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cellioThe campus store and the library have very limited hours during the summer. I haven't yet been to the library (sigh -- who's got time? but I want to), but the store stayed open later today to accommodate us. I think it was worthwhile for them; lots of people skipped part of dinner to buy books and the like. I picked up the JPS Hebrew-English Tanach (I wanted to see it "in the flesh" first to see the size of the print, which is adequate), passed on Braude's Book of Legends this time (highly recommended, but I'll bet I can improve on the $75 price via the used market), and picked up a new talit. I have a talit and it has signifance to me, but there have been times when I wanted the option of a larger one, particularly when leading services. (The one I have, which belonged to Dani's grandfather, is the small "scarf" size.) It turns out that the large size is too big for me (drags the ground, which isn't an appropriate thing to do to tzitzit), but there is an intermediate size that gives me enough material to draw the talit up over my head for the sh'ma, which I can't do with the one from Dani's family. I'd also rather use a larger one when leading services. So now I have that option. I was going to use it for the first time at Friday's service, which I'm helping to lead, but I see wisdom in getting used to it first, so I'll be using it tomorrow.
The planning for that service got off to a rocky start due to logistics (not at all due to the people, who are wonderful), but we finally had a good solid hour and change to go over it tonight. Tomorrow we will meet with our staff advisor about our plans (each group has an advisor), and then tomorrow night we'll solidify things down to the level of who does what and sticking post-it notes in the siddur and stuff. I'm doing all the music leading; that wasn't my plan, but the other two really want to not do this and like me in that role. I introduced them to some new melodies tonight. Some of that was explicit experiment; I figured that if they could pick them up quickly (just by listening) then the others could too. And they did. So we'll be using a niggun that my rabbi taught us at the last Shabbaton, and a new meditation before the Sh'ma (and setting of the Sh'ma) that our cantorial soloist introduced some months back (by Jeff Klepper). Our group feels that in this setting, each service should have a lot that is familiar and some that is new, because (1) we're experimenting and learning and (2) this is a group of synagogue leaders who will then disperse, not an established congregation where you would be much more conservative about change. I'm looking forward to the service; I think we've done a good job of preparing. (I seem to be the unofficial leader of the group, but not for lack of trying to push decisions out to the other two.)
A few of my classmates are very disruptive, and I know I'm not the only one who's frustrated. This morning at breakfast the organizer reminded the group that there are 29 (yes, 29 as it turns out, not the 25 I thought) of us and the classes are trying to pack a lot of information in, so (to summarize), don't abuse the time with your off-topic blathering. There are two people in particular who have a problem here. Sadly, neither of them seems to recognize that; the problem was just as bad today. A few of us were talking about it tonight; none of us feels it's our place to deliver this clue directly to the problem children because that should fall to the organizers (who attend every session). But I think tomorrow morning several of us may need to have a conversation with the organizers about doing that.
I should point out that the disruptive people are otherwise kind folks; this is clearly a problem of lack of clue, not lack of caring.
The problem is made worse by the lack of syllabi; some teachers give a high-level overview of what they're going to talk about it so it's obvious when we're 75% of the way through the time and 25% of the way through the material. Others prefer a more open, free-form format. And since each instructor only teaches 1-3 classes, the instructors don't know about the ongoing pattern unless the organizers tell them. I suspect that has not happened.
So, overall, we have good classes and excellent instructors, but between the tight scheduling (no conference I've ever been to has this little down time) and organizational skills at the top that may not be up to snuff, it's a little frustrating. Here are all these great teachers who could be teaching us much, much more, if only a certain couple of people would let them.
All that aside, onward to today's nifty classes.
Class: resources for text study / how to lead text study
The first class of the day had two instructors, so they split us into two groups and each instructor taught his part twice, using half the time. Great idea! (Unfortunately, I got both problem children in my group, and didn't realize it in time to defect discreetly.)
Rabbi Larry Kushner says there are 600,000 paths to text study. We explored a few of them. Most of the time was spent on resources; I was hoping for more on the mechanics of actually running a study session, which I currently suck at. Maybe I can get some of Jeff's time (one of the instructors) before the program is over to get some coaching on that.
