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Tzvee Zahavy, God’s Favorite Prayers (Talmudic Books, Teaneck, New Jersey, 2011), 157 pp.

Tzvee Zahavy, God’s Favorite Prayers (Talmudic Books, Teaneck, New Jersey, 2011), 157 pp. Tzvee Zahavy reintroduces the traditional prayer service to anyone who has ever been in a synagogue, from the most devout to the most irreverent, and even to those who are not Jewish. He seeks to breathe life and a variety of contemporary flavors into a set of prayers that often seem to be boring, ritualistic, and irrelevant. Zahavy does so by presenting the people in the synagogue not as a minyan (although he does that, too), but rather as six personalities or archetypes whom he identifies as (1) the performer, (2) the mystic, (3) the scribe, (4) the priest, (5) the meditator, and (6) the celebrity. In each case, Zahavy describes the personality in an abstract way and then identifies a person who personifies the personality, in some cases the people whom he admires most and who directly influenced his life. Zahavy’s volume covers the structure of synagogue worship, examines the prayer service as a theatrical event, complete with a theatrical dramatis personae and as a concert consisting of many instruments, and elaborates his points with discussions of some of the religious highpoints of his life, including biographical highlights of some of the people who molded his character http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Review of Rabbinic Judaism Brill

Tzvee Zahavy, God’s Favorite Prayers (Talmudic Books, Teaneck, New Jersey, 2011), 157 pp.

Review of Rabbinic Judaism , Volume 15 (2): 242 – Jan 1, 2012

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Subject
Book Review
ISSN
1568-4857
eISSN
1570-0704
DOI
10.1163/15700704-12341239
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Tzvee Zahavy reintroduces the traditional prayer service to anyone who has ever been in a synagogue, from the most devout to the most irreverent, and even to those who are not Jewish. He seeks to breathe life and a variety of contemporary flavors into a set of prayers that often seem to be boring, ritualistic, and irrelevant. Zahavy does so by presenting the people in the synagogue not as a minyan (although he does that, too), but rather as six personalities or archetypes whom he identifies as (1) the performer, (2) the mystic, (3) the scribe, (4) the priest, (5) the meditator, and (6) the celebrity. In each case, Zahavy describes the personality in an abstract way and then identifies a person who personifies the personality, in some cases the people whom he admires most and who directly influenced his life. Zahavy’s volume covers the structure of synagogue worship, examines the prayer service as a theatrical event, complete with a theatrical dramatis personae and as a concert consisting of many instruments, and elaborates his points with discussions of some of the religious highpoints of his life, including biographical highlights of some of the people who molded his character

Journal

Review of Rabbinic JudaismBrill

Published: Jan 1, 2012

There are no references for this article.