Introduction
Why do so few Day School high schools provide their students with courses in Beurei Hatefila?
1.The teachers did not study Beurei Hatefila while pursuing their careers in Jewish Education.
2.There is no one book that can be used to teach a course in Beurei Hatefila. As a result, it requires teachers to compose their own teaching materials.
3. Rashi did not leave a line-by-line commentary on the Siddur that can be followed to teach the course.
The purpose of this article is to assist teachers in creating courses in Beurei Hatefila. This lesson provides the basic resources from which lessons in Beurei Hatefila can be composed, many of which can be accessed digitally either through a digital library like the Bar Ilan Digital library or through websites on the internet.
The resources break down as follows:
The Early Siddurim: Seder Rav Amrom Gaon, the Siddur of Rav Sa’Adiya Gaon, the Siddur of Rabbeinu Shlomo Ben Rabbi Natan, the Nusach of the Rambam.
Commentaries by Rishonim: the Avudrohom, Siddur of Rabbeinu Shlomo M’Germaiz, the Rokeach, the Machzor Vitry, Sefer Ha’Manhig, the Eshkol, etc.
Books of Minhagim: those of the Maharil, Yosef Ometz, Noheg K’Tzon Yosef, the Vilna Gaon’s Ma’Aseh Rav (annotated edition); contemporary books of Minhagim such as Rabbi Hamburger’s Shorshei Minhag Ashkenaz, Rabbi Shemtob Gaguine’s Keter Shem Tov and Rabbi Yechiel Goldhaber’s Minhagei Ha’Kehilot.
The Arbah Turim Orach Chaim: I suggest studying the Tur over the Shulchan Aruch, the Levush in place of the Ramah and the Aruch Ha’Shulchan instead of the Mishneh Breura. The sources I recommend provide full explanations while the others provide terse comments.
Geniza Material: the compendium of Professor Ezra Fleischer’s articles, Professor Uri Ehrlich’s The Weekday Amidah In Cairo Genizah Prayerbooks-Roots and Transmission, articles in Tarbiz and Ginzei Kedem, etc. Those articles are available at the JSTOR website and academia.edu.
Nusacha’Ot: In preparing a course in Beurei Hatefila, it is important that a teacher leave his/her comfort zone of being familiar only with the Nusach Ha’Tefila that the teacher recites every day. I grew up with a father who always davened Nusach Sfard while I davened Nusach Ashkenaz, the Nusach of the synagogues which we attended. But hearing the words from Nusach Sfard left an impression. Today we have access to many
Nusacha’Ot, those are that still being followed and those which have become extinct. You can find the majority of them over the internet but if you are in NYC you can find Seforim stores that sell Nusach Morocco and Nusach Teiman as well as Eidot Ha’Mizrach. May I suggest that you begin your examination of other Nusacha’ot by downloading a Nusach Roma Siddur which you can find on hebrewbooks.org and study their Friday night davening beginning with Barchu. Nusach Roma is probably one of the oldest continuously followed Nuscha’Ot available for study. Please note that its words are authentic and Halachically correct. That you have never recited them or heard their words previously does not take away from their legitimacy.
Here are some of the Nusacha’Ot you can study:
The French Ashkenaz Nusach (Rashi and the Machzor Vitry)
Provence (Sefer Ha’Eshkol)
Seder Chibbur Brachot (old Roman Rite)
Nusach Romania / Nusach Corfu
The four Nusacha’Ot of the Iberian Peninsula before the expulsions from Spain and Portugal: Aragon, Catalonia, Castile and Portugal.
Nusach Paras (Persia)
Nusach Aram Tzova (the Nusach in Syria before the exiles from Spain reached Syria)
Nusach Carpentras (the successor to Nusach Provence)
Academic works (by author):
1800’s- Leopold Zunz, Ismar Elbogen, Dr. Abraham Berliner, Rabbi Zev Yavetz.
1900’s to present-English: Jakob Petuchowski, Lawrence Hoffman, Ruth Langer, Reuven Kimmelman and Stefan Reif.
Hebrew: Joseph Heinemann, Naftali Wieder, Daniel Goldschmidt, Shlomo Tal, Israel Ta-Shma, Meir Bar Ilan, Ezra Fleischer, Moshe Hallamish, Shmuel Safrai, Zev Safrai, Joseph Tabory, David Henshke, Dalia Marx, Uri Ehrlich, Shulamit Elizur and Chananel Mack.
You can find many of their articles at academia.edu or at JSTOR.com at which copies of Hebrew academic journals such as Tarbiz and Ginzei Kedem are available.
Rabbinic Commentaries:
סידור צלותא אברהם, סידור אוצר התפילות, סדר עבודת ישראל, סידור אזור אליהו
Please feel free to reach out to me if I can be of assistance in your creating a course of study in Beurei Hatefila: [email protected].