Sunday, April 11, 2010

Reader Review of New Koren Sacks Siddur

A reader just got the new Nusach Ashkenaz English Sidur, translated by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks so I asked him for some feedback on how he liked it, especially with regard to the style of the translation and the reversal of the usual "right side Hebrew left side English" page layout. You can get the siddur HERE. Here's what my friend wrote:

"Something Old, Something New, Timeless Prayer for Every Jew"....

Got the new Koren Sacks siddur yesterday...Very beautiful book...First impressions are that I like it...I most like the way the prayers (some) are broken into stand-alone sentences - really helps with slowing you down and increasing kavana. Hebrew on left and English on right is quick to adjust to and for certain prayers it is easy to glance at English while reciting in Hebrew. For longer paragraphs (less familiar) I miss interlinear but for more common prayers I kind of have translation in my head. I look forward to simply reading the translation at some point separate from davening. Two ribbon markers is always nice... Overall for my first maariv and shacharit I like it alot - it usually takes me longer to get used to new siddur but not this time...not sure what verdict will be (if I use it all the time or switch back between interlinear). They did seem to include a couple extra harachamam's in bentching from prayer for state of Israel - which I guess is not a bad thing....

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2 comments:

Mighty Garnel Ironheart said...

Check out Amazon because Koren is coming out with a follow up siddur that has Rav Soloveitchik's commentary in place for Rav Sacks.

AdmHpkns said...

I have been uing the new Hebrew/English Koren Siddur for a couple months, and I absolutely love it. Highly recommended, really allows the user to get entirely involved in the prayer.