to the salvation of the individual. "40

Judaism and Modem Belief Before Judaism could serve as a means of salvation, however, it had to adapt itself to the best of modern beliefs and perceptions. By failing to reconcile Judaism's fundamental ideas with modernity, it contributed to its own demise. TheJews of his day wished to see theirJudaism and western culture based on the same standards of truth:u Although Kaplan realized that multiple standards did not disturb allJewish people, he argued that they definitely affected the ideology of intellectuals, and, he projected, the wishes of the elite would in time become the concern of all. Judaism could not risk losing its educated class. "A people that is of minority status must have great confidence in itself, great faith in its own raison d' etre, if it is not to be intimidated by the handicaps that go with having minority status. To whom can it look for encouragement 38. Ibid., p. 6. 39. Ibid., pp. 13, 14. 40. Ibid., p. 282. One's choice to be Jewish is fundamentally emotional. It stems from a sense of "we-feeling" cultivated at an early age through significant life experience. "We are faithful to Jewish religion, not because we have chosen it as the best of all religions, but because it is ours, the only religion we have, an inseparable part of our collective personality as a people" (The Future olthe Americanjew, p. 47). RenderingJudaism a means of salvation only helps retain those Jews who wish to live their lives as active members of the Jewish people. 4l. 11u Future olthe Americanjew, pp. xviii, 20.

The Ideology of Mordecai M. Kaplan

19

and validation in its struggle for existence, if not to its men and women of intellect ... ?'42

Judaism is a Civili;;p,tion Furthennore, according to Kaplan,Jews themselves had contributed to Judaism's decline by distorting the essence of their tradition. In order to survive as a distinct group in the modem world, they had defined themselves as a religion, believing that to be the differentiating quality of their identity and that which thus needed to be preserved. As the new nation-states allowed for freedom of religious expression, they felt that the religious element of their identity was easiest to maintain. A proper analysis of Judaism, however, shows that Judaism is more than a religion; it is a total civilization, in which the Jews share common history, literature, language, land, social organization, holy places, heroes, standards of conduct, social and spiritual ideas, and aesthetic values. Thus, if the Jews truly wish to preserve their distinctiveness, they must try to cultivate all aspects of their culture. 43 By doing so, they also widen its possibilities of survival, for "if one does not have a taste for praying three times a day and studying the Bible and Rabbinic writings, there is nothing in any of the current versions ofJudaism to hold one's interest as aJew."44 At the same time that Kaplan rejected the view thatJ udaism is only a religion, however, he believed that religion constituted the most important aspect of Jewish culture and that element of a civilization that seeks to find within it a means of salvation. Religion is a human creation, which emerges naturally out of a people's quest "to discover what makes life worthwhile and to bring life into conformity with those laws on which the achievement of a worthwhile life depends. "45 Judaism, then, is a religious civilization because it has "sought consciously to make its collective experience yield meaning for the enrichment of the life of the individuaIJew."46 While all civilizations contain a religious element, the quest for salvation is more pronounced inJudaism than in most cultures. As such, whereas it is possible for the Frenchman or 42. Mordecai M. Kaplan, The Purpose and Meaning ofJewish Existence: A People in the Image of God (Philadelphia: TheJewish Publication Society of America, 1964) pp. 288-289. 43.judaism as a Civili.i:/ltion, pp. 177-178. Kaplan chose to defineJudaism as a civilization instead of a culture because he believed that people associated culture with a more limited sphere of shared materials. See, in this regard, QyestionsJews Ask: Reconstructionist Answers (1956; New York: The Reconstructionist Press, 1972), p. 14. 44.judaism as a Civili.i:/ltion, p. 178. 45. Mordecai M. Kaplan, The GreaterJudaism in the Making (New York: The Reconstructionist Press, 1960) p. 458. 46. The Future of the AmnicanJew, p. 46.

20

From Ideology to Liturgy

Englishman to remain loyal to his people while completely divorcing himself from its religion, this is not possible for the Jew, whose "very peoplehood has always been given a religious significance and owes its survival to that fact."47 In order to thrive, religion must express itself in the context of a civilization. Since it seeks to make life a vehicle for self-realization, to have effect, it must relate to concrete secular interests and institutions. "Abstracted from the other human interests that express themselves in a civilization it [religion] becomes irrelevant and pointless, a way of speaking rather than a way of living."48 For Kaplan, civilizations are a natural outgrowth of human life and continue to evolve in response to it. By being linked to a civilization, a religion guarantees that it too will respond to life and remain dynamic. Therefore, "paradoxical as it may sound, the spiritual regeneration of the Jewish people demands that religion cease to be its sole preoccupation. "49 It is not surprising, then, that Kaplan strongly criticized Classical Reform Judaism for neglecting the non-religious elements ofJewish culture.50

God Realizing that his emphasis on this-worldly salvation easily could lead to vulgarity, Kaplan stated repeatedly that salvation must be seen in spiritual and moral terms. Although food, shelter, and sex are fundamental human needs, people cannot be said to be fulfIlled if their lives are devoted solely to their satisfaction, since human nature also contains within it an impulse to realize, to the maximum extent possible, creative and moral ends.51 As these impulses often conflict, people achieve personal salvation only when their various inclinations are harmonized so that they effectively satisfy all their needs, spiritual and prima1. 52 Salvation, however, must not just be a question of individ47. The Greaterjudaism in the Making, p. 468. 48. Mordecai M. Kaplan, The Meaning of God in Modernjewish Religion (1937; New York: The Reconstructionist Press, 1962) p. 17. 49.judaism as a Civilization, p. 345. 50. See, for example, Q,uestionsjews Ask, p. 439. 51. The Future ofthe Americanjew, p. 150. Kaplan has been criticized for holding an overly optimistic view of human nature. In reality, Kaplan was well aware of the sinister elements of humanity, which he attributed to our bestial heredity (The Future of the Americanjew, p. 250). He did, however, believe that people had other, more moral inclinations, and that these constituted our ultimate destiny (Qyestionsjews Ask, p. 83). Despite all its brutality, human history had yet to fully undermine the possibility of accepting a positive view of human nature. "Although progress is not always in a straight line, the course of human history shows that the human race is moving in the direction of enhanced personality and enhanced sociality" (The Meaning of God, p. 122). 52. The Meaning of God, p. 53.

The Ideology of Mordecai M. Kaplan

21

ual self-realization. Humans are social animals, and develop all elements of their personalities in response to other people. This dependence renders them morally responsible and naturally concerned with the fate of others. On the selfish level, people know that if injustice is allowed to prevail it may at some time be used to curtail their own possibility of salvation. As such, the quest for salvation must also have the wider goal of "the ultimate achievement of a social order in which all men shall collaborate in the pursuit of common ends in a manner which shall afford to each the maximum opportunity for creative self-expression. "53 Clearly, it is not easy for humanity to achieve the social and individual salvation Kaplan envisioned, regardless of its moral and spiritual inclinations. Personal character flaws, natural obstacles, and the difficulties of eliciting cooperation among people lead us to despair of the possibilities of perfecting the world. Kaplan argued that for religion to function as a constructive element, it must forward a God-belief that serves as a guarantee that the world is so constituted that our highest salvational aims will be attained. 54 This requires the formulation of a new conception of the divine, since modernity has undermined the traditional supernaturalist image. The traditional conception of God is challenged by history, anthropology and psychology; these prove that beliefs similar to those found in the Bible about God arise among all peoples at a certain state of mental and social development, and pass through a process of evolution which is entirely conditioned by the development of the other elements in their civilization.55 Kaplan's belief that understandings of divinity are subject to change serves as ultimate justification for his own attempt at reconceptualization.

53. Ibid. Humanity's fundamentally social nature is well illustrated by the proliferation of professional associations in the modern world. It is questionable, however, whether our inclination to oppress is contained by our realization that mechanisms of enslavement can be turned against us. 54. The GreaterJudaism in the Making, p. 469; The Meaning of God, p. 29. Humanism's inability to guarantee ultimate salvation was, for Kaplan, its major flaw. "How can a social idealist ask men to deny themselves immediate satisfactions for the sake of future good that they may never see in their lifetime, when he leaves them without any definite conviction that the universe will fulfill the hopes that have inspired their sacrifice, or is even able to fulfill them?" (The Meaning of God, p. 29) 55. Judaism as a Civili;:p,tion, p. 39. By tracing the undermining of the supernaturalist God-idea to research in the social sciences, Kaplan shows again his indebtedness to these disciplines.

22

Prom Ideology to Liturgy

In searching for a new "God-idea," Kaplan turned to human experience.56 "What differentiates man from the other orders of creation is that, in him alone, the will to live functions as a will to make the most of life, to use to the utmost all the potentialities of his being ... In human nature, the will to live becomes the will to salvation." As we cannot fully understand this urge nor can we control its functioning, it implies the existence of a Power beyond us that propels this quest for self-realization.57 Since the goal of religion is to strengthen belief in the attainability of social and individual development, this Power must be viewed as guaranteeing the achievement of ultimate salvation. "Though the correctness of that assumption is not demonstrable, we hold to it, because it is indispensable to mental health and the sense of moral responsibility."58 From the standpoint of logic, it is also irrational to argue that humanity is compelled to achieve salvation by a cosmic force indifferent to its ultimate attainment.59 For Kaplan, God is thus the Power that makes for salvation. 60 Kaplan's view of God shows the clear pragmatic or functional character of his thought. He was not interested in arriving at a metaphysically correct understanding of the essence of cosmic reality and, in fact, doubted that this was possible. "The very nature of the human mind is such that all it can know

56. Kaplan's focus on human experience as the departure point for theology might be a reflection ofthe influence ofFelix Adler (judaismFaas the Twentieth Century, p. 81). Kaplan was not so pretentious as to believe that the world could be fully understood by humans. "No religious experience is possible without an overwhelming awareness of reality as baffling man's power of comprehension" (11Ie Future olthe AmericanJew, p. 198). In grounding his God-idea in experience, Kaplan merely wished to avoid the error of those theologies that he felt ignored reality and thus posited illogical supernaturalist visions. 57. The Future olthe AmericanJew, p. 150. One may, of course, argue that people's quest for self-realization is motivated by selfish concerns that are fully comprehensible and thus need not be traced to a divine source. Kaplan rejected this view because he felt that it fails to account for the high level of self-sacrifice involved in much human endeavor (Ibid., p. 201). The fact that people are capable of feeling good about helping others does bolster Kaplan's optimistic view of human potential. 58. QJlestionsJews Ask, pp. 128-129. 59. Kaplan seems here to be once again influenced by Felix Adler, who wrote "if the demand for justice is realizable, then in the nature of things there must be a provision that it shall be realized." Quoted inJudaism Faas the Twentieth Century, pp. 82-83. 60. Kaplan's formulation is a reworking of Matthew Arnold's statement that God is "the Power that makes for righteousness-not ourselves." He chose to rephrase Arnold's idea since "righteousness is an indispensable means to salvation, but only when it achieves that result [salvation] does its divine source assert itself" (The Purpose andMeaning ofJewish Existmee, p. 324).

The Ideology of Mordecai M. Kaplan

23

about anything is the way the thing functions. "61 The role of religion is not to develop a metaphysics but to motivate people to strive for self-fulfillment. Any God-idea that fulfills this criterion is sufficient and requires no further elaboration. 62 Kaplan feared that most metaphysical formulations were too complex to serve as the basis for mass religion. "Metaphysically, Whitehead and Alexander have formulated ideas of God which probably come nearest to objective reality. But how can such ideas ever serve as the basis of religion for the millions?"63 In addition, he worried that excessive fixation on theology might imply "that man's salvation or destiny is to be achieved in the domain of the intellect. That would confme salvation to the very few people in the world who have a special gift for highly abstract metaphysical speculation. "64 While Kaplan did not denigrate personal religious quest, he was more concerned with formulating a communal ideology.65 Kaplan's view of God is noteworthy in a number of senses. God is no longer seen as transcending nature, but as a part of the natural order. "There is only one universe within which both man and God exist. "66 In order to respond to modernity's perceived rejection of the historicity of miracle tales, Kaplan

61. The Future of the Americanjew, p. 181. 62. Kaplan's pragmatic functionalism is often attributed to the influence ofJohn Dewey and William James. The majority of Kaplan's views, however, were formulated before he read Dewey orJames. It is more likely that Kaplan absorbed his approach from the philosophy of Henry Sidgwick, the subject of his Master's thesis. Sidgwick was a utilitarian philosopher who argued that the morality of a given action could only be evaluated on the basis of its practical consequence. As such, experience was more important than abstract truth. See judaism Faces the Twentieth Century, pp. 84-87. 63. Mordecai M. Kaplan, "The Authority of Tradition," The ReconstTuctionist, Oct. 29, 1943, p. 20. 64. The Future ofthe Americanjew, p. 328. 65. See, in this regard,judaism as a Civili;:;ation, pp. 348-349. Kaplan believed that private religion develops in response to insights gained through social interaction. As such, the cultivation of personal religion paradoxically necessitates placing increased emphasis on collective experience (Mordecai M. Kaplan, Not So Random Thoughts [New York: The Reconstructionist Press, 1966] pp. 130-131). While Kaplan questioned the significance of metaphysics, his view that "the cosmos ... is so constituted that it both urges us on and helps us to achieve our salvation" is clearly metaphysical, and relates to the ultimate order of things. Kaplan's approach to metaphysics is thus more characterized by ambivalence than total rejection. See William E. Kaufman, "Kaplan's Approach to Metaphysics," The American judaism ofMordecai M. Kaplan, pp. 271-282. 66.judaism as a Civili;:;ation, p. 316. Kaplan, however, did refer to God as transcendent within nature, in order to emphasize that God is the creative life of the universe and not one isolated element of the natural order.

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argues that God is unable to suspend natural law. "God does not stand apart from men and issue commands to them. His presence is evidenced in those qualities of the human personality and of society by which the evils of life are overcome, and latent good brought to realization. "67 The godly aspect of the universe urges humanity to strive for salvation, although people, as conscious beings, may choose to ignore the forces of God and thus not act in accordance with God's "will."68 God urges people to salvation primarily through their conscience, yet conscience is not to be equated with the voice of God, since its dictates are not always mora1. 69 Kaplan's God is clearly not omnipotent and must rely on humanity to realize its will. People, however, can still have faith in God's ability to foster human perfection, since the universe is so constituted that humanity cannot enjoy ultimate salvation without responding to God's moral proddingJo Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of Kaplan's theology is his insistence that God is not an entity, but a process. For Kaplan, the term "God" is a functional noun, analogous to the words "slave," "teacher" and "king." As such, "as little as one should expect 'fatherhood' or 'kinghood' of an individual to have substantive existence, so little should one expect Godhood to be concretized into substantive existence."71 "Kinghood" is a quality of humanity, as God is a quality of the universe. God is to be viewed as process because God urges and fosters events in nature that are processes. "What are life, knowledge, goodness if not processes? They are certainly not beings or entities. Since God is life, knowledge, goodness, what else can He be but a Process ?"72 For Kaplan, religion is not weakened by ceasing to see God as an entity, as 67. TheMeaningofGod,p. Ill. 68. Mordecai M. Kaplan, "The Unsolved Problem of Evil," The Reconstructionist, March 31, 1963, p. 12. It is unclear in Kaplan's thought whether God consciously wills salvation. As a functionalist, Kaplan thought it was sufficient for human morale to argue that the cosmos fosters self-realization, without entering into the difficult question of whether this is the product of deliberate, conscious action. Is it necessary to conclude that the brain and nervous system as such are themselves conscious and purposive in making consciousness and the ego possible? Likewise, all that we have to affirm concerning the universe as a whole, from the standpoint of what is divine about it, is not that it is conscious and purposeful, but that it is so constituted as to make consciousness and the human personality not only possible, but capable of indefinite growth and creativity. (Mordecai M. Kaplan, "A God to Match the Universe: A Reply," The Reconstructionist, March 19, 1965, p. 25.) 69. The Purpose and Meaning ofjewish Existence, pp. 324-325. 70. The Future ofthe Americanjew, pp. 202-203, 278. 71. Qyestionsjews Ask, p. 96. 72. Ibid., pp. 102-103.

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God can still serve as a source and guarantor of salvation. Just as the soul is no less real if we stop seeing it as an autonomous spiritual entity inhabiting the body, God is no less real when viewed as process.?3 Once again, the functional quality of Kaplan's thought is evident. Kaplan's theology is mostly concerned with God's relation to humans. While Kaplan did speak of God as the "soul or personality of the universe, whose creative action brings all nature under the operation of dependable law, "74 the importance of this function was in the human realm. The correspondence between the vital needs of men and the capacity of nature to satisfy those needs engenders the faith that even the unsatisfied needs of men are capable of being satisfied and will be satisfied. Nature does not then seem something foreign or hostile to man, a medley of blind or even malicious forces. It seems, instead, to be animated by the same spirit that in human nature makes for self-realization: it manifests God. 75 In his later years, Kaplan argued that humanity's inability to achieve salvation without striving to perfect the social order was a reflection of natural law, in which all entities exist by balancing individuation and interaction.76 This is a bold statement, showing that in spite of his doubts concerning the significance of metaphysics, Kaplan did not hesitate to make metaphysical pronouncements when he felt they strengthened his religious ideology. Since the Power that makes for salvation encourages people to realize their ethical and creative potential, the failure to do so is "sin," the betrayal of God.77 Inversely, communion with God is achieved when answering God's moral call. Everything that contributes to human salvation, including machines, should be seen as manifesting the divine, if used for the social betterment of humanity.78 Kaplan realized that his view of God broke significantly with traditional conceptions but felt that "as long as we are struggling to express the same fundamental fact about the cosmos that our ancestors designated by the term 'God,' the fact of its momentousness or holiness, and are endeavoring to achieve the ideals of human life which derive from that mo-

73. Meaning of God, p. 25. 74. QyestionsJews Ask, p. 508. 75. The Future ofthe AmencanJew, p. 307. 76. See, for example, The GrcaterJudaism in the Making, pp. 498-503. 77. The Meaning of God, p. 165. 78.]udaism as a Civili ;"J::>TJ' ("0 cause a new light to shine upon Zion, and may we all be worthy soon to enjoy its brightness") illustrates the significance he attached to aesthetic and thematic considerations. Recited traditionally within the Yotser benediction just before the eulogy, Yotser Ha-Me'or04 Kaplan felt that it had no place within this benediction, which speaks of God as creator of nature. Although 'Or Hadash expresses a messianic hope that can be easily reinterpreted as Zionist and thus of contemporary relevance, he was willing to remove it as an unjustifiable thematic digression.l 43 Interestingly, Kaplan was not the first to advocate this change. Sa'adiah Gaon and Rashi both suggested that it be eliminated from the prayerbook in the Middle Ages for precisely the same reason. 144 Kaplan's version of Barukh She-'Amar inserts the proclamations ~", 11-u ("Blessed be He") and ,~t'"Tl'~ ("Blessed be His name") alternatively after each sentence. This change is likely rooted in Natan Ha-Bavli's account of the installation of the Babylonian Exilarch, in which the reader called out "barukh she-'amar" and the assembled crowd answered "barukh hu."I45 Apparently, Kaplan liked the idea of the congregation responding to the reader with a clear pronouncement about the splendor of God and therefore integrated this tradition into his text. Kaplan's version of Barukh She-'Amaralso includes two verses from an old Sephardi wording of the prayer that praise God for bringing on the morning and giving the people ofIsrael the Sabbath day (,,~y~ 1"~ '~'t" '~y? ;"Jnl1~ rot' 11Ut' "Tl-u I ;"J'~ ~,~~, m!)~), 146 both of which Kaplan evidently believed to be a religiously edifying way to begin the prayer service. A particularly perplexing change, motivated apparently by aesthetic concerns, is Kaplan's reordering of Psalm 116, recited as part ofthe Hallelverses. Kaplan placed verses 15 and 16 between verses 4 and 5, feeling, perhaps, that they belong at the beginning of the Psalm since they share its discussion of 142. Ibid., p. 156. 143. Ira Eisenstein reported that the other members of the Editorial Committee were against this change. "We were very upset about that. We said it's indicative of how the rabbis never wanted to omit an opportunity to refer to tsiyon. He said, 'It doesn't belong there, it breaks the sequence of thought. Leave it out'" (telephone interview,January 28, 1997). 144. See, in this regard,jewish Liturgy: A Comprehensive History, p. 19; The Canonization of the Synagogue Service, pp. 25-30. 145. Jewish Liturgy: A Comprehensive History, p. 73. 146. See the commentary 'Iyyun Tefillah in Siddur 'Otsar Ha-Tefilot Nusa~ Sefarad-lfeleq Rishon, p. 191. Fittingly, Kaplan omits the line concerning the Sabbath day in his Daily Prayer Book (see pp. 10-12). ;,111( K'~!l' ;T,!lK "~Ylll"~ appears in the Spanish-Portuguese rite.

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death. While verse 3 states "the bonds of death encompassed me," verse 15 claims "the death of His faithful ones is grievous in the Lord's sight."147 Reading the Psalm with and without Kaplan's change, it is hard to see what was gained by this emendation. He also left out verse 18, "I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people," which repeats verbatim verse 14.148 With verses 15 and 16 no longer serving as a buffer between verses 14 and 18, it would have been awkward to have two identical verses in such close proximity.

Repetitionl&onomy As is evident from our discussion above, Kaplan wished to divest the siddur of repetitive elements. He was mostly motivated, however, not by linguistic concerns, but by a clear desire to shorten the service. Kaplan believed that Sabbath morning worship should ideally be no longer than two hours, since an "exalted emotional mood" cannot be sustained over a longer period of time. If services are too long "the congregation ... finds its own way of curtailing the service by coming in long after the service has begun. "149 Torah study should occupy the largest block of time within these two hours, because "the study of Torah is of greater religious importance than prayer. "150 Kaplan lived what he preached. Services at the SA] lasted approximately two and a half hours and included a one hour sermon. 151 If one adds the time given to introducing and reading the Torah portion, it is unlikely that Kaplan alloted more than forty-five minutes to prayer-which clearly left little room for elements deemed repetitive or unessential. This is especially true when factoring in 147. Ira Eisenstein did not recall the rationale for this change (telephone interview, January 28, 1997). 148. SPB, pp. 144-146. Kaplan's use of the same formulation of this Psalm in the Festival Prayer Book discounts the possibility that this change is merely a printing error. 149. "Toward a Guide to Jewish Ritual Usage: Part 3," pp. 15-16. 150. Qy.estionsjews Ask, p. 461. In order to allow more in-depth discussion of the Torah portion, Kaplan suggested that a triennial cycle of readings be instituted ("Toward a Guide toJewish Ritual Usage: Part 3," p. 16). In later life, Kaplan believed that the study of the Haftarah should be the main focus of the Torah service because the prophets are of greater ethical significance. To foster this, Kaplan advocated minimizing the time allotted to the reading of Torah by dividing the Torah into even smaller portions to be read over seven years (Letter to Lavy Becker, March 30, 1975. Reprinted in Beginnings, Memories, Bar Mit 1':11 Cl' 1':1 I'nlm ;,J'l '1:>'111':> 1m 1'111\( ("who hast given the cock intelligence to distinguish between day and night"). The former text expresses similar gratitude for the act of waking, in language more appropriate to city dwellers (Daily Prayer Book, pp. 8-10). 162. SPB, p. 80. In a similar fashion, Kaplan provides all the Psalms recited traditionally in the Oghhalat Shahhat service, but proposes that only a few be said (ibid., p. 8). Kaplan's Pesuqey De-Zimrah is more condensed in the Daily Prayer Book, and consists of Barukh She-'Amar, Yishtaha4, and Psalm 67. Kaplan's daily prayer service is generally quite short, and apparently reflects the belief that people do not have much time to devote to prayer in the morning. See, in this regard, "Towards a Guide to Jewish Ritual Usage - Part 3," The Reconstructionist, November 28, 1941, pp. 12-14. Psalm 67 was first included in the Pesuqey De-Zimrah by Isaac Luria in the sixteenth century (Siddur 'Imrei 'Efraim: The Complete Artscroll Siddur Nusah Sefarad, with a new translation and anthologized commentary by R. Nosson Scherman [Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications Ltd.] p. 66). While it is customary to recite the same Pesuqey De-Zimrah on festivals as on the Sabbath, Kaplan's Festival Prayer Book provides a completely different selection of Psalms. This reflects an apparent wish to make the Pesuqey De-Zimrahmore directly relevant to the holidays. The replacement Psalms speak specifically of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem enacted on the festivals and relate to the individual themes of the various holidays (Festival Prayer Book, pp. 66-96).

