Praying With Pictures

When a Jewish person gets an itch to connect more deeply to his or her Judaism, paying a visit to a local synagogue during a prayer service seems like a good idea. After all, a synagogue is an easy place to find Jews doing something Jewish.

 

It’s not uncommon that such a spontaneous visit fails to elicit a spiritual response. Quite the opposite. A person who steps into a prayer service unprepared can be daunted by a sequence of largely unfamiliar prayers, at least some, if not all of which are recited in Hebrew.

 

Sometimes, the synagogue visit that was meant to connect, ends up making the individual feel even more estranged from Jewish prayer, Jewish community and Jewish tradition.

 

There are things in this world - dramatic scenery, music, films, novels – that have the capacity to touch a person deeply upon first exposure. It’s been my experience that prayer is definitely not one of those things.

 

You wouldn’t try to lift weights without learning the proper form. You wouldn’t expect to be able to bake a cake from scratch without learning some kitchen basics. Similarly, prayer is something that a person has to apprentice in before deriving maximum benefit. I often say that prayer is a discipline. And one of the tools of mastering the discipline of Jewish prayer is a siddur (prayer book).

Michael Haruni devised an innovative siddur designed to open up Jewish prayer in fresh ways. When you first hold the Nehalel Shabbat prayer book, the first thing you’ll notice is its weight. It’s quite a hefty volume. It’s also packed with inspiration.

 

The Nehalel weekday and Shabbat siddurim are illustrated with hundreds of full-color photos. The images are intended to help the person praying derive more meaning from the words. Abigail Leichman, a journalist who has been living in Israel for the past nine years, has been using the Shabbat version of the siddur since 2013. “I use it every Shabbat. I find it inspiring. I’m a visual person; something about the photos helps me focus better on the words.”

 

Asked about which images are most memorable, my old friend and fellow blogger Ruthie Eastman pointed to “the photos on pages 178-179, for example, of the baby walking into becoming Buzz Aldrin, taking those first steps on the moon, [that] perfectly enhance the blessing about God engineering the strides of man.”

 

A few users mentioned that a majority of the photos were taken in Israel, which helps remind us of how central the theme of the Land of Israel is in our prayers.

 

Traditional Jewish prayers were written with the assumption that the person praying is male. It was Ruthie who first pointed out to me that the text of the Nehalel siddur features more inclusive language for women.

 

She also made me aware that the Nehalel Birkat Hamazon (Grace After Meals) includes these words of blessing for the State of Israel and her soldiers:

Leichman suggested that the Shabbat siddur, along with its smaller and lighter companion for weekday prayer, can be especially meaningful for “people who are new to the siddur. It can be intimidating, and this can make [the prayers] more accessible.”

 

Although the photos are the most striking element of the Shabbat and weekday Nehalel prayer books, there are two other things worth mentioning. Michael Haruni, who did the translation, told me that he was careful not to look at existing translations before penning his own.

 

Although I generally pray in Hebrew, I found his translations opened new meanings for me. The English is fresh, alive and more natural. For example, a traditional translation of the familiar words “Baruch Atah Adonai Elohenu Melech HaOlam” is “Blessed Art Thou O Lord our God, King of the Universe.” Haruni translated these words more like a native English speaker would say them: “You are blessed, Adonai: our God, Sovereign of the Universe.”

 

One could have a prayerful experience with this siddur just by reading the English translation and glancing at the photos.

 

Another design innovation is in the use of special symbols and Hebrew vowel points which assist the reader in pronouncing the Hebrew text more accurately. For example, in Hebrew, the accent is generally on the last syllable. When that rule would lead to a mispronunciation, Haruni and his team added a distinctive mark to indicate which syllable should be accented.

 

Whether you’re a master of Jewish prayer or an adult beginner, I promise that something in the photos, the English translation and the design of the Shabbat and weekday Nehalel siddurim will add crisp new meaning to your prayers, whether you recite them daily or only very occasionally.

The Nehalel siddurim are available at amazon.com or on the Nehalel website.