Photo of John RiehlSince its publication in 1994, Shabbat Vehagim—the Reconstructionist Shabbat and Festival Prayerbook—has been used by thousands and of Reconstructionist and non-Reconstructionist Jews for worship, prayer, and study in the synagogue and at home. Shortly after the publication of the Prayerbook Caryn Navy and I began the task of taking an electronic version of the prayerbook and creating a Braille version which would be fully usable and accessible to visually-impaired Jews. The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF) fully supported this work, as did JBI International, which enthusiastically agreed to make copies of the prayerbook available to anyone requesting a copy, at no charge, once a "blind-user-friendly" version of the prayerbook had been produced.

One of the true strengths of Shabbat Vehagim is the richness and variety of material on each page of the Prayerbook. Presenting this material in a form that is comprehensible and usable by Braille readers was a complex, arduous and, ultimately, rewarding process.

The result of this work is that a complete, fully accessible Braille edition of the Erev Shabbat portion of Shabbat Vehagim (print pages 1-137) is available free of charge from JBI. Caryn and I are working on the Shabbat Morning portion of the Prayerbook, which we hope will be available sometime next year.

To obtain a copy, at no charge, of the two-volume Braille edition of the Erev Shabbat portion of Shabbat veChagim, please call JBI at: (800-433-1531) or email library@jbilibrary.org.