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elsewhere in the prayerbook,163 Kaplan most likely felt that it was unnecessary to have them in the Pesuqey De-Zimrah. In assessing the extent to which Kaplan's approach to Birkhot Ha-Shal{ar and Pesuqey De-Zimrah diverges from traditional prayer practice, it is necessary to keep in mind the historical standing of both prayer sections within Jewish worship. The Qjri'at Shema' and 'Amidah have always been considered the essential parts of the prayer service, as witnessed by the fact that Jewish law allows an individual who arrives late to synagogue to skip large segments of Birkhot Ha-Shafrar and Pesuqey De-Zimrah in order to pray with the congregation from Barekhu onwards. 164 There is also no requirement that the Birkhot Ha-Shafrarand Pesuqey De-Zimrah be recited in a minyan, since the former were originally private prayers (B. Ber. 60b) and the latter were deemed preparatory to the service proper (B. Shabbat 118b). While Seder RavAmram (875 C.E.) includes the Birkhot Ha-Shafrar in the public service to insure that everyone would recite them, the fact that Maimonides (1135-1204) still knew this rubric as individual prayer practice indicates that it only became a universally recognized part of public Jewish worship in the later Middle Ages. l65 With that said, nevertheless it is clear that both the Birkhot Ha-Shafrar and Pesuqey De-Zimrah have been viewed as essential elements ofJewish worship for at least five hundred years, and Jews used to the traditional prayerbook would find Kaplan's approach to these sections jarring, to say the least.

Holiday Bible Readings As mentioned previously, Kaplan did not alter the cycle of Torah portions read in synagogue on the Sabbath. Since the rabbi's sermon can address moral and theological difficulties raised by the biblical text, the Torah portion need not reflect desired belief fully. However, Kaplan's approach to festival Bible readings was less accepting and reflects, apparently, his beliefthat once one has encountered the basic texts of the tradition, portions isolated for additional reading should be those most edifying and religiously relevant. 166 163. Psalm 145 ('Ashrd; is recited traditionally within the Torah service, while Kaplan suggests Psalm 150 as an alternative to Psalm 29, recited when returning the Torah to the ark (SPB, pp. 166-170, 172-174). 164. See, in this regard, Shu/.4an Arukh Ora4lfayim 52:1. Kaplan's edit of the Birkhot Ha-Shallar and Pesuqey De-Zimrah does not conform to traditional guidelines for shortening these services. Halakhic specifications are not used to guide his reconstruction of Jewish liturgy, in general. 165.jewish Liturgy: A Comprehensive History, p. 76. 166. Kaplan's decision not to change Sabbath Haftarah portions is perplexing, since they are selected as randomly as the festival readings. Perhaps Kaplan believed that the Sabbath Torah and Haftarah selections are linked too closely inJewish consciousness to replace the

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Thus his editing of holiday Torah and Haftarah readings reflects the same ideological and stylistic concerns that fueled his editing of the liturgy. Traditionally, the Haftarah for the seventh day of Passover is 2 Samuel 22:1-51. Kaplan ended the reading at verse 20 167 because he was bothered by King David's immodesty, his association of God with military conquest, and his apparent delight in the slaughter of his enemies: "I am mindful of all His rules and have not departed from His laws. I have been blameless before Him ... You have girded me with strength for battle, brought low my foes before me, my foes and I wiped them out. .. I pounded them like the dust of the earth, stamped, crushed them like the dirt of the streets." Similarly, Kaplan was disturbed by the militarism of Zechariah 14:1-21, read on the fIrst day of Sukkot, and replaced it with the more peaceful Zechariah 8:1-17. 168 While the traditional text pictures the redemption of Israel after a brutal war in which "the city shall be captured, the houses plundered, and the women violated," Kaplan's selection envisions a time where God will peacefully cause the squares of Jerusalem to be crowded with boys, girls, women and old men living in complete security. The Torah readings for Sukkot focus heavily on the sacrifIcial system and Kaplan, who did not wish to see the Temple rebuilt, considered the detailing of the Temple worship excessive and believed that more relevant passages could be read during the holiday. Accordingly, he only retained references to the sacrifIcial system in the Torah reading for the intermediate days of the festival and in the second scroll reading of Shemini 'Atseret. Kaplan replaced Leviticus 22:26-23:44, read traditionally on the fIrst day of Sukkot and dealing in its entirety with the sacrifIcial requirements of the holidays, with Deuteronomy 8: 1-18 and 10: 12-22, which speak of the moral lessons of the wilderness experience. Kaplan's reading from the second scroll is Leviticus 23:39-44, which refers to the commandments of the four species and sukkah. 169 It is customary to read the same Torah portions on the fIrst and second days of Sukkot. In order to avoid repetition, Kaplan's second day reading comes from Leviticus 25: 1-43, which details the laws of the Sabbatical and Jubilee Years. As the editorial note prior to the reading indicates,170 Kaplan saw this selection as relevant to the holiday for it is through the laws latter. At the SA], Kaplan did replace the Haftarah portion for /fayei Sarah. Evidently, he was uncomfortable with the public reading of the account of David's spending the last days of his life in bed with a woman sent to keep him warm ("Kaplan as Liturgist," p. 329). 167. Festival Prayer Book, p. 216. 168. Ibid., p. 272. 169. Ibid., p. 270. 170. Ibid., pp. 276-277.

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of agriculture that the Torah sought to preserve the economic equality characteristic of the wilderness period. Today, these laws should motivate us to build an economy based on a moral distribution of goods. Kaplan's inclusion of readings for the second days of festivals separates him clearly from Reform Judaism, which eliminated the duplicate days entirely.I7I This is noteworthy, since Kaplan believed that "a second-day holiday is about as pleasurable as drying yourself with a wet towel. "172 In his efforts to develop, as much as pOSSible, the educational potential of the holidays, Kaplan occasionally changed Bible readings that were not especially troubling but were perceived to have insufficient moral or national significance. The traditional Haftarah for the first day of Passover deals with the collective circumcision of the Jews before the first celebration of Passover in Canaan Goshua 5). This portion was chosen, evidently, because the Torah passage for the day includes a discussion of the Passover sacrifice that could only be eaten by men who were circumcised. Believing a Haftarah that related to the exodus theme of the Torah portion to be more meaningful, Kaplan replaced the traditional text with Isaiah 52: 1-12, which speaks of the orderly return of the Israelites from the Babylonian exile-a fitting example of the wayJews should approach Zionism in modem times. For Kaplan, modem Zionism would cause the rejuvenation oftheJewish people only if the rebuilding of the land of Israel was planned carefully with that goal in sight. l73

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL Meditations, Editors' Notes, Interpretive Versions Kaplan believed strongly that public worship should influence people's lives. As such, even after altering the traditional nusa~ in light of his religious ideology and vision, he sought more ways to develop the educational potential of the inherited prayers. Thus superscriptions were provided for each prayer to help focus worshippers' minds on the content of the service and combat the 171. See the listing of Torah readings in the Union Prayer Book, p. 395. 172. Mordecai M. Kaplan, Not So Random Thoughts (New York: The Reconstructionist Press, 1966) p. 282. 173. See the introductory note in the Festival Prayer Book, pp. 170-171. It is not surprising that Kaplan found this message relevant in the 19508. He devoted much effort in that decade to forwarding his view that a congress of the Jewish people should be convened which would state clearly the goals and nature of theJewish people, including its vision of Zionism. See, for example, "The Covenant Proposal and its Implementation," The Reconstrudionist, December 14, 1956, pp. 7-13, and "The Turning Point in Zionism," which appeared in two consecutive issues of The Reconstructionist in October 1957.

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tendency to rush through the traditional text without contemplating its inherent message. 174 In addition, meditations, editors' notes and interpretive versions of traditional prayers were included. These state the enduring values of a traditional text, ritual or belief, calion congregants to recognize or live their lives in conformity with these principles, and enrich the service with thoughts that Kaplan felt to be conducive to truly edifying worship. Uniformly well-written, they present with power various aspects of Kaplan'sJewish philosophy. It is not clear who wrote these passages. Many were probably written by Kaplan himself, since they reflect his ideology succinctly. Ira Eisenstein has indicated that the interpretive versions of traditional prayers were written, in consultation with the other editors, by Eugene Kohn, a prolific liturgist who shared most of Kaplan's viewpoints. 175 The issue of authorship is not of immense significance to our discussion, since it is clear that only texts that conformed to Kaplan's ideological vision were included in the early Reconstructionist liturgies. Where it is possible to ascertain who wrote a given passage, it will be marked in the footnotes.

Meditations Before the Qghhalat Shahhat service, a meditation discusses the significance of the Sabbath and the message of the specific Psalms recited within the introductory service. The Sabbath day brings rest, peace and serenity after the fatigue, turmoil and anxieties of the work days of the week. It should therefore reveal to us, as it did to our fathers, the worth of human life. It should inspire us with confidence in the promise of our own souls and with faith in the coming of the future Sabbath era for mankind ... We, therefore, recite on the Sabbath eve psalms that express our faith in God and our belief in the coming of His kingdom. May these psalms ftll us with joy and trustfulness and strengthen in us the purpose to hasten the coming of the Sabbath era of human history ... 176 This text reflects well Kaplan's belief that religion should encourage an optimistic view of the world and help foster ethical activism. Also evident is his notion that redemption depends on the constructive activity of divinely inspired human beings, rather than on God's supernatural intervention. 174. Kaplan was evidently the first liturgist to use superscriptions for all prayers and Psalms ("The Historical and Theological Development of the Non-Orthodox Prayer Books in the United States," p. 183). 175. Telephone interview,January 28,1997. 176. SPB, pp. 7-8.

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Ethical living is likewise a central concern of the meditation before the Shema '. The passage relates mostly to the first portion of the Shema' {Deut. 6:4-9} and begins by considering the meaning of God's 'Oneness.' For the author, the unity of the divine implies that God is the God of all humanity. Jews believe that a time will come when human relations will attest to this cosmic reality. When the Shema' commands us "to love the Lord your God," it is effectively asking that we live a moral life, for it is through ethical action thatJews show their love for God and God's hopes for humanity. In order to counter the argument that efforts to perfect the world are futile since nature is too hostile to allow humanity to ever really thrive on earth, the text asserts that scientific progress indicates that the powers of nature can be harnessed to respond constructively to human need. As such, we can have faith "that nothing in nature can defeat God's purpose of enabling mankind to achieve ever fuller, freer and more harmonious life."l77 Prior to the Mourner's Qgddish, Kaplan provides three meditations. While the last two ask God to help mourners fmd comfort and consolation from their loss, the first, the only one written by the editors of the prayerbook,178 attempts to provide mourners with a rationale for not despairing of the goodness of the world as a result of their recent suffering. It argues that there is still cause for optimism since "those qualities which have made the souls of the departed so dear to their survivors have not lost their power or virtue; life can still reveal the divine love which the mourners once experienced in the cherished companionship ofthe departed."179 Kaplan understood that the death of loved ones may undermine the positive approach to the world that he considered so vital to religion, and sought to address this challenge in his siddur. As mentioned at the outset of this chapter, Kaplan believed that the voicing of thanks for pleasures of the world helps create a positive view of life by sensitizing us to the good that we enjoy. It is thus not surprising that many of the meditations express or foster feelings of thankSgiving. Before the Friday night Qjddush, Kaplan inserted a passage that explains the connection between the Sabbath and wine. Within this discussion, the hope is expressed that the Sabbath will serve to cultivate a sense of appreciation. "The added zest and joy in life which we experience in the religious observance of the 177. Ibid., pp. 33-34, 119. 178. The other meditations are from the Conservative Movement's Festival Prayer Book, and from the Prayer Book ofthe West London Synagogue. The custom of placing meditations before the Qaddish originated within ReformJudaism (see "Historical and Theological Development," p. 175). 179. SPB, pp. 61,197.

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Sabbath bear witness to the grace of God ... Let us gratefully hallow the Sabbath by banishing care and anxiety from our hearts, and filling them with thanks for the innumerable blessings that He has lavished upon us. "180 In a similar vein, meditations are provided within the Torah service to thank God for the joy of worship, the "wonderful and beautiful world" in which we have been placed, "dear ones whose love is our stay and treasure," and to voice the desire that God enable us to see the good of the world, "so that whatever our trials, we may still hold fast to our faith in Thee. "181

Editors' Notes The introductory comments to the festival Torah and Haftarah readings convey a wide variety of messages. Leviticus 16, for example, is chanted on the morning of Yom Kippur because it describes the cleansing of the sanctuary of ritual and moral sin in biblical times. The introduction to the reading argues that Jews today should concentrate their efforts on ridding themselves of ethical deficiencies, for only these "are dangerous to our own welfare and to that of others. They alone give offense to God and frustrate our efforts to experience the goodness of life."182 Ethical concerns are also primary in the introduction to the Torah reading for the first day of Passover (Exodus 12). The text argues that the Passover festival calls on Jews "to deepen their understanding of freedom and to work ceaselessly for the redemption of mankind. "183 As we saw, this is also the dominant educational message of the New Haggadah. Another introductory comment urges a different modem response to the text. The Haftarah for the second day of Passover, 2 Kings 23, tells of the discovery of "the book of the covenant" in the Temple during the religiOUS reforms of Josiah, King of Judah. Due to the influence of a succession of idol-worshipping monarchs, the Jews had abandoned many of the practices described in the scroll, and the discovery of the book served to reacquaint the people with various forgotten practices, including the celebration of Passover. The Pestival Prayer Book uses this text as a model for a rejuvenated Judaism, and argues that "the fact that our ancestors were able to restore Pesab. to its former important status in their holiday calendar should encourage us in our own endeavors to revitalize the sacred seasons of the Jewish year."I84 180. Ibid., p. 56. 18l.lbid., pp. 176-179. All three meditations come from the Prayer Book o/the West Lon-

don Synagogue. 182. High Holiday Prayer Book, Volume 2, pp. 240-24l. 183. Festival Prayer Book, p. 16l. 184. Ibid., p. 185.

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Another important commentary deals with Genesis 1, which is read on Simhat Torah. Here the editors' are somewhat apologetic as they seek to counter the possibility that science's questioning of its basic premises will render the traditionalJewish view of creation irrelevant. The text argues that, while the biblical image of the world's origins has been discredited by research, "the account contained in Genesis is a reasonable one, from the point of view of the knowledge of nature which prevailed at the time it was written. It is remarkably free from mythological elements ... The account is entirely monotheistic."I85 It then lists four compelling educational messages still prevalent in the Genesis story:

1) The fact that humanity was the final entity created intimates that all of creation can be used to satisfy human need. 2) As we are created in God's image, we share God's creative power and are thus called upon to consider how human life can be crafted to yield the most meaningful existence. 3) The common origin of mankind implies, as the Rabbis recognized, that all people are brothers and sisters. 4) The inclusion of rest within the creation story illustrates that people should never be so tied down to the drudgery of daily existence to forget "the sacred purposes to which human life should be dedicated."186 This commentary on the Genesis story might explain further Kaplan's willingness to keep references to God's creation of the world in the siddur.

Interpretive Versions The Sabbath Prayer Book includes a number of interpretive versions of central prayers. While there is truth to Ira Eisenstein's contention that Kaplan inserted these passages to diffuse problematic statements in prayers too central to be seriously rewritten or removed,187 the existence of interpretive versions of prayers that are not troubling theologically, such as 'Ahavat 'Oklm and ~l Ken Neqaveh, the second paragraph of ~leynu, suggests that Kaplan used this format to disseminate other educational messages. Kaplan rejected the contention in Ha-Ma 'ariv Liravim that God rolls "away light before darkness, and darkness before light." Since Kaplan did believe that God's presence was evident in the flow of nature, he left the prayer intact, 185. Ibid., p. 322. 186. Ibid., p. 323. 187. "Kaplan as Liturgist," p. 323.

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but included an interpretive version to present his understanding of God's role in the natural world. God has "ordained the rhythm of life." Since humanity requires both the activity of the day and the night's rest to flourish, the cycle of light and darkness reflects the will of God, the Power that makes for salvation. ISS God's relation to nature is explored further in the interpretive version of the Yotser. The text argues that all things in the universe are God's servants as "all offer help to man when he builds [God's} kingdom of righteousness." A prayer is included that God assist humanity to realize the inherent potential of the world by creating a society that conforms to God's moral law. 189 As discussed previously, Kaplan edited with a heavy hand 'Emet Ve'Emunah, which speaks of God's splitting the Red Sea and drowning the Egyptian soldiers. The accompanying interpretive version thus is not meant to neutralize the text, but to present the worshipper with theologically acceptable grounds for associating God with human freedom and deliverance from oppression. According to its author, God wills that humanity be free, as is evident in the fact that the universe is so constituted that "whenever a human tyrant usurps divine authority and lords it over his fellow-men to their hurt, the hardening of his heart proves his undoing; his overweening arrogance writes his doom. "190 The downfall of evil and the triumph of good thus reveal God's sovereignty over the universe. The early Israelite association of God with the release from bondage is judged to be correct, although the details of the story are clearly mythical. There is no reason to doubt the world's ultimate perfection, as all evil must eventually be vanquished. 'Ahavah Rabbah thanks God for the gift of Torah, from which Jews have learned "laws of life" (o"n 'i',n). Apparently considering this too cryptic a statement to foster deep appreciation of the Bible, Kaplan included an interpretive version of the prayer that delineates the significant lessons taught by the Bible. According to its author, the Torah teaches the value of justice over aggression, generosity over greed, and kindness over cruelty. It inspires the quest for a world permeated with love and fosters faith in the possibility of its attainment. 188. SPB, pp. 28-29. 189. Ibid., pp. 114-115. For Kaplan's belief that nature supports the human quest for salvation, see The Future ofthe AmericanJew, p. 307. 190. SPB, pp. 39-40. This passage first appeared under the title "God the Redeemer" in Shir /jadash, an anthology of English supplementary readings compiled by Eugene Kohn (New York: Behrman'sJewish Book House, 1939), pp. 9-11. The authorship of this passage remains unclear, however, as Kohn's introduction states that the readings included in the book are not all his. Some are the work of Kaplan, Rabbi Ario Hyams, Rabbi Edward Sandrow, and I.D. Minzberg. See, in this regard, ibid., pp. vii-viii.

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As such, it encourages us "not to despair even in life's darkest moments."191 This description shows the editors' deep love of the Bible. While the paragraph }it Ken Neqaveh in }ileynu envisions a perfected world in which God's sovereignty is recognized by all, it does not provide much detail as to the character of that society. The Sabbath Prayer Boo/(s interpretive version 192 addresses this perceived deficiency and defines a redeemed world as one in which universal brotherhood reigns. On that day men will be ashamed of that exclusive and arrogant self-worship whereby nations, races and religious communions profane Thy name ... Then will men recognize, in the soul of every nation, race and religion, a manifestation of Thy divine spirit and will accord to every human society the equal right to serve Thee with whatever gifts Thou hast bestowed upon it. The text concludes with another appeal for ethical activism; a prayer that God help theJews so to order their affairs that they contribute to the global process of world perfection.

Supplementary Readings Kaplan's inclusion of a large selection of supplementary readings in his prayerbook, all of which voice clear ideological positions, enabled him to develop the educational possibilities of the prayer service beyond what was attainable through enriching the traditional nusa~ with meditations, notes and interpretive versions. While Kaplan believed that a prayerbook should cultivate the Jew's sense of communion with the Jewish past and fellow Jews worldwide by preserving much of the traditional nusa~ ha-tefillah, he also felt that public worship must give voice to contemporary concerns, needs, and modes of expression by including new prayers reflective of the modem temper. Only such a text can be truly relevant to the Jew and succeed in motivating a constructive response to the spiritual challenges of the present. 193 The writing of new texts facilitates the creation of a varied service, one which serves to keep worship fresh and vibrant. 194 Close to sixty percent of Kaplan's 191. Ibid, pp. 30-33, 118. 192. Ibid, pp. 60, 196. Originally appeared in Shir /fadash under the title, "Prayer for the Establishment of the Kingdom" (pp. 12-13). 193. SPB, pp. xvii-xviii. Also see in this regard,fudaism as a Civilization, p. 348. 194. "Toward a Guide toJewish Ritual Usage - Part 3," p. 13. Kaplan believed that it was impossible to experience kavvanah (intentionality) when repeating the same prayers continuously (Mordecai M. Kaplan, The Purpose and Meaning ofJewish Existence: A People in the Image of God [Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1964) p. 228). Kaplan

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siddur is devoted to supplementary readings, many of which appeared originally in his Supplementary Prayers and Readings for The High Holidays. 195 Kaplan believed that readings chosen should relate to the theme ofthe sermon, Torah portion or a significant current event,196 and thus reinforce the service's educational message. They should be interspersed freely, although care must be taken not to prolong worship much beyond the reasonable limit of two hours. 197 Kaplan's supplementary section is organized by topic to facilitate use. The predominance of religious poetry from the "golden age" of SpanishJewry198 and selections from Psalms indicates that the editors found these texts especially edifying. Although full chapters of Psalms never appear, numerous interpretive versions are included (written jointly by Kaplan and Ira Eisenstein),I99 as well as compilations that combine various Psalms to address one central theme. Kaplan's "Man's Life Meaningless Without God" is especially successful and brings together passages from seven different Psalms to convey a typically Kaplanian call for a life lived in the moral reflection of the divine. Thy throne stands firm from of old; Thou hast been from everlasting

(93:2). Before the mountains were born, or ever Thou didst bring forth the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. experienced the need for a varied service at a young age, and wrote in his diary in 1905, "Are not these [the entries in the journals] more truly prayer and confession than the infinite repetition of the daily prayers in our ritual, from which I find it necessary to desist occasionally in order to recite it all without getting nausea?" (Judaism Faces the Twentieth Century, p. 92). 195. Supplementary readings figure prominently in all of Kaplan's liturgies. The high holiday prayerbooks contain numerous additional texts, although they are interspersed throughout the siddur instead of collected in the back. The supplement of the festival mab.zor is considerably smaller, since the inclusion of the holiday Torah readings leaves little room for much else. The Daily Prayer Book has a sizable collection of additional texts for a volume of 186 pages. 196. "Introduction to 'Sabbath Services for the Modern Synagogue,'" p. 15. 197. SPB, p. vii. 198. Poetry from the "golden age" of Spanish Jewry has long figured prominently in liberal liturgies. See, in this regard, Were OUT Mouths Filled With Song, pp. 39, 61. 199. Kaplan's interpretive Psalms do not aim to neutralize troubling aspects of the original texts, but to express their philosophical message in modern language ("Kaplan as Liturgist," p. 328). Ironically, they stem from Kaplan's search for relaxation. As Eisenstein explained, "Kaplan's idea of relaxation was to vary the work; that summer [1941] it consisted of persuading me to write interpretive versions of the Psalms. We would do about two a day. I would draw up a rough draft after our discussions, and then he would work with me on its final form" (Reconstructingjudaism, p. 161).

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For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night (90:2, 4). Of old Thou didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They may perish but Thou wilt endure; Yea all of them may wear out like a garment; Thou mayest change them like raiment, and they will change; but Thou art ever the same and Thy years shall have no end (102:26-28). As for man, his days are as grass. As a flower of the field, so does he bloom. For a wind passes over it, and it is gone; and its place never sees it again (103:15-16). The length of our life is seventy years, perchance through strength eighty years, yet is their span but travail and vanity, for it is quickly cut off and we pass away (90:10). Surely man walks as a mere semblance; surely for vanity men are in toil, heaping up riches, and not knowing who shall gather them (39:7). As for them who trust in their wealth, and boast of their great riches, their inward thought is that their houses shall stand for ever, their homes from generation to generation; they call their lands after their own names (49:7,12). What man can live and not see death, can deliver his soul from the power of the grave? (89:49) But the loving kindness of the Lord is from age to age toward those who revere Him, and His goodness to their children's children (103:17).200 The inclusion of similar compilations from Proverbs, the Prophets and Rabbinic literature illustrates Kaplan's solid grounding in traditional Jewish sources. His supplement draws from many areas and genres of Jewish literature and reflects his desire to unveil inspirational works previously unknown, in the belief that exposing worshippers to past Jewish creativity serves to foster a greater sense of connection to our ancestors. "Behind the superficial differences of vocabulary ... we fmd an unchanging and constant impulse-product of an unchanging human nature and a constant need to fmd salvation-to discover the worthwhileness of life ... the true values in the welter of human experience ... Thus Israel becomes one in time."201 200. SPB, pp. 305-307. Originally appeared in Kaplan's Supplementary Prayers and Readings for the High Holidays (pp. 38-39) under the title "God Eternal.» Kaplan was not bothered by the Psalmist's image of human life as "vanity," since the verse from Psalm 39 makes clear that human existence is only vanity if spent in the pursuit of wealth. Kaplan's inclusion of a supplementary reading presenting God as creator reflects sensitivities discussed above, p.

