#Siddur Masorti

[rotzaprachim]

some smaller bookstores, presses, and museum shops to browse and know about! Most support smaller presses, diverse authors and authors in translation, or fund museums and arts research)

(disclaimer: the only three I’ve personally used are the Yiddish book center, native books, and izzun books! Reccomend all three. Also roughly *U.S. centric & anglophone if people have others from around the world please feel free to add on

birchbark books - Louise Erdrich’s book shop, many indigenous and First Nations books of a wide variety of genres including children’s books, literature, nonfiction, sustainability and foodways, language revitalization, Great Lakes area focus (https://birchbarkbooks.com/)

American Swedish institute museum store - range of Scandinavian and Scandinavian-American/midwestern literature, including modern literature in translation, historical documents, knitters guides, cookbooks, children’s books https://shop.asimn.org/collections/books-1

Native books - Hawai’i based bookstore with a focus on native Hawaiian literature, scholarly works about Hawai’i, the pacific, and decolonial theory, ‘ōlelo Hawai’i, and children’s books Collections | Native Books (nativebookshawaii.org)

the Yiddish book center - sales arm of the national Yiddish book center, books on Yiddish learning, books translated from Yiddish, as well as broader selection of books on Jewish history, literature, culture, and coooking https://shop.yiddishbookcenter.org/

ayin press - independent press with a small but growing selection of modern judaica https://shop.ayinpress.org/collections/all?_gl=1kkj2oo_gaMTk4NDI3Mzc1Mi4xNzE1Mzk5ODk3_ga_VSERRBBT6X*MTcxNTM5OTg5Ny4xLjEuMTcxNTM5OTk0NC4wLjAuMA..

Izzun books - printers of modern progressive AND masorti/trad-egal leaning siddurim including a gorgeous egalitarian Sephardic siddur with full Hebrew, English translation, and transliteration

tenement center museum -https://shop.tenement.org/product-category/books/page/11/ range of books on a dizzying range of subjects mostly united by New York City, including the history literature cookbooks and cultures of Black, Jewish, Italian, Puerto Rican, First Nations, and Irish communities

restless books - nonprofit, independent small press focused on books on translation, inter and multicultural exchange, and books by immigrant writers from around the world. Particularly excellent range of translated Latin American literature https://restlessbooks.org/

olniansky press - modern Yiddish language press based in Sweden, translators and publishers esp of modern Yiddish children’s literature https://www.etsy.com/shop/OlnianskyBooks

https://yiddishchildrensbooks.com/ - kinder lokshen, Yiddish children’s books (not so many at the moment but a very cute one about a puffin from faroese!)

inhabit books - Inuit-owned publishing company in Nunavut with an “aim to preserve and promote the stories, knowledge, and talent of Inuit and Northern Canada.” Particularly gorgeous range of children’s books, many available in Inuktitut, English, French, or bilingual editions https://inhabitbooks.com/collections/inhabit-media-books-1

rust belt books - for your Midwest and rust belt bookish needs! Leaning towards academic and progressive political tomes but there are some cookbooks devoted to the art of the Midwest cookie table as well https://beltpublishing.com/

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Chag sameach, Avital! I'm in the market for a new siddur, and I was hoping you might have some thoughts (or be able to broadcast this to those who do!). I'm Reform and can read Hebrew decently and I've used Conservative siddurim before. I've heard good things about the Mishkan T'filah, but I wanted to see if you or anyone else has any suggestions :)

Yeah! So the boring (but real) answer is that it's usually best to just use the siddur that your community uses. Now, if you're Reform and your community doesn't do weekday minyanim but you want to do weekday davening, that's a different story.

If your Hebrew is good enough that you don't need transliterations at all (or are committed to weaning yourself off of them) and you're willing to write in or verbally add in the egalitarian stuff on your own (or aren't bothered), I really like the Koren siddurim I have. I have a Nusach Sfard standard siddur with English translations and a Nusach Ashkenaz talpiot (mini travel siddur) with just the Hebrew. I love both.

I do not own, but I have used, multiple excellent ArtScroll siddurim, and I own an ArtScroll Tikkun (basically a giant chumash written in STAM script for the purposes of learning various parts of Torah leyning) that I really like. Some ArtScroll siddurim have in-line translation and transliteration under the Hebrew, if that interests you also. I will say that you will have to have some tolerance for Ashkenzish transliteration; it's very frum Ashkenazi that way.

