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Session One
The Sample Plate: The Siddur
INTRODUCTION We begin our tasting of Torah treats with the Siddur, the traditional
Jewish prayer book. (There are a variety of editions of the Siddur,
all basically similar. See SIDEBAR) The Siddur, like this course
itself, is a sampler of Torah. It is an anthology, filled with
chapters from the Bible; teachings from the Talmud; prayers and
poems written in many different countries and in many different
generations. "They prayed theology, history, hermeneutics and acrostics. They
prayed dialectics, angelology, laws and recipes. They did not
always understand what they were praying, but they always meant
it..." Some passages in the Siddur are the most beautiful, uplifting
poetry. My favourite is a section from "Nishmat" in the Shabbat
morning prayers: "If our mouths were full as the sea with song, our tongues with
joy as its many waves, our lips with praise like the wide expanse
of sky, our eyes radiant as the sun and the moon, our hands spread
wide like the eagles of the sky, our feet light as the deer..." It is a vision of human glory -- each of us transformed into what
perhaps we really are, radiant beings of light. [Additionally] Carshina lye - nine kab; Cyprus wine, 3 se'ah and
3 kab - if he has no Cyprus wine, he brings old white wine; Sodom
salt, a quarter kab; and a minute amount of smoke-raising herb.
Rabbi Nattan the Babylonian says: Also a minute amount of Jordan
amber. If he placed fruit- honey into it, he invalidated it. And
if he left out any of its spices, he is liable to the death penalty. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says, The stacte is simply the sap that
drips from balsam trees. Carshina lye is used to bleach the onycha
to make it pleasing. Cyprus wine is used to soak the onycha to
make it pungent. Even though urine is suitable for that, nevertheless they do not
bring urine into the Temple out of respect. Talmud, Keritot 6a The Jewish tradition is earthy -- too much so for many Jews today.
Many translations of the Siddur leave out that word "urine" from
the end of the paragraph -- one edition has "another substance"
and another leaves it in Hebrew, "mei raglayim". Still, Jews all
over the world are praying this every day -- that you might think
you can use urine in your incense mixture, but actually you use
old wine instead... Besides how funny this is, I like this text because it's so good
to imagine -- to try to "visualize" (nasalize?) the irresistible
fragrance of the incense, with all those fragrant ingredients. I have a favourite interpretation of the beginning of this text.
The main ingredients in the incense recipe, which were included
in equal quantities, are the first four: stacte, onycha, galbanum,
and frankincense. The Talmud tells us that stacte and onycha and
frankincense smell beautiful, but galbanum stinks. Yet the stinky
galbanum had to be included in the incense and when it was included
it became part of the beautiful fragrance. So when I read those
ingredients, I think: this is about life. Maybe 3/4 of what goes
on in your life is delicious. Maybe 1/4 or so really stinks. But
they all belong together, and if you can take it all together,
it smells so sweet... The Siddur has appeared in many different editions. In all of
them the structure and wording of the main prayers are basically
similar; however, there are many variations caused by local traditions
and the preferences of different rabbis and editors. There are
three general types of traditional Siddur readily available: Nusach
Ashkenaz, Nusach haSefaradim, and Nusach Sefard. Nusach (in this
context) means "version". Nusach Ashkenaz is the version developed
by Ashkenazi Jews, whose main settlements were in France and Germany
and later in Eastern Europe. Nusach haSefaradim is the version
used by Sephardi Jews, who were centred in Spain and later dispersed
in the Middle East, and by other Middle Eastern Jews who were
influenced by Sephardi customs. Nusach Sefard is a Sephardi-influenced
variation of the Ashkenazi version, used by Hasidic Jews from
Eastern Europe. Here in Toronto most Orthodox synagogues use Nusach
Sefard; in most places in North America Nusach Ashkenaz is more
widespread.
More than any other Jewish book, the Siddur belongs to everyone.
It is not a book by and for scholars. It has always been meant
to be used by everyone, and what is in it has been determined,
to a large extent, by what ordinary people felt was important
The Siddur, especially in traditional Eastern European editions,
includes a huge variety of material, including things we would
never expect to find in a prayerbook. Israel Zangwill, a British
Jewish author who wrote about Eastern European Jews in Britain,
described a traditional congregation at prayer more or less like
this (I'm quoting from memory):
Other passages are things we would never ever think of including
in a book of prayers. When Zangwill mentions "praying recipes"
he is probably thinking of this text from the Talmud which appears
toward the end of the Shabbat morning prayers, and early in the
daily prayers as well:
The incense mixture was formulated of [eleven spices]:
To get more of an idea of the vast range of material in a traditional
Siddur, examine this typical table of contents. Then you can continue with page two.
Within each general type there are still variations from one edition
of the Siddur to another.
Reform and other non-Orthodox Jewish prayerbooks have introduced
many new variations, but they are all based on the template of
the traditional Siddur.