Gates of Understanding 2 (Sha'are binah): Appreciating the Days of Awe

A religious commentary to help High Holy Day worshippers unlock the message behing the liturgy.

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD, has served for more than three decades as professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He is a world-renowned liturgist and holder of the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair in Liturgy, Worship and Ritual. His work combines research in Jewish ritual, worship and spirituality with a passion for the spiritual renewal of contemporary Judaism.His many books, written and edited, include seven volumes in the Prayers of Awe series: Who by Fire, Who by Water Un'taneh Tokef; All These Vows Kol Nidre; We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism Ashamnu and Al Chet; May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism Yizkor; All the World: Universalism, Particularism and the High Holy Days; Naming God: Avinu Malkeinu Our Father, Our King; and Encountering God: El Rachum V'chanun God Merciful and Gracious. Hoffman also edited the ten-volume series My People s Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and coedited My People s Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award (all Jewish Lights).Rabbi Hoffman cofounded and developed Synagogue 2/3000, a transdenominational project to envision and implement the ideal synagogue of the spirit for the twenty-first century. In that capacity, he wrote Rethinking Synagogues: A New Vocabulary for Congregational Life (Jewish Lights).