ABSTRACT
Next to the Bible, the Hebrew prayer book (siddur, pl. siddurim; ‘order’ or ‘arrangement’ [of prayers]) is the most important book in Jewish history and in some ways the most influential, particularly in keeping alive religious-national Jewish identity among scattered and highly diverse communities.1 Until the early nineteenth century, the siddur, despite local variations, had standard features internationally, both among Oriental Jews and those in European countries, with roots chiefly in the biblical and talmudic periods. All siddurim included prayers for the restoration of the Jews to the land of Israel. With the rise of European nationalism and the emancipation of the Jews in France (1791), and in the territories conquered by France in the Napoleonic wars, the question arose whether the national-religious content of the siddur was compatible with Jewish citizenship in the modern national state.
