Shabbat

[cellio]

Friday's musical service went well. It looked like we had at least 300 people there (maybe 350 or 400), which is a lot more than normal. The congregational choir sang, which was nice, and some other cantorial members of the cantor's family were there too. Fun night!

I had an interesting conversation with our cantor about the service (or services?) the worship commitee will need to lead this summer. She expects to be out on maternity leave then, so she said she's working on lining up substitutes. We talked about stage-management issues when none of the people on the bima are regulars, and while I don't remember how we got there, I ended up saying (in an appropriate context) that there are certainly members of the worship committee who could competently fill that role for one week, and she said she really wished we'd volunteer in that case, and I said "ok, then I'm volunteering". (I also said I'm not the only one who could, though I of course don't know who else would.) Dunno where it will go (if it does); she and the rabbi will need to have a talk. I had previously made such a comment to the rabbi (during the last cantor's maternity leave), and it went nowhere. But maybe that cantor wasn't on board with the idea. I have been trying very hard to avoid stepping on any toes; music at services is her domain and I don't want her (or the rabbi) to perceive me as pushy. On the other hand, I'd much rather have one of us than an outside singer who might or might not even be Jewish, and she agrees with me on non-Jews, so we'll see. (I think the previous cantor was more interested in having a good singer than in having a Jew. I personally don't think we should have non-Jews leading any part of services, and the congregation has gotten better about that, but we're not completely there yet.)

Saturday morning had one bit of frustration, and I have to have a conversation I'm not looking forward to. During the service we go around the circle so people can say the names of people they're saying kaddish for, and recently we've started to also go around saying names before saying the prayer for healing. One of the people there (who used to be a regular, then disappeared for most of a year, then started showing up again a few weeks ago) treated this as a bit of a political soapbox, saying he wanted to add the names of all the Iraqi prisoners to the list. Saying that much would have been fine; going from there into a rant about the despicable behavior of the people responsible, on the other hand, was inappropriate. I don't disagree that the assessment of the behavior, but the healing portion of a Shabbat service is not the time and place for political diatribes. He should have saved it for the informal conversation afterwards. (It doesn't help that this particular individual, err, really likes to hear himself talk, so he is never brief and on-point.) So I was annoyed (but not fast enough to stop it on the spot), and I could tell some others were annoyed, and I've received one email complaint already. (It's not really my minyan, but people see it as mine when the rabbi isn't there.) I'm tempted to send him email, which will allow me to choose my words carefully without having to interact with him in real time, but calling is probably the correct thing to do.

After services we headed to Johan and Arianna's for a meeting of the Pennsic camp. (This was mostly to decide if we need to make any infrastructure changes this year and to decide what projects to tackle. This year we're going to try for some box benches, to solve both seating and stuff-containment problems.) It seems we don't see each other as frequently as we used to, now that two are no longer coworkers and one has dropped out of the choir and so on, so it was nice to see everyone and just hang out. (Well, not everyone; the out-of-town contingent didn't make it in.)

Comments

[murmur311.livejournal.com]

What kind of music is at your musical service? We're having Dan Nichols in residence this coming weekend. He'll lead services on Friday night, do a Tot Shabbat Saturday morning, an informal gathering for adults at the rabbi's house Saturday night, and then a concert Sunday afternoon. Have you ever heard of him? He's really amazing. He's part of the Jewish rock band E18hteen, but he does very folky-sounding stuff too. And he has an amazing energy at services. A lot of the people in the congregation know him on a personal level, including the rabbi, who went to camp with him. I know he does residences all over the country.

I've rambled on, but I'm very excited about his coming Shabbat. Sometimes our music is way to slow and has no energy.

[cellio]

What kind of music is at your musical service?

Lively, singable, and mostly folksy/contemporary. We have some Chassidic melodies, some Debbie Friedman, some Jeff Klepper (and his peers), and some that are just described as "Israeli". A real mix, but the goal is to get the congregation singing and sometimes dancing.

I don't recognize the name Dan Nichols. I'm looking forward to hearing about the weekend.