You may choose to take a service from one of the prayer books published by the Reform Movement, Gates of Prayer or Gates of Shabbat, if you have them. If not, you might want to embark on a fund-raising campaign to obtain them, or ask nearby congregations if they are able to spare a few. You can also put together your own creative service. KESHER has many resources available, including a service template and corresponding Hebrew fonts to create your own service. You might want to alternate between services, or even write your own siddur. BaRuCh (Brandeis Reform Chavurah) used the KESHER liturgy to create its own prayer book, and many of these resources are available on the Web at www.keshernet.com.
Music adds a special component to the service, whether it be the singing of the group, or a guitar played by a song leader. You can have someone lead songs at the beginning or throughout the entire service. At the end of the service, a good song leader can also energize the group with an invigorating song session. Make sure to have the words to all of the songs available either in the printed service itself or on a song sheet. In addition, have sheets with the transliteration of all of the Hebrew used in the service available so that everyone present can follow along, whether they know Hebrew or not. Remember, the goal is to create community, to help everyone feel included.
When putting the service together, you should follow the normal order of the prayers. You can then insert various readings between the prayers. Readings can come from other prayer books, poetry, or other books. You might want to have a theme for your service and base your readings around that theme. A service might be based on a holiday, or even the meaning of Shabbat! If you decide to create a siddur for your community, consider having multiple options for readings for some variation.
Weekly Shabbat Service Outline
Old= Gates of Prayer, 1975 (779 pages),
Green=
Gates of Prayer for Assemblies, 1993 (100 pages)
Blue=Gates of Shabbat (Out of Print),
Grey=
Gates of Prayer for Shabbat and Weekdays, 1994 (186 pages)
Bold=Mandatory, Regular=Important but expendable if short on
time, Italics=optional
| Service Portion | Old | Green | Blue | Grey | Instructions | |
| Niggun
Introductions A couple of songs Candle Lighting Kabbalat Shabbat Chatzi Kaddish Bar’chu Ma’ariv Aravim Ahavat Olam Sh’ma V’ahavta Responsive Reading Mi Chamochah Responsive Reading Hashkivenu V’shamru T’filah Silent meditation Song D’var Torah Mi Shebeirach Aleinu Responsive Reading V’ne’emar Before the Kaddish Kaddish Announcements Closing song |
117 128
132 133
615 616 629 729 |
36 45
49 50
85 86 87 94- |
1 12
17 17
73 75 78 83- |
38 49
53-4 54
148 149 154 156- |
Introductory (to create prayer space)
Large-scale and/or one on one introductions Popular songs: Mah Yafeh Hayom, Bim Bam, etc. Meditative songs, including L’chah Dodi
please be seated; conclude with L’ma’an tizk’ru
all rise
Share names with community
A Reading; usually not responsive
|
|
Friday Night Services for ___/___/___
Leader(s) _______________________________________________________________________
| WHAT | INFO: tunes, pages, Hebrew/English reading, skipping it, etc. | WHO will lead |
| Opening Song(s) | ||
| Opening Reading | ||
| Candle Blessing | ||
| Lechah Dodi | ||
| Mizmor Shir | ||
| Bar’chu | ||
| Ma’ariv Aravim | ||
| Ahavat Olam | ||
| Sh’ma | ||
| V’ahavta | ||
| Reading before Mi Chamochah | ||
| Mi Chamochah | ||
| Hashkivenu | ||
| V’shamru | ||
| Chatzi Kaddish | ||
| Reading before Amidah | ||
| Amidah | ||
| Reading before Silent Prayer | ||
| After Silent Prayer | ||
| D’var Torah (Check out http://rj.org/uahc/torah/tindex.html for ideas) | ||
| After d’var Torah | ||
| Aleinu | ||
| Reading before Kaddish | ||
| Mourner’s Kaddish | ||
| Closing Reading | ||
| Closing Song(s) |