Description: The most controversial prayer of the Jewish New Year--what it means, who wrote it, why we say it. Thought-provoking and inspiring discussions from a wide range of perspectives on all aspects of this prayer that defies easy understanding.
Brief description: Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD, has served for more than three decades as professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He is a world-renowned liturgist and holder of the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair in Liturgy, Worship and Ritual. His work combines research in Jewish ritual, worship and spirituality with a passion for the spiritual renewal of contemporary Judaism.
His many books, written and edited, include seven volumes in the Prayers of Awe series: Who by Fire, Who by Water--Un'taneh Tokef; All These Vows--Kol Nidre; We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism--Ashamnu and Al Chet; May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism--Yizkor; All the World: Universalism, Particularism and the High Holy Days; Naming God: Avinu Malkeinu--Our Father, Our King; and Encountering God: El Rachum V'chanun--God Merciful and Gracious. Hoffman also edited the ten-volume series My People's Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and coedited My People's Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award (all Jewish Lights).Rabbi Hoffman cofounded and developed Synagogue 2/3000, a transdenominational project to envision and implement the ideal synagogue of the spirit for the twenty-first century. In that capacity, he wrote Rethinking Synagogues: A New Vocabulary for Congregational Life (Jewish Lights).