Updating that old time religion
There is an article in the New York Times about a new modern version of the High Holy Day prayer book for Conservative Jews. In this new version, they are attempting to be all inclusive, not a traditional Jewish way of going about things. In this new version, in the Yizkor service (for the deceased) they have a prayer for a deceased partner, and they also have a prayer for parents who were hurtful – go figure. Interestingly enough my schism with the faith revolved around my deceased father and going to the synagogue to say Kaddish for him (the prayer for a parent or child) and because I am a woman, I couldn’t be counted as a quorum of ten men.
I don’t know – I went to a conservative synagogue where there was a woman with a harp, and the books went normally instead of backwards, and no one wore a yamulka, and at the end of the day, stripped of all the iconic elements that I knew, it was not all that meaningful in my life. Hence the reinventing of my faith – keep what’s best and discard the rest – hence, the half-day fast day, etc.