[HANASHIR:5542] RE: Adonai s'fatai tiftakh

[tisrael <tisrael...>]

> I am curious about this whole discussion, from the Reform point of view.
Is
> it Reform doctrine/policy/custom to follow the traditional "rules" of the
> Talmud or Shulchan Aruch about how to pray?  I thought the whole idea of
> Reform Judaism was to allow people to pray any way they wanted to.
>
Brian,

Unfortunately your statement is one that is parroted by too many reform
Jews. Liberal Judaism may create nuances in the worship experience but most
of the liturgy is based in "traditional" structures and concepts. M'chayei
hameitim (who revives the dead) is in the Gates of Prayer prayer book in
Hebrew but given a poetic translation otherwise reform Jews would have to
grapple with the Jewish concept of resurrection. There is no overall
authority who interprets the practices of reform Jews. The CCAR likes to
think that they pass resolutions and guidelines when in fact those missives
only confuse congregants. Worship practices are decided by congregations
through their clergy and their members, developing local minhagim (customs).
Most of the time they use a traditional source to justify a particular
practice.

Many of us survived the creative sixties when Pooh Bear and Christopher
Robin together with Kahliel Gebran became the core of "CREATIVE" services.
We also survived songs like "Bah Shannah Habbaah" that crept into our
liturgy because any music that had Hebrew words became liturgical. That
particular song was an El Al commercial.

Today there are even REFORM rabbis arguing whether peanuts are kosher for
Pesach.

Reform practices must be based on tradition and reform Jews must learn that
their choices must be Jewish. In order to do that I am seeing more adults
returning to the synagogue than ever before. My personal campaign as a
Cantor-Educator is to 'ERADICATE JEWISH IGNORANCE'.

Cantor Sam Berman


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