The titles of the siddurim of Eretz Yisrael – which have not yet been studied systematically – can teach us a great deal about the circumstances of their creation, or of the personal and spiritual story of their creators. Sometimes the title’s meaning is apparent to all, or at least clearly explained from the outset. But there are cases where siddur editors prefer not to explain their choice of title, granting the congregant with the possibility of solving the riddle themselves.
The Tefilat Shai siddur does appear to belong to the first group: its name (Shai) is an acronym, which is prominently explained in its opening pages. This in turn tells us of how the siddur’s story is that of one of the largest Jewish publishing houses in the world.
Shraga-Yehudah (Phillip) Feldheim, born in Vienna in 1901, prayed with his family at the famous Schiffschul in the city (which would eventually move to Jerusalem’s Givat Mordechai neighborhood), and learned at a number of yeshivos in Eastern Europe. One of those yeshivos was headed by Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky in the town of Galanta in modern day Slovakia, where Feldheim married the community leader’s daughter.
After finishing his studies, he returned to the city of his birth, where he began to be involved in communal and even political activity as part of the Agudat Yisrael movement. After the horrors of Kristallnacht – after which he was even jailed for a few days – Feldheim decided to leave Europe, reaching the United States with just 30 dollars in his pocket.
Upon reaching New York, Feldheim settled in Williamsburg, where he began to sell religious Jewish books from his apartment, which he imported from Europe as long as this was possible. He later became a publisher in his own right, taking part in the production of the first edition of the Talmud in the United States. His publishing house – whose symbol of a ner neshama may have been meant to commemorate the communities destroyed in the Holocaust – later expanded its activity, working to translate canonical Jewish books into English, taking care to maintain a high level of design and appearance.
The Feldheim publishing house’s activity in Israel began in the 1960s, when a branch opened in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul neighborhood. In the fifty years since then, the branch printed many books meant for the local market and adapted to its needs.
Phillip Feldheim died in New York City in 1990. Ten years later the first edition of the siddur bearing his name – Tefilat Shai – appeared in Jerusalem. The back of the siddur cover did indeed say that it is named after “the Chaver R. Shraga Yehudah Feldheim, ob”m, founder of the Feldheim book publishing house.” The use of the forgotten honorific – “Chaver” – derived from both the familial roots of the publisher’s founder in Eastern Europe and his long-standing affiliation with the New York shul of Rabbi Yosef Breuer, who encouraged him to publish Rabbi Shamshon Rafael Hirsch’s books in English. The siddur was naturally only produced in nusach Ashkenaz – the nusach the siddur’s namesake used.
The siddur appeared in a number of ever-expanding editions, one of which was meant for chazanim. Content-wise, it included all year-round prayers, including selichos and the weekly Torah readings, and later included the whole of Tehillim. Perhaps symbolically, as a siddur meant to immortalize the Feldheim name, the siddur itself also begins, immediately after the table of contents, with a brief passage dealing with “kavanas of names.” Another unique detail appears at the bottom of the siddur’s inner cover, in particularly small letters, attesting to the siddur having been “Printed in China.”
Feldheim Publishing ended its Jerusalem activity ten years ago due to financial difficulties, and it now operates solely from New York. The Tefilat Shai siddur, therefore, commemorates not only the publisher’s founder and worlds and communities long gone, but also a long-standing effort to bridge Eretz Yisrael and the exile.
My thanks to Yissaschar Yaakovson for his comments.
Originally published on JFeed.com.
