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leading prayers and song
When my rabbi and I last met, we somehow ended up talking about our services, changes that have been made in the last few years, and the tensions between those who want "classical Reform" and those who want more tradition in the service. This led us to talk about some of the changes that have occurred since we got a cantor-in-training. (She's technically a "cantorial intern", because she doesn't yet have the credentials to be a capital-C cantor. This year she was nominally half time; the previous year, her first, was less than that.)
The rabbi mentioned that some people are upset that because we have Shira, we don't use hired singers as much. (Before then, most services had either the professional quartet that we use or one member of it acting as a quasi-cantor.) I said that to me this is a major win because we are less frequently hiring gentiles to participate in our services. (This had bugged me for a while. We have talented people in the congregation who would do it for free, to serve the congregation and God, and yet we've been hiring outsiders -- for work on Shabbat! -- who don't even know what they're singing, and would probably be bothered by some of it.)
I've also noticed in recent months that, finally, the rabbis and/or Shira have taken over the parts of the service that are supposed to be led by Jews. Before, these professional singers would lead things like Barchu, which is just wrong. [*] I commented to the rabbi that I had noticed the change and I thanked him for it. He has apparently gotten a lot of flack for it -- not because of any theological reason, but because people see it as a further reduction of the role of the professional singers. I think some people are worried that eventually it won't be cost-effective to have them come in just to sing an opening song, a closing song, and a meditation piece. (Well yes, and the logical progression is to then drop the professional singers. :-) ) I'm not sure why people are so attached to hired singers.
[*] Ok, I have to cover this one now, before continuing. There is a principle in Judaism that says that you can fulfill an obligation through someone else. For example, when someone says a prayer that you're supposed to (also) say and you just say "amein", that's fine -- so long as the person who's aiding you was also obligated. This is why the Orthodox don't permit women to lead services; they say that women are not obligated to (most of) those prayers, so men cannot fulfill their obligations ("be yotzei") through a woman. The egalitarian movements -- Reform and many Conservative and Reconstructionist -- say that men and women are equally obligated, so men can be yotzei to women and vice versa.
Anyway, our discussion of the professional singers spawned half a dozen parallel tangents, so I didn't get to bring up the problem of the grade-school services there. So I sent email. (The problem is that, starting with fourth grade, each class leads one service a year. That means starting around the age of nine. However, one is not obligated to the commandments until bar or bat mitzvah, at the age of 13 or 12 respectively. So just as I can't be yotzei to a gentile, I also cannot be yotzei to someone who is not yet of age.)
I got a quickie answer at Friday-night services (woo hoo! email works!): My rabbi said that because people read along on most of the prayers anyway, they're not really being yotzei to the kids. But this doesn't cover everything; there are still required prayers that the kids lead and that the congregation does not read along on. So I'll continue to go elsewhere for those services, but at least I've planted the objection in his ear.
My rabbi is away at camp this week and next (he does a stint as a counselor every year), and then I will be away for the next two weeks for Pennsic. So it'll be a while before I get to talk with him again. We seem to do this back-to-back thing every year with camp and Pennsic; pity there's not a week in between or something. Oh well.
Cantors, hired singers, etc
I previously assumed that some of it was places not having enough knowledgeable congregants, but that seems not to be it.
Re: Cantors, hired singers, etc
I'm with you, for the most part. It's always pleasant when the person leading the prayers has a nice voice, but that should be secondary to all of: fluency in the text, ability to lead rather than perform, and halachic prerequisites.
What's odd in our congregation is that for the most part, we use well-known melodies. People are encouraged to sing along. There's one exception, a song the choir or cantor will do after the Amidah and that fills the role of "meditative background stuff" for some, but other than that it's all participatory in our regular services. The high holy days are different, and I don't care for those services nearly as much because I feel like I'm attending a concert. With melodies that are only used once a year, though, the congregational learning curve is steep.
I previously assumed that some of it was places not having enough knowledgeable congregants, but that seems not to be it.
I wonder if it's the apparently-common American desire for "credentials": if you don't regularly do it for money, you can't be as good as people who do. To which I say: bah. Hey, my "other" congregation appreciates me just fine without those credentials. :-)
(Actually, in general it appears that Orthodox and some Conservative, at least locally, are much more inclined to have a congregant up there rather than a pro. Presumably because more of them understand that the voice isn't the important factor.)
High Holiday services
And for me, the once-a-year (well, a-couple-of-days-per-year) melodies aren't well-known enough that I could lead them, but familiar enough that I can follow, and using them helps put me in the right frame of mind. Yes, there are definitely "dead spots" in the davening, but those are usually places that *aren't* sung, just need to be gotten through (somewhere in the repetition of the Amidah, usually, for me, especially because I've been standing...).
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What's a Shira?
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Re: Cantors, hired singers, etc
With melodies that are only used once a year, though, the congregational learning curve is steep.
Well, it doesn't have to be. For one thing, there are a set of melodies which I've heard at various (conservative) shuls over the years and are pretty similar. One thing they have in common is a lot of "yai dai" ing, where you don't even need to know the hebrew words in order to participate! Of course, it helps that I've known these tunes for a long time, and pick up melodies easily, but it seems to me that the basic stuff is pretty easy to pick up.