Feedback showed that congregants wanted accurate and meaningful translations of prayers, accompanied by a transliteration and commentaries that would provide additional insights into the text without distracting from it.

Two proposals were selected, with one from Rabbi Elyse Frishman of the Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, who was able to provide insight on Jewish texts on liturgy and worship, who was named to serve as editor of the new siddur.

This would allow those seeking a more traditional God-centric prayer service to stay on the right side of the book, while others could choose to focus on readings and meditative style poetry on the left.

In an interview with The Times of Israel, Frishman noted changing religious and political feelings within Reform Jewish communities including an increased emphasis on social justice.

With the prayer book, one of the greatest challenges was finding "a balance between wanting to embrace anyone and everyone who walks through our doors and making our worship service distinctly Jewish.

"[3] Judith Abrams, who submitted a second proposal and who provided expertise in rabbinic source materials, was named as consulting editor, and Rabbi Peter Knobel chaired the editorial committee.

[4] Galley proof copies were sent to 300 congregations for three years of field testing, with thousands of recommendations made for improving the original work.

While the increased use of Hebrew shows a trend toward the traditional content of the siddur, Mishkan T'filah's modifications include the elimination of references to God in the masculine pronoun "He".

By contrast, Mishkan T'filah offers multiple options on the same page, allowing differing perspectives on prayer to be accommodated simultaneously.

This edition of Mishkan T'filah is also sensitive to the experiences of Jews living in the Southern Hemisphere (particularly Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) where traditional liturgical seasonal references relating to the Land of Israel are out of step with local weather cycles.

[9] This version is commonly used in religious schools where there is a desire for bar and bat mitzvah students to become comfortable reading the Hebrew alphabet.

A braille version was also released although its production was delayed slightly after Jewish charity that was originally going to work on the project had a funding shortfall.

For example, while nearly all Orthodox congregations have websites and some social media presence, Orthodox and Conservative leaders would seldom encourage their members to read Shabbat prayers off a mobile app due to the traditional interpretation of Jewish law prohibiting lighting fires on Shabbat or holidays to extend to anything involving electricity (which could inadvertently create a spark).

However, in an allusion to the significant demographic and cultural changes affecting organized religion in the United States, Morris went on to argue it will take more than a nice book to get the Reform movement "toward the next paradigm.

"[15] It includes a version of the High Holy Days prayer Avinu Malkeinu that refers to God as both "Loving Father" and "Compassionate Mother.

"[15] Other notable changes are replacing a line from the Reform movement’s earlier prayerbook, "Gates of Repentance," that mentioned the joy of a bride and groom specifically, with the line "rejoicing with couples under the chuppah [wedding canopy]", and adding a third, non-gendered option to the way worshippers are called to the Torah, offering “mibeit,” Hebrew for “from the house of,” in addition to the traditional “son of” or “daughter of.”[15] Several other versions of Mishkan HaNefesh (ex.

It contains essays from Rabbi Richard Sarason, PhD, which seek to explore the history, significance, and challenges to prayer within and outside the Mishkan T'filah service.