|
Entering the High Holy Days: A Complete Guide to the History, Prayers, and Themes, by R.
Reuven Hammer
Entering the High Holy Days is really, really good at what it does, which is to provide a
broad overview of the history, themes, theology, poetics, structure,
flow, and customs of the traditional High Holidays liturgies.
Rabbi Hammer begins with the month of Elul and goes right through
to the end of Yom Kippur, explaining both the well-known and the
more obscure readings along the way. Although one could say that
a book about a prayerbook is by definition a rather specialized
volume, Entering the High Holy Days feels more like a survey, summarizing long prayers and giving
us mere glimpses into complex poems with long and interesting
histories.
I started the preceding paragraph by telling you that Entering the High Holy Days is good at what it does; there are things one might want to read
about that are not in this excellent book. R. Hammer concerns
himself with the High Holiday liturgy of traditional Ashkenazi
synagogues; although this version of the machzor does form the basis of Reform and Reconstructionist services,
it would have been interesting to read about the changes different
communities are making, and why. Although I realize such a project
would have made the book unwieldy, I also might have like to see
just a bit of comparison between the machzorim of the Ashkenazim
and the Sefardim and other distinct Jewish communities. Finally,
it must be noted that R. Hammer concerns himself with elucidating
the theology of the texts in a relatively straightforward way;
it is not his goal to explore the wide range of theological stances
that can be found in contemporary Judaism.
Entering the High Holidays is, as its very title implies, a great place to start one’s learning
about the intense liturgical and ritual event called the Yamim
Noraim, the “Days of Awe.” Some people will be satisfied with
its historical and thematic discussions, while others may want
to continue their studies by looking more deeply at the liturgy
of their particular community. In either case, R. Hammer has done
us all a service by clearly explaining the “services.”
NJL
|
|
