Q&A: Changing the Prayer and Reform
Changing the Prayer and Reform
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In light of your view that the fixed prayer should be changed—doesn’t that amount to Reform?
Answer
First, even if it is Reform, so what? The question is whether it is justified, not what label is attached to it.
Second, there are legitimate changes even within the framework of Jewish law. See a discussion here:
Discussion on Answer
In practice, the process is happening on its own with Ashkenazi liturgical poems.
From the Ashkenazi prayer book only a few liturgical poems remain, most of them on the High Holidays. Today, in ordinary Sabbath prayers, it is hard to distinguish between an Ashkenazi and a Sephardi prayer quorum. Only one thing can be said: the Ashkenazim still pray for the welfare of the Exilarch in Babylonia together with the heads of the yeshivot (for whoever leaves Babylonia transgresses a prohibition).
Are you expecting a general survey here of all the passages of the prayer and their history? You can search online for any passage that interests you.
Hello Rabbi, regarding changes in the prayer. There are passages in the prayer that I don’t connect to, and sometimes I even tend not to agree with what stands behind them. Should I say them? And I’m also curious, if the Rabbi knows, who are the people who added the passages to the prayers?