Got those “what page are we on in the prayer book” blues?

As a kid in the US I was a big fan of the (alas short lived) music duo Megama.  Their songs were all about issues in Jewish life and the difficulty of maintaining one’s Judaism in the face of the modern world.  The music was catchy, and the lyrics well crafted and self reflective. 

One of their more memorable songs, quoted in the title here, was about two Jews who come to pray in a synagogue, but because they’d grown up without a formal Jewish education didn’t know what they were supposed to do at any point in the service. Should they sit or stand?  What page was everyone on?  The fellow next to them, presumably an average shul goer, was of no used to them as he was “taking a snooze;” a playful though all too honest jab at many of the FFHes (frum from habbit) out there.

This is a problem faced by many secular Jews when they come to shul whether for a Bar Mitzva or to say Gomel etc.  They find themselves with a siddur which in the best of cases gives directions in acronyms and abbreviations (like kuf vav chet for example, which all religous people know means “kahal v’chazan” but to the secular vistor is gibberish) and in many cases barely that.  They’re often too shy to ask for help and feel uncomfortably that they’re being treated as a “special case” if helped.  The fear of looking ignorant keeps many of them from coming at times and with a frequency they might otherwise.  In Anglo countries, publications such as Artscroll have been aiming at this audience for awhile, but in Hebrew it really hasn’t been properly addressed till now.

Enter the Or Israel.  A new siddur which bills itself as a siddur/guide to shul.  It looks like a regular siddur so the secular visitor doesn’t feel like a tourist with an obvious guidebook.  Inside however it contains instructions and background material on the prayers and situations they’re most likely to encounter.  I should say up front that I have no affiliation to the people putting out this siddur – I discovered it through an article on ynet http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3374041,00.html

The home page (where you can also find out details about purchasing it) is http://www.orisrael.net/.  If you belong to a neighborhood shul which tends to get secular Israeli  guests (the siddur’s in Hebrew), such as people doing Bar Mitzvahs or coming to Yizkor, you might want to take a look at the site and if you think it could be helpful mention it to the Rabbi or Gabai.  Even though they don’t know it’s you they’re thankful to, some secular Jew is sure to be grateful the next time he shows up and someone hands him a copy of that siddur to discover “hey look at all the neat explanations this has…oh they’re about to stand up at this part…” etc. 

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