77. 201. "Introduction to 'Sabbath Services for the Modem Synagogue,''' p. 12.

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The Sabbath Prayer BooRs readings are crafted deliberately to illustrate continuity of thought through the ages. They often trace a given theme from the beginning of Jewish history to the present. For example, the section on the Sabbath opens with a compilation of verses from the Bible and Rabbinic literature, continues with medieval poetry and Isaac Luria's Yom Zeh Le- Yisra 'e4 and ends with selections from modern Jewish philosophy and Hayim Nahman Bialik's ShabbatHa-Malkah, all of which express similar love and concern for the Sabbath day.202 With the exception of a passage from Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali, all of the Sabbath Prayer BooRs readings come from Jewish sources. This is surprising, as Kaplan apparently used a number of non:Jewish texts within his services at the SAJ.203 The strong Jewish tone of the supplement is further enhanced by the fact that most readings are presented in both Hebrew and English. Only the interpretive versions of Psalms are uniformly not translated into Hebrew. Kaplan believed that for a prayer service to truly foster a sense of self-identification with the Jewish people, it must be largely Hebraic.204 Although all of Kaplan's siddurim proVided an English translation, he hoped that the English text would be used only temporarily until worshippers acquired the necessary Hebrew fluency.205 At the same time it is interesting to note that Kaplan was ambivalent about the use of Hebrew in supplementary readings. According to the 1941 guide to ritual usage, supplementary readings should be read in English. "Since their content is to be immediately relevant to the social and cultural situation of the worshippers, their language should be that in which the congregation think their own thoughts. "206 Kaplan reiterated this view fifteen years later in Q,uestionsJews Asp07 He realized that most people are not sufficiently fluent in Hebrew to read a new text and be touched deeply by its words. Thus the Hebrew text of the supplement is meant for congregations with an unusually high level of Hebrew literacy. Although the Hebrew readings challenged congregations to strive towards fluency and enabled Kaplan to feel more at ease 202.SPB,pp.262-283. 203.judu.ismFaces the Twentieth Century, p. 291. According to Ira Eisenstein, Kaplan felt that none of the nonJewish texts in use at the SA] was sufficiently strong to be included in the supplement. "It wasn't a ban on nonJewish texts" (telephone interview,]anuary 28, 1997). 204. Qy.estioruJews Ask, p. 241. 205. "Introduction to 'Sabbath Services for the Modem Synagogue,'" p. 12. It is interesting to note that all the supplementary readings borrowed from the prayerbook of the West London Synagogue are rewritten to improve their Hebrew (Were OUT Mouths FiLUd With Song, pp. 99-102). This further illustrates Kaplan's commitment to the Hebrew language. 206. "Towards a Guide to]ewish Ritual- Part 3," p. 16. 207. Qy.estioruJews Ask, p. 242.

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with his insistence that services contain variable elements, it is clear that he did not want the readings recited in the vast majority of synagogues as uncomprehending verbalizing. 208 The Sabbath Prayer BooRs supplement strongly and poetically presents and explains aspects of Kaplan'sJewish ideology and agenda. "God the Strength ofthe Nation," an interpretive version of Psalm 21, voices Kaplan's belief that faith in God and moral living are linked inexorably: Those who rule in accordance with Thy will suffer not the strong to oppress the weak, nor the cunning to exploit the simple.... They take heed that the wage-earner shall enjoy the fruit of his toil. .. They guard the health of the multitude, that none shall suffer from neglect and privation .... They provide for the widow and the orphan .... They bring the light of knowledge to those who yearn for it. .. They keep the nation at peace, and seek to bind all peoples in the bond of fellowship. They foster free utterance of thought. ... They uphold the free exercise of worship ... 209 Kaplan's desire to cultivate social activism is evident in "Righteousness Must be Lived," a reading based on the first two chapters of Habakkuk. Men must live their allegiance, and weave their faith into the pattern of all they strive for. Justice and love dare not remain mere iridescent dreams for the spirit to indulge in on Sabbaths and other solemn days. The Kingdom of God cannot be defended by those of mere passive faith; by those who are persuaded that God causes righteousness to triumph, regardless of what men dO. 21O Kaplan realized that it is often difficult to base one's life on ethics in a world 208. This conclusion is strengthened by the foreword to Kaplan's Supplementary Prayers and Readings for the High Holidllys. Both the intrinsic nature of Jewish services and the atmosphere most congenial to them logically require that all prayers and readings in the synagogue be rendered in Hebrew. It is only as an interim concession to an immediate need that those contained in this booklet are given in English. It is hoped that before long the Jewish spirit of our synagogues will be sufficiently rehabilitated to make it feasible for these prayers and readings to be published and recited in Hebrew. According to Mel Scult, Kaplan felt unable to express his thoughts fully in Hebrew, although his knowledge of the language was very good lJudilism Faces the Twentieth Century, pp. 113-114). This might have influenced his approach to the use of Hebrew in the prayer service. 209. SPB, pp. 299-300. 210. Ibid., p. 431. Ascribed to Kaplan in the footnotes of the book.

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where money and power are frequently valued more. As such, "The Allure of False Gods," an interpretive version of Psalm 16, prays that God help humanity keep sight of that which is most important and encourages worshippers to recognize the supremacy of morality over materialism. "0 Lord, give us the strength to withstand the glitter and allure of false gods, to resist the worship of ambition, power, pleasure and wealth ... Keep us steadfast in Thy way; let not delusive goals tempt us into paths that end in failure. "211 That Kaplan assumed that the quest for wealth led to immorality is evident in the "Worth of Integrity," a compilation of selections from Proverbs. "Weary not yourself to be rich; desist from that aim. Better is little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice ... A trustworthy man is amply blessed; but one who hastens to get rich incurs guilt."212 But Kaplan's supplement also makes clear that his call for an optimistic approach to life was not based on a naive view of the world. "That the Wicked be Overthrown" asks God to come to the defense of the downtrodden ("Arise in Thy majesty, 0 our King, and let the haughty shrivel up before Thine indignation. How long, 0 God, shall the wicked, the many evil doers, exult?"),213 while "Israel in Dire Straits" questions God for allowing the Jews to suffer through history ("What have we done that men should seek to exterminate us~ ... Wouldst Thou have our enemies pluck us up, root and branch ~ ... W ouldst Thou have us perish from the face of the earth ? Would our extermination advance Thy Kingdom?.Hear our cry and curb the evil-doers who are intent upon destroying US").214 For Kaplan, the true religionist cannot maintain faith in life's goodness by averting his or her eyes from reality, since this would undermine the active search for a better world. The faith in life's goodness is not the complacency of the self-contented, of him who finds the world good because he prospers in all he does. True faith does not avert its eyes from the want and the misery that mar man's world ... Faint is the voice that bears gladsome tidings, small the measure of happiness in the world ... Our sacred writings unfold a tale of sighs and tears, of sorrow and affliction, of unending strife and anguish of souL .. Despite that, Israel's faith refuses to pronounce the life of man beyond the reach of hope and betterment. That faith gives us no rest. It 211. Ibid., pp. 298-299. 212. Ibid., p. 405. Originally appeared under the title "Integrity" in Kaplan's Supplementary Prayers and Readings for the High Holidays, pp. 48-49. 213. SPB, p. 302. 214. Ibid., pp. 518-519. Both ofthese texts are interpretive versions of Psalms and were thus written by Kaplan and Eisenstein. "Israel in Dire Straits" is likely a response to the Holocaust.

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ferrets us out of every refuge from the raw realities oflife. It bids us share with God in the work of creation. It commands us to bring forth the best that resides in all things, both good and evil. This is true religion's call to repentance and redemption. 215 In a world full of evil and hardship it is not always easy to have faith in the existence of a caring God. "Prayer to Overcome Doubt," taken by Kaplan from the siddur of the West London Synagogue, suggests that one can transcend religious skepticism by focusing on that which is unquestionably good in our universe. There have been times, 0 God, when I have been disloyal to Thee in thought... Why, I cried, does God so sorely afflict His own children? Where is His compassion? Where is His power? Thou hadst almost ceased to exist for me then ... I saw only the shadows which now and again darken the way; I forgot the sunbeams which as often illumine it. I forgot that the world in which Thou hast placed us is beautiful, that nature has a smiling face for us on many a day, that the sting of the life struggle is a spur to a higher nature, that human goodness is a sure token of Thy goodness, 0 gracious Creator ... Help me to see life more steadily, with something of Thy calm and all-embracing gaze. 216 Kaplan often uses the supplement to forward his naturalist view of God as the Power that makes for salvation. His "Prayer for Sustenance" equates God with the creative life-force of the universe on which humanity depends for its existence. Divine forces are evident in "the energy pent up in a seed," "the wondrous chemistry of the soil," and "the skill of man and the ingenuity whereby he causes the fields to yield him food in abundance. "217 The often-quoted "God the Life of Nature" speaks of God as the sameness in the elemental substance of stars and planets.... The rhythm of all things and the nature of their interaction ... The mystery of life enkindling inert matter with inner drive and purpose ... The faith by which we overcome the fear of loneliness.... The hope which, like a shaft of light cleaves the dark abysms of sin, of suffering and despair.... The spirit which broods upon the chaos men have wrought, disturbing its static wrongs, and stirring into life the formless beginnings of the new and better world. 218 215. 216. 217. 218.

Ibid., pp. 426-427. Ascribed to Kaplan in the footnotes ofthe book. Ibid., pp. 251-253. Ibid., p. 255. Ascribed to Kaplan in the footnotes of the book. Ibid., pp. 387-391. Ascribed to Kaplan in the footnotes of the book.

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In both texts, God is clearly an aspect of the natural order; God does not exist outside the world or possess the ability to suspend the regular functioning of the universe. These readings not only help Kaplan explain his theology to worshippers, but allow him to present an alternative faith to those in danger ofleaving the fold as a result of rejecting traditional supernaturalist theologies. Kaplan's Zionism is readily apparent in the supplement, where a whole section of readings is devoted to "The Restoration of Zion." Through anthologies of selections from modern Hebrew writers, Kaplan argues for the existence of a mystical tie between the Jews and the land of Israel that serves to invigorate Jewish life. "Whenever some memory of the land is kindled in the heart of the Jew, his blood flows more exultantly; all his being is aroused to new heroism, new fortitude, a new thirst for God ... Every contact with the land heals the soul of the people and brings to life all the good that is latent in the hidden recesses of its spirit. "219 As such, "in its homeland our people will attain to full life, to the embodiment of millennial visions."220 However, for the Jewish people to reap the benefits of renewed national existence, more energy and resources need to be invested in the Zionist enterprise. A homeland can only be acquired "by the sweat of pioneers ... By men and women armed with invincible will, and prepared to link their destiny to a sublime purpose." It is the fruit of a people's "physical, mental and moral labors for many ages. "221 Kaplan responds romantically and mystically to the argument that theJews have no political right to return to the land of Israel. "Only the heart of the Jew harbors the secret whereby Eretz Yisrael may be redeemed; that gives him a claim which outweighs all other titles to the land ... For only our people can make the land yield the highest good-the flame of freedom, the sanctity of man, a just and righteous society."222 This debatable claim illustrates Kaplan's tendency to exaggerate and rhapsodize when discussing Zionism, also evident in most of the other readings in this section. No doubt he believed that a touch of romanticism would be a positive force in a political movement whose success depends on the mass mobilization of a people.223 219. Ibid., p. 483. According to Ira Eisenstein, Kaplan compiled all of the Sabbath Prayer

BooRs texts on Zionism (telephone interview,January 28, 1997). 220. Ibid., p. 479. 221. Ibid. 222. Ibid., p. 477. 223. Kaplan's Zionism is evident throughout his liturgy. The previously mentioned Mi She-BerakJt for the welfare of"All Who Share in the Spiritual Life of Israel" (above, note 72) includes a request that God grant blessing to those who work for the upbuilding of 'BreI;:. Yisra'eL The interpretive Q,edusluzh (Festival Prayer Book, pp. 120-121), asks that God so "bless

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Kaplan included services for all major American civic holidays in the supplement, a clear outgrowth of his belief that American Jews should identify fully with their country's history, heroes, culture, and ideals. 224 The text for Brotherhood Sabbath associates God with developments in American history ("We thank Thee, 0 God, for having taught the founders of our Republic laws that safeguard the equal rights of all citizens and impose equal obligations upon all")225 and reflects well Kaplan's view that all things that contribute to human moral progress are the product of divine forces. The association of God with American history is reinforced further by the use of 'El Male' Ra/vlmim to commemorate the American war dead. 226 The service for Memorial Day expresses the hope that the example of those who were willing to die for the protection of the United States "impel us to make our country great, its laws just and wise, its culture deep and true, its economy productive, our efforts in behalf of the homeland of our People, that the life it nurtures may bear witness to the goodness of Thy rule." The Sabbath Prayer BooRs compilations on Zionism are included in the Yom Kippur Mahzor for reading prior to the Ne'ilah service (pp. 460-473). This indicates that Kaplan wished the intense soul-searching of the day to include an evaluation of one's relation to the land ofIsrael. The Daily Prayer Book provides services for Israel Independence Day. Perhaps for brevity, Kaplan only suggests that the abridged version of the Hal1e~ recited traditionally on minor festivals, be read (pp. 154-166). Kaplan's readings never directly call for 'aliyah (immigration to Israel). In fact, Kaplan's version of the prayer for the State of Israel removes the request that God return the House ofIsrael to Zion, and asks only that God bring homeless Jews to Israel (Daily Prayer Book, p. 156). Similarly, The Daily Prayer BooRs text of 'Ahavah RaMah replaces the traditional request that God gather the Jews to Israel (Ul.,l!? m'llll1i' U::l"ro11 f"1X:1 l11!ll::l Y:l"1Nll C11;rq" UN':J.,,), with the hope that the homeless return there (Ul.,X' 111'llll1i' C::l'?m1 f"1X:1 111gl::l l/:l.,X7:lU'"1l f::li'1) (pp. 18-19). This change does not appear in the other Kaplan liturgies. As Ira Eisenstein explained, "That was part of his evolution. He felt that as AmericanJews it would be unrealistic to include ourselves. He wanted to make it more specific-those who are being persecuted" (telephone interview,January 28, 1997). If Eisenstein's understanding is correct, the changes to 'Ahavah RaMah and the Prayer for the State of Israel emanate from Kaplan's desire to foster honesty in prayer. There is no ultimate questioning of the value of leaving America for a life in Israel. Kaplan's later approach to 'Ahavah RaMah is foreshadowed in the 1948 Mabzor, where the Weekday 'Amidafls request that God "lift up the banner to bring our exiles together, and assemble us from the four corners of the earth" becomes "raise a standard to gather our homeless from the four comers of the earth" (High Holiday Prayer Book Volume U, p. 577). German Reform liturgists refashioned this blessing to avoid all references to the ingathering of the exiles (Prayerbook Reform in Europe, pp. 216-220). 224. See, for example, Qyestionsjews Ask, p. 282. According to Ira Eisenstein, these services were written by Eugene Kohn (telephone interview,January 28, 1997). 225. SPB, p. 539. 226. Ibid., pp. 543-544. Kaplan's nusa4 is mostly traditional, except that the reference to heaven (Gan 'Eden) is removed. The reference to the Garden of Eden is missing from all of Kaplan's versions of the prayer (see, for example, ibid., pp. 500-501).

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equitable and free, and its religion profound and pure ... Then will no sacrifice for preserving the nation be too high a price to pay. "227 These services show the same concern for ethical issues evident throughout the Sabbath Prayer Book, and the linking of God to America gives the quest for American civil rights a religious significance that helps render responsible American citizenship fully compatible with Jewish values. As previously mentioned, the Sabbath Prayer Book supplement contains a section of readings on the Sabbath. Poems by Yehudah Halevi, Aaron Makerlin, Isaac Luria, and the table-song Yom Zeh Mekhubad all echo the latter piece's contention that "six days in work and toil are spent, but the seventh for worshipping God is meant. So cease from toil and fulfill His intent. »228 This educational message is apparent also in the choice of biblical verses inserted to introduce the Qgbbalat Shabbat service.229 Clearly, Kaplan did not hesitate to make religiOUS demands on worshippers. Although Kaplan never acted on his belief that prayerbooks should contain blessings to be recited "on enjoying any of the manifold inventions which render modem life more pleasant than the life our ancestors knew, »230 the Sabbath Prayer Book supplement does provide Mi She-Berakh texts for wedding anniversaries and birthdays, occasions not marked officially by the traditional sidduro The Mi She-Berakh for wedding anniversaries is particularly noteworthy. May He who blessed our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bless ................ who during the week that has past have, by His grace completed ............... years of married life. They have come to the synagogue to give thanks to Him who hallows Israel with the institution of marriage for having enriched their lives by their mutual love and devotion. May it be God's will that they may continue to a ripe old age to live together in happiness, lightening each other's burdens, enhancing each other's joys (and together reaping a harvest of joy from the seeds of love they have sown in the hearts of their children). Amen.231 By expanding the reach ofJewish ritual, Kaplan helped make Judaism more relevant to the immediate lives of worshippers. This was accomplished

227. Ihid., pp. 541-542. 228. Ihid., p. 275. 229. Ihid., pp. 2-5. 230. "Towards a Guide toJewish Ritual Usage - Part 3," p. 14. 231. SPB, pp. 498-501. These texts were apparently written by Eugene Kohn (Ira Eisenstein, telephone interview, January 28, 1997).

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further by the inclusion of services to mark recent events in]ewish history, such as the founding of the State of Israel and the Holocaust. 232

Technical Aspects of the Synagogue Service Kaplan suggested that prayer services be carefully constructed to contain a healthy balance between "the new and familiar, music and speech, silent meditation and oral utterance."233 He believed that all traditional prayers should be sung, because the emotional excitement generated by collective singing creates a sense of religious exaltation that is strong enough to counter the text's loss of spiritual power through frequent repetition. Supplementary material should be merely recited, however, because people find it hard to concentrate fully on the meaning of words while they are singing. Since supplementary readings present worshippers with texts not encountered previously, they become irrelevant if congregants cannot give them their utmost attention. 234 In order to further encourage congregants to concentrate on the content of the supplementary material, Kaplan divided all readings into clearly discernible paragraphs that facilitate responsive reading, the assumption being that worshippers are more likely to concentrate on readings when they play an active role in their recitation. Kaplan asserted that "in organizing public worship, the aim should be to utilize as much as possible of poetry, music, song, drama and dance."235 His interest in the greater use of the arts in worship was, in part, a function of his view of]udaism as a civilization and his belief that the arts help tum a diverse group of individuals into a community with a true sense of common ties.236 While there is considerable evidence that Kaplan's services at the SA] were rich in musical content,237 there is no indication that he ever strove to weave physical movement or drama into worship-possibly because services were formal and no aspect of worship was lay controlled or initiated.238 Such formats do not easily allow for the addition of dramatic elements, which by their nature require a more casual atmosphere. It is unlikely that Kaplan, who had 232. The Daily Prayer Book, pp. 153-167. Kaplan was quick to respond to the Shoah liturgically, and included readings on the atrocities of World War Two in the martyrology of his 1948 Yom Kippur mabzor (see pp. 396-405). 233. "Introduction to 'Sabbath Services for the Modern Synagogue,'" p. 14. 234. "Towards a Guide to Jewish Ritual Usage - Part 3," p. 16. 235.]udaism as a Civili,? 'l:J ("who has chosen us for His service") was one of the possibilities mentioned. In terms of revelation, the Commission argued that references to torah mi-sinai are mythopoetic. Although they are not historically true, they are valid as successful articulations of Jewish regard for, and attachment to, the Torah. I3 In addition to delineating points of departure from, and convergence with, the Kaplan legacy, the 1981 principles made clear that the new Reconstructionist liturgies would be egalitarian. The matriarchs would be added to the first blessing of the 'Amidah. A "feminine" alternative for 'AvinuMalkeinu ("Our Father, Our King") and a Rosh Hodesh (New Month) liturgy giving voice to women's concerns would be developed. The English translation would be gender-neutral where possible; "king" would be rendered as "ruler" or "sovereign."14 Aware that Reconstructionism was attracting new members with littleJudaic background, members of the Commission decided that the siddur would include helpful rubrics, extensive transliteration (placed, preferably, at the back of the text), and an educational commentary shedding light on the development, structure, and content of the siddur. Fearing, apparently, that the commentary might eclipse the main text, they decided it should occupy less than one-third of the total space. To reflect current American linguistic usage, God would be referred to as "You" instead of "Thou."15 The publication of the tentative principles triggered considerable debate within the movement, much of which focused on the desirability of reinstating aspects of the liturgy that Kaplan had removed. I6 In the 1982 symposium on the future of Reconstructionism, five of the eleven participants envisioned a liturgy that included the traditional forms plus Kaplan's Reconstructionist alternatives. I7 This view had been put forward previously by Bob Ross-Tabak, for telling reasons. 13. The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation Prayerbook Commission, "PrayerbookTentative Principles," Raayonot, Spring 1983, pp. 21-22. 14. Ibid., pp. 20-2l. 15. Ibid., pp. 20, 22. 16. There was also some discussion of whether the movement needed to publish an official liturgy. Michael Luckens and David K1atzker argued that liturgical reform was best dealt with at the congregational level (Michael Luckens, "MeetingJews' Liturgical Needs," Raayonot, Spring 1983, p. 18; For David K1atzker, see "The Future of Reconstructionism: A Symposium," The Reconstructionist, March 1982, p. 12). 17. See the submissions of Ron Aigen, Ronald Brauner, David Brusin, Rebecca Alpert and Neal Weinberg in "The Future of Reconstructionism: A Symposium."

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There is considerable dispute about the value of certain changes that have been made in the traditional liturgy, and among the students at the RRC one is more likely to hear the traditional Torah blessing, Qjddush, or second blessing of the 'Amidah than the corresponding Reconstructionist versions. There are, however, adherents of each of these as well as other changed versions ... What I propose therefore is to recognize this diversity by accepting two versions at several key points in the liturgy. IS As Dennis Sasso was the only RRC graduate to speak out against including

formulations the movement has traditionally seen as troubling,19 it was clear that the younger generation of Reconstructionists generally supported the Prayerbook Commission's openness to the inclusion of aspects of the liturgy rejected previously. Not surprisingly, many classical Reconstructionists reacted sharply to the symposium's discussion of liturgy and the Prayerbook Commission's stated principles. Benjamin Wm. Mehlman, then chair of the Board of Governors of RRC and former President of theJewish Reconstructionist Foundation and the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation GRF),20 argued that the reintroduction of chosenness, traditional conceptions of revelation, and other previously eliminated passages "would negate the principles for which Reconstructionism has fought since the publication ofthe Sabbath prayerbook in 1945 ... While the new prayerbook need not retain the exact wording of the 1945 edition ... the theological and ideological rationales for change [must] be kept." The new prayerbook should not be "a compendium or encyclopedia of ritual practices" but "a Reconstructionist prayerbook," i.e., one that perpetuates the Kaplanian legacy.21 Perhaps the most comprehensive dissenting response came from the Reconstructionist Congregation of Evanston, Illinois, which had convened a committee to evaluate the published principles and 1982 symposium. Their 18. Bob Ross-Tabak, "Needed: A New Reconstructionist Siddur," lli Reconstructionist, September 1977, pp. 25-26. 19. "I would oppose the tendency to revert to traditional liturgical postulates out of nostalgia. Let us not verbalize crucial concepts which we cannot defend intellectually or ethically. Esthetics and literary continuity are of major concern, but ought not to violate principles of belief" ("The Future of Reconstructionism: A Symposium," p. 15). 20. To avoid confusing the reader, only the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation is referred to below as theJRF. The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation is always referred to by its full name. 21. Benjamin Wm. Mehlman, "'The Future of Reconstructionism': A Response," Raayonot, Fall 1983, pp. 43-44, 45.

