Mishkan T'filah is a worthy successor to previous prayer books (siddurim) used by the Progressive Jewish community. I just think that those who compiled it lost a superb opportunity to abbreviate the services (or at least the material making up each service). Instead, the opposite appears to have happened, with material which was absent from previous siddurim now having made a comeback.



Anyone who thinks deeply about the role of Judaism (or any form of religion, for that matter) in modern life would realise that the length of our services is a real issue. Services are, quite simply, too long and High Holy Day services are excessively so.



While I’m starting to understand the logic of the internal structure of services, to the outsider the material must appear quite repetitious.



Let’s hope we won’t have to wait until the next siddur is published before this issue is confronted!



The New Reform Prayerbook - Mishkan T'filah - URJ

http://urj.org/worship/mishkan/ http://amplify.com/u/a1dyad