Review of the new OU Machzor

[rhu]

I just received my copies of the new machzor (the special prayer book for the High HOly Days) published by the Orthodox Union with commentaries based on the teachings of "the Rav," Rabbi Joeseph B. Soloveitchik. The Rosh Hashanah volume is new this year, and it was clearly rushed into print. I've only glanced through it, and already found several typos (from misspellings such as "thease" to redundancies such as "With this idea in mind, this machzor, we hope that this machzor will enhance....")

The foundation of the machzor is the edition published by Artscroll, although they indicate that in places where Artscroll's translation does not support the Rav's interpretation, they have altered their English. There are extensive footnotes identifying places where the Rav's practice differs from Artscroll's Hebrew text; thus, unless one is davenning at the Maimonides School, one can use the text as printed and be saying the same thing as one's neighbor. I think if I were trying to use the Rav's nusach (words) I'd be driven crazy by having to use the footnotes.

The typography is much nicer than what I've gotten used to from Artscroll. Twenty years ago, I was thrilled by Artscroll's clarity, but as the years have passed and other siddurim have started to take advantage of computers, Artscroll has started to feel very pareve. This machzor is much improved. I can't identify the font they used for the Hebrew; it's a bit like Hadar. It's got a nice look to it and has a lot more page presence than Hadassah, which Artscroll usually uses.

But all that is window dressing. The point of buying these machzorim was for the insights of the Rav. And so far I am not disappointed. The introductory essays are enlightening and inspiring. (I hope to write about them a separate posting.) The bottom-of-page commentaries, instead of being short elucidations on individual words or phrases, are mini-essays about more significant themes. They took advantage of the duplication of the Musaf Amidah to provide two different commentary streams, one based on the Rav's writings and one based on his audiotaped lectures.

In short, I have great expectations that these machzorim, despite their technical flaws, will deepen my understanding of the Days of Awe and help me to make better use of this transformative time to become a better person and a better Jew.

Comments

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review! I'd been thinking of picking that up, though I think it'll have to wait for a bit...