leading services

[cellio]

Thursday night I led the shiva minyan for Steve. I hadn't led one for someone I was close to before, but I thought I'd do ok or I wouldn't have accepted the assignment. It went ok -- a little shaky in a couple places as I thought about Steve, but overall fine. My rabbi was able to make it after all (he arrived just as we were starting), so we split it. That turned out to be perfect, as I don't know how to chant ...malei rachamim yet. My rabbi complimented me later. Several of my coworkers were there, thus mingling work and private lives just a bit more. The entry I posted Thursday night was partly a result of a conversation I had with someone after the minyan, though it's something I've been meaning to do for years.

Originally I was supposed to lead the regular (congregational) service on Thursday, but with the shiva and some other stuff things got jiggled around. I wonder who did end up leading that service. I guess it was probably the associate rabbi. My rabbi told me that I may lead that service on some nights now even when he's there. (Specifically, nights with board meetings or executive-committee meetings -- also when we are almost guaranteed a minyan.) I appreciate my rabbi's willingness to give me these kinds of assignments; my query about Friday-night services requires a broader discussion, but meanwhile he's finding ways to give me other opportunities.

It's past time for me to explicitly tell him about Thursday mornings. It's not that it's a secret; it's just that it hasn't come up in conversation. But now it might matter to him, so I have to find a way to bring it up. (He does know -- and did at the time -- that I was leading occasional Shabbat services there for a while. But leading weekday services is newer.)