[HANASHIR:1770] Re: Politically Incorrect

[Ilana Rosansky <rabstud...>]

>Just a note to those of you concerned about singing "Avinu Malkeinu" for the
>High Holidays.  The REform movement has taken the position in their NEW Gender
>Sensitive High Holy Day prayer book that you can stil sing/daven Avinu
>Malkeinu, however they are not going to tell you what it means.  It will go
>something like this:
>Avinu Malkeinu sh'ma koleinu
>Avinu Malkeinu hear our prayer.
>
>Some choice Huh? the "english" can be gender neutral because they're not
>telling you what Avinu Malkeinu means!!  So much for the movement of "CHOICE"
>Felicia



You know.... that is NOT such a bad compromise... If you have been reciting
Avinu Malkeynu your entire life, a change in the words of the liturgy would
do real harm to its origins... This is a nice solution, I think...

I had been following the change the words/gender/liturgy thread for a while
and promised myself to only lurk, but there are a number of issues that are
important and have been raised...
I, like some others, am of two minds.... As a fluent Hebrew speaker I am
well-aware that Hebrew is gendered... period. So the language choices, even
while essentially metaphoric, seem to imply a gender (at least for God)...
but this is not so... Most people realize that.  Radically changing the
liturgy in Hebrew creates real and, IMO unnecessary, problems.

On the other hand, I do enjoy having the Matriarchs mentioned in the
Amidah, along with the Patriarchs... This is an addition...  But I often
attend a synagogue on Shabbat mornings that has made other changes to the
liturgy (e.g. adding a PC phrase of inclusion of all nations at the end of
all the k'deshim, etc...) and I still find that jarring... and unnatural.
Then, too, one has to remember where one is to make which emendations or NO
emendations... When I am leading services in an area day school, for
example, I do not add the imahot. And if I attend the Chassidic synagogue
near my house on Friday nights I need to remind myself to add the imahot
only in my silent prayer...  It does get confusing....
Ultimately, if each synagogue or even each stream of Judaism were to begin
altering the wording of the core liturgy (existing differences among
Ashkenazim and Sepharadim notwithstanding), we would soon find ourselves
unable to sink back into the 'familiar' at any synagogue other than our
'own".... THAT, it seems to me, is a serious potential problem...  If the
comfort level declines, people will be reluctant to pray anywhere else but
'home'.... That would be a pity...

Ilana Rosansky


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Ilana (at) oursquare(dot)com