By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel
SAN DIEGO — The Psalms’ language is unabashedly picturesque; it full of nature imagery—as is the Siddur itself. One way to think of the metaphor is to see it as a moving image; it is not static. This thought is the simple premise behind the Nehahel Siddur: Nature serves to inspire us to worship, but it does not necessarily inspire us to worship Nature because Nature is only a faint manifestation of God’s Power. Nature is not God, nor should we pantheistically identify God with nature as Spinoza did in his theological writings. According to Genesis and other books of the Tanakh, God creates nature and nature itself serves God through song, as do the angels and every denizen of the created order (for an excellent and moving illustration, see the Nishmat Prayer on pp. 256-7). Illustrating how the natural order participates in song is perhaps one of the most important features of this book that I think readers will enjoy.
Why is such a book so important at this time in our history? In Rabbi Daniel Landes’ Foreword to the Nehalel Siddur, he perceptively observes that the distance of our estrangement from God corresponds to the estrangement modern man feels at the core of his being. Landes notes, “Nehalel is a powerful and joyous vehicle for achieving this goal of spiritual and existential elevation. Its potency derives firstly from the sense of immediacy that permeates its English translation. The directness of language consistently reminds us that we are talking directly with God.”(pp. 1-2)
When I first received the Nehalel Siddur, I noticed it weighed more than your typical Orthodox siddur. The Nehalel Siddur uses colored pictures of nature to accentuate the importance of Creation spirituality. Scenic pictures of nature and Jewish life help create the mood and context for prayer as a living experience. This is arguably one of the Siddur’s most attractive merits and this idiosyncratic approach is highly original.
Positive Features of the Book
·The Nehalel Siddur’s layout design is unusual and stunning.
·The Hebrew font is crisp looking;
·it has all the correct grammatical nuances one would expect to see in a Siddur, e.g., correct accent marks over the Hebrew words; sheva na, kamatz katan.
These qualities are surprisingly absent in many of the more traditional Siddurim that assume the reader is already familiar with these rules.
When I initially perused through the Siddur, I was hoping to find a commentary—but I did not. Surprisingly, what I found instead was something more profound—an original and spiritual translation of the Siddur. For the most part, the renderings are thought-provoking—especially when combined with the imagery.
·The Siddur also has a prayer the Israeli soldiers; for captive Israeli soldiers;
·A Prayer for the President of the United States and the Queen of England and her royal family.
I would have personally named the Siddur: NeHalel Siddur (which is more grammatically sound since the capitalized letter is the primary verb that needs to be accentuated).
There are some technical aspects to the Siddur I would urge the authors to change, e.g., “Thank God for not making me a woman,” or “Thank God for not making me a heathen.” A Gentile Christian or Muslim might say, “Well, I am not a heathen either!” However, the term “goy” generically refers to anyone who is not Jewish! I feel these blessings should be removed and stated in the affirmative, e.g., “Thank God for making me in His Image,” Thank God for making me free . . .” and so on. Strangely, a note on the bottom of the page would have helped clarify things.
Despite its minor flaws, the Siddur is certainly one that will add a fresh new way of experiencing Jewish prayer–especially on Shabbat.
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Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel, spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista, is the author of The Lord Is My Shepherd: The Theology of the Caring God (Jason Aronson, 1996) and four other books on Torah subjects. He may be contacted at michael.samuel@sdjewishworld.com