Your First Siddur
A siddur is the New Jew’s most-used Jewish book. Buy one with English translation, transliteration, and clear instructions.
Summary. The siddur (prayer book) is the engine of Jewish daily life. For a New Jew, the right first siddur has three features: parallel Hebrew and English, transliteration for the central prayers, and a layout that tells you what to say and when. The Koren Sacks Siddur (Orthodox), Sim Shalom (Conservative), and Mishkan T’filah (Reform) are the dominant choices in their respective worlds. Buy the one that matches the shul you intend to attend, and read the introduction.
Walk into any synagogue and you will be handed a siddur. The siddur (literally “order”) is the prayer book that contains the daily, Shabbat, and festival liturgy. There are dozens of editions, and the right one for a New Jew depends on the community you will pray with.
The Major Orthodox Siddurim
The Koren Sacks Siddur (Nusach Ashkenaz or Sepharad editions). The commentary by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z”l, is unmatched as a companion for the thinking New Jew. The typography is exceptional.
The ArtScroll Siddur (Nusach Ashkenaz, Sefard, or Edot HaMizrach). Densely annotated, deeply traditional, and the dominant siddur in most American Orthodox shuls.
The Weiss Edition Tehillat Hashem—the standard Chabad siddur, in compact and full editions.
Conservative and Reform
Siddur Sim Shalom and the more recent Siddur Lev Shalem (Rabbinical Assembly)—the Conservative movement’s standard siddurim, with English, transliteration, and modern egalitarian language.
Mishkan T’filah (CCAR Press)—the Reform movement’s standard siddur, with multiple translations and contemporary readings on the facing page.
If you do not yet know which shul you will attend, buy the Koren Sacks Siddur (Nusach Ashkenaz). It is the most beautifully made siddur in English, its commentary is the best introductory frame to the prayers, and it is at home in any Modern Orthodox or Conservative setting. Read the introduction front to back—Rabbi Sacks’s opening essay on the architecture of Jewish prayer is itself worth the price of the book.
Where Denominations Diverge
Nusach (the textual and musical tradition of a community’s prayer) divides along several lines. Nusach Ashkenaz is the rite of most Western and Central European Jews. Nusach Sepharad (Hasidic Ashkenazi) is the rite of most Hasidic communities. Nusach Edot HaMizrach is the rite of most Sephardic and Mizrahi communities. Within Reform and Conservative siddurim, the structure of the service is largely the same as Orthodox, but with edits (egalitarian language, omission of the daily sacrificial readings, alternative readings replacing the second paragraph of the Shema in classical Reform).
Sources
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, A Guide to Jewish Prayer—on the structure and history of the siddur.
Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin, To Pray as a Jew—chapter on choosing a siddur.
Introduction to the Koren Sacks Siddur.
Further Reading
Reuven Hammer, Or Hadash—a commentary on Sim Shalom.
Lawrence A. Hoffman (ed.), My People’s Prayer Book series—denominationally-mixed scholarly commentary on the siddur.