As part of the "Scribes" publishing project, a new book in the series "Library of Jewish texts" (BET) was released. The "Tehilat HaShem" prayer book, featuring the original Hebrew text and a new Russian translation, was published this past month.

The head of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia’s Public Relations Department Rabbi Boruch Gorin, who directs the Scribes project, noted that this prayer book was compiled by the founder of the Chabad movement, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the Alter Rebbe). Rabbi Shneur Zalman compiled the prayer book based on the teachings of the great 16th century Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria Ashkenazi (known also as the ARIZAL).

Prior to this new release, the "Tehilat HaShem" prayer book had been previously published in the Russian language by the Shamir Publishing House in Israel 30 years ago.

The translation of the prayer book for the Scribes edition was completed in 2002 in Kfar Chabad, Israel's center for Chabad-Lubavitch movement. The translators strived to remove the archaic vocabulary that was typically abundant in Russian-language Jewish religious literature. "Such language, firstly, makes it difficult to understand the text, and secondly, due to the fact that it was developed mainly through Christian theology, it results in a text of a foreign character. We asked ourselves the question: wouldn’t it be better if the prayer used language that was more familiar to Jews instead of focusing primarily on issues of vocabulary? We decided that this would otherwise be inappropriate," commented Rabbi Gorin.

Another innovation of the new prayer book is the text’s layout. Previously, it was most common in translated works for the Hebrew to be on one page and its translation on the facing page. In the Scribes Tehilat HaShem prayer book, readers will find the prayer in Hebrew, its Russian translation and instructions on how to read the text. For those who have difficulty reading in Hebrew, a transliteration of the most important prayers is offered.

This first edition of the new prayer book has been printed in pocket edition, to make it more convenient for people to take with them when they are travelling. A second edition is currently being prepared, that will feature an additional 200-page commentary on the prayers, which will also cover many of the practices in the Chabad-Lubavitch community.