Book Review: Singer's Prayerbook, fourth edition

Spending, as I did, the second half of Pesach in Newcastle, I had my first experience of the new fourth edition of the Singer's Prayerbook*, as, unlike in the New North London Synagogue, where the centenary edition remains in use, in all United Synagogue and affiliated shuls, all copies of the centenary edition have been withdrawn and replaced with the new one. (And then carted off to be buried^†, a criminal waste in my opinion since I'm sure there are many people who could have benefited from the opportunity to acquire one (as I managed to) on their way out; but that's another story.)

* I.e. the Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the British Commonwealth, since Rev. Singer's translation was only associated with the first two editions...

† As I understand it. My father's actual words were "to go underground"; I presume this does not mean they're to be donated to the Minhag Anglia Liberation Front...

Visually, the siddur is very different to the previous editions; the "default" version has a larger size, and has commentary along the bottom, and a typeface which at first glance appears the same as in Artscroll books, though a detailed inspection reveals subtle differences. (More on this in a later post.) Between these, it looks very similar to the Artscroll Siddur; and, indeed, the raison d'être of the new edition was the continued attrition of its user base towards the Artscroll siddur and machzorim, with their non-minhag Angli text and distinctive (if not even forceful) religious outlook.

In fact, my first response to seeing the new Singer's was:

The worshipers outside looked from Singer's to Artscroll, and from Artscroll to Singer's, and from Singer's to Artscroll again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

However, on further inspection, I found it was less like the Artscroll than I feared. In particular, when I turned to the long essay by the Chief Rabbi at the front, I was expecting to be so annoyed by the Orthodox theology as to be unable to finish it. Instead, I was very pleasantly surprised. The essay is an absolute tour de force, and extremely enlightening as to the purpose of the structure of the Jewish liturgy. In fact, I would go so far as to say I cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone who davens the Jewish liturgy, and would be tempted to acquire a copy of the book for the essay alone, were it not for the fact that the essay will be there for the rereading any time I set foot into a United Synagogue or affiliated shul.^*

* Plus the fact this first impression apparently is riddled with errors (I found a couple myself), which will be corrected in subsequent impressions.