morning service
Apr. 2nd, 2005 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioWe have a visiting musician this weekend (Danny Maseng), and he participated in the informal morning service. This tripled the attendance, which isn't surprising. I was the torah reader even though my rabbi was able to be there for the whole service. (There had been a time when that was in doubt, and when the doubt went away I asked if I could read anyway (I'd started to learn it) and he said sure.)
So I chanted torah, well, in front of a large crowd, my rabbi, and our cantorial soloist (who also usually doesn't come to this service). (And Danny Maseng, but celebrities who have no reason to learn my name don't spook me.) This portion had some unusual tropes, which the trope-literate noticed and commented on later. It'a a torah portion with some action in it, so I was able to make use of inflection and mood and all those things that turn a string of words into something with some expression to it. We were in a large room with so-so accoustics and I was able to project so everyone could hear, even while leaning over a table to read.
I received many compliments and I'm really pleased that everything came together so well. I'm also glad that I don't have much peripheral vision to speak of; one of the regulars (who was sitting right in front) told me later that my rabbi, who was acting as gabbai (checker), was (1) beaming and (2) doing the hand-gestures for the tropes as I read. The latter must have been for his own amusement, as he was standing slightly behind me so they couldn't fulfill their primary function. But, as it turned out, they didn't need to; I did get the trope wrong in one place, but I pushed on and I suspect only about three people even noticed.
I'm really glad I had the opportunity to do this. Sure, the egoboo is nice, but I feel that I did something good for the congregation as a whole, too, I hope including inspiring other lay people to participate.
And now, off to the concert that Danny is giving tonight. More later.
hand gestures
Date: 2005-04-03 04:52 am (UTC)Or possibly he was doing them out of habit, if he often reads or acts as checker for others.
Btw, I find it interesting that you translated "gabbai" as "checker". It made sense in context, but I'm used to the main function of a gabbai in this situation to be in charge of calling up the next aliya, making sure the correct brachot are said at the correct times (e.g. that the one for after reading isn't said before), and suchlike. Or maybe that's because in the synagogue I've been most familiar with recently, the rule they try to enforce is that only the rabbi gets to correct the reader and tell him when to go back and reread, because otherwise too many people can/will do it.
Re: hand gestures
Date: 2005-04-03 04:57 am (UTC)I am sometimes confused by the word "gabbai" because I have heard it referred to both the checker(s) and the person who chooses aliyot and otherwise makes the service run smoothly. When we talked about service logistics my rabbi said "I'll be gabbai for you", which is what led me to use the word here.
the rule they try to enforce is that only the rabbi gets to correct the reader and tell him when to go back and reread, because otherwise too many people can/will do it.
Oh, that would be frustrating. In any given service we have one person who gets to make that call; that's the rabbi if he's there but otherwise one of the lay people will be designated in advance. We don't have a culture of people just calling it out from the congregation, fortunately.
Re: hand gestures
Date: 2005-04-03 05:20 am (UTC)