Prayer does not always come easy, let alone fixed prayers done at specific times, and especially when we do not have a community that engages in such practice. Many of us who try and develop a daily spiritual practice find that using a standard siddur can feel overwhelming, lengthy, and time consuming. Trying to abbreviate the daily shacharit service on the fly can feel like yet another task, and many eventually give in to the all-too-common "all-or-nothing" mindset, and end up giving up on daily prayer altogether. Many of us fail to keep a daily prayer routine because we do not realize that spiritual practice takes, well, practice.
Seven Minute Siddur is a barebones service, containing an abbreviated – yet halakhic – version of the morning service. It is suitable for both beginners and skilled davveners who find that they can benefit from having the option of an abbreviated prayer routine.
If you are used to a traditional siddur (in whichever tradition you are familiar with), you may find it surprising that the Seven Minute Shacharit v0.6 does not include all the material you are used to. The reason being that, simply put, not all prayers are created equal.
First, as this siddur is meant for individual davening, it does not contain any of the prayers that are only said in the presence of a minyan – bar'chu, k'dushah and kaddish.
Second, the siddur is a work that developed over time and accumulated more and more material over the years. Many do not realize that the Talmud does not offer the entire text of the siddur as we know it, but instead only mentions the theme of each blessing and prescribes its chatima – their "seal," or concluding line ("baruch atah...").
This book offers a minimalistic approach to daily prayer of individual, focusing on the two most important parts of the service – the sh'ma and its surrounding blessings, and the amidah. I completely omitted other parts of the service, like p'sukei d'zimrah, or Psalms of Praise, that were added over the centuries as a spiritual preparation for praying. Even though they are now considered to be an integral part of the service, they are not as halakhically significant as the sh'ma and the amidah. By popular request, in this second edition of the siddur, Psalm 150 was added in lieu of the p'sukei d'zimrah section.
I considerably abbreviated the blessings surrounding the sh'ma and removed a lot of the text that accumulated over time. The book's version of yotser, the first blessing before the sh'ma, for instance, may seem incredibly short, but was taken directly from Siddur Sa'ayda Ga'on (sixteenth century), one of the earliest known forms of the siddur.
Similarly, I significantly shortened the amidah by replacing the thirteen middle benedictions with one benediction (havineinu) that encompasses the themes of all thirteen. This text is found in the Talmud (b'rachot 29) and was established as a way to fulfill the obligation of praying the entire Amidah when one is short on time or is having trouble concentrating (see Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim, 110:1). Even though the halakhic authorities of recent generations were reluctant to present havineinu as a legitimate option, and preferred to limit its use to emergencies (such as soldiers in a battlefield), it is a wonderful way to get in the habit of daily prayer.
The Hebrew text used in the book tends to follow the "traditional-egalitarian" version of nusach Ashkenaz with several places leaning more towards the "egalitarian" side than the "traditional" one. Thus, the text used for Avot, the first blessing of the Amidah refers to the Matriarchs as well as the Patriarchs.
Similarly, the text for modeh ani – the first prayer uttered in the morning, which does not contain the name of God in any form, is presented with three gender options – male, female and non-binary.
Another place where the text differs from most American siddurim is the Morning Blessings. I omitted two blessings – "who has made me in God's image" and "who has made me a free person" that were introduced by the Conservative Movement's Rabbinical Assembly as a substitute for the negative blessings "who has not made me a slave" and "who has not made me a woman." The reason is that being a free person and being made in God's image are concepts already implied in the blessing sh'asani yisra'eil – "who has made me a Jew," which already appears in some editions of the Talmud as well as the Italian and Lithuanian rite.1 In addition, we reintroduced the blessing sh'asani kirtsono – "for making me according to Your will" – traditionally said by women instead of "for not making me a woman," as it was more recently reclaimed by the LGBTQ+ community and the disabled community as a way of increasing self-acceptance and inclusion.
In addition, I included a version of the avodah blessing in the amidah, that is based on nusach Sepharad rather than Ashekenaz, and substituted the phrase z'mirot yisra'eil – Israel's songs and melodies – for ishei yisra'eil – the burnt offerings of Israel. This is a version I learned from my teacher, Rabbi Daniel Siegel.
Another change, that may appear at first glance to be a spelling mistake, is found in the aleinu. Following the innovation of Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi ZT"L, I changed the spelling of the word לא to לו – maintaining the familiar pronunciation but rendering the meaning of the line very differently. Instead of the particularistic declaration, praising God "for not making us like the nation world" the line now translates to the more universal "for making us [Yours], like the other nations of the world."
You may find that after using this siddur for a while that you wish to move to a more complete liturgy; that a seven minute routine is exactly what you need; or that you need to abbreviate your practice even further. You may even find that a variety of approaches enhances your daily prayer practice. In the words of the Shulchan Arukh – "few prayers done with proper intention and concentration are better than many prayers done mindlessly." (Orach Chayim: 1:1).
1 This in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Simcha Roth Z"TL, the editor of the Israeli Masorti Siddur Va-Ani T'fillati.
Rabbi Oren Steinitz
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