leading services

[cellio]

I've been leading part of the service at the weekday morning minyan (on Thursdays), and a couple of the folks there have been really encouraging me. I know, though, that I'm not as good as the person who would otherwise be doing this, so I took him aside to make sure it's ok. I figure that if people are going to complain (or just grouse) they'll do it in his direction. He said he's heard no complaints and I should just keep working on it. There is one page of dense Hebrew that's blocking me now; if I can get past that, I should be able to do most of the service. (That is, I can do most of what follows it, but I don't want us to be bouncing back and forth between two leaders. So I start and when we get to that point the regular guy takes over.) I'll get it in time. I wish I could read more smoothly.

Tonight my rabbi had to teach so he asked me to lead the evening service. For a while there were just two of us (sigh) and the other person is fluent, so I invited him to lead. He's very good with Hebrew but hasn't been around long enough to pick up some of the nuances of leading, which I didn't really think about (so not his fault). So when five more people (one family, in mourning) showed up partway through the Amidah, I found myself wishing for telepathic powers so I could tell him to drop some English in for them. (I could tell that some members of the family were struggling with the Hebrew.) But he didn't notice, so that didn't happen. I hope we didn't alienate them. There's a natural break point between the end of the Amidah and the next part (Aleinu), where the rabbi often puts a two-minute talk, so I stepped in at that point and improvised a bit.

After the service one of the members of that family took me aside. He had this book of Tehillim (Psalms) that he had been given in 1936, and he didn't need it any more and wanted to donate it to a synagogue. I tried to very gently push back on that "don't need" part, but he was firm. So I accepted the donation and told him we would add it to our library. If he changes his mind in the future, I assume we would be happy to return it to him. There's got to be a story there and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious, but he didn't offer and I wasn't going to pry. I hope I did the right thing.

Comments

I think probably you did.

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

If they come back, even semi-regularly, then the service can probably be judged to be meaningful. If so, you might be able to take him aside over a cup of coffee at some point and ask. He can only refuse, and if you ask respectfully, he probably won't be offended.

I agree

[sue-n-julia.livejournal.com]

Even if they never visit again, someone took the time to show them that they are cared for. When you are in mourning this helps beyond belief (says the chick who lost 6 family members in 6 months).

I am glad to see that you are taking a leadership role in your synagogue. Congrats!

Re: I agree

[cellio]

(says the chick who lost 6 family members in 6 months)

Ouch. That's awful. I hope this wasn't recent? (I feel bad that we've been out of touch for a while.)

I am glad to see that you are taking a leadership role in your synagogue. Congrats!

Thanks. I'm lucky to have such opportunities; I attribute this largely to a wonderful rabbi. We study one-on-one (about every two weeks), which has allowed us to get closer and gives us a chance to talk about random things amidst the passages of talmud. This summer, at his invitation, I entered a para-rabbinic program at HUC. (If you read back in my journal to mid-July you'll find some entries about that.) I'm really excited by all of this!