Both Koren and ArtScroll are, however, definitely orthodox/non-egal. If you're looking for Masorti/Conservative/traditional egalitarian siddurim, I do really love my Lev Shalem (official Conservative movement siddur) for Shabbat and Festivals, and I am fine with using Sim Shalom for weekdays. (I don't dislike it personally, but I also hope they update it to match Lev Shalem soon.)

If you're interested in something both Sephardic and avant-garde, I definitely recommend checking out Or veShalom:

If you do, tell me about it! My primary community is Ashkenazi so that's been my default, but this honestly looks amazing and I've been meaning to invest in it for a while. (I am a little hesitant in that I'm worried that if I start davening out of this, I won't want to daven out of anything else, but that's a risk I'm willing to take when I have the money to buy it, lol.)

Hope that helps, and a belated chag sameach!!

[on-my-way-to-jew]

Thought it'd be good to talk about where I am in this journey. I'm officially accepted into my Synagogue's conversion program, and I've met with that rabbi in charge. After passover, I'll start the intro the Judaism classes, and I'm expected to pick the rabbi I want to work with by the end of the first quarter. I'm going to a young adults Seder on the second day of passover. I've been attending Friday night services for the past month.

I want to get better at reading Hebrew. I currently go to the progressive services since their siddurs have the transliterated prayers as well as the translation, but I'd like to spend more time at the Masorti services once I'm more confident reading Hebrew.

The meeting with a rabbi helped me feel less anxious about the whole process. To quote him," converting is hard. Why would we want to make it harder?" and I rly appreciate that. I feel like they genuinely want me to feel comfortable, and I'm rly looking forward to the seder. It'll be a good chance to meet others in the community. I am horribly awkward so I tend to scurry off once the service is over.

I'll hopefully update you after that, and you'll certainly hear about how the class goes.

[2percentsugar]

yeah from what i know the split happened in like the 1960s with louis jacobs, so masorti people in the uk have more of an orthodox background. i can't exactly say what the differences are between them and us conservative communities (i haven't been to us conservative synagogues) but i do get more of a reformish vibe with the latter, like they don't necessarily see halakha as binding the same way masorti jews in the uk do? like women can be rabbis, gay marriage is allowed etc, but also in some masorti synagogues for certain services there's men's/women's/mixed sitting etc. however i'm not sure how uk orthodox or masorti ppl would take it to lump them together lol

oh -- badly, i'm sure, in much the same way that the US conservatives i go to shul with would not like it if i called them broadly reform lol

by reform vs orthodox i dont want to imply that everyone under one heading has much in common, just where their particular lineage of the tradition derives. US vs UK masorti is illustrative here -- as you say, v diff approaches to halakha and social justice stuff, in spite of nominally occupying the same place on the orthodox-reform gradient. i think this comes down to idea-geneology, basically

in general, this isn't a very helpful dichotomy, and is only useful when you're talking abt the differences btwn movements, esp btwn countries. but as the sort of dweeb who thinks about exactly that a lot, i've noticed a broad difference btwn the streams, esp in approach to halakha

reform-derived judaism has a v v hard time reinstituting halakha it seems, even when they would really like to -- being a US conservative means coming face to face w this regularly lol. younger broadly-reform ppl in the states seem to desire a more traditional judaism, but the US conservative siddur's only inkling of how to do this is include quotes from the besht in the sidebars. sigh.

[whatlieswithintheorchard]

Everyone!!! Check out Volume II of this wonderful siddur!!!!

Siddur Or veShalom is the second volume of Siddur Masorti, a new Sefaradi siddur. Siddur Or veShalom contains the liturgy for Shabbat and Festivals and is a part of our first ever community partnership with Congregation Or veShalom in Atlanta, Georgia.

"The Siddur offers a new, fluid, and gender sensitive translation of the text, a transliteration according to Sefaradi pronunciation, and a running commentary. It seems that one could not wish for more, yet there are many more pearls of wisdom and excitement to be found by the traveler in the magical paths of this Siddur."

It celebrates traditional Sefaradi liturgy, inclusive of a diversity of Sephardi/Mizraḥi customs and filled with beautiful piyyutim (songs and poetry) and psalm texts. But accessibility is at its core, with an unprecedented full transliteration, guiding commentary, and adaptations for use by all genders.

