Rise and Be Seated: The Ups and Downs of Jewish Worship

While other books targeted at an interdenominational audience have discussed holy space-and-time where words and music come together via transformative ritualized chant, Rise and Be Seated is the first to locate that approach exclusively within Jewish worship, traditionally free-flowing and democratic rather than pulpit-directed and elitist. It advocates a return to the historic synagogue practice of purposeful dialogue between a congregation and its 'surrogate in prayer'—often a layperson—as opposed to the current extremes of non-stop rote reading or rote singing activated only on command. Its message: In order to help ensure Jewish continuity on this continent, we had best retain enough of the received liturgy along with its normative modes of performance so that tomorrow's worshippers may inherit something sufficiently viable with which to experiment on their own.