In 1998 when the fall cover of Reform Judaism magazine featured Rabbi Richard Levy in a kippa and tzitzit, Reform Jews were openly provoked. But the cover was no empty provocation. Inside the magazine, Levy, then the president of the major association of Reform rabbis, went on to introduce and defend a platform of increased religious observance that called on the movement to return to practices such as kashrut and Shabbat observance.

An ark at an American Reform congregation. 'A new prayer book needed to take into account a number of trends,' says Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman.

For a movement that had built its reputation more than a century before by rejecting many of the traditional beliefs and practices of Judaism, including ritual garb and dietary laws, as archaic and irrelevant to modern life, the image called into question the very core of what the movement once stood for.

The Web site of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the main body of Reform rabbis, became home to rounds of bitter sparring. Some suggested it was a sign of the movement's failure - that rejection of ritual simply can't withstand an era in which people are increasingly returning to tradition for spiritual sustenance. Others, who had joined the Reform Movement precisely for what it had rejected, felt betrayed.

"I dropped out of synagogue membership for nearly 50 years because I was not interested in following the 613 commandments and I was tired of being made to feel guilty about it," wrote one. "Excess ritualism is a cop-out," said another.

But, even then, an equal number of voices came out in favor of Levy's proposed principles. "If indeed we wish to be abreast of the developments coming in the 21st century, it seems clear we will have to embrace some of the same customs that were considered offensive a century ago," said one. "Generations to come will look back on these principles as a defining moment for liberal Judaism," said another. "They are a beacon to the future."

Six months after the appearance of the article, the CCAR voted to adopt a version of Levy's principles, even if slightly watered down. This version now serves as the movement's backbone.

Maurycy Gottlieb, 'Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur,' 1878.

Now, almost a decade since the principles were adopted, the return to ritual has been further codified in the pages of a new siddur. If Jews are a people of the book, then a siddur may be the best barometer we have to test the waters.

Mishkan T'filah, the product of almost 20 years of extensive research and discussion, reflects a noticeable departure from its predecessor, which had long been a source of dissatisfaction within the movement.

Prayers previously removed have been reinstated; references to traditional texts from medieval times to the present abound; stage directions and traditional choreography of prayer are provided; and Hebrew plays an unprecedented role. Not only is the name of the siddur in Hebrew, unlike its two predecessors, this time congregants have no choice - there is only one version and it opens from right to left.

At the same time, the siddur reaffirms some of the ideological mainstays of the Reform Movement: its concern for tikkun olam (making the world a better place) and its inclusive approach to gays and lesbians and intermarried couples.

"We've been undergoing a re-ritualization and returned to the more traditional liturgical formulations, and have adopted many rituals that earlier we found unnecessary," said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the congregational arm of the movement. "But at the same time, we remain a dynamic, creative and even radical movement and insist on the right to combine our embrace of tradition with this very dynamic, and open approach to Jewish life."

HISTORY

The founding principles of the American Reform Movement, delineated in the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform, affirmed a commitment to monotheism but rejected many of the ritual practices, including laws that regulate diet, priestly purity and dress as anathema to modern sensibility. With this it also rejected the goal of returning to Zion.

The Union Prayer Book of 1892, the first official siddur of the Reform movement in America, rejected traditional notions such as peoplehood, chosenness, resurrection and a return to the Land of Israel. But by 1937 the immigration of more traditional Jews from Eastern Europe had changed the face of Reform Judaism which until then had been shaped largely by German Jews.

Later editions of that first prayer book already bore signs of previously rejected traditions creeping in. In the 1922 edition, the term "rabbi" was substituted for the original "minister," as Reform Judaism began to moderate its universalism. And following the rise of Nazism, the 1941 edition expressed support for rebuilding Palestine.

Two decades or so later, it became clear that the UPB was dated. Hebrew had gained popularity; relief following the Six Day War was quickly undermined by the 1973 Yom Kippur War and concern for Soviet Jewry plus climbing rates of intermarriage fueled fears for the future of world Jewry.

The next siddur, Gates of Prayer - a compilation of 10 themed services published in 1975 - sought to accommodate these trends. The siddur included an unprecedented selection of new prayers, readings and meditations to accompany the Hebrew texts, some geared toward Holocaust remembrance and Israeli Independence Day. The success of GOP was immediate with sales reaching 50,000 in its first year and nearly 1.5 million copies to date.

But despite its achievements, Gates of Prayer was criticized almost from the start for being more of an anthology than a cohesive prayer book and for relying on the masculine in its language. Some congregations reacted by returning to the UPB, but many compiled their own prayer books, often editing the texts for gender sensitivity.

'MISHKAN T'FILAH'

By 1985 a new siddur was in the works.

As work began, Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform rabbinical seminary, prepared a monograph describing the changes in Jewish worship patterns over the course of the last generation. "A new prayer book," he wrote, "needed to take into account a number of trends: a growing emphasis on personalism as opposed to peoplehood, the individual's search for the sacred, the presence of many diverse constituencies within Reform congregations, the expansion of ritual occasions (such as new rituals for the New Moon), a new interest in the choreography of worship, and the influence of Jewish feminist thought on language and imagery in referring to God." In a radical proposition, he asserted that a new prayer book needed to take into consideration the opinions of the laity.