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conclusions are worth quoting at length because they represent the views of a significant portion of the movement's constituency at the time. The majority of committee members believed that a return to traditional wording away from the changes in the 1945 prayerbook would represent a capitulation to pressures from other movements and would mean the end of Reconstructionism as a viable entity. While it is true that ancient prayers can be understood metaphorically, prayers are not Torah; they can and should be changed when they express beliefs contrary to ours. The starting point for revision should be the 1945 Reconstructionist prayerbook rather than the Orthodox prayerbook. Though some members of the Committee believed that traditional versions of the improved prayers should be included as alternatives or as historical notation, none felt that traditional wording should be included at the expense of or instead of wording which more accurately reflects Reconstructionist philosophy and belief. It is likely that this Committee would not recommend adoption of such a traditional prayerbook by our congregation. Reconstructionists should not be forced to say what they do not believe merely for the sake of historical accuracy or out of unreasoned loyalty to tradition ... 22 It is interesting to note that those who spoke out against departures from the Kaplan siddur understood their opponents to be motivated by emotional considerations. The Evanston group spoke of "unreasoned loyalty to tradition," while Dennis Sasso and Benjamin Mehlman saw nostalgia at work. Mehlman suggested further that developments in Reconstructionism might mirror trends in general American religion. "I recognize that there is a strong movement towards religiOUS fundamentalism in our country today. Is it possible that this fundamentalism which finds its Jewish expression in Lubavitch, the blandishments of Rebbe Zalman Schachter and the Rebbitsin Jungreis, is infecting some of our young rabbis?"23 That RRC graduates who deny the direct divine origin of the Torah, do not see halakhah as binding, and advocate full egalitarianism should be accused of fundamentalist influence is ironic, to say the least. Classical Reconstructionists were unwilling to acknowledge that departures from the Kaplan legacy could be intellectually defensible. They saw themselves as continuing the Reconstructionist

22. "Prayerbook Revision Report:Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation of Evanston,"

Raayonot, Spring 1983, pp. 24-26. 23. "'The Future of Reconstructionism': A Response," p. 46.

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rationalist heritage while their opponents embraced a form of non-rational religion that was anathema to Kaplan. The Prayerbook Commission of 1981 disbanded shortly after the formulation of its working principles. David Teutsch, Executive Director of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation at the time, argues that Charles Silberman "was reluctant to go ahead" because the Commission's report had unleashed "a flurry of controversy."24 Silberman himself sees finances as definitive in derailing the project. "The movement was broke. Some ill-advised expansion left the Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation dangerously short of cash. Activities had to be cut to the bone; all energies had to be focused on survival. "25 This view is supported by comments made by Sidney Schwarz in Raayonotin 1983. 26 Silberman believes further that the movement did not have the spiritual and intellectual resources to develop a prayerbook in the early 1980s. The project only became possible when the College "gained a much firmer financial base and, more importantly, a far stronger faculty-stronger spiritually and liturgically as well as intellectually."27 It seems likely that all three factors-lack of consensus, financial difficulty, and shortcomings in the movement's leadership-played a role in putting the siddur project on hold. After a failed attempt to reconstitute the Prayerbook Commission in 1986,28 a new Commission was created in 1987, with Teutsch as chair. This time the Commission held together29 and oversaw all the liturgies published in the Kol 24. David Teutsch, personal interview, May 10, 1993. 25. Charles E. Silberman, letter to the author, November 20, 1995. 26. Sidney Schwarz, "Editor's Column," Raayono~ Spring 1983, p. 2. Also see in this regard, Lillian Kaplan, "Working With the Prayerbook Commission," Reconstructionism Today, Spring 1999, p. 6. 27. Charles E. Silberman, letter to the author, November 20, 1995. 28. The reasons for this failure are unclear. David Teutsch believes that Arthur Green was unhappy with the proposed team, and that several of the people who were delegated to work on the project proved to be unavailable (David Teutsch, personal interview, May 10, 1993). Green remembers little of this attempt and the factors that led to its abandonment (Arthur Green, personal interview,june 21, 1995). 29. Teutsch, who feels that the original Commission disbanded because of the controversy fueled by its tentative principles, believes that the new Commission was able to begin working because the power of those who opposed the direction of the 1981 group diminished in the interim years. There were twenty-three congregations in 1980. By the time I stepped down as the FRCH Director, there [were] just under sixty. In that same time period the board of the FRCH dropped a full generation in average age. So willy-nilly we were speaking to that new generation we had been addressing in '81, but which, by '86, had more or less taken over. That made it possible to move ahead ... The new congregations and havurot were overwhelmingly youngerjews on their way intojudaism, and also,

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Haneshamafi30 series. These include Kol Haneshamah: Shabbat Eve, a siddur for Friday night, published in 1989 in an experimental edition31 to solicit feedback that was used to mold the subsequent siddurim; Kol Haneshamah: Shirim Uvrakhot, a book of songs, blessings and rituals for home use, released in 1991 with an accompanying cassette (For use at the dinner table, an abridged version of the text, Kol Haneshamah: Nashir Unevarekh, was also published); Kol Haneshamah: Shabbat Ve~agim, a Sabbath and festival prayerbook, which includes a revised version of most of the Friday night book, published in 1994; Kol Haneshamah: Limot IJo~ the daily prayerbook, released in 1996;32 Kol Haneshamah: Makor Leyamim Nora 'im, a High Holiday prayerbook published in 1999; and Kol Haneshamah: Tefllot Leveyt Ha'eve4 a prayerbook for a house of mourning that includes a guide to mourning practices, put out in 2001. As was the case in 1981, the Commission consisted of male and female representatives of the RRA andJRF. Leroy Shuster, Lillian Kaplan, Marlene Kunin, Adina Abramowitz and Milton Bienenfeld served as lay delegates, while a variety of rabbis sat on the Commission at different times. These include Ron as rabbis from [RRC) were going out into the world, they were drawing into the existing congregations younger people, and a lot of the oldest Reconstructionists were literally dying off or going into distant retirement and not being as much involved (David Teutsch, personal interview, May 10, 1993). As we will see below, the voice of "classical" Reconstructionism was hardly absent from the Prayerbook Commission's deliberations. 30. The phrase" Kol Ha-Neshamali' is taken from Psalm 150,;-r?'mn ;mIDl;"! ?:l, "Let all that breathes praise the Lord." 31. Due to the success of the Shabbat Eve volume, the Reconstructionist movement has kept it in print and produced a hard cover edition. As of the summer of 1995, approximately 16,000 copies of the prayerbook had been sold (David Teutsch, personal interview, July 5--{), 1995). 32. The release of a daily prayerbook is noteworthy because very few Reconstructionist congregations and havurot have services on weekdays. The decision to publish the siddur was motivated by important ideological concerns. I fundamentally don't believe that weekly prayer by itself is enough. I think expectingjews to be able to click into what is fundamentally a very difficult thing to achieve, almost on command at a Friday evening service, is an extremely high expectation. And it's one of the reasons why daily prayer, daily meditation is such an important part ofJewish life. That's why, despite the fact that there was no enormous clamor for it, we have gone ahead and edited a daily book. If we can create an oasis of a spiritual moment in people's weekdays, we would be giving them a gift of tranquility, and a gift of being able to step back from their ordinary lives and see what they're doing; a gift of balance and a gift of innerness that will be, maybe, our most important contribution to the confrontation with modernity (David Teutsch, "Kol Haneshamah Shabbat Vef!.agim: The New ReconstructionistPrayerbook," FRCH 1994 Convention, Dana Point Resort, Dana Point, November 1994).

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Aigen, Devora Bartnoff, Mordechai Liebling, Arnold Rachlis, Reena Spicehandler, Daniel Ehrenkrantz,Joy Levitt, Sandy Sasso, and Carl Choper. Responsibility for generating the various components of the prayerbook was entrusted to an Editorial Committee, whose members held specific areas of responsibility and submitted material to the Prayerbook Commission for approval, rejection, or recommended changes. Dr. Joel Rosenberg translated the basic nusa/t- ha-tefillah into English. Rabbi Lee Friedlander compiled and edited the supplementary readings. 33 Betsy Platkin Teutsch provided all of the art work, and David Teutsch selected and edited most of the commentary34 and supervised the layout of the books. Rabbi Arthur Green, former President and Dean of RRC, served as Hebrew editor of most of the Sabbath and festival material. After his departure in 1993, Teutsch assumed the editing of the Hebrew text. As Editor-in-Chief, Teutsch was also responsible for monitoring the work of the section editors and steering it through the Prayerbook Commission. Although the Hebrew text of the High Holiday mabzor was edited by Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, Teutsch remained Editor-in-Chief. For much of the project, Reena Spicehandler served as Assistant Editor. The working relationship between the Editorial Committee and the Prayerbook Commission changed during the course of the project. For the Shabbat Eve volume, the editors worked independently of each other, submitted their material to the Commission, and adjusted their work according to the feedback received. For Shabbat Ve!t-agim, the editors continued to work independently, but were invited to the Commission's deliberations. For the mabzor, the Editorial Committee worked collectively and submitted the fmished manuscript to the Commission-probably because in the other volumes readings are placed in the back of the book, whereas here they are interspersed among the Hebrew texts. This is true of Kaplan's High Holiday prayerbook as well. 35 To do this effectively, the editors needed to work in

33. Friedlander shared responsibility for the experimental Friday night book with Rabbi Deborah Brin. As the project progressed, Friedlander became the main editor and compiler of readings. He bore sole responsibility for the readings included in the High Holiday mahzor. 34. Sheila Peltz Weinberg edited the commentary in the experimental Friday night book. 35. Since High Holiday services are annual and not weekly occurrences, there is less of a need to vary the service through ever-changing readings. In addition, High Holiday liturgy puts forward a central theme and is thus less open to experimentation. As such, the editors felt that specific readings could be suggested for use at a given moment and did not need to be placed in the back of the book (David Teutsch, personal interview, July 5-6, 1995; Lee Friedlander, personal interview, June 25, 1993).

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concert, but in all cases, the Prayerbook Commission retained ultimate editorial control. 36 The movement takes great pride in the fact that laity played an integral role in forging the new prayerbooks. Some Reconstructionists, however, have questioned whether the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation nominated the most qualified people for the job. A key point of conflict was Hebrew fluency. In interviews, certain lay members indicated that although they were fairly proficient in conversational Hebrew, their knowledge of biblical and rabbinic Hebrew was lacking. 37 This was seen as troubling by some. As Lee Friedlander explained, "I think that there is something curious about people looking at a Hebrew text, which some of them do not understand, and cannot translate, and passing thumbs up and thumbs down on it. And I felt that that part of the process was a shame. It was not completely proper. It was sort of like me being on a committee to review the translation of the Analects of Confucius. "38 In conversation, Teutsch acknowledged that the Commission's laity lacked certain Hebrew knowledge, but felt that those who criticize this aspect of the process misunderstand the Commission's mandate and functioning. The purpose of the Commission isn't to be the liturgical expert. That's what you've got the [Editorial] Committee for ... The purpose of the Commission is to be a sounding board, to see what will really work out there in the world, and what problems they see in a product that is coming to them as a more or less finished product for review. Who they are as human beings is more important than what they know liturgically. If you went to shul and encountered this, would this be okay? That's the question they have to answer. 39 This very issue was one of the factors that led Arthur Green to leave the siddur project. He found it hard to have his work evaluated by people he did not see as peers. 40 As Teutsch's comments indicate, the Commission was created to evaluate how the larger movement might respond to the materials being formed. Not surprisingly, members were chosen with an eye to representing all the diverse 36. Ibid. 37. For example, Lillian Kaplan: "I have some fluency in conversational Hebrew because 1 have two grandchildren in Israel, and if I want to communicate with them, I better have some fluency. And 1 study Hebrew all the time. But that's as far as it goes. Biblical Hebrew, as you know, is a whole different ball game" (personal interview,June 25, 1993). 38. Personal interview, June 25, 1993. 39. Personal interview, July 5-6, 1995. 40. Arthur Green, personal interview, June 21, 1995.

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opinions prevalent within Reconstructionism. 41 Conversations with lay and rabbinic members of the Commission indicate that, in general, the laity represented the classical Reconstructionist point of view,42 which opposed the inclusion of previously removed passages even as alternative choices. This was especially true of Lillian Kaplan43 and Leroy Shuster, both of whom were drawn to Reconstructionism by Ira Eisenstein. For reasons that will be discussed below, Green was, for the most part, in favor of reinstating the traditional nusa/[. The other rabbis on the Commission were divided, depending on the issue. As chairperson, Teutsch often found himself in the awkward position of mediating between Green and the Kaplanians,44 and aspects of the prayerbook were fashioned to diffuse these tensions. After Green's departure, the deliberations of the Commission became less adversarial.45 Although he was supportive of the project, Ira Eisenstein played no role in the creation of the new movement prayerbooks, beyond explaining the 41. David Teutsch, "Introduction," Kol Haneshamah: Shabbat Ve1!agim, David A. Teutsch ed. (Wyncote, Pennsylvania: The Reconstructionist Press, 1994) p. xix. 42. "The lay people on the Prayerbook Commission, with one exception, tend to really represent a more old-line, classical Reconstructionist approach" (Reena Spicehandler, personal interview, May 11, 1993); "It was the lay people who represented the most liberal point of view. Not taking away anything that Kaplan had said and going forward from there" (Leroy Shuster, personal interview, June 26, 1993). The "exception" that Spicehandler refers to is Milton Bienenfeld, who was also cited by Green and Teutsch as being more open to aspects of the traditional liturgy that Kaplan eliminated. 43. Lillian Kaplan's desire to preserve the Kaplan legacy appears to have been a major factor behind her continued presence on the Commission. "I really have very little patience for prayer ... My whole attachment is a question of the civilizational aspect ofJudaism ... The religion plays a small part ... I see it as a matter of protecting my interests within the movement. If I don't like what's going on, I say so" (personal interview, June 25, 1993). Kaplan was originally appointed to the Commission because she was the President of FRCH when it was formed. She is not related to Mordecai Kaplan. For a more formal statement of Ms. Kaplan's relation to prayer, see "Working With The Prayerbook Commission," p. 6. 44. "David was constantly trying to negotiate between us" (Arthur Green, personal interview,June 21,1995); "I found myself very often mediating, because I'm very fond of the Hebrew liturgy, but I completely agree with the people who want it to be as ideologically close to Kaplanian lines as we can make it" (David Teutsch, personal interview, July 5-6, 1995). 45. "The feeling tone changed a lot when Art Green left the Commission, because Art was the most interested in preserving a theologically traditional and historically traditional Hebrew text. And there was a fair amount of tension between him and some of the [classical] Reconstructionists on the Commission. Once he left the Commission, it became a much more comfortable team feeling because it wasn't nearly so adversarial. Most of us could finesse out our compromises fairly easily" (ibid).

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rationale behind certain obscure changes in the 1945 book. 46 Responding to the creation of the first Prayerbook Commission in 1981, Eisenstein had asserted that "a new generation has arisen, which has the right and the duty to revise the Reconstructionist siddur in the light of events and trends which have developed since the original liturgical effort was undertaken. This attempt to bring Reconstructionism up-to-date is the contemporary expression of the concept ofJudaism as an 'evolving religious civilization.'''47 While those who viewed themselves as his disciples reacted in shock to the conclusions of the symposium of 1982, he wrote: "1 take great pride in presenting these new voices in Reconstructionism ... While they do not always see eye to eye with the founding fathers, nor with one another, they represent vitality and devotion. One can ask for little more. "48 The graceful manner in which Eisenstein accepted the shift of power to a new generation facilitated the work of the Commission, and his stature within the movement remained high until his death in the summer of 200 1. Had he vigorously attacked those aspects of the new prayerbooks with which he disagreed,49 he might have hurt the project.50 46. "I kept out of it, and I think David has thanked me a hundred times" (Ira Eisenstein, personal interview, June 25, 1993). For Eisenstein's role as "behind-the-scenes historian," see Kol HaneshaTTUlh: Shabbat Eve, David A. Teutsch ed. (Wyncote, PA: The Reconstructionist Press, 1989) p. xi. 47. Ira Eisenstein, "And Now the Editor," The Reconstructionist, February 1982, p. 32. David Teutsch's introduction to Shabbat Ve1!agim also cites Kaplan's evolutionary paradigm as the ultimate justification for deviations from the Kaplan liturgical legacy (pp. xviii-xix). Both echo comments encountered frequently in the 1982 symposium on Reconstructionism's future. 48. "The Future of Reconstructionism: A Symposium," p. 32. 49. As indicated in Chapter Two in. 323), in later life, Eisenstein rejected the attempt to edit traditional prayers to reflect current views. Ideologically motivated changes of this sort are quite prevalent in Kol HaneshaTTUlh. He believed that only laity with a scholarly background inJudaism should be allowed to participate in the formation of a prayerbook (personal interview, June 25, 1993). 50. This conclusion is subtantiated by Teutsch's moving eulogy upon Eisenstein's death. There was considerable ideological upheaval in the movement during the 1980s. It was just after I had become a leader in the movement and started to work on Kol Haneshamah. Those of you who have studied with [Ira] in recent years know that that is not his favorite product of the movement. In the early 1980s, there was a circle of people who wanted to block the ongoing work on the book. A delegation of them went up to see Ira in Woodstock. Ira received them and listened to them very carefully. They said that all he had to do was to make a phone call and the development of the prayerbook would stop. He said, "No" ... And the interesting thing about Ira's criticisms of the Reconstructionist prayerbooks is he never uttered them in any public space that I know of until the books were so well established that there could be a discussion about their ideas without that discussion ever undermining the purpose

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From Ideology to Liturgy

The decision to refashion the liturgies of the Reconstructionist movement came in response to concerns significantly different from those delineated by Eisenstein, Goldsmith, and Kaplan in the 1950s and 60s. The editors of Kol Haneshamah cite the need for a text that responds to the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel, the growing informality of linguistic expression in the United States, the trend towards lay leadership in synagogue worship, the changing position of women in American society, and the lack ofJewish knowledge of many who currently attend Reconstructionist congregations as the main factors that required the creation of a new prayer text. 51 Believing Kaplan's siddurim belonged to a different (and older) generation, congregations and havurot that joined the JRF in the 1980s purchased instead Reform or Conservative prayerbooks that reflected only parts of the Reconstructionist vision. 52 Aware that "if you want to build movement loyalty, you put something in people's hands that has the movement's name on it,"53 movement leaders realized that without an up to date siddur, they were missing an important opportunity to inculcate the Reconstructionist vision through the synagogue service. Thus although it was a large undertaking for a movement that operated on a limited budget, they committed their resources and energy to creation of the Kol Haneshamah prayerbooks. Our discussion of the new Reconstructionist liturgies will focus on the Sabbath and festival volume. References to the other books will generally be made only when they deviate from its norms or reflect other concerns. As in Chapter Two, we will present changes to the traditional texts and then look at the supplementary material. The same categories (Revelation, Messianism, Afterlife, etc.) will be examined to determine the extent of changes. CHANGES TO THE NUSAlj HA- TEFlILAH

Revelation The editors of Kol Haneshamah embraced Mordecai Kaplan's naturalist understanding of the Torah's origins. This is made clear by their inclusion, within the commentary on the Torah service, of his assertion that "we affirm that the Torah reveals God, not that God revealed the Torah."54 Kol Haneshamah's and function of building the movement (eulogy downloaded from theJRF web site, www.jrf.org). 51. See, for example, the introduction to Shabbat Vel,agim, p. xix. 52. The Reform Gates of Prayer and Rabbi Sidney Greenberg's Conservative-leaning Likrat Shabbat were popular choices. 53. David Teutsch, personal interview, July 5-6, 1995. 54. Shabbat Ve/iagim, p. 387.

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excising of the Sinai myth is less thorough than Kaplan's, however. Kaplan rewrote Ve-Zot Ha-Torah, edited Birkat Kohanim and eliminated the Yismaq Mosheh passage. While Kol Haneshamah retains Kaplan's emendation of the Priestly Benediction and replaces Yismaq Mosheh with a passage that does not refer to revelation,55 it includes the traditional Ve-Zot Ha- Torah as a choice alongside Kaplan's version. Its reasons provide insight into the internal workings and ideological tendencies of the Prayerbook Commission. Arthur Green was in favor of restoring all references to Sinaitic revelation to the Reconstructionist siddur. As he explained, I cannot pray with a Jewish community that does not affirm the language of talking about revelation, creation and redemption even though I am not a literalist about any of them. That's essential Jewish language. I will not give in on this. I still, as a [literal] nonbeliever in those three things, want to have a JeWish religious life. And a JeWish religious life depends on the language, because Judaism is essentially a language, that's what it's all about. It is a way of saying things ... Being a nonbeliever, being a liturgical affmner becomes all the more important to me. What I have left, in some ways, ofJudaism is the poetry ... Whereas Kaplan saw Jewish survival as dependent, in part, on adapting Jewish religious language to modem belief, Green reaches the opposite conclusion: if Jews are to continue to be Jewish once they reject traditional views of creation, revelation and redemption, they must hold on to traditional language. He rejects the view that the liturgy contains statements of belief that must be affirmed or changed. For him, "liturgy is evocative of spiritual openness and emotion." It is a tool of spirituality, sanctified and given power by its recitation for over 1500 years. "The more you tamper with it, the less of that power you have." He believes that in most cases the traditional language can be kept and infused with content comfortable to moderns. 56 The other members of the Prayerbook Commission did not accept Green's 55. 'lI':llZ?:l C'TI:lllZ? UnlKlZ? 1l"lZ?K .UTllZ?,' i1!l' m.ll u,'u C'lIl m.ll uP'" :l1l:! m.lU'1l!?K ("Happy are we! How good is our destiny, how pleasant our lot, how beautiful our heritage! Happy are we who rest on the seventh day"). This phrase is a reworking of the passage in the BirldlOl Ha-Shafr-ar, ?K'lZ?' 9tllZ? Cl' ':J:l C'OY!I C'10'K' 'i':l1 :l'Y C':l'1YOl C'O':JlZ?O 1lnlKlZ? 1l"lZ?K ("Happy are we who, early and late, morning and evening, twice every day, proclaim: Shema' Yisra'ef). As will be discussed in the next chapter, the use of this passage as a substitute for Yismaq Mosheh was first suggested by Aleph: Alliance forJewish Renewal, in its siddur, Or Chadash. 56. All quotes in this paragraph are from my conversation with Rabbi Green, June 21, 1995.