[socialistsephardi]

Oh btw look what my sister got me for my birthday

[nonstandardrepertoire]

i love your siddur! i wanted to know if you’ve ever read siddur sha’ar zahav or siddur masorti?

ah, thank you so much! i've only seen excerpts from Siddur Sha'ar Zahav, but i have a copy of Siddur Masorti and i'm very much looking forward to their upcoming shabbat volume; i think the work Isaac and Adam have done is really phenomenal and a great service to the Jewish world at large. i've been quite taken with the excerpts from SSZ that i've seen, but i can't really say much about the prayerbook as a whole, since i haven't really been able to spend time with it in the same way that i have with SM. i'd like to pick up a copy one of these days, but other things have been a higher priority, so i haven't quite managed it yet

[progressivejudaism]

Pray on the go, anywhere in the world.  The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism is proud to announce that the Masorti movement has created the first egalitarian siddur app.   Available for free, the app opens to the prayer that is relevant for the time of day you open it, specific to your location in the world. Download for IOS at https://apple.co/2nwoxhM or Android at http://bit.ly/2GyfXrV

[transition-with-the-torah]

I definitely cross off the first two goals, but again, I'm not doing well with book progress goals.

Originally dated 17 Sept (or so) 2023:

Admittedly, the livestream note wasn't a hard one. I watched the Erev Rosh Hashanah service on Friday live (about 5:30 to 6:45 pm), and by the time I had posted this monthly update [privately], I already had plans for the Rosh Hashanah services.

Given that I'm not terribly familiar with services, the Erev Rosh Hashanah service wasn't too confusing or anything. (For those following along in a prayer book: More than one rabbi is at the bimah, and one says the page number out loud.) The videos for Rosh Hashanah services also show page numbers (and a few other text notes, such as noting the one Amidah is read to yourself silently and providing the English translation of the Torah portion). One of the rabbis also says when to stand and sit, which I presume is a courtesy for the amount of people who might not be super familiar with when to do that already in-person.

Addition on 25 September [Yom Kippur]: There's more visual text notes in the Yom Kippur Morning Service - similar to the Rosh Hashanah videos - than the previous night's Kol Nidre service. Yom Kippur Evening Service appears to have similar visual text notes as the morning service. Other than being prepared for the length of the service, it's not really difficult to have some idea of what's happening, really.

I included this livestream goal, in part, to try to catch a non-HHD service. I presume the most amount of textual pointers will be focused on the High Holidays, and it might be helpful to get a feel for what's more expected the rest of the year.

Addition on 14 Oct: Announcing the page numbers and saying when to rise or be seated seems pretty standard. The textual notes in the videos were definitely just for the High Holidays, though. I'm not really following along with a siddur for Shabbat services, so I'm more getting a slight sense of familiarity with some of the Hebrew.

-

Regarding the goal to look around a siddur:

Due to mentioning Siddur Masorti in two reblogs recently on my tumblr, I feel like it might not be a huge surprise that I looked around a bit inside the Vol. 1 / Weekday siddur. I don't really have a lot of experience with comparing and contrasting different siddurim, but I do appreciate that there's transliteration and an English translation in this one.

(Learning how to read some amount of Hebrew isn't unheard of during a conversion, but I definitely appreciate that I don't have to try to do that instantly.)

Copied over from one of the past reblogs:

The Weekday (Volume I) siddur is currently out of stock due to a second edition with some updates being planned for later this year [2023]. If you want to look at the first edition just to see if you like it, you can find a freely accessible archive.org or Open Siddur Project upload [links should take you directly to the Siddur Masorti Volume I - 2019 / 1st edition].

-

Regarding book progress:

Well... One could say that I made a smidge of progress. Sort of. Ever so slightly.

I had let my local library card lapse, and instead of just needing to let them know what my current phone number was, I outright needed a new card.

So, I now have an active library card, and I can now access Libby [some might still know this as Overdrive] on my own without relying on a relative's library card. (I should also be able to access Hoopla whenever I get around to making an account for that.)

Goals for Tishrei 5784:

Catch a livestreamed service - at least one day of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur.

Try to look around a siddur a bit.

Get in the queue for borrowing at least one book. (Ideally, acquire and finish reading it.)

I posted this privately where I could collect links for livestream services without doxxing myself, but I forgot to make a public version until now.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Woke up with the most random question, if anyone happens to know this bit of obscure Jewish trivia: How come the Conservative movement named our siddur (Sim Shalom/Lev Shalom) instead of just, like, calling it Nusach Masorti or similar?

[sobbingoverthechallah]

the siddur is now available for purchase at siddurmasorti.com and it has transliteration too, based on what i saw at the website! it’s an absolutely gorgeous siddur! (i bought one bc i have no impulse control but i also have no regrets)

I’m so honoured to be part of this important initiative! Please help support this if you can, and spread the word!

