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"The prayer book is our Jewish diary of the centuries, a collection of prayers composed by generations of those who came before us, as they endeavored to express the meaning of their lives and their relationship to God. The prayer book is the essence of the Jewish soul."

This stunning work, an empowering entryway to the spiritual revival of our times, enables all of us to claim our connection to the heritage of the traditional Jewish prayer book. It helps rejuvenate Jewish worship in today's world, and makes its power accessible to all.

Framed with beautifully designed Talmud-style pages, commentaries from 11 of today's most respected Jewish scholars from all movements of Judaism examine Seder K'riat Hatorah from the perspectives of ancient Rabbis and modern theologians, as well as feminist, halakhic, Talmudic, linguistic, biblical, Chasidic, mystical, and historical perspectives.

This fourth volume of the series unfolds the many layers of meaning in Seder K'riat Hatorah, the ritual and prayers surrounding the communal reading of Torah. More than any other section of the prayer book, the Torah service reflects all of Jewish history. Vol. 4 helps us to understand how the reading of Torah is an affirmation, powerful and dramatic, of the continuing covenant between the community of Israel and God.

Vol. 4--Seder K'riat Hatorah (The Torah Service) features the authentic Hebrew text with a new translation designed to let people know exactly what the prayers say. Introductions tell the reader what to look for in the prayer service, as well as how to truly use the commentaries, to search for--and find--meaning in the prayer book.

Even those not yet familiar with the prayer book can appreciate the spiritual richness of Seder K'riat Hatorah. My People's Prayer Book enables all worshipers, of any denomination, to encounter their own connection to 3,000 years of Jewish experience with the world and with God.

Contributors include:

Marc Brettler - Elliot N. Dorff - David Ellenson - Ellen Frankel - Judith Hauptman - Joel M. Hoffman - Lawrence A. Hoffman - Lawrence Kushner - Daniel Landes - Ruth Langer - Nehemia Polen

Dr. David Ellenson is president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Dr. Ellenson was ordained as a rabbi at HUC JIR and received his PhD from Columbia University. His book After Emancipation: Jewish Religious Responses to Modernity won the National Jewish Book Award. His most recent book, Pledges of Jewish Allegiance: Conversion, Law, and Policymaking in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Orthodox Responsa, was coauthored with Daniel Gordis.

Rabbi Nehemia Polen is professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew College. He is the
author of The Holy Fire: The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the
Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto and The Rebbe's Daughter, recipient of a National
Jewish Book Award. He is also a contributor to the award-winning My People's
Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries (Jewish Lights).

Rabbi Daniel Landes is the director and rosh hayeshivah of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. Pardes brings together men and women of all backgrounds to study classical Jewish texts and contemporary Jewish issues in a rigorous, challenging and open-minded environment.Rabbi Landes is also a contributor to the My People's Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries series, winner of the National Jewish Book Award and My People's Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award; Who by Fire, Who by Water--Un'taneh Tokef; We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism--Ashamnu and Al Chet and All These Vows--Kol Nidre (all Jewish Lights).

Dr. Marc Zvi Brettler is the Dora Golding Professor of Biblical Studies at Brandeis University. He contributed to all volumes of the My People's Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries series, winner of the National Jewish Book Award, and to My People's Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries; Who by Fire, Who by Water--Un'taneh Tokef; All These Vows--Kol Nidre; May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism--Yizkor; and We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism--Ashamnu and Al Chet (all Jewish Lights). He is coeditor of The Jewish Annotated New Testament and The Jewish Study Bible, which won the National Jewish Book Award; co-author of The Bible and the Believer; and author of How to Read the Jewish Bible, among other books and articles. He has also been interviewed on National Public Radio's Fresh Air by Terry Gross.

Ellen Frankel, LCSW, a member of Congregation Shirat Hayam, is a popular author and speaker on spirituality and wellness. Her work has been featured on TV nationally and in The Boston Globe, The Jewish Journal North of Boston and The Jewish Advocate.

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD, has served for more than three decades as professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He is a world-renowned liturgist and holder of the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair in Liturgy, Worship and Ritual. His work combines research in Jewish ritual, worship and spirituality with a passion for the spiritual renewal of contemporary Judaism.

He has written and edited many books, including All the World: Universalism, Particularism and the High Holy Days; May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism--Yizkor, We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism--Ashamnu and Al Chet, Who by Fire, Who by Water--Un'taneh Tokef and All These Vows--Kol Nidre, the first five volumes in the Prayers of Awe series; the My People's Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries series, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and he is coeditor of My People's Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries (all Jewish Lights), a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.

Rabbi Hoffman is a developer of Synagogue 3000, a transdenominational project designed to envision and implement the ideal synagogue of the spirit for the twenty-first century.

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD, is available to speak on the following topics:

• A Day of Wine and Moses: The Passover Haggadah and the Seder You Have Always Wanted
• Preparing for the High Holy Days: How to Appreciate the Liturgy of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
• The Essence of Jewish Prayer: The Prayer Book in Context and Worship in Our Time
• Beyond Ethnicity: The Coming Project for North American Jewish Identity
• Synagogue Change: Transforming Synagogues as Spiritual and Moral Centers for the Twenty-First Century

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Rabbi Ruth Langer, PhD, is professor of Jewish studies in the Theology Department at Boston College, where she also serves as associate director of its Center for Christian-Jewish Learning. She received her PhD in Jewish liturgy and her rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She contributed to Who by Fire, Who by Water-- Un'taneh Tokef and We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism--Ashamnu and Al Chet (both Jewish Lights).