My People's Prayer Book Vol 4: Seder K'riat Hatorah (Shabbat Torah Service)
"The prayer book is our Jewish diary of the centuries, a collection of prayers composed by generations of those who came before us, as they endeavored to express the meaning of their lives and their relationship to God. The prayer book is the essence of the Jewish soul."
This stunning work, an empowering entryway to the spiritual revival of our times, enables all of us to claim our connection to the heritage of the traditional Jewish prayer book. It helps rejuvenate Jewish worship in today's world, and makes its power accessible to all.
Framed with beautifully designed Talmud-style pages, commentaries from 11 of today's most respected Jewish scholars from all movements of Judaism examine Seder K’riat Hatorah from the perspectives of ancient Rabbis and modern theologians, as well as feminist, halakhic, Talmudic, linguistic, biblical, Chasidic, mystical, and historical perspectives.
This fourth volume of the series unfolds the many layers of meaning in Seder K’riat Hatorah, the ritual and prayers surrounding the communal reading of Torah. More than any other section of the prayer book, the Torah service reflects all of Jewish history. Vol. 4 helps us to understand how the reading of Torah is an affirmation, powerful and dramatic, of the continuing covenant between the community of Israel and God.
Vol. 4—Seder K’riat Hatorah (The Torah Service) features the authentic Hebrew text with a new translation designed to let people know exactly what the prayers say. Introductions tell the reader what to look for in the prayer service, as well as how to truly use the commentaries, to search for—and find—meaning in the prayer book.
Even those not yet familiar with the prayer book can appreciate the spiritual richness of Seder K’riat Hatorah. My People’s Prayer Book enables all worshipers, of any denomination, to encounter their own connection to 3,000 years of Jewish experience with the world and with God.
Contributors include:
Marc Brettler • Elliot N. Dorff • David Ellenson • Ellen Frankel • Judith Hauptman • Joel M. Hoffman • Lawrence A. Hoffman • Lawrence Kushner • Daniel Landes • Ruth Langer • Nehemia Polen
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Book details
- Edited by
- Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD, Dr. Marc Zvi Brettler, Rabbi Lawrence Kushner
- Imprint
- Jewish Lights, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 264
- Formats
- Hardcover, Paperback
- Series
- My People's Prayer Book
- Subjects
- Religion › Prayerbooks › Jewish
Religion › Judaism - Topics
- Jewish prayer book · Jewish worship · rabbinic commentary · Judaism · traditional prayers · Jewish liturgy
- ISBN-13
- 9781879045828 (Hardcover)9781683362111 (Paperback)
About the author
RABBI LAWRENCE A. HOFFMAN, PhD, has served for more than three decades as professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. His recent books include All the World: Universalism, Particularism and the High Holy Days, Who by Fire, Who by Water—Un'taneh Tokef and All These Vows—Kol Nidre.
Hoffman holds the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair in Liturgy, Worship and Ritual. His series My People’s Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries won the National Jewish Book Award, and My People’s Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries was a finalist for the same award.
When not writing, Hoffman serves as a developer of Synagogue 3000, a transdenominational project designed to envision and implement the ideal synagogue of the spirit for the twenty-first century. His work combines research in Jewish ritual, worship and spirituality with the spiritual renewal of contemporary Judaism.