The first instructor's main point was that resources include a lot more than just books -- photos, art, music, videos, non-Jewish texts, and so on. I mentally sighed, anticipating fluff, but she showed us several examples and how she uses them that work well. For example, photos from a trip to Israel taken in biblically-significant places, to bring out when studying those parts of the Tanach. ("This is where Avraham stood at such-and-such time", etc.) Good idea. Our rabbis use occaional visual aids, mostly maps but also sketches of the temple layout. We could probably do more here without becoming new-agey in the process.
(I'm sorry, but whenever anyone talks about visual art or poetry integrated with study or services, I can't help but think of the many bad examples of this I have seen. I admit it: I'm too stuffy sometimes.)
She ended with a nifty bit that could launch quite a bit of discussion. As I write this I have not been able to verify the URL, but: http://theinterviewwithgod.com. (If it's not .com, try some of the others.)
The second instructor surveyed a number of good books. He has promised us a written bibliography, so I won't reproduce it here. His top picks for chumash are Plaut and Eitz Chayim; the two other books he strongly recommends are two law codes, one by Klein and one by (?) Washofsky. (I own both of these, so I didn't take careful notes. Ask me for cites when I get home.)
First step in preparing to lead: know what you know. It's ok to assert authority; you're the person the congregation asked to teach/lead this session, so even if someone much more knowledgable shows up, it's your class. (Yeah, easier said than done -- I definitely get a little spooked if my rabbi is present when I give a d'var torah. Practice practice practice -- I want him to be there when he can, specifically because I need to have this boundary pushed.)
Aside: the cantorial student (intern) was observing this session, and Jeff tossed off the following example: "Now suppose I was teaching a class on 16th-century Jewish music -- which I would never ever do because I don't know the topic, but suppose I did enough research to do an intro class -- and Leigh (the cantorial student) was there. That would not stop me; it's my classroom." This will be amusing in several more paragraphs. :-)
He strongly recommends studying with a partner rather than alone, and says that private study is a good preparation for leading study.
You get a wide variety of students, and part of your role is to balance things out, drawing out the quiet ones and cutting off the ones who monopolize. (Gee, sound familiar? :-) ) But you have to be respectful of everyone and not put anyone on the spot; some quiet people want to be quiet, for example.
A "duh" point worth making explicit: a good class has an introduction and a conclusion. Don't just dive in. If it's a multi-session class, also do a quick summary/refresher of the previous session.
During lunch I met Rabbi Sam Joseph, who will be teaching a session later in the week on leadership. He has some significant position containing the phrase "ladership development", though I've forgotten the specifics. (Hey, it was lunch -- not taking notes!)
I took the opportunity to ask what "leadership development" is supposed to mean within a congregation -- that is, what should people whose jobs or committees contain that phrase be doing? (We have such a committee, but during the entire time I've been a "leader" in the congregation I've had very little interaction with it.) We talked about some general things, and he made a really good suggestion for me in particular. I had commented that I wanted to better teach/enable all members of my (worship) committee to lead arbitrary services without tons of mark-up; any member of the committee ought to be able to pick up a siddur and lead a Shabbat service, for example, without having to ask "do we skip this?" or "when do I tell them to sit down?". But getting there is hard, perhaps largely due to my own lack of teaching skill but that's not all of it.
His suggestion: take the committee on a weekend learning retreat, and (over time) introduce the meme that attending such a retreat is a requirement of being on the committee. The latter is not something I'm ready to tackle, but I should think long and hard about the former. Weeknight classes are another obvious option, but there's something to be said for the more intense experience such as what I am getting this week.
This class was taught by the cantorial student. (I think he's just completed his third year of cantorial school, though it might be the fourth.) It was a nifty class that, as you might suspect, had a lot of aural aids. The broad topic was "what makes this music Jewish?".
He started by playing (excerpts from) half a dozen pieces, asking us to say whether they are "traditional Jewish music" and why/why not. (This term had not yet been defined; this was to tease out some gut reactions and criteria.) We talked about texts, language, keys/modes, accompaniment styles (instruments, multiple voices), musical arrangement, pieces that are ubiquitious within our experience (we will almost always label a piece we remember from childhood as traditional), and the author and purpose of the music (e.g. written by a Jew for Jews to use in worship). (Obvious) conclusion: "traditional" is highly affective and subjective.
