Prayerbooks

List price
$25.00
Price
$29.00

Laurence A. Sebert, editor 
ISBN 9780916219703
Pages 55 pb
Available for printing on demand

Turnaround time approximately 5-7 days

The Siddur Sim Shalom for Friday Night offers a complete transliteration of the Friday night service, including Minhah, Kabbalat Shabbat, and Maariv. It uses the Hebrew text and translation from Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals and commentary from Or Hadash

List price
$25.00
Price
$29.00

Laurence A. Sebert, editor 
ISBN 9780916219703
Pages 55 pb
Available for printing on demand

Turnaround time approximately 5-7 days

The Siddur Sim Shalom for Friday Night offers a complete transliteration of the Friday night service, including Minhah, Kabbalat Shabbat, and Maariv. It uses the Hebrew text and translation from Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals and commentary from Or Hadash

List price
$6.95
Price
$8.00

Pages 56 pb
Email or call 201-216-9400 ext. 2 for more info.

A contemporary edition, in Hebrew and English, with a modern translation of the service which introduces the High Holy Day season.

List price
$49.00
Price
$55.00

Ed Feld, editor
ISBN 9780916219468
Pages 468 hc

Large Print (3 Volumes) and Pulpit Edition also available.

Discounts are available for RA members, USCJ congregations, and retailer; email or call 201-216-9400 ext. 2 for information.


Since its publication, Mahzor Lev Shalem has sold nearly half a million copies and become a treasured companion to the Days of Awe for Jews around the world. Mahzor Lev Shalem seeks to embrace the diverse backgrounds and expectations in each of our communities and open doors for every congregant. For the congregant who is familiar with the t’fillah, the mahzor’s running commentary presents both a historical overview and insight into the meaning of prayers. For the congregant who doesn’t know Hebrew, the English translations are close to the meaning of the original and the transliterations are plentiful. For the seeker who comes to services looking for meaning and direction, the mahzor’s rich ­assortment of readings includes classic piyyutim that appear in Conservative publications for the first time; Hasidic stories and reflections; and quotes from Abraham Joshua Heschel, Martin Buber, contemporary Israeli and American poets, and leading rabbis in the Conservative movement and beyond. And with abundant readings that focus on spiritual issues and tikkun olam,Mahzor Lev Shalem speaks to the contemporary concerns of our congregants. The book represents the best of the Conservative movement—the classical and the contemporary, the historical and the spiritual; it promises to be inspiring and relevant for years to come.

Additional PiyyutimResources | Watch the Trailer

List price
$40.00
Price
$22.00

Reuven Hammer
ISBN 9780916219383 Pages 360 hc
Email or call 201-216-9400 ext. 2 for pricing information.

With the publication of Or Hadash: A Commentary on Sim Shalom for Weekdays, Rabbi Reuven Hammer brings to completion his monumental work on the Jewish prayerbook. Together with the first volume, published five years ago, he has produced a unique work: the first complete English language commentary on all the prayers for the services of Shabbat, Festivals and Weekdays. These volumes include material on the history of all the prayers, a phrase-by-phrase commentary, a linguistic, literary and theological explanation of their structure and meaning as well as interpretations meant to make them relevant for the modern worshipper. The words of Louis Jacobs concerning Hammer's earlier work on liturgy, Entering Jewish Prayer, apply to this commentary as well: "Reuven Hammer has achieved brilliantly and with great success what many had thought impossible - an inspirational guide to Jewish devotion wedded to impeccable scholarship."

List price
$19.95
Price
$23.00

Jeffrey Hoffman, editor
David Lincoln, chair, editorial committee
Print on Demand
ISBN 978091219215
Pages 398 pb

Contact books@rabbinicalassembly.org or 201-216-9400 ext. 2 for more info.

The full siddur contains the complete service and readings for erev Tishah B'Av, and for Tishah B'Av day.

Both editions contain the full text of Eikhah, selected kinot with commentary, poetry, songs, as well as interpretive essays by Ismar Schorsch, Robert Scheinberg, and Gershon Schwartz, z"l.

List price
$25.00
Price
$35.00

Avram Reisner, chair
Editorial Committee
ISBN 9780916219147
Pages 353 hc

Contact books@rabbinicalassembly.org or 201-216-9400 ext. 2 for more info.

Complete weekday service with Torah Reading, inspirational readings, and services for the home. Includes new material for special occasions and commemorations: Hanukkah, Purim, Yom Ha-shoah, and Yom Ha'atzma'ut.

List price
$49.00
Price
$55.00

Large Pulpit Edition also available
Large Print Three Volume Edition also available

Email G&H Soho or call 201-216-9400 ext 2 for more information. 

Siddur Lev Shalem for Shabbat and Festivals joins Mahzor Lev Shalem on the bookshelf of Rabbinical Assembly publications. Like the mahzor, it features a four column format, new translations in contemporary language, a commentary providing historical context as well as kavanot, poetry and prose that expand and enrich our relationship to the text. As an RA member remarked about Mahzor Lev Shalem – it “stretches us in two directions: it is both more traditional and more contemporary than any previous Conservative mahzor.”Siddur Lev Shalem stretches us in that same way: we’ve looked at each service, thinking through how it was put together, how the tradition around it developed, what customs were dropped that can be reincorporated, and what contemporary ideas can respond to the text. - Rabbi Ed Feld, senior editorSiddur Lev Shalem

A Look Inside | FAQs | Creating Lev Shalem | The Conservative Siddur | Music for Friday Night | Resources


Here is an overview of some of the features of the siddur:

A Prayerbook for Home and Synagogue

Siddur Lev Shalem is designed for use by individuals as well as for congregations, in the home and in the synagogue. The siddur begins with home preparation for Shabbat -- including meditations on candle lighting, a song that incorporates halakhic instruction, a passage about the neshamah y’teirah (additional spirit) of Shabbat, an introduction to Shabbat from the Zohar, and much more.

