Making Prayer Accessible: The Siddur That is Bridging Israel’s Religious Divide
The siddur has long been among Judaism’s most frequently published books, but Mordechai Rahum has introduced something entirely new – a siddur designed specifically for secular Israelis. With thousands of copies already sold, this innovative siddur has found an eager audience among Israelis of all ages, including many in the military. Rabbi Aron White spoke with Mordechai to learn more about this unique project.
Mordechai, can you tell us about your background?
I grew up in Holon, and had very little connection to religion. We might have occasionally said Kiddush on Friday night (with the TV on in the background), and I came to synagogue for Ne’ilah, but that was really it. I worked in politics for several politicians, and then in finance. My journey towards religion really happened during Corona – we had a lot of time on our hands, and I started to watch some shiurim that people sent me. I started to discover an aspect of Judaism that I had never known about before – Judaism had been about rituals and festivals, but I started to learn about character development. For example, even something like the concept of ma’aser kesafim, giving one-tenth of one’s income to tzedakah – I never knew that Judaism had concepts like this! It was like I had associated personal growth and development with American self-help books, and suddenly I saw that there was so much of this in Judaism.
I gradually started to do more religious practices, such as not driving on Shabbat, then not using my phone on Shabbat and more. But even as I continued to do more religious practices, coming to shul was something that felt intimidating and scary.
Scary? To someone who grew up going to synagogue, it’s hard to understand that. Could you explain more?
There is the feeling it’s for “them.” For me, Shabbat meant beach and tiyulim, and this is a feeling that many people have, that shul is a space for a different group, the religious. Also, I don’t even know what I am doing there – what do I do there?! I walk into the synagogue, and then what? To go somewhere where I don’t know what to do – the fear is paralyzing and it is embarrassing!
So how did you begin to attend shul?
A friend invited me to a shul, he started explaining, and the pieces of the puzzle started to come together. I started to go to shul sometimes, but each time I didn’t know what to do. I read Arvit when they were doing Mincha. I was on page 40 when they were on 20. It’s frustrating – I don’t know if it’s my fault or the system. It’s not just me, it’s the same with many secular and young people. A few times I could see chilonim come in, with this look of fear and confusion – I would count until 30 and they would close the siddur and leave. Look at that – these are people who are coming to synagogue, looking to connect, who are being lost because it’s all too foreign and confusing. So that’s when I had the idea – let’s make a siddur for chilonim, matchilim, someone who doesn’t know how to daven. I went to a few friends with it, they thought it was crazy!
I knew that if I didn’t do it, it wouldn’t happen. I started to write down questions that beginners have, people gave me answers, and then I put them next to the text. My aim was that someone could have no clue how to pray, but pick up this siddur and find answers to any question they have as they go along. I was sure there are many thousands like me. But I wanted it to be for other rituals too, not only for what to do in shul. I’ll give an example – one of the first questions I had when I started compiling the siddur was: can I read kriat Shema al haMita on a chair? To a beginner, if it says in the name it’s “on the bed,” you might think you have to be literally on your bed to read it.
We have 70 different emojis in the siddur, showing people when to sit, stand, bow etc., as well as a mixture of user instructions and context about where the prayers come from.
When did you release the siddur?
We were ready to launch the siddur, and then October 7th happened. So we made a version for chayalim with soft binding, and printed 3,000 siddurim, and within two days I received hundreds of orders. It was the first days of the war, and I didn’t even have a distribution system in place, so I drove around by myself. I traveled around the country to distribute, some to people very far from religion that I really never would have imagined. I asked them why they bought this. People gave fascinating answers: “My whole life I wanted to know how to pray, what they are doing there in shul, but I feel I can’t walk into a shul, I can’t learn it from YouTube.” A Russian family said they had been waiting their whole life for this.
One person sent me a message a few weeks later saying thank you – using the siddur was the first time in their life they made Kiddush. They didn’t know not to drink wine after borei pri hagefen, but here they learned how to drink wine properly. Some grandparents bought it for their grandchildren. One father said that I saved his child. The child had started drifting from religion, but this siddur is attractive and interesting, so he started to read it himself – the idea is that someone will want to pick it up. Then he took it himself to shul.
We’ve sold 1,500 copies to chayalim plus about 500 dedicated in memory of soldiers or those killed at Nova. We are working with the army as there is huge demand there, but need support for it. The Rabbanut HaTzva’it is already supportive, but we need funding to be able to print more siddurim. I have received videos of chayalim in Gaza and Lebanon praying with it, their first time praying.
My job isn’t to make people keep Shabbat, but I am giving them tools to know their Jewish identity.
To find out more, visit www.siddurariel.com.