Communities of Meaning: Conversations on Modern Jewish Life Inspired by Rabbi Larry Hoffman

Rabbis Grushcow (Writing the Wayward Wife) and Skloot (First Impressions) pay tribute to liturgist and rabbi Larry Hoffman with this gathering of brief and insightful pieces on the nuances of Jewish worship, belief, survival, and ritual practice. In the standout “Memory, Vulnerability, and Return,” rabbi Angela Buchdahl recalls how Hoffman, a professor emeritus of liturgy at Hebrew Union College whose work focuses on improving the prayer experiences of secular Jews, helped to reorder the Yom Kippur liturgy structure at the Central Synagogue in New York to better build up to the service’s spiritual apex. Underscoring Hoffman’s insight, Buchdahl writes that the power of prayer is “not only in the content, but in the ebb and flow, the quiets and the crescendos.” Elsewhere, rabbi Gordon Tucker unpacks Hoffman’s theory that today’s “apparent absence of faith” stems from “an inadequacy of language” to capture key religious tenets. The essential words creation, revelation, and redemption, for example, “no longer carry the same meanings for today’s Jews,” according Tucker, who calls for “new stories of faith” that require “new expression.” Brisk yet meditative, these essays avoid slipping into hagiography as they celebrate and expand upon Hoffman’s adaptive and community-centered approach to prayer. Rabbis and others active in Jewish worship communities will be inspired. (Jan.)