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Old 02-25-2014, 06:27 PM
 
Location: Long Island
1,790 posts, read 1,854,963 times
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Given that we have a wide range of people here, I was wondering what we all own/use in terms of Tanakh and siddur, and why we prefer them.

Please, everyone, keep this civil; use it as an opportunity to understand one another and find out why we approach things the way we do.


I'll start it off:

For Tanakh, I have the Jewish Study Bible, the Artscoll Edition Tanakh, Everett Fox's Five Books of Moses, The JPS Tanakh, and the Hertz Chumash. I like them all, although for different reasons.

The Jewish Study Bible gives a very academic translation and includes the socio-political history of the time as well as the archaeological settings. It also has very engaging essays about each Book and general Biblical topics as addenda.

The Stone Edition gives a traditional translation, but in modern speech. It also has the best Hebrew font I've found yet. This is the one I use for my daily Torah study.

Fox's translation is absolutely beautiful in terms of poetry and language. While my Hebrew is far from adequate. I've been told by many people with solid knowledge that he retains much of the wordplay that is found in the original Hebrew.

The JPS Edition is alright, but I mainly use it for comparison and reference.

I'm not very fond of the Hertz Chumash; the language is archaic and it seems far to close to the King James for my liking. But it is what we use at the synagogue, and it allows me to keep on track.

For siddurim, I have the Conservative's Sim Shalom and Siddur Hadash, and the Orthodox Artscroll and Koren Siddur.

The Siddur Hadash is what we use at the synagogue, but it has some serious limitations. First, it is for Shabbat and festivals only, and, second, much the translation is adapted or interpretations.

The Sim Shalom is better, and the edition I have is for the full week. The translations are a bit more true, but there are still some changes i n keeping with the Conservative stance.

Again, the Artscroll has the best Hebrew fonts of all of them, and is much easier to read in Hebrew. The translation is a bit stiff though.

The Koren Siddur is my daily siddur. The font isn't as crisp as the Artscroll, but I get a lot more out of the translation and it has clear explanations and instructions.
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Old 02-25-2014, 07:13 PM
 
Location: Lake Worth, FL
388 posts, read 383,327 times
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For Tanakh I have a leather bound edition of the JPS Tanakh that I love to use for studying. I have the Babylonian Talmud from Halakhah.org on my Nook. For Siddurim, I have 3: the Reform Siddur "Gates of Prayer", my father's Conservative siddur "Sabbath and Festival Prayer Book", and my Grandfather's Sephard Siddur "Tifereth David".

I also am fond of these books (most I bought when I decided to go for conversion):
"9 Questions People Ask About Judaism" by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
"To Be A Jew" by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin
"Living Judaism: The Complete Guide to Jewish Belief, Tradition, and Practice" by Rabbi Wayne Dosick
"Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew (Sephardic Pronunciation)" by Ethelyn Simon and Joseph Anderson
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Old 02-25-2014, 07:19 PM
 
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My main books are the JPS Tanakh, the Siddur Sim Shalom, and a small "Daily Prayer Book" (Siddur Avodat Israel) for travel. My Stone Chumash was my favorite, but it went missing.
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Old 02-26-2014, 10:14 AM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
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Sorry to hear about the missing chumash.

For a Tanakh I use the Artscroll one. Is there a more balanced, non-denominational one other than the JPS?

I use the Koren siddur, though I'm on the hunt for a more egalitarian yet traditional one. In addition to the Koren one, I have Artscroll, Sim Shalom + commentary (Or Chadash), and an old Gates of Prayer.
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Old 02-26-2014, 03:24 PM
 
Location: Long Island
1,790 posts, read 1,854,963 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by usuario View Post
For a Tanakh I use the Artscroll one. Is there a more balanced, non-denominational one other than the JPS?
I don't know. What what I've seen, they mainly go from traditional to scholarly without a whole lot in between.
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