In my retirement letter to my congregation a decade ago, I stated that the new prayerbook that was ready for congregations to order should be introduced by a younger rabbi; I’m of the Union Prayer Book and Gates of Prayer (Blue and Gray) generation. It’s not that I couldn’t get accustomed to Mishkan T’filah (although, truth be told, change and I don’t get along that well), rather my successor would have the opportunity to bring her/his personality into the volume.

Let me add something I believe is very important…

It is not just prayerbook words that are communicated in worship, but the rabbi’s “take” on those words. In fact, there is a word for it: dramaturgy. It is a word rabbis heard a generation ago combining “drama” and “liturgy.” It means there is a theatre-like connection to the prayers and the music we bring to worship.

We hate to think of our rabbis and cantors as “actors,” at least not in the usual sense. But if we do not bring our soul into the “part” then the “audience” might not feel a connection. Surely there is more than the bimah “image” that is important; so much goes into the success or failure of a rabbi, but understand that regardless how large or small the “house” is on any one occasion, that’s often the only connection the congregant has with the rabbi. The “script” (read “prayers”) might not suit the “actor” and that often comes through, albeit usually in a subtle manner.

All this sidebar is to point to a certain bias I have, and I admit it. Be that as it may, the bottom line is how YOU relate to Mishkan T’filah because, as you know, it will be the siddur for Reform Jews for a very long time to come.

I’ll be as objective as possible in introducing it. Let me repeat, “Change and I don’t get along well,” and, I admit, that might be coloring my opinion. Nevertheless, we’ll probe the text together, as one of my professors always said, and try to understand how it reflects where Reform Judaism is today.