Book of Blessings

Plot

From Publishers Weekly
Poet and liturgist Falk (The Song of Songs) has created a new collection of Jewish blessings from a feminist perspective. In her helpful preface, Falk explains how her original prayers, and her translations into English of poems written by Jewish women in Hebrew and Yiddish, are intended as alternatives to the patriarchal nature of traditional Jewish prayers. The blessings, in both Hebrew and English, are arranged in three sections, each with its own introduction and suggestions for prayer services. The Daily Cycle includes blessings for such activities as awakening and meals, as well as psalms for daily reflection; the Weekly Cycle offers prayers for the havdalah, the ritual separating the sabbath from the rest of the week; and the Monthly Cycle focuses on liturgies for Rosh Hodesh, the festival of the New Moon. In addition, Falk has provided a section of Commentary which explains each prayer's relationship to the traditional liturgy. Falk has fashioned a beautiful and inspirational book of elegant prayers, poems, psalms and blessings.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
The Book of Blessings is an extraordinary and deeply poetic re-creation of Jewish prayer that offers new blessings, poems, and meditations for Sabbath, holiday, and everyday observance. Steeped in dialogue with rabbinic tradition, it is for those who seek a more contemporary, egalitarian approach to traditional liturgy.

"[Falk] manages to create extraordinarily beautiful prayers—in Hebrew and English—that are both radically new and deeply resonant with Jewish tradition."


—Judith Plaskow, The Women's Review of Books
"Marcia Falk's work in Hebrew blessings is as beautiful as it is innovative; and it is innovative in the sweetest, most nourishing sense, sat urated in love for the language itself (its overtones and melodies as well as its deep structure), its history, its people. Even those who do not hear the traditional liturgies as exclusionary will respond to the meticulously flowering poet's passion of Marcia Falk's wholly original contribution."


—Cynthia Ozick
"A truly magisterial and exciting collection of brakhot . . . that invites us to re-encounter not only the blessing, but the Source of blessing. . . . Falk rekindles the flame of Jewish ardor and devotion."


—Hadassah
"[Falk's] prayers are re-creations of traditional prayers, her versions striking in the beauty and power of their language, in English and Hebrew: this is a poet's siddur, full of profound meaning."


—Sandee Brawarsky, Jewish Week