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From Ideolo/JJ to Litur/JJ

view that the language of revelation was essential to Judaism. Certain members, however, wished to reinstate the traditional Ve-Zot Ha-Torah passage, even though they embraced Kaplan's approach to Yisma~ Mosheh and the Priestly Benediction. Echoing the 1981 Prayerbook Commission's view that the passage is a mythic construct that conveys the antiquity of the Torah and the long history of the Jewish search for God,5? they believe it has deep emotional resonance and serves to celebrate Jewish attachment to the Bible. References to revelation in Birkat Kohanim do not fill this function, and therefore need not be reinstated. Because Reconstructionist rabbis use the tools of higher literary criticism throughout their presentation of the weekly Torah portion, members of the Commission had no fears that people would see the retention of the traditional ;',111., mm as a sign of Reconstructionism's acceptance of revelation at Sinai. "You can't go through a Torah discussion at a Reconstructionist synagogue and believe that anyone there takes ;"'11;' l'1Xn literally. "58 It is clear that the relatively high profile of ;"111;' 11l(n within the Sabbath liturgy was significant for its return to the Reconstructionist siddur. The passage is recited aloud during the lifting and displaying of the Torah to the congregation. As such, the scene is often embedded in the memory of even the marginally affiliated Jew. The editors of Kol Haneshamah were sensitive to this fact. We were very conscious of when we wanted to leave something in because people had emotional attachments to it. We felt that that was a reason to leave it in. It wasn't necessarily determinative by itself, but it was a reason that you had to give consideration to ... We gave that some weight. And occasionally that weight overweighed what would be considered an ideologically pure position. Because part of our ideology is to say that 'amkha has a right to get what it says it needs:,9 This affective attachment is not true for

Yisma~

Moshelf'O or the traditional

57. This willingness to view Sinai as a mythic symbol explains the use of the attribute "One of Sinai" at three points within the English translation of the Shahhat Vel!agim volume (pp.34, 168, 552). The use of attributes will be discussed at length below. 58. David Teutsch, personal interview, July 5-6, 1995. 59. Ibid. 60. Another factor contributing to the continued omission of Yisma4 Mosheh was the vividness of the passage's imagery. "When it gets too graphic people say 'that doesn't seem like myth anymore, that feels like a real account.' And the imagery there of the beams coming out of Moshe's head - it doesn't feel like the same level of abstraction that ",111;'1 111m has to it" (ibid). Yirmal! Mosheh was a controversial passage in the Middle Ages as well, albeit for different

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wording of the opening lines of the Priestly Benediction, and Kol Haneshamah's reformulation of those elements illustrates that the Prayerbook Commission accepted Kaplan's view that the siddur should be edited to reflect, as much as possible, held belief. Its approach to Ve-Zot Ha-Torah, however, shows a willingness to suspend this principle, but in order not to alienate the classical Reconstructionists on the Commission and in the movement at large, both the traditional and reworked versions of il"n, rum are included. The Prayerbook Commission's unwillingness to reinstate Yismal{- Mosheh played a significant role in Arthur Green's decision to leave the siddur project,61 and ultimately, the College. reasons. See, in this regard, N. Wieder, "Yismo.~ Mosheh-Hitnagdut Ve-Sanegorehah," Studies in Aggadah, Targum, andJewish Liturgy in Memory ofJoseph Heinemann, Ezra F1eischer and Jakob]. Petuchowski eds. Qerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1981) pp. 75-99. It should be noted that Kol Haneshamah does include a poem that quite vividly describes God's revelation of Torah at Sinai (Shabbat Ve1!agim, pp. 770-771). Being a poem, not a prayer, the imagery likely engendered less of a sense of discomfort among Commission members. As will be discussed below, the editors were drawn to the reading because of its voicing of women's experience. The Shofarot service in the mabzor retains the passage 1'"0;) Jlll:l n'?ll 01111( although it speaks graphically of God's revelation of the Torah at Sinai (Kol Haneshamah: Mal!zor Leyamim Nora 'im [Wyncote, P A: The Reconstructionist Press, 1999) p. 654). The passage is likely kept because it introduces the Shofarotverses in which similar imagery is used. Kaplan shortened this passage but retained all of the traditional biblical verses (High Holiday Prayer Book Volume I, Mordecai M. Kaplan, Eugene Kohn, Ira Eisenstein eds. [New York: The Reconstructionist Foundation, Inc., 1948) p. 274). In order to avoid references to revelation, Shofarotwould need to be significantly reconstructed. Neither Kaplan nor the editors of Kol Haneshamah were prepared to do so because of its centrality to the Rosh Hashanah liturgy. Kaplan's Sabbath liturgy also included Isaac Luria's Yom Zeh Le- Yisra 'e~ which refers to divine revelation at Sinai: "On Sinai ages past, God gave us the command, that work and toil on Sabbath be forever banned" (The Sabbath Prayer Book, Mordecai M. Kaplan, Eugene Kohn, Ira Eisenstein and Milton Steinberg eds. [New York: The Reconstructionist Foundation Inc., 1946J p. 273). 61. "The breaking point was very clearly Sha1!arit shel Shabba~ Yisma~ Mosheh ... They said 'no,' and I said 'good-bye'" (Arthur Green, personal interview,June 21, 1995). It is clear that Green's decision to leave the Commission was a product of his overall frustration with the process. As mentioned above, he found it unpleasant to have his material evaluated by laity whom he believed were unqualified for the task. Before the discussion of Yisma~ Mosheh, there had been many other tough encounters with certain lay members of the Commission that had eroded his interest in the project. The controversy over Yisma~ Mosheh was merely the last straw. Green's disagreements with the Prayerbook Commission played a role in his decision to leave the Presidency ofthe Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. "That was the beginning of the unraveling of my relationship with the movement. .. I had begun to realize that I would never be at peace with the Reconstructionist movement." Green was also frustrated

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Messianism Kol Haneshamah basically follows Kaplan in removing liturgical references to a Davidic messiah. But whereas Kaplan understood mashia~ ben David to be an article of faith whose literal truth needed to be affirmed or rejected, some members of the Prayerbook Commission were open to seeing it as a mythic image that need not be understood literally. Their decision to eliminate personal messianism, then, stemmed not from rejection of an untruth but from the general feeling that the myth has moral connotations that should not be perpetuated. In the words of David Teutsch,

Mashia/i ben David implies a real individual, really ruling the world, and Jerusalem triumphant. And that's a mythic image that we don't want to continue because it's got moral implications that are not acceptable ... TheJews will be the ultimate, triumphant rulers of the world. The Jews vindicated as the triumphant people. From Zion, which is our capital, will go forth the law. 62 by what he perceived to be the movement's restriction of his leadership role. "With the Presidency of the College should have come the leadership of the movement, the way the Chancellor ofJTS is the leader of the Conservative movement. But the old-time Reconstructionists in the movement understood that and they did not want to give me that ... because I was not enough of a Reconstructionist." Discomfort with the fund-raising aspects of the job also contributed to his departure. This discomfort was exacerbated by his growing anti-denominationalism. Ultimately, there are two types ofJews in America: orthodox and heterodox ... The lines between Conservative and Reform are ultimately silly lines, trivial lines, when you look at how Conservative Judaism is practiced ... All heterodoxJews should be getting together and saying we are a very threatened community, how can we all get together to seek the preservation of a non-Orthodox version of Judaism ... I think Reconstructionism has much to offer as a school of thought and I'm very glad it's there ... I don't think there is great importance for the future of theJewish people that Reconstructionism survive as a separate movement. It's one of the major reasons that I had to leave [my] position (ibid). 62. David Teutsch, personal interview,July 5-6, 1995. Unease with the image of the "law coming forth from Zion" in the end of days is evident in Kol Hanesluzmalis translation of ':l ;rru, lall T1'3tl. It is rendered "out of Zion emerges our Torah" to indicate that in the messianic era, Zion will only be the spiritual center of the Jews. Other nations will have their own religious capitals (Sluzhhat Vel!agim, p. 384). In the mao.zor, the vision that "Thou shalt reign over all whom Thou hast made, Thou alone, 0 Lord, on Mount Zion the abode of Thy majesty, in Jerusalem Thy holy city" is rendered, "May you alone be sovereign over all of your Creation, and Mount Zion be the seat and symbol of your glory, and Jerusalem your holy city [emphasiS mine]." A note is appended defending the morality of this statement. "If God is One and God of all, how can this universal Presence reside, as it were, in the particular place of the Jewish people, Mount Zion? Religion is not an abstract idea, but a lived reality, requiring a people, a place, and a program ... Each people needs to translate

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In addition, some Commission members felt uncomfortable with the image of mashia~ because it is often used by the Israeli Orthodox right wing as justification for pursuing political policies that Reconstructionism rejects strongly.63 This last concem-a response to current political realities-can be seen as similar to Kaplan'S fear, previously discussed, that mashial1 ben David supported"Agudaism." Thus the following specifics can be noted.

1) Kol Haneshamah retains Kaplan's version of the first blessing of the }tmidah, in which ~l ("redeemer") is emended to ;,'iuu ("redemption").64 It also preserves his formulation of the fifteenth blessing of the weekly L4.midah that asks that God "redeem [His] people Israel speedily" ('l(ln ;,,;,~ 'l('~' 1~Y nl(), instead of the traditional request that God "speedily cause the offspring of Thy servant David to flourish" (n'~ln ;,,~ 1':lY'" ~l nl().65 2) In the Yigdalhymn, Kaplan's 1n'l(l r~' fi" n'~ ("At time's end He will send His redemption") continues to supplant the traditional phrase, l'~' fi" n'~' lln'~~ ("At time's end He will send our Messiah").66

3) Kaplan included the hymn 'Eliyahu Ha-Navi'in the New Haggadah, even though the text refers to a Davidic messiah. 67 Kol Haneshamah has the hymn in its Havdalah service but offers a paraphrastic translation. ll"l( l(:l' ll'~':l ;"~:l ,,, 1=1 n'~~ cy ("speedily and in our time may he come with Messiah the son of David") is rendered "come speedily to us hailing messianic days."68 Whereas the English translations of the Kaplan prayerbooks always fully reflected the literal meaning of the Hebrew text, this practice is occasionally

the universal intuition of the Divine into the particular words, places, rituals, and concepts of its own religion" (Ma/r.zoT Leyamin NOTa 'im, p. 748). 63. David Teutsch, personal interview, July 5-6, 1995. 64. See, for example, Shabbat Ve1!agim, p. 93. The internal movement survey conducted to gauge responses to the Shabbat Eve experimental volume found fairly strong support for the maintenance of this change. The survey results have never been published and were forwarded to me by Rabbi Reena Spice handler. 65. KolHaneshamah: Limotlfo4 David A. Teutsch ed. (Wyncote, PA: The Reconstructionist Press, 1996) p. 117. For the Kaplan formulation, see The Daily Prayer Book, Mordecai M. Kaplan, Ira Eisenstein, Eugene Kohn,JackJ. Cohen, and Ludwig Nadelmann, eds. (New York: The Reconstructionist Press, 1963) p. 50. In the mahzor, Kaplan offered a replacement formulation that more closely resembled the traditional passage: ;n;w 'not'17' ~V n7.:l1Tll( rT'7.:I111 (High Holiday Prayer Book Volume II, p. 578). 66. Shabbat Ve1!agim, p. 137. 67. The New Haggadah, Mordecai Kaplan, Ira Eisenstein, Eugene Kohn eds. (New York: Behrman House Inc. Publishers, 1942) p. 105. 68. Shabbat Ve1!agim, p. 521.

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not the case in the new Reconstructionist prayerbooks-which will become clearer as our discussion unfolds. 4) Kaplan, like the Refonners before him, completely eliminated the Magen David blessing recited after the chanting of the Haftarah. Kol Haneshamah restores it, but rewrites it to exclude the references to the future kingdom of David. 69 In the opening line, 1rt"Dll ", l1'l 11'O?lll' "lY N'lli1 'i1'?Nl '1J'i1?N " '1Jnll~ '1Jl? ?l" Nl' i"Ikil:ll, the underlined phrase is omitted, so that the sentence now reads "gladden us, Lord our God, with the appearance of Thy servant Elijah the prophet. May he soon come and bring joy to our heart." The phrase that follows traditionally-('''l:;' 1lN C"nN "Y ,?nl' N;' 'T l~ N? 'NC:;' ;y) ("Let no stranger occupy David's throne; let others no longer possess themselves of his glory")-is replaced with a phrase from Malachi 3:24, l?' C'll ;Y l1'lN l? l'~m CI1'lN ;Y C'll ("he shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents"),70 which is joined to a passage from Isaiah 56:7, N'i" ;';!)I1I1'l 111'l' C'IlYi1 ?:;,? ("and Your house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples").71 The eulogy is changed from ", llll ("shield of David") to 1Y? C1~ N'lZl ("who brings an everlasting peace"). Kol HaneshamaJis version of Magen David indicates that Reconstructionists continue to have no problem with liturgical references to the figure ofElijah.72 It is interesting to note, however, that the translation of the reworked passage seriously tones down his role in the redemption process. 'll? ?l" Nl' i"Ikil:ll is rendered "soon may redemption come and give joy to our hearts" instead of "may he soon come and bring joy to our heart." ;Y C'lll;' C'll ;Y l1'lN l? l'~m CI1'lN is translated as "may God tum the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents," although the flow of the text implies that Elijah will do SO.73 This is clearly the meaning in Malachi, in 69. Ibid., p. 411. 70. Israeli ReformJudaism had already used this phrase in its reconstructed MagmDavid. See Ha-!4vodah SIui-Ba-Lev (1982;Jerusalem: Ha- Tmu'ah Le-Yaluulut MitIJademet Be- YisTa'e~ 1991) p. 127. The New Union Haggadah incorporates this verse into its reconstructed Shefokh /famatkha (Eric L. Friedland, Were OUT Mouths Filled With Song [Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1997] p. 302). 71. The phrase from Isaiah is altered slightly. The original reads ;:,? N'1i" ~n 11'~ '11~ ':l ~Y7'I ("for My House shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples"). In Isaiah, the "house" referred to is the Temple, where the nations will offer "their burnt offerings and sacrifices." This is clearly not the case in Kol Hanesluzmah. 72. In the words of David Teutsch, "Eliyahu, as a symbol of messianic days, doesn't necessarily imply mashiaJ,. hm David in the modem consciousness ... No Reconstructionists I know, including Ira Eisenstein, have trouble singing 'Eliyahu Ha-Navi'at Havdalo.h time" (personal interview,July 5-6, 1995). 73. In conversation, David Teutsch defended the validity of these renderings: "It [the

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which the full verse reads: "Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the Lord. He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents." Current Reconstructionists embrace Kaplan's view that no single individual will unilaterally redeem the world. They are comfortable with Elijah as a mythic symbol as long as no superhuman powers are ascribed to him. 74

5) Kol Haneshamah also reinstates the traditional text of Lekhah Dodi. Teutsch reports that no one on the Prayerbook Commission objected, even though extreme care was used to rid the siddur of all other references to mashiah: ben David. Personally, he believes that the phrases '~rrm 11':1 'VI' 1:1 and '!"1!l 1:1 t"K are too obscure to be troubling, and that the poem is too "mythic" to demand that it conform to held belief. In addition, "everybody sort of has this 'it's just a song' kind of attitude about it... Ideological purity would absolutely demand its being taken out and nobody seems to care. "75 This constitutes a clear break from Kaplan's approach to the editing of prayer text, in which no distinctions of importance were made between various elements of the liturgy. If a belief was considered untenable or undesirable, it was removed. 6) As we shall see below, Kol Haneshamah reinstates many of the passages that Kaplan, for aesthetic reasons, eliminated or edited. The Commission's desire to restore the traditional Ya 'aleh Ve- Yavo' raised the question of how to deal with its reference to mashiah: ben David (", 1:1 n'v~ l'~T). Since the Commission, like Kaplan, generally preferred to replace problematic passages instead of merely eliminating them, "'v~, 11'~' is used to supplant the original formulation. 76 By using n'w;, 11'~', the Commission partly addressed Green's desire to preserve the language of n'v~, which he considers essential Jewish vocabulary. In order to placate those members of the Commission who remained wary of "'v~, "'v~;, n'~' l";:'T is translated as "the memory of passage] means his coming is going to be the cause of our feelings of joy because we know that redemption is coming. He doesn't cause the redemption. He signals it" (ibid). 74. That redemption depends on collective human action is stressed further in the commentary. The vision in Malachi, which is the Haftarah for Shabbat Ha-Gadol, sees Elijah coming to herald messianic days, turning the hearts of parents and children toward each other. The task of redemption can be completed when all of us open our hearts to our families, to our communities, and to all the inhabitants of the world. Then our world will truly have become a house of prayer for all peoples, bringing the peace for which we all hope (Shabbat Veilagim, p. 411). Kol Haneshamalis view of redemption will be discussed below. 75. David Teutsch, personal interview, july 5-6, 1995. 76. Shabbat Veilagim, p. 99

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messianic hopes," and not the more literal "memory of the days of the messiah."77 Teutsch recognizes that this translation might not be fully accurate, but believes it is a plausible rendering of the text,78 The Commission was apparently not fully comfortable with messianic references in the translation: in 'Ein Ke- 'Erkekha, a passage within the Sabbath Yotl'er benediction, n'tt~~ n'~' is rendered "in the days to come. "79 7) Interestingly, Kol Haneshamah reinstates all references to David as the author of Psalms. 80 As David Teutsch explains, "We all know that David didn't write all the Psalms. That's a battle that Kaplan was fighting that by us is long won. We don't like editing biblical text [many of the references are in the Psalms themselves] ... Only in a few places did we excerpt from Psalms rather than include whole Psalms ... We wanted to show a deep respect for the biblical text. "81 The Commission did clash, however, over whether to restore references to David's authorship of the Psalms in the OJdushah and Nishmat KollJa~ since both refer to David as God's mashiah: ("'tt:J "~N~ ,:J,;' 1P'1 n'tt~'" '1' '31 1TY). Green wished the texts reinstated fully, while the laity mostly wanted the phrases out. After a lengthy debate, it was decided to restore the traditional passages with a note explaining that in these contexts the term mashiah: alludes to David's anointment with oil when he was crowned King of Judah and not to his potential messianic role. 82 After Green left the Commission, it revisited the OJdushah and removed the line 1P'1 n'tt~ ", '1' ?y ("by Thy truly anointed David"), which some members had accepted grudgingly.83 As such, Kol Haneshamah has the traditional wording only in Nishmat KollJa~ which illustrates Reconstructionism's continued discomfort with the language of n'tt~. Clearly, many aspects of the prayerbook are the product of compromise, and David Teutsch is undoubtedly correct in concluding that, if Arthur Green had not sat on the Prayerbook Commission, "some concepts would have been much more thoroughly rooted out than they were."84

Physical Resurrection after Death/Belief in an Afterlife (N:J~ 0"31) Like the Kaplan prayerbooks, Kol Haneshamah lacks all references to physical 77. Ibid., p. 98 78. Personal interview,juiy 5--6, 1995. 79. Shabbat Ve1!agim, p. 250. 80. Ibid., pp. 37,175,181,185,189,217,241. 81. Personal interview, july 5-6, 1995. 82. See, for example, Shabbat Ve1!agim, p. 243. 83. David Teutsch, personal interview,july 5-6, 1995. 84. Ibid.

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resurrection of the dead and the existence of an afterlife. The Prayerbook Commission recognized that many liberalJews continue to hope for an afterlife and might even assume that Reconstructionism embraces this belief.85 In order to make clear that this is not the case, the siddur text needed to be edited accordingly. Members of the Commission felt no personal attachment to any of the prayerbook's references to the afterlife or resurrection of the dead, and since much of liberal Judaism has eliminated these phrases, most people have grown accustomed to their omission. Thus while certain Reconstructionists find meaning in saying the traditional Ve-Zot Ha- Torah, few feel attached to the formulation me~ayei ha-meitim. 86 Arthur Green personally recites references to physical resurrection in the 'Amidah, but accepted that there was a need for Reconstructionism to make known its rejection of other-worldly salvation. For Green, the language of te~iyat ha-meitim and 'olam ha-ba'do not form part ofJudaism's essential vocabulary.87 Some other specifics: 1) The second benediction of the 'Amidah traditionally refers to the resurrection of the dead in its opening phrase and eulogy (~timah). Kaplan ,:m ("in omitted the first reference and changed the eulogy to C'~"'l C""? mercy Thou rememberest Thy creatures to life"). The editors of Kol Haneshamah were uncomfortable with leaving the phrase from the opening line unreplaced, and thus inserted the words 'M ?::J jj'~ ("who sustains all that '::J1T best belongs in the High Holiday lives"). Believing that O'~M'l O"M? liturgy from which it stems, Kol Haneshamah uses 'M ?::J jj'M~ for the eulogy as well. 88 Interestingly, the prayer's phrase i!))l 'l''ll'? ,rumN O'i'~' ("and keepest faith with those who sleep in the dust") is translated, who "remain[s] faithful

,'"r

""1'

85. A survey conducted by Andrew Greeley indicates that belief in life after death is on the increase among Americans of all faiths, includingJews. While only 22% ofJews believed in the afterlife in 1973,40% did so by 1995. See, in this regard, Vince Beiser, "Survey Shows More U.S. Jews Placing Faith in the Afterlife," TheJerusalem Report, October 16, 1997, pp. 8,10. 86. David Teutsch, personal interview,July 5-6, 1995. 87. Arthur Green, personal interview, June 21, 1995. Green has reinterpreted me/iayei ha-meitim to refer to "spiritual rebirth and moments of deadness and moments of life, and God coming back to one's life after years of wandering in the desert." This understanding of the phrase is also evident in Marcia Falk's alternative 'Amidah, included in the Shahbat Eve volume of Kol Haneshamah. Falk believes that "revival of the dead can be revaluated in a way that acknowledges and affirms the presence of death in our lives." She, however, never actually uses the phrase OW')11 n'nl:l. See ShabbatEve, pp. 150, 160-165. 88. Shabbat Vei!agim, p. 299. The rationale for departures from Kaplan's formulations come from my conversation with David Teutsch,July 5-6, 1995. The 1975 American Reform prayer book, Gates ofPrayer, suggests a similar substitution, ~11 11'nl:l ("who sustains all").

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to all life held dormant in the earth."89 Whereas the traditional text speaks of God's relationship to dead bodies awaiting resurrection, Kol Haneshamah appears to refer to God's sustaining of plant life that has yet to blossom. The Sabbath Prayer BooRs translation of this phrase was litera1. 9o 'n 7:J ;-rn1J also replaces C'n1J ;"pn1J in Magen 'Avot 91 Kaplan used c"n 7:J7:J1J instead.

2) Kol Haneshamah preserves Kaplan's emendation of the closing line of YigdaL92 3) 'Elohai Neshamah, which Kaplan omitted, traditionally includes a reference to God as returning souls to deceased individuals at some future time. Kol Haneshamah reinstates the text, but its version describes God as returning the souls of the dead "to everlasting life" (X::17 "11Y7 '::1 il"Tnil" 'J1J1J i17~7 ,'ny ilnx, becomes c71y "n7 'J1J1J il7~7 ,'ny ilnX1). The commentary explains that the new phrase implies that after death, "the soul, having sojourned in the physical life, is restored to the everlasting stream of life-to the continuum of being that is the sum-total of all transitory lives, when viewed from the perspective of eternity. "93 The eulogy is changed from c'n1J C"l!l7 n11JVJ "Tn1Jil ("who restorest the souls to the dead") to 'V::1 7:J m1' 'n 7:J V!lJ "'::1 1VX ("in whose possession is the breath of every living thing, the animation of all flesh"), an abbreviation of Job 12:10 (omitting the final word, V'X, on grounds of gender-neutrality), and similar to the standard Reform eulogy hereY4 89. Shahbat Veo/igim, p. 298. 90. Sabbath Prayer Book, p. 45. 91. Shabbat Veo/igim, p. Ill. 92. Ibid., p. 137. 93. Ibid., pp. 164-165. The phrase O'W "n had already been used by the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain in their reconstructed 'Elohai Neshamah. See, in this regard, Forms of Prayer ForJewish Worship, Volume One (London: The Reform Synagogues of Great Britain, 1977) p. 48. 94. Shabbat Veo/igim, pp. 166-167; Gates ofPrayer: 1M New Union Prayerbook, Chaim Stern ed. (New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1975) p. 285. This formulation is borrowed from the 1967 British Liberal prayerbook, Service ofthe Heart (p. 141), which Stern also edited, and from the English 'Elohai Neshamah included in all editions of the Union Prayer Book. The Reform liturgies employ the complete phrase from Job, 'n ?:l tllll 11':l ,tll! tI'N-,tI:l ':l

m,1.

Jakob Petuchowski has argued that it is incorrect to view' Elohai Neshamah as a "resurrection prayer." The Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 60b) presents it as a blessing to be recited immediately upon waking. As such, the eulogy likely only refers to God's returning the souls to sleeping bodies who were as dead Gakob Petuchowski, Studies in Modem 1Mology and Prayer [Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1998) pp. 187-189). Petuchowski's argument is not fully satisfying for it fails to deal with the prayer's assertion that God "will take [the soul) from me, and restore it to me in the hereafter."

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4) In the 'Ein Ke- 'Erkekha paragraph of the Yotser benediction, the reference to God's resurrection of the dead is also neutralized; C'~7'>' "n replaces 11'n11 0'11~il.95 Kaplan simply omitted the passage. 5) In order to make clear Reconstructionism's rejection of belief in an afterlife, all references to the dead residing in Can 'Eden are omitted from 'El Male' Ra~amim, 96 as was true of Kaplan as well. While Kol Haneshamah retains the phrase ~::lil 07'>, in the 'Ein Ke- 'Erkekha passage of the Yotser benediction, it is translated as "future world," to avoid the connotation of life after death associated with the phrase 'olam ha-ba'traditionallyY7 This translation is not implausible, but as the commentary acknowledges,98 it departs significantly from common understandings of the term. Kaplan would have argued that, by retaining the phrase 'olam ha-ba' in the Hebrew, the editors of Kol Haneshamah risk "misleading the simple." They would likely counter that the existence of the commentary renders this fear unfounded. Kol Haneshamah's approach to resurrection and afterlife illustrates that, while the editors of the new prayerbooks often agreed with the ideology behind Kaplan'S textual emendations, they did not always accept how it was translated into specific formulations and omissions.

