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I wonder if they teach this in seminaries
During the torah service it's traditional to say a prayer for healing for specific, named individuals. (The congregation keeps a list or allows people to speak up.) This morning someone spoke up and said "can we say something for the bombing victims?" and David, who leads the torah service, said "we'll do that later". I immediately wondered two things: (1) what bombing? and (2) what does he have in mind?
(I know about the bombing now, but I don't routinely look at news before leaving the house. And it was probably too late for this morning's paper anyway, and I certainly didn't have time to check the web.)
While other people were preparing the torah scroll to be put away David took my siddur, hastily flipped through it, and pointed to a page of supplementary prayers for healing. It was just a psalm (I think -- I didn't see a label, though I noted a page number to check later), which we read in English. I asked him when to do this, and he said between the end of the torah service and Aleinu. So I did.
My instincts didn't go in that direction at all. I would have been looking for another misheberach to insert into the torah service, right after the one for individuals. I never would have thought to look where he did in the siddur. Actually, at my own congregation we would have just added the unnamed bombing victims onto the other prayer, on the theory that even if we don't know their names God does. (I believe the misheberach is also intended specifically for Jews, while this other reading was probably more general, but in our congregation we don't strictly enforce that either. We've certainly added known non-Jews to our list, like the head of the local Islamic center when he was ill. He's a friend of our communtiy.)
This is not the sort of thing that comes up often, so I was impressed by David's agility in immediately coming up with an answer. I wonder how much was knowledge and how much improvisation. I hope this is something I get better at in time.
I also hope I get better at faking that knowing look when I really have no idea what people are talking about. :-)
(I know about the bombing now, but I don't routinely look at news before leaving the house. And it was probably too late for this morning's paper anyway, and I certainly didn't have time to check the web.)
While other people were preparing the torah scroll to be put away David took my siddur, hastily flipped through it, and pointed to a page of supplementary prayers for healing. It was just a psalm (I think -- I didn't see a label, though I noted a page number to check later), which we read in English. I asked him when to do this, and he said between the end of the torah service and Aleinu. So I did.
My instincts didn't go in that direction at all. I would have been looking for another misheberach to insert into the torah service, right after the one for individuals. I never would have thought to look where he did in the siddur. Actually, at my own congregation we would have just added the unnamed bombing victims onto the other prayer, on the theory that even if we don't know their names God does. (I believe the misheberach is also intended specifically for Jews, while this other reading was probably more general, but in our congregation we don't strictly enforce that either. We've certainly added known non-Jews to our list, like the head of the local Islamic center when he was ill. He's a friend of our communtiy.)
This is not the sort of thing that comes up often, so I was impressed by David's agility in immediately coming up with an answer. I wonder how much was knowledge and how much improvisation. I hope this is something I get better at in time.
I also hope I get better at faking that knowing look when I really have no idea what people are talking about. :-)
no subject
and God forbid that it should.
I hope this is something I get better at in time.
You will. It's all part of being a leader and a teacher.
I also hope I get better at faking that knowing look
Ditto. The knowing look is a tool. Kinda like the way surgeons are taught that because the patient on the table can hear them (even though they are anaesthetized), if they make a mistake they shouldn't say "Oh no!" (or whatever variant one might say) but rather "There."