So even without transliteration, it’s hard to make the claim that Hebrew is required for praying.įurthermore, not all that many people love services enough that the goal of full participation will be enough to prod them to learn Hebrew. They know that you don’t need to learn the Hebrew alphabet in order to pray.Īnd I would go one step further: even if you do know the Hebrew alphabet, it’s all but impossible to know it well enough to keep up with prayers unless you’ve practiced them and once you have practiced them enough, again you don’t need to know the alphabet. Once people know that transliteration is available - anywhere, whether in their prayerbook, another prayerbook, or at another congregation - the cat is out of the bag. In response, even congregations that use a prayerbook with transliteration often produce a special non-transliterated one for use in the school.īut I don’t think that hiding the transliteration is the solution. If the transliteration is available - some think - it will undermine the Hebrew school. The dilemma is highlighted in services designed for children, because frequently those services are part of a Hebrew instruction program. “If it seems that transliteration makes people not want to learn Hebrew, the transliteration is exposing a flaw, not creating one.” On the other hand, if transliteration is not available, there’s a concern that people may (rightly) feel left out of worship and other activities. On one hand, many people feel that if transliteration is available, worshipers will have little or even no incentive to learn Hebrew. Congregations across America are struggling with the issue of transliterated prayerbooks, and of transliteration in general.
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