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In Spring 2015, the Ritual Committee wrote the congregation and explained the process for bringing a question to the committee. That email brought forth several questions regarding the Communal Prayers - for Israel, Our Congregation and Peace. In November of 2015, Rabbi Greyber sent a congregational email notifying the congregation of the Ritual Committee's discussion of these questions.
His email included the following paragraph; "the Ritual Committee has been asked questions about the Prayer for Our Country, the Prayer for Israel and the Prayer for Peace in our services. In the coming months, the Ritual Committee will consider questions such as what text of these prayers should be used, what criteria should determine when and how often these prayers will be said; and in what language(s) the Prayer for Israel should be recited will be discussed by the committee. After further committee discussion of these questions in the coming months, the Ritual Committee will seek input on these questions from the congregation. Removal of these prayers from our services will not be considered."
Over the past year, the Ritual Committee has learned about these prayers and their history. We have looked at the service and examined how the weekly inclusion of these prayers would affect the length of Shabbat services. At this point, the Ritual Committee is ready for that input from the congregation. On Wednesday, June 1
st
, 7:30-9 pm, the Ritual Committee will host a meeting to hear the thoughts of the congregation. Leslie Winner, the nominated 2
nd
Vice President will facilitate this meeting. Congregants will be given the opportunity to share their opinions of the following specific questions.
- The Ritual Committee is considering alternate texts for a Prayer for Israel and a Prayer for Our Country and a Prayer for Peace than what is currently in Siddur Sim Shalom. What criteria should the committee use in evaluating the content of these prayers?"
- What is important to you about saying these prayers as a community?
- We will continue to work towards the goal of completing services by 12:15 pm on Shabbat. Adding the Communal Prayers to Shabbat Services on a weekly basis lengthens the service by several minutes. Is there a part of the service that, if it can be skipped and still maintain the Conservative movement's standards for communal liturgy, you would prefer to skip in order to include these prayers weekly?
- As a community in any week the Prayer for Israel and the Prayer for our Country will always be recited together. Do you have a preference as to whether the Prayer for Peace can be recited on its own or do you prefer it to always recited in a trio with the other two prayers?
- Is it important to you if any of these three prayers is specifically in Hebrew or English?
Rabbi Greyber will begin the meeting with an overview of the process and the place of the prayers in our liturgy and history. Time will be limited at this meeting. As such, Leslie will facilitate the meeting and determine how long each person can speak. In addition, congregants can send their thoughts by email to the new Ritual Committee Co-Chairs, Randi Smith, [email protected], and Meg Anderson, [email protected] who will be taking over leadership of the Ritual Committee beginning in June. The Ritual Committee welcomes the input of our congregation on this crucial issue.
L'shalom,
Aviva
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