new york times: Conservative Jews update High Holy Days prayer book for the first time in 40 years

An article in the New York Times reports that many Conservative Jews will be reading from a new prayer book this Yom Kippur that no longer refers to God as "awesome" — a word that has lost some spiritual dignity in recent years — but "awe-inspiring."

The updated mahzor, the prayer book for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, has been updated for the first time in nearly 40 years to "to bring the prayers in tune with contemporary times." Called Lev Shalem, Hebrew for “whole heart,” the article says "the book hews close to the text’s traditional Hebrew, but adds translations, commentaries and optional readings to adapt the book to modern sensibilities."

Rabbi Gordon Tucker of Temple Israel in White Plains, N.Y., said the translation "went a long way toward meeting people where they actually are." For example, the new prayer book will for the first time include a prayer for a deceased “partner”— an effort to include gay Jews — and also one for “a parent who was hurtful.”

The new book also includes works by modern poets and some Gentiles, including Denise Levertov and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

Read the full article in The New York Times.