Temple/Sacrifices Like Kaplan'S siddurim, the Kol Haneshamah series omits all requests that God rebuild the Temple and reinstitute the sacrificial system. Some specifics: 1) Kaplan's version of the 'Avodah blessing of the 'Amidah is maintained, although the word ::lil7 ("flame") is added to his formulation ('~>'::l U'il7~ " ill' 7::li'11 il::lil~::l 0117!l11 ::lil71 7~'lt',).gg This addition was suggested by Arthur Green, and is meant to imply that "the external mouthing of words alone cannot move us. It is the inward flame of devotion that brings our prayer closer to God."IOO The added fire imagery well suits a blessing that in its original form refers to burnt offerings. 95. Shabbat Ve4agim, p. 251. 96. Ibid., p. 639. 97. Ibid., p. 250. 1(:1;'1 c'nV is also translated in this fashion in the blessing of a Bar/Bat Mitzvah (ibid., p. 414). 98. "1(:1;'1 c'n)r."1 "n' ... Traditionally, these words were understood as referring to life after death or the world messianically transformed. However, [they] can refer to the world that we are moving toward as a result of increasing scientific knowledge and technolOgical sophistication" (ibid., p. 251). 99. Ibid., p. 99. 100. Quotation excerpted from Arthur Green's explanatory note in ibid.

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2) A new prayer composed by Rabbi Edward Feld that substitutes for Havinenu-a precis of the middle thirteen blessings of the weekday 'Amidahmakes no mention of the national messianic scenario, including the rebuilding of the Temple. lol Kaplan omitted but did not replace Havinenu, which is used only when one is unable to pray the full text of the 'Amidah. 102 3) In the scriptural verses recited before the Torah is returned to the ark (U- Ve-Nuqo Yo'ma~, requests that God return to the Temple Mount and cause the Israelites and Priests to rejoice are still omitted. 103 4) In the Musaf 'Amidah of Rosh Hashanah, the request that God return the Jews to Zion where "we will prepare in Thy honor our offerings as prescribed in Thy Torah" is placed in the past tense. iI11~::J u'rn:l1n 1'1'lJ'i' I'll( 1'l!:l~ i1't1))) C't', l"J::J '!:l~ l'J31 i1'Vb ", ~ l1'1111'1J 'r~ becomes I'll( l'l!:l~ u'rn~I(' U'1'1,JI( ''0)) C't'117 11'1111'1J J11'1::J

p' CiI'~~'l) 'nJT I'll(' CiI'1'1"'31. 104

As in Kaplan, references to the sacrificial system that do not involve requests for its reinstitution are also removed from the siddur. Some specifics: 1) Both Kaplan and Kot Haneshamah omit the transitional line at the end of 'Eyn Keloheynu, C'~O;"l 1'11~i' 111( l'l!:l~ ,r11'JI( "'~i'iW 1(1;"1 i11'l1( ("Thou art He to whom our fathers offered the fragrant incense"), but whereas the original Reconstructionist prayerbooks inserted the closing line of the Sephardi version of the prayer in its place, Kol Haneshamah, like the Union Prayer Book, leaves it unreplaced. I05 An informal survey of congregations that were using the 1945 prayerbook indicated that people found Kaplan'S version hard to sing. In retrospect, David Teu tsch believes that it was an error to leave the line unreplaced, as the text no longer fits the traditional melody. "You have a sixth line of melody and no place to put it. "\06 2) In the Vidui at the concluding service on Yom Kippur (Ne'illlh), the traditional assertion, "endless are the offerings required of us, countless our 10 1. Limot ljo~ p. 107. The editors were likely bothered by other aspects of the traditional text, including its request that God bring his "hand upon the wicked" and cause the righteous to rejoice "in the flourishing of the might of David Your servant, and in the clear shining light of the son ofJesse, Your anointed." 102. Limot ljol suggests that its brief prayer might also be appropriate for those who are new to worship (ibid., p. 106). 103. Shabbat Ve1!agim, p. 441. 104. Maf!;:.or Lcyamim Nora'im, p. 664. This maintains the style of the 1946 Conservative Sabbath and Festival Prayer Book, p. 141. The reconstructed text is also fashioned to avoid references to the Torah as the product of divine revelation. 105. Shabbat Ve1!agim, p. 443. 106. Personal interview, July 5-6, 1995.

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guilt-sacrifices" is retained, but rendered "there is no limit to the fires of our devotion, and there is no number to the savors of our repentance."107 3) For Sukkot, KolHaneshamahmaintains Kaplan's alternative Torah readings, which avoid recollection of the numerous sacrifices offered during the holiday. lOS

4) Kol Haneshamah does, however, include a selection of readings to be used to commemorate Tisha Be-'Av, the day that marks the historical destructions of both Temples. IOg These avoid all requests for a return to the sacrificial system and mostly are taken from the Kaplan Daily Prayer Book. 5) In Birkat Kohanim, the word C"l;"t::J ("priests") is omitted from the introductory phrase, as in Kaplan, llO and the rubric provides numerous suggestions for staging the Priestly Benediction, none of which involves descendants of Kohanim leading the blessing.l ll Since Kol Haneshamalis text for calling' olim to the Torah makes no provision for calling Kohanim first, 112 it is clear that contemporary Reconstructionism perpetuates Kaplan's elimination of the distinction between Kohen, Levi and Yisra'el Like Kaplan, the Prayerbook Commission was bothered by its non-democratic connotations. In addition, they were troubled by the fact that these caste divisions have traditionally excluded women. 113 However, whereas Kaplan removed references in Psalms to the existence of the priestly caste (p-m Tl':!) as a distinct group in the present or future, Kol Haneshamah retains them. As mentioned preViously, the Commission wished to avoid editing biblical texts, 107. Ma1!y f1K "i'~ ("Source of all souls") replaces the traditional '::>1111( n'~t'Jii ("Lord of all souls")Jl7 Interestingly, however, references to God as 1'11( and ,,~ are kept in 'Ein Keloheynu.:l 38 Within the Torah service, the reference 332. Ibid., p. 17. 333. Ibid., p. 37. 334. The translation of Kol Haneshamah originally appended YAH to the divine attributes chosen (see above, p. 224, n. 281). This may indicate cross-fertilization between Reconstructionism and Jewish Renewal. 335. Or Chado.sh, p. 37. When l?7:l (King) appears on its own, it is replaced in a variety of ways depending on the content of the prayer. In Yishtabal?, U:l?7:l,>'7 ~'11 nJ11'11' ("Praised be Thy name forever, our King") becomes u'n'Ll '>'7l7:l'l1 nJ11'11' ("Praised be your name forever, ("Living our Destiny"), while in Modeh 'An~ c'i','n l?7:l ("everlasting King") becomes, 'n?x Spirit") (ibid., pp. 190,55). 336. Ibid., p. 210. The reference to God as a male ?x is also avoided in the eulogy of the Q5dushah, where 'I1'1i'il?xil ("the holy God") becomes il'D11i'il;mil ("the holy Goddess") (ibid., p. 260b). God becomes "Goddess" in the translation of Le-'ElBarukh Ne'imot Yitenu, as well (ibid., p. 206). 337. Ibid., p. 94. 338. Ibid., p. 393. Replacing these references would alter the hymn radically and the editors may have been reluctant to do so.

m,

Kol Haneshamah and Other Contemporary Liberal Jewish Liturgies 357 to God as C"~n'i1 IN ("merciful Father") now reads C"~n'i1 "P~ ("Source of mercy").339 (Kol Haneshamah does not suggest Hebrew alternatives to the siddur's description of God as l"N, and Hebrew references to God as "Father" are only avoided within 'Avinu Malkeinu). Regarding the traditional blessing formula, Or Chadash places an alternative within the main body of the text. All blessings are given in two forms, the traditional i1nN ,,~ and a feminized nN i1:ml, and the grammar of the remainder of the blessing is adjusted accordingly. For example, in the Birkhot Ha-Shai1ar, i1l'l '1::l1V? 1n'li1 C"~?'Yi1 'n i1' i1nN 1"l, becomes C"~?1Yi1 'n i1' nN i1::l"l i1l'l "::l1V? runlli1. 340 In order to "affirm the potency of human activity in the process of making blessings," the editors considered replacing the traditional blessing formula with Marcia Falk's n~ "ll (let us bless) but opted to "preserve the melody and rhythm of the traditional berakhah. "341 Falk's formulation does appear as an option, however, within the Havdalah service. 342 As we have discussed in Chapter Five, Kol Haneshamah only suggests, below the line, ways in which the traditional formula may be altered. Like Kol Haneshamah, Or Chadash adds references to biblical women in places where the liturgy commonly refers to Judaism's male ancestors. The foremothers are inserted in the first blessing of the 54midah, and the eulogy is changed from CinlN ll~ to in1V 'li"!)' C.'~N ll~, 343 as in the revised text of Siddur Sim Shalom 344 Whereas the Reform and Reconstructionist texts of the prayer describe God as 'l'n'~N' 'l'rnlN ,;,?I( ("God of our forefathers and 'i1?N ("God of our parforemothers"), Or Chadash uses the less formal, ents"). 'Emet Ve- Yatsiv states that "Moses and the people of Israel" sang songs of thanksgiving at the Red Sea. Kol Haneshamah ascribes this action to "Moses, Miriam and the Israelites." Or Chadash leaves the traditional formulation intact but includes Geela Rayzel Raphael's song "By the Shores of the Red Sea,"

11"'"

339. Ibid., p. 294. 340. Ibid., pp. 98, 102a. References to God as ",:1 are feminized throughout Or CIuulash. For example, Barukk She-:4marmay be recited as O"YiI iT'm mmw :'1:",:1 (ibid., p. 129). 341. Ibid., p. 40. In order to echo Falk's presentation of the human role in the act of blessing, :'111N ",:1 is rendered, ""We bless" or ""Let us bless," instead of the customary ""Blessed/Praised are You." 342. Ibid., p. 411. 343. Ibid., p. 276. As in the rest of the prayerbook, a feminized possibility is also given:

m0 mp1!l1 om:m lUlll. 344. Reform and Reconstructionism give m0 mlY'1 om:l!! llll instead. As indicated above (n. 116), Reform is considering using m0 'lj.'1!l in its next prayerbook. This formulation is based on Genesis 21:1, m011N 'lj.'1) 'm (""And the Lord visited Sarah").

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which speaks of the actions of Miriam and the Israelite women. 345 Poems relating to Miriam are also suggested after Shirat Ha- Yam, including Ruth Sohn's "1 Shall Sing to the Lord aNew Song," which is one of the supplementary readings devoted to the theme of exodus in Kol Haneshamah. 346 As in current Reconstructionist liturgy, Leila Gal Berner's Miriam Ha-Nevi'ah complements the traditional 'Eliyahu Ha-Navi' at Havdalah. 347 To augment the voice of women within the prayerbook, many of the English readings suggested are written by women. This is true of Kol Haneshamah as well.

3) Theology. Or Chadash, like Kol Haneshamah, puts forward a view of God as immanent both in the world and ourselves. In the traditional Mah Tovu, the Jew states that upon entering God's sanctuary, "1 will worship and bow down; 1 will bend the knee before the Lord, my maker" ('l!)? i1:J'1:1N i"!Y1:JN'I mnJWN 'IN'l 'V)7 "). Or Chadash renders this, "I could worship and kneel and make blessing before the Guide within who still makes me."348 Patricia Warner-Cohn's alternative English 'Elohai Neshamah addresses "the Holy Spark within. "349 The Hebrew text of the :Aleynu lacks the assertion that God's "seat of glory is in the heavens above; His abode of majesty is in the loftiest heights" ("i" :l'arlZl C'Zl"tJ 'i1:lXl 'TY nl':J'arl ?JmtJ C'ZlV:l).350 Shefa Pelicrow's "No More Big Daddy," appended to the :Aleynu, asserts that "When we keep God in the sky / we put religion on the shelf /1 pray with all humility / to find God in myself."351 A poem by Pamela Abell included within the Pesuqey De-Zimrah beginS "Blessed be Thou, deity that we are, each of us, me and yoU."352 Charles Reznikoffs "By the Well of Living and Seeing," also suggested for the Pesuqey De-Zimrah, reads in part: "1 see neither rag nor bark / flesh nor leaf / 1 feel neither stick nor stones,! cloth nor pillow / neither rain nor snow nor wind nor sunshine; / 1 see God only and my spirit brightens / like a mirror; / 1 touch Him touching all 1 touch; / on earth 1 am as close to Her as those in Heaven."353 Arthur Waskow urges worshippers to consider substituting passages from the Song of Songs for traditional Haftarah readings that no longer seem relevant, as the text is "a great work of immanent spirituality, in which God is present 345. Or CIvulash, p. 249-251. 346. Ibid., pp. 180-181; Shahhat Vei!agim, pp. 768- 769. 347. Or Chadllsh, p. 420; Shahhat Vei!agim, p. 521. 348. Or CIvulash, p. 63. 349. Ibid., p. 96. 350. Ibid., pp. 373-382. 351. Ibid., p. 376, 8-29. 352. Ibid., p. 138. 353. Ibid., pp. 170-171.

Kol Haneshamah and Other Contemporary Liberal Jewish Liturgies 359 everywhere in the Song precisely because God is nowhere singled out to be named."354 Aleph's immanentist theology has caused it to reformulate traditional blessings recited prior to ritual acts. As Arthur Waskow explains, "We have recognized that in most moments of our lives we experience God in the most intimate mysteries of the intertwinings of the Universe-rather than as Commander Above and Beyond. So the 'mitzvot' we have seen not as commands from outside but as those acts that connect us with each other and the Truth of the Universe."355 Or Chadash presents three versions of the blessing for putting on the talli!. The first text preserves the view of God as commanding the performance of the ritual (n'1'l::l9~yn;'1' U1l1). The remaining formulations speak instead of God bringing worshippers near through the act of wearing the talli! ('VK jn'l'l::l 9t:lyn" umK n:J'i'~/::l'i'~' mu"i' m'l~' U'::l, nnn'~tnm~ 'VK n"t:l::l ;'1~'~Y::l un'K n:J'i'~/::l'i'~' v"i' U'::l, nnn'~tnn,~).356 Similar constructs are suggested for the blessing recited before the morning text study.357

'::l",

4) Inclusivity. Or Chadash, like Kol Haneshamah, formulates the Mi She-Beraklz prayers to be usable by same-sex couples. Instead of providing a blessing for those recently married, a text is crafted "for loving companions who have recently chosen to join their lives together."358 The full text of Leila Gal Berner's" Havdalah: A Celebration of Difference" which calls on worshippers to "celebrate different kinds of people, with different life-choices, life-styles" is provided. Examples given include "people blessed with long life, infants beginning their life-journeys, gay and lesbian people, people of color, [and] adolescents. "359 The following blessing is suggested for concluding the Torah reading and discussion: We have gathered to wrestle with Your Torah ... From year to year we wrestle-with those teachings that separate women and men into utterly different paths of serving You; with those teachings to make war upon other peoples whom we meet as we gather in the Land of IsraeL .. With those teachings that exclude from our community those whose love is expressed through lesbian and gay life-paths or through relationships not defined by marriage. We have wrestled with those teachings in light 354. Ibid., p. 34l. 355. Ibid., p. 18. 356. Ibid., pp. 65-66a. 357. Ibid., pp. 77-79. 358. Ibid., p. 313a. 359. Ibid., p. 413. Kol HaTUiShamah only included the song Hevdelim from this service.

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of others of Your teachings: You shall not oppress the stranger, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. .. And in light of these teachings, we have tried to transfonn and transcend those other teachings, while striving to hear whatever wisdom may have lived within them. Help us to continue our wrestling with You ... At brukhah Yah, ha-melamedet torah

le- 'ameinu Yisra 'eL 360 In order to be inclusive of participants with physical disabilities, the rubric of Or Chadash reads "all who are able, please rise."361

5) Persona/jzption. Our discussion of the guided meditations included in Kol Haneshamah illustrated that Reconstructionist liturgy occasionally calls on congregants to channel their own personal experience and thoughts into the prayer service. This tendency is evident in Or Chadash as well. The third version of the :Aleynu replaces the traditional :Ai Ken Neqaveh with an exercise in dyads or triads in which participants "are invited to share with others [their] own personal vision of a world repaired." These are then brought to the larger group which "gives each vision a blessing and feeds it with the energy of the group's support. "362 A note prior to the Qgddish De-Rabanan calls on participants to "take a moment to recall those people who have been your greatest teachers ... Some communities might wish to ask individuals to share with the whole group some recollections about their best teachers."363 The editors of Or Chadash suggest that, instead of reading the full Torah portion designated by tradition for each week, the Torah reader should scan the portion for significant themes and read only those passages. Rather than calling single individuals to the Torah, the reader should call all participants for whom the theme has special relevance. For example, in reading the sidrah on crossing the Reed Sea, we might call for one 'aliyah all who are hesitating whether to choose a major change in their lives and need a blessing of discernment and courage to choose; for a second, those who are in a stonny mid-passage and need a blessing of strength and perseverance; for a third, those who have crossed and need a bleSSing of fulfillment and joy. Beyond involving more people in the Torah service and "lessening the distinction between those honored" and those passed over, the editors believe 360. 361. 362. 363.

Ibid., pp. 329-330. Ibid., p. 33. Ibid., p. 381. Ibid., p. 366.

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that orchestrating worship in this manner can "make a real connection between people's lives and needs, and the Torah teachings and blessings."364 As noted previously, sociologists of religion have generalized that many Americans born after World War Two require such personal connection to experience religion as meaningful.

6) Revelation. Mordecai Kaplan's reworking of Ve-Zot Ha- Torah is given instead of the traditional text,365 and Or Hadash's presentation of the Priestly Blessing does not speak of the Torah as written by Moses ("May we confer upon each other the three-fold blessing recorded in the Torah, handed down to us as the words of the priests in days of old").366 In the ~midah, Yisma~ Mosheh is replaced by 'JnJNV 1J,.,VN .unv." ;'!:l';om, U,.,ll C'YJ ;,~, 'Ji',n :110;'~ U,.,VN 'Y'~V~ C'n~'v ("Happy are we, how goodly is our portion, how pleasant our lot, and how beautiful our heritage! Happy are we who rest on the seventh day"), which is also used in Shabbat Ve~agim. 367 In conversation, David Teutsch recalled that he took this passage from Or Chadash. 368 Interestingly, however, the sixth provided version of the ~midah does include a traditional English Yisma~ Mosheh. 369 And as in Kol Haneshamah, some readings that speak of Sinaitic revelation are included in the prayerbook.370 7) Messianism. The first option offered for the

~midah

in Or Chadash follows Reconstructionism and Reform in ascribing to God the sending of "redemption" (;';'Nl) in the end of days, instead of the customary "redeemer" (?~m).371 The sixth option, however, preserves the traditional passage in the Hebrew text, although references to a personal messiah are omitted from the English text of the benediction.372 In Ya 'aleh Ve- Yavo: the request that God find favor in "the remembrance of messiah the son of David your servant" ("~Y ", P n'v~ 1,.,::lT) is replaced with the hope that God will take note of the "memory of the messianic purpose within the world" (rn'n'v~;, "Y' 1,.,::lT c;,y~).373 And while Kol Haneshamah rewrites the Magen David Haftarah benediction, Or Chadash omits it. 364. Ibid., pp. 307-308. 365. Ibid., p. 335. 366. Ibid., p. 282. No Hebrew text of the prayer is provided. 367. Ibid., p. 261; Shahhat Veqagim, p. 307. 368. David Teutsch, personal interview,July 5-6, 1995. 369. Or Chadash, p. 280. 370. For example, ibid., pp. 295-296; Shahhat Veqagim, pp. 770-77l. 371. Or Chadash, p. 260. 372. Ibid., pp. 276-277. 373. Ibid., p. 260.

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8} Shema~ Or Chadash, like Kol Haneshamah and Conservative liturgy, maintains the traditional Hebrew Ve-Hayah 'lm Shamoa' (Deuteronomy 11: 13-21) but gives four options for understanding the prayer, all of which reject a literal understanding of it. In option one, the translation presents an ecological reading reminiscent of Mordechai Liebling's commentary in Shabbat Vellagim 374 Option two deletes the second and third (biblical) portions of the Shema', as in the Union Prayer Book and Gates of Prayer. 375 Leila Gal Berner's translation in option three forwards a poetic, personalized understanding of the Bible's claim that God will sustain the climate of the land ofIsrael in return for proper performance of commandments: If you faithfully accept the opportunities for holiness that I offer you, carrying them out with all your heart and all your soul, then the "land"

of your soul will be nurtured in all its proper seasons, and you will reap a joyful harvest. Take care not to lose your way and become misguided. For then godliness will be hidden from you, and the land of your soul will dry up, and you will be unable to survive.376 Option four gives Deuteronomy 30: 14-20 as the English text of Ve-Hayah 'lm Shamoa~377 This is noteworthy, as Deuteronomy 30 is appended to Kaplan's alternative version of the text reprinted in Kol Haneshamah.

9} ResurrectiOn/Afterlife. Or Chadash provides two versions of the Hebrew text of the 54midah, both of which continue to refer to God as c'm:-r :1'n~. In the first version, however, no English translation is given and in the second, the translation avoids ascribing to God the power to resurrect the dead. 378 The IIatimah of 'Elohai Neshamah, C'n~ C"l!l~ n'~VJ TTrm:-r ("who restorest the souls to the dead"), is changed to 'n ~::b n'~VJ "Tn~:-r ("who restores souls to all that live"}.379 Kol Haneshamah suggests different replacement wording here (,vnt 'V:1 ~::J m" 'n ~ V!lJ "':1). Or Chadah maintains in Hebrew the prayer's assertion that God will return souls 1(:1~ ,'ny; ("in the hereafter"). Its translation, however, forwards a non-literal reading of the passage ("It is You who constantly arouse the desire to live within me. Sometimes You take this hope 374. "Watch yourselves that you do not become seduced by your desire to dominate and possess, destroying the work of creation. For then the Source of Creation will turn against you, and the world in which you live will no longer sustain you" (ibid., p. 230). 375. Ibid., pp. 231-236. 376. Ibid., p. 239. 377. Ibid., p. 243. 378. Ibid., pp. 260a., 276-277. 379. Ibid., p. 94.

Kol Haneshamah and Other Contemporary Liberal Jewish Liturgies 363 from me, only to renew it again and again").380 While both versions of the 'Ein Ke- 'Erkekhah paragraph of the Sabbath Yotrer benediction retain traditional references to messianism, resurrection of the dead, and the afterlife, they are avoided in the English texts. For example, David Cooper's translation reads: "There is nothing like You, there is nothing beside You. Except You there is nothingness, and what can be compared to YOU?"381

10) Temple/Sacrifices. Both versions of the fifth benediction of the Sabbath 54.midah lack the traditional reference to God's accepting ?N''D' ''VN, the burnt offerings of the Israelites. 382 Aleph borrows Reform's selection of the verses recited when the Torah is returned to the ark, which by beginning the text at :111:) np? ':J avoids expressing the hope that God will return with the ark of the covenant to the Temple Mount. 383 As in Kol Haneshamah and the Reform liturgies, the transition line at the end of 'Ein Keloheynu is omitted384 and the Birkhot Ha-Shal1ar does not include the Seder Ha-QJrhanot 11) Chosenness. A note included in the introductory pages of Or Chadash explains that the word "chosen" is not excised from all Hebrew prayers, because "traditional interpretations of the term associate it with the concept of 'being loved,' one which we did not want to see absent in the siddur. "385 Nevertheless, in 'AhavahRahhah, the assertion that God has "chosen [theJewsl from all peoples and nations" (rw", cy ?:Jt.l mnl l1l') is changed to "You have chosen us with all nations and religions" (rm CY?:J cy mnl ,n,), and the eulogy is illiINl ?In 'lV" ?:J, ?N'V' l'pt.l/nl'pt.lil ("who draws Israel and all the inhabitants of the earth near in love") instead of the traditional ?N,'D' 't.lYl ,mlil illiINl {"who hast graciously chosen Thy people Israel").386 (Kol Haneshamah substitutes a different eulogy.) The blessing recited prior to reading the Haftarah lacks the assertion that God has "chosen the Torah, and Moses His servant, and Israel His people, and prophets of truth and righteousness. "387 (Kol Haneshamah omits only the italicized phrase.) Or Chadash provides two versions of the blessing chanted by those called to the Torah, both of which avoid the possible negative connotations of the text. In the first version, "who hast chosen us from all peoples and hast given us Thy Torah" (?:Jt.ll1l ,nl 'VN 380. Ibid., p. 94a. 381. Ibid., p. 209. 382. Ibid., pp. 261, 281-282. 383. Ibid., p. 324; Gates a/Prayer, p. 424. 384. Or CIw.do.sh, p. 393. 385. Ibid., p. 40. 386. Ibid., p. 220. 387. Ibid., p. 336.