In the tradition of Mahzor Lev Shalem, the siddur includes an extraordinary array of sources and commentary -- historical, halakhic, and spiritual. While the siddur includes all the traditional prayers, psalms, and songs that are familiar from previous Conservative siddurim, it serves also as an anthology, offering a wide array of readings that can be used to celebrate Shabbat as well as material for study about Shabbat: poems both ancient and modern, Hasidic wisdom, rabbinic midrashim, and commentary on the history and diversity of the liturgy. Today, as in the medieval synagogue, each community and individual can choose from the variety of texts offered, adding our own voices to the harmonious and lavishly textured “Song of Shabbat.”

A Prayerbook for All Conservative Jews

 Siddur Lev Shalem offers multiple pathways into the Jewish prayer experience and the celebration of Shabbat, reflecting the Conservative movement’s commitment to authenticity and its responsiveness to the evolving concerns and needs of all Conservative Jews. The siddur presents a highly readable translation in contemporary language; it respects English usage and may even be inspiring to the English reader. As with the mahzor, the English is a more literal translation of the Hebrew, with similar line breaks in English and Hebrew so that congregants can easily go back and forth between the two languages. In addition, all of the blessings, psalms, and songs are transliterated to enable Jews from all backgrounds to fully participate in the welcoming of Shabbat and the extensive commentary is geared to both the novice and the learned, offering both historical insight and spiritual meaning.

A Prayerbook for Anyone Attending a Synagogue Service

 Part of what we intended by the title, Lev Shalem, is that all who come to synagogue should feel included in the recitation of Jewish liturgy and welcomed by the siddur. All of these features are responsive to the varying needs of the wide variety of congregants who inhabit our synagogue’s pews. Those attending a service for the first time -- who may have wandered in perhaps in search of something they themselves cannot name or who are attending a bar or bat mitzvah or reciting kaddish -- can now find their way into the siddur and Jewish liturgy. Those congregants who know some Hebrew can easily go back and forth between the English and the Hebrew. Hebrew davenners can better experience the flow of the service in a specially designed Hebrew type, whose clarity has been widely praised.

A Prayerbook that Reflects the Diversity of the Jewish Prayer Tradition

This siddur draws from the geographic and historical expanse of Jewish life. It includes all of the familiar psalms of Kabbalat Shabbat but also offers an earlier Friday night tradition from the Sephardic world where excerpts of Shir Ha-shirim (the Song of Songs) were sung as part of Kabbalat Shabbat. This allows for variety in davenning and also expands Jewish horizons when using the abundant commentary that surrounds the prayer text for study. As part of the "tool box" for using the siddur there will be various melodies for the songs of Kabbalat Shabbat available online as well as poems, prayers, and kavannot reflecting the 21st-century religious context.

The commentary also incorporates the range of Jewish wisdom about the liturgy from ancient to contemporary times: from the classical prophets to the rabbinic midrashim, along with the Rambam, Rav Nahman, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and the modern poets Zelda and Marge Piercy, to name just a very few whose words adorn the pages of Siddur Lev Shalem.

A Prayerbook with a More Prominent Role for Melodies, Niggunim and Chanting

 The inclusion of Shir Ha-shirim and other poetry provides more opportunities to teach and sing exquisite melodies from the many Jewish musical traditions. Also, the unique “fourth column” of the siddur offers poems and readings that can be read, recited or sung responsively. The "tool box" will provide a variety of innovative possibilities for incorporating this material into the service.

A Prayerbook that Encourages More Personal Liturgical Responses

One of the stunning examples of a response to the needs of individuals is a Prayer in Place of Mourner’s Kaddish When a Minyan Is Not Present, deeply respectful of both the traditional insistence that a community be present for the mourner but also of the individual’s need to say Kaddish regardless of the number present. The siddur also includes a section of personal prayers before the open ark reflecting the fact that in many traditional communities the opening of the ark was seen as a moment that symbolized the opening of the gates of heaven and so became a time when some would approach the ark with personal gestures.

List price
$70.00
Price
$80.00

Reuven Hammer
ISBN 978-0-916219-20-8
Pages 360 hc
Available for printing on demand

Email for additional pricing informaiton.

Turnaround time is approximately 2 weeks.

Features scholarly commentary by Reuven Hammer; supplementary material from a variety of classical and contemporary sources; introductory material explaining the history, structure, and meaning of prayers and services; and commentary on Pirke Avot by Judah Goldin.

“Reuven Hammer's comprehensive commentary on the siddur is such a welcome addition to Conservative Jewish liturgy. It recognizes the difference between understanding the words of a prayer and understanding the prayer. Rather than simply translating, it explains the meaning and purpose of the prayer in its context – its history, theology, and relationship to the prayers around it. More than telling us what we are saying, it guides us to understand why we are praying these words.” – Harold Kushner.

List price
$25.00
Price
$35.00

Leonard Cahan, Editorial Committee Chair
ISBN 9780416219130
Pages 912 hc

Large Print Edition also Available

Email or call 201-216-9400 ext. 2 for more info.

The original Siddur Sim Shalom was the first comprehensive siddur published for the Conservative movement. This new edition has become a popular classic. It contains sections on Shabbat and holiday home rituals in an easy-to-follow format. Innovations include:

•the optional Amidah text (which includes the matriarchs, liturgical works celebrating the existence of the State of Israel)
•readings for Holocaust commemoration
•an expanded supplementary reading section featuring works by both rabbinic scholars and contemporary Jewish thinkers.