I am the Founding Director of the Beurei Hatefila Institute, an organization that was established to promote the study of the Siddur as a primary text. Eight years ago I began publishing a weekly e-mail newsletter in which I trace the origin of the words and structure of the Siddur, the Jewish Prayer Book. The target audience for the newsletter is pulpit Rabbis and Jewish educators who can take advantage of the source based material to develop classes and courses on Tefila and the Historty of the Siddur. The Institute maintains a website: www.beureihatefila.com at which compilations of the newsletters covering the origin of the daily and Shabbos prayers are available for downloading. Visitors to the website can also download books on Tefila, ancient Siddurim such as Seder Rav Amrom Gaon (800’s CE) and the Siddur of Rav Sa’adia Gaon (900’s CE) as well as Siddurim that follow a variety of Nuschaot including Aram Tzova (Syria) and Nusach Roma. I have also published a downloadable Haggadah in which the wording of several Haggadot are compared including the Haggadah discovered in the Geniza that was used by Jews in Cairo who followed the customs of the Jews of Eretz Yisroel in the Middle Ages.
