Wednesday nights - Rav Benzion's Tanya shiur..........Please continue to daven for the good health of the Rebbe (Yechiel Michel ben Devorah Leah) and Rebbetzin (Feiga bas Sarah).

Sunday, January 23, 2011

New Tefila Yeshara Siddur

זה היום עשה ה' נגילה ונשמחה בו


The NEW Siddur Tefila Yeshara V'Kesser Nehora has been printed. I don't yet own one but the Rebbe just returned from New York with one and loaned it to me to take a look at.

So far, only the first volume, for weekdays, has been printed. A second, for Shabbos and Yom Tov, is expected in the hopefully not-so-distant future. UPDATE: The Shabbos and Yom Tov siddur has been printed and is excellent, with corrections and additions.

The siddur was done by Reb Meir Yechiel Veiner, the same one who did the work on the well-known Biala siddur, Siddur Chelkas Yehoshua. Like the Biala siddur, the new Tefila Yeshara is in k'sav ashuris like in a sefer Torah, in addition to many, many other stylistic and typographic similarities.

I was pleased to see that Reb Veiner stays true to the original 1820 edition, while marking the places where the original differs from the commonly used 1929 edition from Premishla (a copy of the 1894 Berditchev edition). This doesn't really help us with our nusach but at least we have a new siddur.

Newly typeset, this siddur is immediately brought out of the realm of old-age and onto the forefront of modernized chassidishe siddurim (like the new Siddur Nehora before it, for example). However, for me, the page is still jam-packed and confusing with all the commentary and notes, each in a different font. Also, he added some "sheimos" and kavanos that add more unnecessary distraction. All in all, the page is pretty busy with a lot of stuff going on and will take some getting used to. UPDATE: I have been using the siddur for a couple of months and have indeed gotten used to the layout and I must say that it is very geshmak to daven from.

Click to enlarge.

I guess now we have to pencil in all the differences between the Rebbe's nusach and that of the Radviller siddur...

9 comments:

DJ Brenner said...

For those of us who are desperate to actually be able to read the nikudos it might truly be useful. It also has more than one Ashrei, a separate Mincha, Maariv and a whole load of other things missing out of the older editions. If it is usable for a daily workhorse then it might just do until something better comes along.

Avi Appel said...

That doesn't seem to be much different than what we've been doing until now. I guess the idea is more exciting than the actual product. For whatever it's worth, I find the older edition rather "bacheint".

Damesek said...

I agree wholeheartedly with you that the old one is "bacheint" but only if one is already used to it (as we are). The new is nice though since it has all the tefilos in the right order and you don't have to flip around.
B'siyata dishmaya m'rubim, we WILL have our own siddur.

DJ Brenner said...

Okay jungeleit, I was not joking when I said I can now read the nikudos! LOL! It was a HUGE m'chaya to be able to smoothly navigate through the text. Hey look, you like Bourbon, I like Scotch! :) I like the size as well since I can't hardly read the old small edition at all, but that is no big chiddush for you guys either .

Spiritual Dan said...

Do you know if there has been an English translation of this siddur?

Damesek said...

Hi Dan and welcome!
There is no translation of this particular siddur but there are a number of English translations of the more classical texts of the siddur in general. Artscroll has both Ashkenaz and Sefard. The Lubavitcher siddur is also available in English. (The siddur under discussion here is kind of a blend of all three, actually.) I hope that was helpful!

Yaakov said...

Shalom. I had the good fortune to visit Milwaukee for the first time this summer (visiting my good friend R' Yonason Meadows) - what a beautiful kehilla. Ashreichem! I myself daven Ari, and while researching the Tefilah Yeshara, found your posts. Is there a connection between Berdichev and Hornisteipel/Milwaukee? Or between the nuscha'os?...

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