On Changes in Jewish Liturgy: Options and Limitations

Recognizing that certain of the more archaic aspects of Jewish liturgy contain passages and statements that apply more to past eras than to the present day—and can in some cases be offensive to segments of modern society—this book attempts to delineate the parameters of halachically permissible changes in the liturgy. This consideration argues that these changes should have precedents in traditional sources and that they should be made only when they correct anachronisms and defuse potential conflict, thus enhancing the experience of prayer for an ever-widening spectrum of Orthodox Jewry.

Daniel Sperber is a leading scholar of Jewish law, customs, and ethics. He has taught in the Talmud department of Bar-Ilan University, was the dean of the faculty of Jewish studies, and serves as the president of the Jesselson Institute for Advanced Torah Studies. The incumbent of the Milan Roven Chair of Talmudic Research, he received the Israel Prize in 1992 for his research in Talmud and the history of Jewish customs, and served as the chairman of the Council for Religious Education at the Israel Ministry of Education for a decade. He has published 30 books—including a well-known eight-volume series, Minhagei Yisrael, on the history of Jewish customs—and more than 400 articles on the subjects of Talmudic and Jewish socioeconomic history, law and customs, classical philology, and Jewish art.