Siddur Sim Shalom - Weekdays Edition

Weekdays Edition

Siddur Sim Shalom for Weekdays was edited by Rabbi Avram Israel Reisner, and published in 2003. This siddur is the companion to Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals. In the introduction the editor writes:

We began with the text of the original Siddur Sim Shalom published in 1985 under the...skillful editorship of Rabbi Jules Harlow whose eloquent and poetic translations inspire this text....Many of the innovations and approaches of the 'Siddur for Shabbat and Festivals' have been adopted here. Whenever possible, pages were reproduced intact, or with minor changes.

This weekday siddur contains Torah reading, inspirational messages, services for the home and includes new materials for special occasions and commemorations.

We felt keenly that while the miraculous events of the founding of the State of Israel had found fitting expression {in the other Conservative siddurim} the more difficult experience of the Holocaust had yet to find an appropriate place in our prayers, Therefore, we composed a Nahum prayer for Yom Ha-shoah, inspired by that which appeared in Siddur Va-ani Tefillati of the Masorti Movement in 1998. In an insert into the Amidah, similar to that used traditionally on Tisha B'Av, we seek God's comfort in light of our people's losses in Europe during the Holocaust. We felt the need, beyond that, to acknowledge on a daily basis the enormous effect that the Holocaust has had upon our people. At the end of Tahanun papers, in a prayer which reflects our suffering, we added reference to the anguish we still feel.