The Launch of Siddur Pirchei Kodesh – October 29th, 2011 at 10.30 am
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It’s not remarkable for a synagogue to organize its own siddur. While the various movements periodically put together their own prayer books, some synagogues go their own way. They aim to compile a siddur reflective of their specific history and ethos. What Holy Blossom Temple is doing in publishing Siddur Pirchei Kodesh is hardly unique on that score.
What is different—remarkable is a fair word—is the scope and elegance of our new siddur. At just short of 600 pages, this book is very full: Shabbat and Daily Services; Festival prayers and those for other important days on the Jewish calendar; essays, explanations of the liturgy side by side the prayers, and more. Siddur Pirchei Kodesh is complete. That we are short of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur liturgy is a matter of practicality, not of ambition. One day down the road…
More than the fullness, however, is the elegance. In style, in tone, in substance it is unadorned yet beautiful. It is a book of which Holy Blossom Temple will be most proud; substantive and liberal, this book is loyal to the tradition and responsive to modernity. While many hands made this book full and beautiful—Jewish to the core—it is the heart of its editor, Rabbi Yael Splansky, which has made Siddur Pirchei Kodesh an elegant book, one that is most significant in accomplishment. For the book, for the work of Rabbi Splansky and others, for the opprotunity to now pray from Siddur Pirchei Kodesh, we count ourselves fortunate and grateful.