Siddur Masorati will be the first ever egalitarian Sephardi siddur. Featuring a Hebrew-English text, calligraphic illustrations of the tefillot, and a halakhic guide to Sephardi prayer and practice, Siddur Masorati will represent a tremendous impulse within Sephardi Judaism while opening an innovative window into egalitarian observance.

Siddur Masorati will be a complete weekday prayer book - including Sephardi Jewish rituals and rites from a wide variety of nuschaot as well as both traditional and contemporarypiyyut (poetry). Siddur Masorati will be illuminated by the best traditions of Sephardi visual culture and calligraphy. It will be designed with accessibility in mind as well as a focus on gender-neutral English (no capital ‘H’ in here!) and gender-inclusive Hebrew.

The text will draw on the efforts of leading Sephardi rabbis to innovate and expand the liturgy and aims ultimately to make the division between liturgy (the text) and prayer (the meaning)increasingly small. It will include essays that introduce Sephardi approaches to prayer and a running commentary to help clarify both a) the meaning of the prayers and b) the differences between the text and the standard Ashkenazi siddur (this will enable one to use Siddur Masorati in any synagogue and still be able to follow along).

[whatlieswithintheorchard]

EVERYONE!! GO CHECK OUT THIS NEW PAN-SEFARDI PRAYERBOOK!!

Siddur Masorti is a brand new weekday prayerbook with traditional Sefaradi liturgy, full transliteration, inclusion of all genders, and illuminating art and commentary. Our first volume features the entire weekday prayer service in a beautiful four-column layout (text, translation, transliteration, commentary). The Hebrew text includes gender-inclusive options as well as a uniquely gender-neutral translation.

Among the prayers you’ll find seven custom-made plates of beautiful calligraphic artwork done by Noam Sienna, editor of A Rainbow Thread: An Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts from the First Century To 1969.

[transition-with-the-torah]

Just a quick note on the siddurim from Izzun Books: Or veShalom is for Shabbat and Festivals, and I'm not aware of a copy being available on archive.org. The Weekday (Volume I) siddur is currently out of stock due to a second edition with some updates being planned for later this year. If you want to look at the first edition just to see if you like it, you can find a freely accessible archive.org or Open Siddur Project upload [links should take you directly to the Siddur Masorti Volume I - 2019 / 1st edition].

Chag sameach, Avital! I'm in the market for a new siddur, and I was hoping you might have some thoughts (or be able to broadcast this to those who do!). I'm Reform and can read Hebrew decently and I've used Conservative siddurim before. I've heard good things about the Mishkan T'filah, but I wanted to see if you or anyone else has any suggestions :)

Yeah! So the boring (but real) answer is that it's usually best to just use the siddur that your community uses. Now, if you're Reform and your community doesn't do weekday minyanim but you want to do weekday davening, that's a different story.

If your Hebrew is good enough that you don't need transliterations at all (or are committed to weaning yourself off of them) and you're willing to write in or verbally add in the egalitarian stuff on your own (or aren't bothered), I really like the Koren siddurim I have. I have a Nusach Sfard standard siddur with English translations and a Nusach Ashkenaz talpiot (mini travel siddur) with just the Hebrew. I love both.

I do not own, but I have used, multiple excellent ArtScroll siddurim, and I own an ArtScroll Tikkun (basically a giant chumash written in STAM script for the purposes of learning various parts of Torah leyning) that I really like. Some ArtScroll siddurim have in-line translation and transliteration under the Hebrew, if that interests you also. I will say that you will have to have some tolerance for Ashkenzish transliteration; it's very frum Ashkenazi that way.

Both Koren and ArtScroll are, however, definitely orthodox/non-egal. If you're looking for Masorti/Conservative/traditional egalitarian siddurim, I do really love my Lev Shalem (official Conservative movement siddur) for Shabbat and Festivals, and I am fine with using Sim Shalom for weekdays. (I don't dislike it personally, but I also hope they update it to match Lev Shalem soon.)

If you're interested in something both Sephardic and avant-garde, I definitely recommend checking out Or veShalom:

If you do, tell me about it! My primary community is Ashkenazi so that's been my default, but this honestly looks amazing and I've been meaning to invest in it for a while. (I am a little hesitant in that I'm worried that if I start davening out of this, I won't want to daven out of anything else, but that's a risk I'm willing to take when I have the money to buy it, lol.)

Hope that helps, and a belated chag sameach!!