Saturday, April 29, 2006

To boycott or not to boycott

OK, maybe boycott is "too strong" a word. Let's say, that I won't buy any more of their products, but I'll still use what I have. Oh? What am I referring to? Artscroll, the big publishing company of Jewish prayerbooks, Bibles and all sorts of books of Jewish Law.

Over the years I've collected and use quite a few. They are generally well-edited with clear instructions. There are just a few problems. The main one is that they are edited for "chutz la'aretz," galut, out of Israel. That means that a short line of a couple of words, which we say during the main prayer, the Amida, the standing prayer of 18 blessings, which is said three times a day, is missing a couple of words. That's because those words aren't said in America. Strangely enough, the Birkat Kohanim, priestly Prayer, which is said on Shabbat in Israel, but not abroad, is included. During the Succot/Simchat Torah Holiday, there are also problems, since there are differences in the days at the end of the holiday. This gets very complicated. At least if they would list the necessary pages...

Another problem is that "Shir HaShirim," the Song of Songs, by King Solomon has a censored translation. They consider it too risque`. So they "interpret it" instead of translating.

They also don't include, Prayer for the State of Israel and for the Israeli Defense Forces. Now, even I who don't agree with present policies, insist that the government needs our prayers. The prayer asks for G-d to help them make the right decisions and govern us well. Now who could complain about that. The problem with the government has been that it's not listening to G-d, so we have to pray that those politicians will all repent.

And of course, in principle, theirs, they don't include the short service said on Israeli Independence Day. They don't even include it in the all Hebrew edition for the Israeli market. They are chareidi and are against the state.

Dilemma
I'm going to have to get a new Tihillim Book soon, because mine is so well-used that some words aren't clear. It's an Artscroll one, and maybe it should have lasted longer. Their interlinear one looks so nice, but I really don't want to give them my money.

Artscroll has such a dominant monopoly that I haven't even seen an alternative.

3 comments:

Mississippi Fred MacDowell said...

I'd say no boycott. As the Talmud says, quoting R. Meir about his teacher Acher, תוכו אכל קליפתו זרק.

Batya said...

I'm just looking for another publisher, more choice. That's not boycotting; it's freedom of choice. OK?

bluke said...

They just came out with a siddur specifically for Israel.