Shabbat

[cellio]

When Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) announced that he was retiring, reporters asked Scott Adams (Dilbert) for his reaction. Adams said: "As a fan, I'm distraught, but as a cartoonist looking at new vacant spaces in 2400 newspapers, well, behind me, my cats are dancing a conga line".

This morning in the time slot normally occupied by Torah study, our rabbi wanted to talk to the minyan about some changes. Basically, we don't get a Torah reading in weeks with a bar/bat mitzvah (which is almost all of them), because there's not enough time to complete our service before the bar-mitzvah service starts. It's not practical for us to start any earlier and there's been resistance to starting the other later, and the rabbi can't be in two places at once, so we get squished. We had already made the communal decision that having a little Torah study, even if only 20 minutes or so, with the rabbi present is more important than reading Torah during the service. (We can, after all, read the portion on our own at home -- but we can't get the rabbi's insights and guidance during study if he's not there.)

He wanted to float the idea of him not always doing all of the service, and of adding the Torah reading to our service. If we did this he would have to leave before the end of the service, which means one of us would have to lead the rest. And members of the minyan would have to do most or all of the Torah reading. (We would, under this scenario, study first instead of last.)

I would be thrilled by this. While I would rather have my rabbi present than not present, I would also like to chant Torah, lead services, and help other members of the minyan gain confidence in those areas. By my count, we have at least four people who can now chant Torah (with sufficient advance notice) without any special guidance (i.e. can read trope), and probably at least as many who would like to learn. I've been bugging my rabbi about teaching cantillation for a while (he's agreeable but busy); I finally just went off and learned on my own. I know we have at least half a dozen people who can comfortably and correctly lead an entire service, let alone the smaller part that would be involved here. And, again, I know there are others who would like to learn. I think it is good for them to learn, and I'd be delighted to be able to use my skills in my own congregation, an opportunity that is currently quite limited. As the new chair of the worship committee, I'm probably in a position to really help this to happen. (Heck, I could teach classes on the structure and mechanics of the service, if someone better isn't available.)

No decisions are being made immediately, but the idea has now been floated and the people who were there today were almost universally favorable. (We have one older member who fears any change, but she'll get over it. She has apparently already forgotten that members of this minyan led this service for three months when the rabbi was on a sabatical.)

I'm meeting with my rabbi this week to study talmud. I'll bet this topic will come up during that meeting.