[Avodah] Hashkafah and the Siddur

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 09:19:46AM -0400, Yaakov Jaffe via Avodah wrote:
: But one approach to tefilah (let's call it the one that resonates with me)
: is that it is purely a communication between the speaker and his or her
: Creator, and that consequently, it is not the time and place to be focused
: on proclaiming our ideologies.  Obviously others may argue, and there are
: numerous siddur options for them.  But we shouldn't pretend that this is
: the only approach to prayer, or that every Jew must use ideology in chosing
: a siddur.

But if a person wants to approach tefilah as a pure communication, then
shouldn't they pick a siddur whose ideology is that tefillah is a pure
communication? 

Having a siddur of a given ideology is not necessarily about proclaiming
that ideology. (But if you want to rail about the fact that too often
this call for an MO siddur /is/ about proclomation, there is room to
do so.) It is about having a siddur that aids the kind of prayer you
want to do. Which is why I never understood why people assign value to
having "their siddur". I have a collection, as I go from more cerebral
to more experiential moods, and want different siddurim depending on
where my head is just then.

For example, the as-yet-unpublished RCA siddur has something in it about
shelo asani that would say something that a Mod-O Jew is more likely to
be concerned about saying than someone who is less engaged with the
more egalitarian west would feel a need to say.

...
: I did not conduct a comprehensive study of the stone Chumash, but wonder
: whether the troubling explanations are ubiquitous, occasional, or somewhere
: in between...

In my experience, occasional. But the rationalists are under-represented,
given the chareidi tendency toward more maximalist approaches. That's not
troubling, but it's promoting one worldview and not allowing the other to
reach the market-share it deserves.

: or was it a dream (Ramban versus Rambam)?  If Artscroll said he spoke, and
: for example a new chumash says that he did not - then which one most
: accurately reflects my hashkafa? ...

My ideal chumash would present both, or if space requires, inform me
that both possibilities are discussed without full presentation. If two
hashkafic ideas are viable, why should I let an editor choose between
them for me? But that's a different story.

The problem the MO nay-sayers have with the absence of a vaiable
alternative to ArtScroll is less that there is a specific problem
with a comment. As I wrote, those are rare. But that without variety,
without a survey that includes ideas current and popular outside the
Agudist community, those ideas will cease being thought of as normative.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The thought of happiness that comes from outside
micha at aishdas.org        the person, brings him sadness. But realizing
http://www.aishdas.org   the value of one's will and the freedom brought
Fax: (270) 514-1507      by uplifting its, brings great joy. - R' Kook