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m"1111N U, Tm, C'~Yii) is replaced with "who has chosen us with all peoples and given us His Torah" (,mm 11N U, T11l' C'~Yii cy 'l:l '":l '1t1N), while in the second, .,",~ '1J" 'l111~1t1l "ml1 :1l't.)X' cy 'l111X :liiN 11t1X ("who has loved us and all peoples and religions, and opened are hearts to the words of His/Her teachers") is given. 388

':l,

':l

12) )fleynu. The editors of Or Chadash understand the opening paragraph of the traditional Ltleynu to "imply or state outright thatJews are not made of the same stuff as their fellow humans."389 Accordingly, in the first option provided, the spelling of the Hebrew word N' (••• C:1:lllP'" C1t1 N?1t1) is changed to " {... Cii~Y UP'" C1t1 "1t1).390 This serves to alter radically the meaning of the text ("You made us one with all of life / You helped us to share with all humankind / You linked our fate with all that lives / and made our portion with all in the world"), without changing its basic sound. The sentence, however, is grammatically awkward; "1t1 comports with nothing in the phrase. In sum, although Kol Haneshamah is more likely than Or Chadash to encourage a service in which traditional texts and forms of prayer figure prominently, both prayerbooks encourage worshippers to forge connections to traditional prayers and rituals by investing them with meaning more focused on the self than on the group. They are unique amongst the liturgies studied in emphasizing God's immanence, providing guided meditations, and consciously crafting Mi She-Berakh prayers and other texts to be supportive of homosexuality. While all of the contemporary prayerbooks discussed seek to respond to the feminist critique of the language used in reference to God, only Kol Haneshamah and Or Chadash sanction altering the traditional Hebrew bleSSing formulation. 391 Only in these two siddurim does contemporary poetry figure prominently in the supplementary readings. (Many of the same poets appear). And only in Or Chadash and KolHaneshamahis extensive transliteration offered for those unable to read Hebrew. 392 Ideologically, our discussion has shown that the liturgies of Reconstructionism, Reform,Jewish Renewal and, to a significant extent, ConservativeJudaism, put forward a fundamentally non-supernatural Jewish theology. There is little sense that God literally hears prayer and has the ability to respond to the 388. Ibid., pp. 310-3 lOa. 389. Ibid., p. 372. 390. Ibid., p. 373. 391. The new CCAR Haggadah also sanctions this. See above, note 119. 392. As noted previously, there is reason to believe that the next liturgy of American Reform Judaism (expected by 2005) will share some of these characteristics.

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supplications of congregants. Prayer is viewed instead as a gateway to cultivating appreciation of the world's blessings, gaining perspective on life, and reaffirming central values. Although Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal liturgies all present worshippers with alternatives to the traditional prayer text and sanction the omission and! or abridgement of portions of the inherited prayer service, there is greater openness today than in the 1940s to certain liturgical formulations whose literal truth is rejected. American liberal Jews, like non:Jewish liberals,393 view other religious paths as equally valid ways to worship the divine. Thus non-Orthodox Jews share a general discomfort with the traditional text of the }ileynu, liturgical expressions ofJewish chosenness, and passages in Psalms that can be read as denigrating others. Prayers for peace are often universalized. As in the 1940s, American liberal Jewish groups have formulated their liturgies independently of one another. The similarities cited above indicate the existence of a community of shared concerns rather than a pooling of resources, although liturgists do sometimes indicate familiarity with other non-traditional siddurim. The movements might wish to explore joint liturgical projects in the future. Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal circles could settle, for example, on one feminist reading of the opening benediction of the }imidah and on one text of the modern prayer for the State of Israel. The question of whether the founding of the State merits the writing of a new }it Ha-Nissim confronts the Jewish people as a whole and might be dealt with in a cross-movement forum. Reform and Reconstructionism could also arrive at a shared text of the second }imidah benediction and the opening line of 'Emet Ve- Yatriv. 394 Engaging in collective efforts of this sort would help foster a sense of community among the various branches of non-Orthodox Judaism, bring a measure of textual unity to liberal Jewish liturgy, and open liturgical deliberation to a wider field of immediate influence. In this vein, for example, the commentary of Kol Haneshamah could have made reference to 393. See, in this regard, Steve Bruce, Religion in the Modern World: From Cathedralr to Cults (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) p. 232. 394. Some ecumenical sensitivity of the type that I am suggesting seems to exist within the Christian world. In the name of general Christian unity, prayer texts produced by the Roman Catholic English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC) have been adopted by non-Catholic denominations. The Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship, for example, remained in constant contact with the ELLC when producing its liturgy and opted to embrace the Roman Catholic texts even though they did not always live up to its standards for gender-inclusive language. See Eugene L. Brand, "New Lutheran Liturgy for the United States and Canada," The Changing Face o/Jewish and Christian Worship in North America, p. 93; John Fenwick and Bryan Spinks, Worship in Transition: The Liturgical Movement In The Twentieth Century (New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1995) pp. 151-152.

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the totality ofliberalliturgy and not only delineate points of convergence and divergence from the prayerbooks of Mordecai Kaplan. 395

395. An example of this type of commentary can be found in Kol Haneshamah: Mal!zoT Leyamim Nora'im (p. 800). Worshippers are informed that one of the new prayers incorporated in the text was first used in the Conservative mabzor of 1972.

Postscript

Contemporary Reconstructionism and American Spiritual Trends A number of concerns and sensitivities apparent in Kol Haneshamah, and to varying degrees in the other liturgies discussed above, echo those in American religious life generally. Researchers have noted a general surge of interest in mystical modes of thinking and methods of religious expression.! Insights and practices drawn from Buddhism and Hinduism were central to the youth counter-culture of the 1960s. Although a small proportion of Americans were involved in this phenomenon directly, it had a profound influence on society as a whole. As Robert Wuthnow has noted, these practices served to "redefine the outer limits of religious respectability. Like deviant sects and cults in the past, they provided instances of 'abnormal' religious behavior that came to be widely discussed, even in circles far removed from the centers of religious experimentation themselves."2 Studies indicate that involvement with mystical culture is more prevalent among those with more formal education. For example, while nine percent of American high school graduates born after 1945 meditate, sixteen percent of college-educated baby boomers do so. The number climbs to twenty-nine percent among those holding a graduate degree. 3 Reconstructionists are highly educated: the 1996 movement demographic survey found that fortyone percent of Reconstructionist households have at least one member who is a lawyer, medical doctor or holder of a Ph.D.4 Perhaps this helps to explain 1. See, in this regard, Robert Wuthnow, The Consciousness Refonnation (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976) p. 124; Wade Clark Roof, A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritualjourneys ofthe Baby Boom Generation (New York: Harper San Francisco, 1993) p. 131. For a popular survey of the role of mysticism in contemporary American Judaism, see Robert Eisen, "Jewish Mysticism: Seeking Inner Light," (Moment, February 1997) pp. 38-42, 82. 2. Robert W uthnow, The RestructUring ofAmerican Religion (NewJersey: Princeton U niversity Press, 1988) p. 152. 3. A Generation ofSeekers, p. 70. 4. Highlights ofthe 1996 Demographic Study ofthe Reconstructionist Movement (Wyncote, PA:

367

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why so many Reconstructionists are drawn to mystical expression and thinking, which is characterized by a desire to attain religious truth through direct, intense personal experience. Wuthnow has also suggested that Americans no longer seek truth in doctrine and in the printed word because they have been conditioned to believe that all ideas and values are the product of socialization and are thus culturally and socially relative. In a world where no religion can convincingly claim objective truth, direct experience is the only "reliable way to make sense out of one's world."5 Wade Clark Roof traces the rise in mystical consciousness to the present predominance of visual forms of communication. Pre-World War Two America was largely a print culture. "Priority was given to the objective, to the rational use of the mind, which encouraged religious discourse with logically ordered content Doctrinal debate and theological reflection flourished." In contrast, an image culture supports a mystical orientation, where "the subjective takes precedence over the objective"6 and many Americans now view doctrine as an obstacle to religious experience instead of as gateway to it. 7 In this light, it is not surprising that contemporary Reconstructionist leaders are less adamant than Kaplan that the inherited liturgy always be fashioned to reflect modem belief succinctly. Creedal formulations are less important now than they used to be. Roofs survey of Americans born after World War Two found that members of the baby boom generation focus much attention on their physical being and see the full use of the human body as essential to attaining spiritual experience. 8 Harold M. Daniels, editor of the American Presbyterian Book Of Common Worship (1993), points to a more sensory approach in that prayerbook "in recognition that we bring our bodies as well as our minds to worship." More water is to be used in baptisms, and footwashing is recommended for Maundy Thursday. "Evening prayer includes the lighting of a candle, and incense is suggested for use during the singing of Psalm 141 at

The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, 1997) p. 6. The high level of educational attainment prevalent in Reconstructionist circles might also account for its liberal approach to homosexuality. While forty-seven percent of Americans with a college education polled in 1981 thought it acceptable for homosexuals to serve as clergy, only seventeen percent of those with grade school educations held this view (The Restructuring ofAmerican Religion, p. 168). 5. The Consciousness Reformation, p. 125. 6. A Generation ofSeekers, p. 135. Also see in this regard, pp. 53-54. 7. Ibid., p. 67. 8. Ibid., p. 146.

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evening prayer. "9 Similarly, the new American United Methodist liturgies are edited to reflect members' "struggle to worship with our whole being-our bodies and feelings as well as our intellects, our 'right brains' as well as our 'left brains,' and all our senses."10 Clearly, the desire to render worship more of a whole-bodied experience is not unique to Jewish renewal and Reconstructionist circles. The belief that ritual observance has value beyond serving to link humanity and God is not new to the modem era. However, according to Steve Bruce, believers have histOrically emphasized religion's contribution to the preservation of shared mores and the cultivation of community. The tendency to stress the personal, therapeutic value of ritual has been prevalent only since the 1930s. "Previously, one intended to worship God and accidently maintained the cohesion of society. Now one pursues personal satisfaction and accidently worships God."11 While Bruce likely overstates his case, interest in the self and its cultivation is clearly widespread in contemporary America. Thousands of self-help manuals are published yearly. Self-fulfillment was an essential element of the new religions of the 1970s (est, Exegesis, Rajneeshism, TM, Scientology), and a primary concern of the on-going New Age movement. 12 An analysis of books published by evangelical groups indicates that many people view God as a "psychotherapist who can help us to be more fulfilled and to achieve more in this life. "13 The de-emphasis of religion's contribution to those aspects oflife that transcend the self is likely a function of the breakdown of traditional communal structures in the modem era. Bruce suggests that this phenomenon might also be traced to the influence of capitalism on the contemporary mind-set. In the modem economy, productivity and efficiency are central concerns. In time, a remedial approach to the self is cultivated, one in which people strive to realize their maximum personal potential and attain inner peace and contentment. 14 As religious groups are naturally concerned with the salvation of their members, they stress their ability to help them succeed. In a world where 9. Harold M. Daniels, "Book of Common Worship (1993): What's New," Reformed Liturgy andMusic, (Winter 1993) p. 24. 10. Hoyt L. Hickman, "Worship Revision in the United Methodist Church," The Changing Face ofjewish and Christian Worship in North America, Paul F. Bradshaw and Lawrence A. Hoffman eds. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991) p. 122. 11. Steve Bruce, Religion in the Modern World: From Cathedrals to Cults (New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1996) p. 145. 12. Ibid., pp. 180,204. 13. Ibid., p. 150. 14. Ibid., pp. 182, 185.

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many people question the direct divine origin of religious practice, finding convincing alternative rationales for observance is essential to the continued existence of religion. Perhaps the most comprehensive explanation for Kol Haneshamah's increased focus on self is provided by Wuthnow's book, After Heaven. Wuthnow argues that religion in the United States prior to 1960 was characterized by "spiritualities of dwelling," which emerge in societies built on strong, enduring communities where people have clearly defined roles and routines are familiar. God is understood to dwell within the community of believers gathered in sacred space to worship in time-honored ways. Personal identity is defined by one's position in the workplace, family, and larger community. There is no real sense that one has a separate inner self that needs to be explored or cultivated. I5 The high degree of social mobility evident in the United States since the 1960s eradicated many of the social structures that supported a spirituality of dwelling. The rise of feminist consciousness, the fight for civil rights, and the anti-Vietnam War movement caused people to question the intellectual and cultural legacies they had inherited and focus instead on themselves as the most reliable arbiters of truth. This elevation of self continues to this day. For the self to discern truth, it must have a clear sense of its values and wants. Since this sense must be arrived at independently, attention is naturally focused on self-exploration. Today's America is characterized by a spirituality of seeking, in which the sacred is understood to be as diffuse as society itself. Just as the self must uncover its core values, it must find the best avenues for experiencing God's presence. 16 Thus Kol Haneshamah, sanctioning and encouraging self-reflection and independent spiritual paths, may be seen as a direct product of this intellectual and cultural environment. And Kaplan's view of the self embedded within community and defined by it was a function of the spirituality of dwelling that characterized his age and of the tightly-knit Eastern EuropeanJewish community in which he was raised. Reconstructionism's desire to transform congregants from passive spectators to active participants parallels similar Christian worship reforms. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963) of the Second Vatican Council suggested that all worshippers partake in communion and that the Divine Office be reformed to enable lay participation. To further facilitate lay involvement, it was decided that Latin should cease to be the sole language of prayer and 15. Robert Wuthnow, After Heaven: Spirituality in America Since the 79505 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998) pp. 6-7, 10,40. 16. Ibid., pp. 44-45, 62-65, 146-147.

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that more popular forms of music should be incorporated. 17 In contemporary American Episcopalianism, worshippers are also encouraged to lead parts of the service. "The role of the deacon has been expanded, particularly in the Eucharist. Laypersons are encouraged to read lessons and some of the prayers." Historically, Episcopalian worship was "virtually a solo performance by the priest except for the singing of hymns. "18 The desire to have laity share responsibility for the leadership of worship is also evident in United Methodist circles. 19 As stated in our introduction, most of the major denominations of American Christianity have published new prayerbooks in the last twenty-five years. In light of our discussion of Kol Haneshamah and the other nonOrthodox AmericanJewish liturgies, three characteristics of these new Christian worship books are especially noteworthy: 1) Prayer leaders are given a wide selection of texts to facilitate the construction of services that cater to local needs and sensitivities. Whereas Roman Catholicism traditionally only provided one text for the Eucharist prayer, nine versions are currently sanctioned for use in the United States.20 Similarly, the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship (1993) has twenty-four versions of the Eucharist prayer. In 1970, only one was suggested.21 American Episcopalians are divided on the issue of whether prayer should maintain the norms of sixteenth-century English or be worded in a contemporary idiom. To cater to the needs of all constituents, the Book of Common Prayer (1979) includes rites in both English styles.22 2) Input from laity has been solicited before publication of these prayerbooks. Episcopalian congregations evaluated trial editions of the services of the Book of Common Prayer for twelve years prior to the publication of the finalized text. 23 The Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship circulated ten collections of prayers for testing in afftliated congregations before arriving at a final 17.John Fenwick and Bryan Spinks, Worship in Transition: The Liturgical Movement in the Twentieth Century (New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1995) pp. 64-65. 18. Charles P. Price, "The Book ofCommon Prayer. Revising The Liturgy of the American Episcopal Church," The Changing Face ofJewish and Christian Worship in North America, p. 109. 19. "Worship Revision in the United Methodist Church," p. 121. 20. Kathleen Hughes, "The Changing Face of Roman Catholic Worship," The Changing Face ofJewish and Christian Worship in North America, p. 75. 21. "Book of Common Worship (1993): What's New," p. 20. 22. "The Book of Common Prayer. Revising the Liturgy of the American Episcopal Church," p. 104. 23. Ibid., p. 103.

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version of the Lutheran Book of Worship.24 Since the late 1960s, lay men and women have sat on the body entrusted with the formation of the liturgy of the United Methodist Church.25 3) Gender-inclusive vocabulary is a widespread concern. In the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), all language referring to persons is inclusive. God is still referred to as "He" because most of the services were written in the early 1970s before male references to God were seen as troubling. 26 The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) does not use masculine words to refer to people in general and reduces the frequency of descriptions of God as Father, Lord, and King. Some gender-neutral appellations have been introduced, as well as some feminine imagery of God. 27 American Presbyterian liturgy is similar to United Methodism in this regard. 28 In 1975, the English Language Liturgical Consultation, which supervises the creation of English language worship texts in Roman Catholicism, voted "to avoid words that ignore the place of women in the Christian community or that seem to relegate women to a secondary role."29 Obviously, Reconstructionist Jews are deeply influenced by the general culture of American society and seek to add their own individual voices to the community choir.

24. Eugene L. Brand, "New Lutheran Liturgy for the United States and Canada," The

Clw.nging Faa ofJewish and Christian Worship in North America, pp. 96-97. 25. "Worship Revision in the United Methodist Church," pp. 114-115. 26. "New Lutheran Liturgy for the United States and Canada," pp. 97-98. 27. "Worship Revision in the United Methodist Church," p. 120. 28. "Book of Common Worship (1993): What's New," p. 21. 29. "The Changing Face of Roman Catholic Worship," p. 79. A recent directive from the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship, however, calls for "fidelity and exactness" in the translation of church liturgy and the New American Bible. Gender-sensitive translations of Psalms, such as those found in Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative and Renewal liturgy, will not be possible in Roman Catholicism. See "Vatican Sounds Off On Inclusive Language," Religion Bookline From Publishers Weekly, May 22, 200 1.

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--. "The Test of Time." The Reconstructionis!, February 24, 1950, pp. 20-25. Strassfeld, M., Sharon Strassfeld, and Richard Siegel, eds. TheJewish Catalogue. Philadelphia: Thejewish Publication Society, 1973. "Symposium: Preparing a New Siddur." CCARJoumal: A ReformJewish Quarterly, Summer 1992, pp. 1-31. Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures: The NewjPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text. Philadelphia: The jewish Publication Society, 1988. Teutsch, David A. "Israel and the Diaspora: A Reconstructionist Reconsideration of Zionism." The Reconstructionist, Spring 1998, pp. 48-54. --. "Kol Haneshamah Shabbat Ve~agim: The New Reconstructionist Prayerbook." Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot 34th Annual Convention. Dana Point Resort, Dana Point, California. November 1994. --. "Raising the Banner, Lowering the Hurdles." The Reconstructionist, December 1988, pp. 10-14. --. "Reconstructionism and the jewish Counter-Culture: Is Fusion Possible?" Raayonot, Summer 1984, pp. 30-35. --. "Seeking God in the Siddur: Reflections on Kot Haneshamah." The Reconstructionist, Spring 1994, pp. 12-20. --. "Seeking the Words of Prayer." The Reconstructionist, March 1988, pp. 9-11,22. --. "Shaping Communities ofCommitrnent." The Reconstructionist, Fall 1995, pp. 16-23. --. "The Challenge of Creating an Inclusive Community." Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot 34th Annual Convention. Dana Point Resort, Dana Point, California. November 1994. --. "The Limits of Reinterpretation." The Reconstructionist,june 1988, pp. 21-22,30. --. "The RRC Inaugurates a New President." Excerpts from inaugural address. Reconstructionism Today, Winter 1993-94, pp. 12-14. - - , ed. Imagining theJewish Future: Essays and Responses. Albany: State U niversity of New York Press, 1992. - - , Nancy Fuchs Kreimer,jack Wertheimer, and Leila Gal Berner. "The Progress of a Movement: The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, 1968-1993." Association forjewish Studies Annual Conference. Copley Plaza, Boston, Massachusetts. December 1993. - - , Steven Sager,judith Plaskow, and Ira Eisenstein. "Challenges Facing the New Prayerbook." Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot Annual Convention. Toronto, Canada. 1988.

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The Authorized Daily Prayer Book. Dr. Joseph H. Hertz ed. New York: Block Publishing Co., 1965. The Condition ofJewish Belief A Symposium Compiled by the Editors ofCommentary Magazine. 1966. Northvale, New Jersey:Jason Aronson, Inc., 1989. "The Convention." The Reconstructionist, December 2, 1955, pp. 24-27. "The Editorial Board Interviews Rabbi Kaplan." The Reconstructionist, October 14, 1966,pp. 15-22. "The Future of Reconstructionism: A Symposium," The Reconstructionist, March 1982, pp. 7-20. "The Future of Reconstructionism: A Symposium." The Reconstructionist, Spring 1991, pp. 8-25. "The Influence of Mordecai M. Kaplan, Z'l: A Collection of Tributes." The Reconstructionist, February 1984, pp. 6-10; March 1984, pp. 8-12, 34; April-May 1984, pp. 8-12;June 1984, pp. 21-26;July-August 1984, pp. 25-30,35. "The Place of the United Synagogue in the Conservative Movement." Editorial. The Reconstructionist, November 6, 1953, pp. 4-6. The Rabbi-Congregation Relationship: A Vision for the 21st Century. Report of the Reconstructionist Commission on the Role of the Rabbi. Wyncote, PA., January 2001. "The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Fellowship." Editorial. The Reconstructionist,January 12,1951, pp. 6-8. "The Reconstructionist Symposium." Editorial. The Reconstructionist, November, 27, 1936, pp. 3-4. "The Response Symposium." Response, Winter 1970-71, pp. 17-123. The Union Haggadah: Home Service for the Passover. New York: The Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1923. The Union Prayer Book for Jewish Worship. New York: The Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1940. The Unitarian Universalist Association. Singing the Living Tradition. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993. "Toward a Guide for Jewish Ritual Usage." The Reconstructionist, October 31, 1941, pp. 5-11; November 14, 1941, pp. 7-13; November 28, 1941, pp. 9-16; December 11, 1941, pp. 10-17. Tucker, E. Jacobson. "An Answer to a Young Man Who Complains That Reconstructionism is Stagnating." The Reconstructionist, May 7, 1971, pp. 21-24. "Update: Prayerbook Commission." Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot Newsletter,January 1986, pp. A, D.

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Ve-Taher Libeinu. Sudbury, Massachusetts: Congregation Beth EI of the Sudbury River Valley, 1980. Waskow, A. "Three Streams." Raayonot, Summer 1984, pp. 36-39. Waxman, M., ed. Tradition and Change. New York: The Burning Bush Press, 1958. Weekday Prayer Book. Second, Revised Edition. Gershon Hadas, ed. New York: Rabbinical Assembly of America, 1962. Weinberg, Sheila Peltz. "Commenting on the Commentary." The Reconstructionist, December 1988, pp. 22-23. --. "Many Voices in One Mind." The Reconstructionist, Fall 1994, pp. 53-58. --. "Who We Are, What We Need." The Reconstructionist, Spring 1991, pp. 15-18. Weiner, 'Jewish Mysticism and the Current Jewish 'Scene.'" Encyclopaedia Judaica Year Book 1974. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing, Inc., 1974. pp. 206-210. WeissmanJosselit,J. New York'sJewishJews: The Orthodox Community in the Interwar Years. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. Wertheimer,J. "Kaplan vs. 'The Great Do-Nothings': The Inconclusive Battle over The New Haggadah." ConservativeJudaism, Summer 1993, pp. 20-37. --, A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America. New York: Basic Books, 1993. - , ed. 1987. The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Transformed. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1995. --. ed. The Uses of Tradition:Jewish Continuity in the Modern Era. New York: The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1992. "Why Should Sabbath Observance be Penalized?" Editorial. The Reconstructionist, April 16, 1937, p. 4. Winokur, A. "Why One Rabbi Got Arrested." Reconstructionism Today, Summer 1999, pp. 1,4-5. Winokur, A.N. "Basic Principles." Editorial. The Reconstructionist, October-November 1986, pp. 4, 7. --. "Experiment in Prayer." The Reconstructionist, November 16, 1956, pp. 28-32. - . Letter. Raayonot, Winter 1983, pp. 42-43. Wolf, ArnoldJacob. "The New Liturgies."Judaism, Spring 1997, pp. 235-242. Wuthnow, R. experimentation in American Religion: The New Mysticisms and Their Implicationsfor the Churches. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. --. The Consciousness Reformation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.

