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Siddur Nehalel Shabbat Ashkenaz

SKU:101317

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Nehalel Siddur is a completely traditional Siddur prayerbook in Hebrew with English translation in which photographs depicting central meanings of the texts direct attention to what prayers are about.

This beautiful siddur, through the use of photographs and a new elegant English translation, brings to life the full liturgy of the Jewish prayerbook in its 650+ pages.

The Nehalel Siddur is modeled on the Nevarech bencher, which in 1999 pioneered the idea of juxtaposing prayers with photographs portraying their meanings. People discovering Nevarech reveal that Birkat Hamazon (Grace After Meals) -- a prayer they may have recited every day since childhood -- is suddenly brought to life by the photographs alongside its text. Nehalel Siddur now brings this coming-to-life effect to the full orthodox liturgy.

With the use of photographs, Nehalel makes us powerfully aware of the themes that intersect in the Siddur. The liturgy celebrates the Creator of our spectacular environment, including the cosmos, Earth and Holy Land of Israel, the universal human environment as well as the national. It speaks of our thanks for the gift of our lives, and we plead for personal, national and human welfare. Repeatedly, the Siddur recounts the catastrophes in history, of destruction and exile, and then turns to the redemptions -- the pattern intensely realized during the last century, and upon nearly every page point to Jerusalem as the central symbol of the complete redemption yearned for.

The images in Nehalel Siddur reflect these different themes. The photos are partly contemporary and partly historical; partly of the natural order, partly of human reality; partly from Eretz Yisrael, partly from a much wider panorama. Many are drawn from various archives -- some documenting the dark times in Europe, others showing the triumphs of modern Zionism.

The result is a work that makes the themes of the liturgy conspicuous to us as we pray -- with a visual force that possibly no siddur has achieved before.

Nehalel Siddur has been six years in development. Extensive resources have gone into developing a reliable and accurate, fully orthodox Hebrew text that is contemporary yet strictly within the bounds of tradition.

The new English translation is both elegant and literal, in a living idiom while uncompromisingly faithful to the meaning of the original.

The first in a series of prayer books, the full Shabbat siddur Nehalel beShabbat, should be followed by Nehalel beChol for weekdays and Nehalel beRegalim for festivals.

The Hebrew font used in Nehalel is graceful and readable. It also incorporates -- for users attentive to these pronunciation issues -- an easily read symbol for stressed syllable, and clearly visible distinctions between kamatz katan and kamatz gadol, as well as between sheva na and sheva nach. Instructions, throughout Nehalel Siddur, are designed to assist those users relatively unfamiliar with the liturgy and practice, while remaining unobtrusive to the mavin. They are written in a style that tries, where conciseness enables it, to avoid promoting automaton-like motions, and to address instead the user's quest for meaning.

First and foremost, Nehalel is a siddur for davening with -- a siddur for prayer and contemplation when standing before the Almighty, helping achieve a vivid awareness of the meanings in prayer, and of the Being with Whom we communicate.

Author:Micheal Haruni
Type:Hardcover
Condition Rating:Very Good

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Siddur Nehalel Shabbat Ashkenaz

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