[HANASHIR:5544] RE: Adonai s'fatai tiftakh

[Andy Curry <acurry...>]

With respect to Cantor Berman,

My copy of Gates of Prayer reads "m'chaye hakol" (Who revives all), as
opposed to "m'chaye hametim" (who revives the dead).  I believe that this
change and the word change from "goel" to "g'ula" are the most significant
textual divergences made by the Reform movement from the Hebrew liturgy.

With respect to Brian:  A few years ago, I was asked to join a chavura.
What made me decide NOT to join that particular chavura was that one woman
said enthusiastically "That's what I love about Judaism; you can do
anything you want!"

Reform Judaism is, in my observation, no less traditional in its worship
than is Orthodox Judaism; it's just that the tradition is different.
Forgive me if you've heard the joke:

A candidate for pulpit rabbi visited his (her?) prospective synagogue.  He
noticed that half of the congregation rose to recite the Shma and half
remained seated.  When they were done, each half gave the other half
disapproving looks.  After services, the candidate asked the cantor, "So
what IS the minhag here for the Shma?"  The cantor smiled and said "The
minhag is just what you observed!"

Good Shabbos!

Andy

At 06:47 PM 3/23/00 -0500, you wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
>Cantor Sam Berman

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Andy Curry
CellNet Data Systems
11146 Thompson Ave
Lenexa KS 66219
Office: 913-312-4739
Facsimile: 913-312-4701
Home : 816-363-8381
E-Mail: acurry (at) cellnet(dot)com
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