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- . The Restructuring ofAmerican Religion. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. - . After Heaven: Spirituality in America Since the 7950s. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998. Zevit, S. "Developing Sacred Community." Reconstructionism Today, Summer 1999,pp.6-7,11. Interviews were conducted with the following people: Milton Beinenfeld (June 26, 1993) Jeffrey Eisenstat (February 22, 1995) Ira Eisenstein (June 25, 1993;January 28, 1997) Lee Friedlander (June 25, 1993) Leila Gal Berner (July 4, 1995) Bob Gluck (May 12, 1993) Arthur Green (May 12, 1993;June 21,1995) Linda Holtzman (May 12, 1993) Lillian Kaplan (June 25, 1993) Herb Levine (May 10, 1993) Mordechai Liebling (May 12, 1993) Rami Shapiro (February 24, 1995) Leroy Shuster (June 26, 1993) Reena Spicehandler (May 11, 1993) David A. Teutsch (May 10, 1993;July 5-6, 1995) Brian Walt (May 12, 1993) Letters were received from: Aleph: Alliance ForJewish Renewal (November 6, 1997) Louis Cahan (April 21, 1996; February 28, 1997; March 3, 1997; March 9, 1997;June 7, 1997) Lee Friedlander (July 1995) Peter Knobel (April 3, 1996) Daniel Siegel (July 2, 2000) Charles E. Silberman (November 20, 1995) David A. Teutsch (July 17, 1995; October 13, 1995; May 17, 1996,July 18, 2000)

Index ofPersons Cited Abell, Pamela, 358 Abramowitz, Adina, 171,282 Abrams,judith, 297, 309n.79, 315n.116 Achad Ha-'am, 43 n.167 Adler, Felix, 16n. 33, 22n. 56,59, 55n.41 Adler, Samuel, 69n.103, 106n.255, 108n.260, 309n.79 Aigen, Ron, 159, 172 Arnold, Matthew, 22n. 60 Asher,joseph M., 12 Azen, Margot Stein, 349 Bartnoff, Devorah, 148, 172,242, 246 Bellah, Robert N., 162n.93, 292-293 Berner, Leila Gal, 158, 229, 233, 259,283,349,350,358,359,362 Bienenfeld, Milton, 171, 174n.42 Bokser, Ben Zion, 126 Bradshaw, Paul F., 4 Brin, Deborah, 172n.33, 233n.327, 282 Brin, Ruth, 345 Bruce, Steve, 369 Buber, Martin, 337-338 Bunis, Louis, 132 Cahan, Leonard S., 323, 331-332 Caine, Ivan, 136, 166 Carlebach, Shlomo, 239 Chicago, judy, 271n.514, Chief Seattle, 278 Choper, Carl, 172

Cohen, Steven, 246-247, 250, 268n.495, 286n.570, 290, 292n.595, 300n.26, 345n.277 Cooper, David, 363 Daniels, Harold M., 368 Dewey,john, 23n.62 Dmitrova, Blaga, 274-275 Dreyfus, A. Stanley, 298, 314n.ll1 Dushkin, Alexander, 126 Ehrenkrantz, Daniel, 172, 259 Ehrlich, Arnold B., 11 Einhorn, David, 5,105, 106n.248 and 255, 108n.260, 198n.161, 316n.121 Eisen, Arnold, 246-247, 250, 268n.495, 286n.570, 290, 292n.595, 300n.26, 345n.277 Eisenstat,jeffrey, 254n.419, 289n.581 Eisenstein, Ira, 48, 50n.20, 63, 112, 120n.323, 125-126, 129, 134, 135, 136, 141, 148, 151, 165, 174-175, 248n.389, 275, 291 Eisenstein,judah David, 52, 211 Ellenson, David, 309n.79 Falk, Marcia, 5, 185n.87, 197n.156, 222,229-231,290, 315n.119, 357 Feld, Edward, 188 Feld, Merle, 233 Finkelstein, Louis, 123n.332, 134 Friedland, Eric, 118, 120 Friedlander, Lee, 172, 173, 399

400

Index o/Persons Cited

199n.168, 233n.327, 271, 276, 284,285 Frishman, Elyse, 297, 302n.41, 308n.69, 309n.79, 315n.116, 320n.145,321 Gendler, Everett, 237n.345 Giddings, Franklin H., 11 Gillman, Neil, 255n.427 Ginzberg, Louis, 123, 129 Glatstein,Jacob, 281, 339 Gold, Shefa, 149, 150, 151,244, 349,358 Goldberg, Leah, 281, 339 Goldsmith, Emanuel, 151, 165 Goldstein, Israel, 126 Green, Arthur, 133n.45, 145n.10, 172, 173, 177, 179n.61, 184, 185, 190, 192, 195n.146, 201, 202, 218n.251, 220, 222n.271, 240n.358, 255, 256, 258, 259, 262, 276, 286n.571, 347, 355 Greenberg, Julie, 349 Greenberg, Sydney,S, 176n.52, 322 Greenfield, William, 132 Greenstein, Edward, 222-223 Hadas, Gershon, 337 Harlow,Jules, 322, 331n.201, 334-335,339,340,344 Heschel, AbrahamJoshua, 134, 149, 256n.433, 262-263, 344 Hirsch, Richard, 254n.419, 255n.429, 260n.458, 275 Hoffman, Lawrence A., 1,4,240 Huebsch, Adolph, 106n.255, Ignatow, David, 279 Jacobs, Sydney, 132

Jacobson, Burt, 350 James, William, 23n. 62 Jastrow, Marcus, 5, 106n.255, 196n.146 Kadushin, Max, 126 Kaplan, Israel, 9-11 Kaplan, Lillian, 171, 173n.37, 174, 195n.146,202 Katz, Joanna, 349 Klein, Max D., 5, 194n.143, 198n.158 Knobel, Peter, 297, 30On.26, 308n.69, 309n.78 and 79, 315n.119,321 Kohler, Kaufmann, 3On.l06 Kohn, Eugene, 17,47,48, 51n.20, 73, 74n. 120,88, 101n.224, 126, 141 Kummer,Judy, 242-243 Kunin, Marlene, 155n.56, 171 Lerman, Pamela Faith, 353 Levine, Hillel (Herb), 199,349 Levine,Jonathan D., 5, 322 Levitt,Joy, 172 Lieberman, Saul, 123 Lieberman, Syd, 244-245, 277, 351 Liebling, Mordechai, 141, 156, 162, 172,190,348,349 Linder, Maurice, 130 Maimonides, Moses, 85, 328n.l77 Marcus, Joseph, 73 Margolis, M.Z., 12 Marx, Alexander, 123 Mehlman, Benjamin Wm., 168, 169 Mendelsohn, Eric, 232, 260, 261-262 Merzbacher, Leo, 5, 65n.90,

Index ofPersons Cited 108n.260, 109n.268, 309n.79 Minkoff, Miriam, 353 Nadelmann, Ludwig, 166 Nahman of Bratslav, 266, 280, 313 Neimoller, Martin, 199 Piercy, Marge, 273-274, 278 Pinsker, Larry, 271 Plaskow, judith, 260-261 Prager, Marcia, 251, 349 Rachlis, Arnold, 143, 147-148, 159, 172 Raphael, Gila Rayzel, 349, 357-358 Rashi,80 Reimer,jack,276 Reines, Yitzhak, 12, 121 Reznikoff, Charles, 281, 358 Roof, Wade Clark, 150,247n.385, 289,292,368 Rosenberg,joel, 172,204, 209n.212, 212, 258-259 Ross-Tabak, Bob, 167, 19On.117 Roszak, Theodore, 244n.375 Roth,jeff, 349, 354 Rubenstein,jeffrey L., 33On.198 Rubinstein, Richard L., 317 Sa'adiah Ga'on, 79n.139, 80, 114 Sager, Steven, 251, 257, 260, 266, 267 Sasso, Dennis, 168, 169 Sasso, Sandy, 147, 172 Schachter-Shalomi, Zalman, 245, 252,346-347,348-350,352-353, 354,355 Schechter, Solomon, 12, 129 Schenk,Max, 136 Schulweis, Harold, 258n.442

401

Schwarz, Sydney, 147, 148-149, 159, 170,291 Scult, Mel, 15,43,53, 121,269 Shapiro, Rami, 148, 244n.375, 256-257,259-260 Shuster, Leroy, 171, 174,202, 247-248 Sidgwick, Henry, 23n.62 Siegel, Danny, 349, 350n.306 Silverman, Charles, 166, 170 Silverman, Ira, 144n.9 Silverman, Morris, 112,321 Sohn, Ruth, 233, 358 Spicehandler, Reena, 172,221, 224n.281, 230-231, 240n.359, 292n.596 Staub,jacob, 26n.80, 277-278 Steinberg, Milton, 51n.20, 52n. 23, 83, 112, 126, 129,279n.547 Stern, Chaim, 296, 306 Strassfeld, Michael, 172 Szold, Benjamin, 5, 66n.94 Tagore, Rabindranath, 96, 277 Teutsch, Betsy Platkin, 172, 199, 243 Teutsch, David, 159-160, 166, 170, 171n.32, 172, 174, 192, 198-199, 202,203,205,210,214,216,220, 221, 222n.272, 223, 225n.282, 226n.289, 228n.293, 230, 235, 237-238, 240n.358, 241, 245, 249-250,254n.422,255-256, 267n.494, 271-272, 273, 275, 277n.540, 285, 286, 290-291, 294,348,349,355 lJngar,}lndre, 326,327 Warner-Cohn, Patricia, 358

402

Index ofPersons Cited

Waskow, Arthur, 156n.62, 347, 348, 358-359 Weinberg, Sheila Peltz, 149-150, 151, 172n.34, 223n.278, 254n.422, 255n.429, 256, 263, 264,265,270 Weinman-Kelman, Levi, 246, 266, 268 Weisberg, Harold, 132 Wertheimer,jack,298

Whitehead, Alfred North, 26n.80 Winokur, Avi, 265n.487 Winokur, Avraham, 132, 144 Wise, Isaac Mayer, 4, 56n. 45, 67n.100, 106n.255, 197,313, 316n.121 Wuthnow, Robert, 241-242, 247n.385, 257n.439, 367, 368, 370

Index ofPrayers, Piyyutim, and Hymns Cited 'Ahavah RaMah, 65, 92, 101n.223, 108,194, 227n.292, 228, 239, 277,311,313,315,324,363 'Ahavat rOlam, 65, 105,238,341 !4leynu, 2, 66, 93, 106, 108-109, 113,194-195,250,258, 259-260,297,312,324,351, 358,360,364 !41 Ha-Nissim, 56n.48, 66-67, 69, 208,313,333,338,365 !4IHa-Tsadikim, 213 !4llJet, 282-283 !4liyah La-Dukhan, 61, 107n.256 'Anerim Zemirot, 300 'Aqdamut, 343 'Arami rOved 'Av~ 49 'Attah 'E1J,ad, 214, 300n.29, 324 'Attah Veqartanu, 64, 311, 324 'Attah Yatsarta rOlamkha Mi-QJdem, 64, 328n.182 'Avinu Malkeinu, 167,226-227, 315n.119,339 !4vodah, 59, 107, 109, 115-116, 187, 194,303,308,327,329,363 !4vodah Service, 218 'Avot, 57, 106, 153, 183,227-228, 230n.302, 242, 249, 308, 314, 315,327,330,332,357,361 Barekhu, 249, 298 Barukh Hu 'Eloheynu She-Bara'nu Likhvodo, 312, 331 Barukh She'amar, 80,105,213,232, 258,299,331 Berikh Sheme~ 79-80, 117,213 BirkatHa-Gome~ 69-70,117,211

Birkat Ha-lJodesh, 69, 78, 198,210, 228,232,251 Birkat Ha-Mazon, 49, 5On.18, 232, 252,282,332,340 Birkat Ha-Minim, 208-209, 339 Birkat Kohanim, 56, 177, 178, 179, 189,308,310, 355n.327,361 Birkat Shalom, 67, 109, 114, 197, 198, 236n.338, 242, 301, 313, 319,353 Birkhot Ha-Shaqar, 70, 83, 85, 105, 116-117,215-216,221,250,253, 256,257,258,262,299,300,308, 310,325,329,332,337,341,343, 351,352,357,363 Dayyenu, 50 'El 'Adon, 75,204,252,253,300, 305,343,356 'El Barukh Gadol Derah, 75, 76,204 'EIMale'Ro./J,amim, 101, 187, 236-237,310,326 'Eliyahu Ha-Navi; 181,229,358 'Elohai Neshamah, 186, 246, 253, 309-310,342,353,356,358,362 'Elohai Netsor, 209-210, 268, 340 'Emet Ve-'Emunah, 72-73, 92,105, 108,112,200-201,228-229,237, 301,310-311,315,318-319,337, 338 'Emet Ve-Yatsiv, 71-72, 79,108, 112-113,203,224,217,228-229, 310-311,315,320,330,338,342, 357-358 'Eyn Ke-'Erkekha, 184, 187,325,363 403

404

Index ofPrayers, Piyyutim, and Hymns Cited

'Eyn Keloheynu, 60, 107, 188,308, 356,363 Gevurot, 58-59, 107-108, 185,242, 258,309,319,326,362 Ha-'Aderet Ve-Ha-'Emunah, 204 Haftarah blessings, 58; 109, 115, 182,194,233,300-301,308-309, 318,323-324,361,363 Ha-Kol Yodukha, 58, 115,300 Halle~ 60, 61, 68-69, 80, 101n.223, 255,317,333 Ha-Me'ir La-'Areis, 75 Hashkiveinu, 74, 78-79, 105, 108, 114,205n.194,213,239,254,258 Havdalah, 66, 66n.95, 113, 181, 196, 249,252,268,283,312,318,357, 358,359 Havinenu, 188, 336 Hevdelim, 283 Hinei Mah Tov U-Mah Na'im, 232 Hoda'ah, 67, 197,263,301,315,318 Hodo :AI 'Ereis, 68 Kol Nidrei, 52, 211-212, 282 La- 'El 'Asher Shava~ 75, 216

Le- 'El Barukh Ne'imot Yiteinu, 75, 79, 213, 356n.336 Lekhah Dodi, 57-58, 105, 106, 183, 251,252,299,309 Levavi Meqomakh, 256 Ma'oz Tsur, 73,203-204 Magen 'Avo~ 59, 82, 105, 186, 228n.295 Maggid, 49, 50n.18 Mah Tovu, 83, 252, 300, 358 Malkhuyot, Zikhronot, Shofarot,

179n.60, 218, 219 Martyrology, 219,220,237-238 Mashiah: ben David, 181,326-327 Mashiv Ha-Ruah: U-Morid Ha-Gashem, 74n. 119,261, 300n.26 Menah:em Tsiyon, 318, 333-334 Mi Khamokhah, 246 Mi She-Berakh prayers, 61n. 72, 74, 100n.223, 102,206,231,232, 234,235,268,282,285,330,332, 333,364 Miriyam Ha-Nevi'ah, 229, 358 Modeh 'An~ 356n.335 Modim De-Rabanan, 67 Musaf, 3,60,61,82-83, 105, 116, 188,217-220,234,289,290,320, 328,329,351

Ne'ilah, 101n.223, 188 Nishmat Kol1:lai, 72n. 114,83, 184, 216,228,239,256-257,259,262, 299,300,344,353 'Or ljadash :AZ Tsiyon Ta'ir, 80, 109, 213,303n.49 Pereq Shirah, 262 Pesuqey De-Zimrah, 56, 71,83-85, 105,194,196-197,214,215-216, 250-251,262,266,289,299,300, 320,336,343,351-352,358 Pirqey 'Avo~ 110 n.275 Pitum Ha-Q5toret, 60, 116, 328 Prayer for Martyrs, 339 Prayer for the State of Israel, 101n.223, 208, 234-235, 257n.439,334 Ps. 15,299 Ps. 19,56

Index ofPrayers, Piyyutim, and Hymns Cited Ps. 24, 330 Ps. 29, 56 Ps.34,56,343 Ps. 84,299 Ps. 90, 84 Ps. 91, 224n.279 Ps. 92, 206-207 Ps.96,197,308,313,325 Ps. 98, 299n.17 Ps. 99,251 Ps. 115,313 Ps.116,80-81,213 Ps. 118,60,68-69,190,206-207, 308 Ps. 119,300 Ps. 121,215, 237n.345 Ps. 122,215 Ps. 130, 52n.25 Ps. 135, 84, 194, Ps. 136,84, 201n.174 Ps. 146,257 Ps. 147,196-197,325 Ps. 148,262 Ps. 150,353

Q,ahhalat !Jag, 268 Q,ahhalat Shahhat, 105, 263, 265, 266, 267,289,299,306,320,343 Q,add~~82,89, 117,198,214,216, 274,313,319-320,334,360 Q!dusha~ 56,76,82,83, 10On.223, 109, 114, 184,204,216, 230n.301, 256, 305, 319, 356n.336 Q!dushakDe-Sidra, 66, 83,107,217, 289,331 Q!dushakDe-Yotser, 75, 79,109,114, 205,239,305 Q!dushat Ha-Skem, 242 Q!dushatHa-Yom, 61,107,114,188,

405

194,196,199,214,219,228,234, 312,328 Qjhhutz Galuyot, 334 Qjddus~ 49, 64, 68, 89-90, 108, 113, 192-193,231,252,311,324 Qjddusk Levana~ 232, 261

Refu'ak, 67, 206 Rihhono Skel 'Olam Male M~k'alot Lihi Le-Tova, 209n.212 Rihon Kol Ha- 'Olamim, 70, 341 ShaJ,ar 'Avaqeskekha, 83, 343 Shalom 54leikkem, 205, 252 Skefokk !Jamatekka, 49, 50n.18 Skema~62-63,85,89, 106, 114-115, 190-191,224, 225n.281, 246, 249,263,298,300,301,327,340, 341,351,352,353,362 SkiratHa-Yam, 70, 71-72,110,215, 358 SliJ,a~ 227n.292, 300, 330 TaJ,anun, 217, 333, 340 Teftlat Geskem, 113,207,261-262 Teftlat Ta~ 73-74,206,284 Ten plagues, 49, 5On.18 Teskuva~ 227 Tikanta Shahhat, 61, 82, 116, 328 Titharakk Tsureinu Malkeinu, 75 Torah blessings, 64-65, 66, 108, 113,167,193-194,311,359-360, 363-364 Tsur Mi-Skelo, 227n.292 U- Ve-Maqhalot Rivevot 54mekka Beit Y~a'e4 83,216 U-Ve-Nu4o Yo'mar, 58, 59, 188,308, 363 'Uskpizin, 228, 264, 332

406

Index ofPrayers, Piyyutim, and Hymns Cited

Va- Yekhulu Ha-Shamayim, 83, 216 Ve-KoIMa'aminim, 70 Ve-lo' Netato, 65-66, 114,196,312 Ve-Zot Ha- Torah, 55-56, 107, 177-179,201,308,321, 361 Vidu~ 188-189, 265n.486 Ya'aleh Ve-Yavo: 58, 79n.140, 183, 212,219,317,320,361 Yedid Nefesh, 251, 263, 267, 299 Yehi Ratson Mi-Le-Fanekha She- Yibaneh Beyt Ha-Miqdash, 59, 329

Yequm Purqan, 61, 117 Yigda~ 56, 57, 59, 63-64, 181, 186, 191-192,308,310,325,343 Yishtaba~ 105, 356n.335 Yisma~ Mosheh, 55, 107, 177, 178, 310,361 Yisme~u Be-Malkhutekha, 65, 196 Yiz/wr, 236, 266, 283 Yom Zeh Mekhubad, 102 Yotser, 59, 75, 80, 92, 109, 115, 184, 187,213,277,278-279,300,326, 338,341

Suhject Index "A Program ForJewish Life Today," 131 Afterlife, 101n.226, 186, 187,310, 326,362-363 Agudath Ha-Rabbanim (Union of Orthodox Rabbis), 12, 122 Aleph: Alliance forJewish Renewal (Pnai OR), 295, 346-349 Angels, 3, 4, 74-76, 109, 114, 204-206,305 Arab-Israeli conflict, 157, 235n.338 Ashkenazi rite, 60, 65, 68, 73, 84, 107, 109 Attentiveness: fostered by ritual, 32, 262-263,280-281, 339-340; in prayer, 87-88, 93n.194, 187, 265-266,320,340 Avodat Yisrael (Szold1astrow), 5, 66n.94,196n.146 Bat Mitzvah, 16,32 Blessing form, changes to, 220-223, 230, 315n.119,357,359 Book ofBlessings (Falk), 5 Buddhism, 149-150,242,367 Choir, 2, 110,302 Chosen people concept, 30, 49, 64-67,108,111,113-114, 166-167,192-196,311-312, 323-324,363-364 Complete Artscroll Siddur, 248, 249 Counter-culture, youth, 136n.56, 140, 146, 307n.67, 367

Daily Prayer Book

(Reconstructionist), 50, 52n.23, 69,76, 80n.146, 84n.161 and 162, 94n.195, 101n.223, 217, 227n.290,317n.126 Elijah the Prophet, 182-183 Environment, concern for, 155-156, 162, 190, 222n.274, 261-262, 278-280,307,362 Episcopalianism, 371 Evil, problem of, 26, 92, 98-99, 237 Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Fellowships (FRCF), 132-133, 134, 135, 165 Feminism, liturgical response to, 4, 151-154, 167, 186, 189, 193, 220-233, 257n.439, 314-315, 329-333,355-358,372 Festival Prayer Book (Conservative), 89n.178, 116n.304 Festival Prayer Book (Reconstructionist), 50, 52n.23, 56n.48, 75, 76, 83n.155, 84n.162, 90, 94n.195,210,216 Forms ofPrayer, 82n.154, 89n.178, 90n.181, 96n.205, 99

Gates ofPrayer, 176n.52, 185n.88, 186n.94,295-321 Gates ofRepentance, 207n.202, 218n.252, 226 n.290 Gates of Understanding, 299n.13, 307n.68 Germany, reformed liturgy in, 2-3, 52n.25, 61n.75, 66n.94, 82n.152 407

408

Subject Index

and 154, 10In.223, 107n.255 and Homosexuality, 157-159, 161, 256, 108n.260, 109n.268, 207n.202, 281-283, 359-360, IlOn.272, 116n.304 368n.4 "House of Aaron", 61,189-190, God: Kaplan's understanding of 21-26,74,77,99-100, communing with, 25, 26, 28, 44, Ingathering of the exiles, 2, 3, 150n.37, 244, 288, 354; personal 10In.223, 109,234-235, 302-303,334 address of, 77-78, 165,222-223, 229,275-278; immanence of, Israel Independence Day (celebration 00, 101n.223, 103, 145-146,221,244,256-257,269, 235, 236n.338, 309n.79, 317, 333, 358-359; described as avenging warrior, 68-69, 73, 201, 208, 209, 334 227n.290, 338-339; and redemption, 259-261, 319, 338; Jewish Center, 14-15 experienced as distant, 305-306, Jewish mission (concept 00, 30n. 106,111-112 335 Guide toJewish Ritual, 33-37, 96, 159 Jewish Reconstructionist Federation Guided meditations, 241-248, 307, (JRF), 137, 139-141, 156, 157, 321, 345n.279, 355 159, 160, 161, 163, 176 Jewish Reconstructionist Ha- }1vodah She-Ba-Lev (Israeli Foundation, 130, 131, 132, 135, Reform), 182n.70, 191n.120, 170 196n.146, 232n.320 Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 10, 11, 12-13, 14, 123, Haftarot, changes to, 85n.166, 86, 207-208,351,358 128-130, 133-134 Hanukkah miracle, 73, 203-204,208 Jews and non~ews (invidious comparisons), 65, 66-67, 71, Hasidism, 145, 146, 148n.28, 112-113, 196-19~312-313, 192n.128, 238n.351, 266n.491, 300,346,350 324-325 I:Iavurot, 133n.45, 140 Judaism as a Civili