Remember several paragraphs ago when I mentioned music? One of the pieces he used in this exercise was Salamone Rossi's Hashkiveinu. I was the only person in the room (other than the instructor) who knew it, and probablhy the only one who has sung it. I got a giggle out of Jeff's unintentional foreshadowing. (To my surprise, one of my classmates thought it sounded like a Christmas carol. It sounds like the music of the surrounding culture, 16th-century Italy, but I've never perceived real similarity to carols in particular. I suspect this is from a lack of knowledge of rennaisance music on the part of my classmates, leading to incorrect use of terminology.)
So we talked about the idea of "indigenous" music, as opposed to "traditional". Yeah, this seems a much better way to look at evolving customs of a culture.
We then talked about two types of music that are specifically Jewish, cantillation and nusach, but this does not lend itself to writing beyond pointing out that nusach evokes feelings (often subconsciously) in exactly the same way that, say, hearing the national anthem might cause you to feel patriotic or roused. Similarly, you don't actually need to sing Kol Nidre to invoke the feelings of Yom Kippur; hearing it played can do that.
Class: conducting a shiva minyan / funeral
The class on conducting funerals (main topic) and shiva minyanim was useful. I have never actually been to a (Jewish) funeral, so had little clue about how they're structured. (I mean, I know about the grave-side service and that there's a service in the funeral home or synagogue before that, but I did not know the liturgical makeup of either beyond some specific bits like El Malei Rachamim.)
It turns out that there is a lot of flexibility in putting together a funeral; you include some psalms, you include a eulogy, and you do what makes the family comfortable. We talked a lot about how you tease things out of the family before the service (so you can meet their needs), and that they are probably in something of a stupor and really need you to guide them. You have to be the practical, non-anxious presence, regardless of what's going on in the family. You also have to listen for the clues that no one will give you directly; if someone says "so I guess we have to do shiva for seven days?" that tells you something about how that person feels about shiva. Do not not not hit them with theology or try to impose your own views; the funeral is for them.
We also talked about shiva minyanim (this was mostly a refresher) and unveilings (traditionally done a year, or maybe 11 months, after the funeral). I learned good stuff but don't want to bore you with details.
The trope class is excellent so far. It's taught by Leigh, the person who taught the music class. Today we covered sof-pasuk (I already knew) and katon (I knew parts of it but hadn't put it all together). Geeking: I finally know how to tell the difference between a kadma and a pashtah! (It's the same symbol, but there is a suble difference in its placement.) Woot!
The book (the same one I'd already been using) has a two-page spread in the back showing all the trope families (with variations) with words, trope symbols, and music notation. Leigh refers to this as the trope "anthem", and we begin and end each class by chanting down the page as far as we can. This is a good practice technique which I plan to adopt.
I also finally learned what that vertical bar (p'sik) is that sometimes shows up between two words in the text. Basically, it's a quarter-rest that falls within a trope phrase. Ok, that's easy -- but it often isn't explained.
Leigh is going to record all of the weekday nusach for me tonight. This will be immensely helpful. (I'll need it for Friday's service.) It's also useful that I can sing in Leigh's key, so matching the voice on the tape will be easy. There have to be learning tapes/CDs out there for nusach, but I haven't seen any yet.
Class: illness and the community
This class was kind of disappointing. I think it suffered from some pacing or organizational problems, and the problem students were out in full force. This was the first time this rabbi taught, and I'll bet no one clued her in. She seems like a good teacher, and I hope her second session (which will focus more on the practical aspects) will work better. The theme of this session is "comforting the sick is important". Well yeah.
More broadly, pastoral care is all about relationship. The visitor benefits as much or more than the visitee in this situation. We can't take away most pain, of course (without a medical license :-) ), but we can provide a community that, in turn, provides comfort.
Quotable quotes:
- The opposite of love isn't hate; it's indifference. (Source unknown to me.)
- Congregations are Nimitz-class carriers. (Rabbi Stuart Joseph.) That is, change comes very very slowly, and bikur cholim (visiting the sick) is one area where many congregations are trying to change.
Tonight's service was the first one done by a student group. They did a great job! They used music effectively, had a good flow, balanced the readings well, and ended on a big high (a lively setting of Romemu). The organizers had told us earlier to be gentle with them because they're brave to go first, but no such caution was necessary, as it turned out.
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Date: 2004-07-14 07:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-18 06:19 pm (UTC)