Reb Zalman’s Templates and a Renewal Manual for Klei Kodesh
In his closing address at OHALAH last week, Reb Zalman made mention of some things to which he hoped we would pay attention. In particular, he spoke about liturgical changes he had written which better reflect our new approach to Jewish particularity within a universal context, including his new middle blessing for the Shabbat Shacharit Amidah. I wanted to remind you all that you can find it in Siddur Kol Koreh, along with another alternative which I wrote and which more closely follows the traditional version.
He also spoke of his templates (aka boilerplates) for life cycle events.
Some years ago, R. Boni Sussman and I began working on a life cycle manual for Jewish Renewal. We managed to write an introduction and an outline for the manual. The only other thing we were able to complete at the time was a reformatting of these templates of Reb Zalman’s and which form the core of what we still hope will be a much larger volume of life cycle ceremonies and commentary.
While I had posted these on the OHALAH website years ago, they first got separated into two different sets of files and then the link to them broke. Therefore, I’m taking the liberty of reposting them here to improve accessibility.
In addition, as you look at them, please feel free to share with me any documents and/or commentaries you think might fit well into this emerging manual. While I can’t promise to include everything I’m sent, I will look at them carefully and suggest changes when I think warranted.
In looking over what we wrote, I notice that we were still using the term “rabbi” where today I would use “Kli Kodesh” to include Rabbinic Pastors and Cantors. I have updated the terminology and the copy in the ReSources Catalogue elsewhere on this site reflects this.
I went to Reb Zalman after he had finished to assure him that he was being heard. I hope that I’ll be able to relay to him that many of you have downloaded the templates and that we are working together to improve and expand this manual. And, as I add to it, I will let you all know via this blog so that you will be able to download the versions as they are developed.
Many blessings
Daniel