The Transliterated Siddur

The Transliterated Siddur refers to Siddur Ba-Eir Hei-Teiv—The Transliterated Siddur, a Jewish prayerbook first published on the internet in 1997, and the first to transliterate the entire service. Originally a feature of AOL's Jewish Com.Unity Online, since 2001 it has been on its own website siddur.org.

Siddur Ba-Eir Hei-Teiv --- The Transliterated Siddur

The Transliterated Siddur was originally written (from 1991 to 1994) as a companion volume to The Synagogue Survival Kit, an orientation to Jewish congregational worship services, written by Jordan Lee Wagner and published in 1997 by Jason Aronson, Inc. When this publisher decided to publish that book alone, the author approached publishers of Jewish prayerbooks, offering his transliterations. At that time, no publisher had a transliterated edition, and for theological as well as financial reasons none were interested. So Wagner self-published The Transliterated Siddur on the Internet. Permission was explicitly granted for individuals to print or download pages for private study and for insertion into the corresponding pages of their Hebrew-English prayerbooks. Since then, its transliterations have been licensed by over thirty publishers or distributors.

The Siddur is the traditional Jewish prayer book. "Transliterated" means that the Hebrew sounds are spelled out using the English alphabet. This enables anyone to follow along with the liturgy and to sing along with the congregation. The Transliterated Siddur uses color to indicate which words are usually sung by the Cantor, which by the congregation, and which are recited silently.

Synagogue services on Friday nights and Saturday mornings are Shabbat services. The Transliterated Siddur includes these worship services in their entirety. It also includes the daily blessings said over mitzvot, and on arising. It does not yet include all the synagogue services for less frequent occasions. The weekday services are being added and are partly on-line. Zemirot (Sabbath table songs) are also underway.

Transliterated books for Jewish prayer are also available from such sources as The Singlish Publication Society. The Singlish Publication Society has books for home and synagogue services, from the Hagadah for the Passover Seder to the prayers for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.