Monday (part 1)
Jul. 18th, 2005 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioI realized last night (Sunday) after posting that our service is Wednesday morning, not Tuesday. That's good, as it's Monday night and our group has not had enough meeting time to work it all out yet. We got most of it hashed out tonight; we need to resolve a few questions and assign some parts tomorrow. Leading a service solo is much easier; failing that, leading a service in a congregation with established practices (so there aren't so many decisions on which to reach consensus) is easier than what we're doing, which is bringing together three different people's backgrounds and expectations and leading services for a congregation that instantiates for one week a year.
Still, I'm very glad that my service is early and my text study late, rather than the other way around. In my text-study group I'm teamed up with two people who (1) are experienced teachers and (2) have ideas that are very different from mine. I'm willing to go along with them so long as they don't push me way out of my comfort zone (teaching is new to me). We've talked long enough to have a very-high-level plan and assign some research topics, and we'll reconvene later.
On most days there's a chunk of time in the afternoon set aside for this kind of work. Today that time was in the evening, after the library was closed, but it should be better the rest of the week.
Service notes
I noted a few interesting things in this morning's service:
For the morning brachot (something like 15 short blessings thanking God for various things), it's common for people to do it responsively (leader reads half, congregation reads other half, alternating). Sometimes everyone just does all of it. This morning there were two leaders for this part and they alternated, each saying amein to the other's blessings, and people in the congregation either joined the blessing or joined the ameins depending on what they were comfortable with. I think that worked well.
The torah readers (three, one per aliya) took the torah blessings for themselves, rather than giving those honors to other people. While historically the person who said the blessing also did the reading, that's rarely true today outside of a bar mitzvah. In a service that's specifically geared toward synagogue leaders, I'm not convinced that was a good choice. We are already getting to do things most people won't get to do; we shouldn't be greedy and take away the things that would normally go to other congregants. I haven't had an aliya at Tree of Life since I started leading the morning service there and I think that's correct and appropriate. I may ask one of the leaders what their thinking on this was, but I wasn't going to do it in the (short) session for public comments.
One of the readers translated from the scroll (not from a chumash) and elaborated on what he was reading, several times stopping to explain a point of vocabulary or grammar. I really appreciated that; it turned the reading into a real teaching moment and not just a recitation.
There were some problems with page cues (not giving people enough time after a jump). During the comment session I shared my trick for that, which was apparently new to many: put the page number early in the sentence. Don't say "we now read together in the Hebrew on the top of page 203"; instead say "we turn to page 203 and read together (etc)". It's only a difference of a couple seconds, but it seems to make a big difference.
This generated the suggestion that we compile a list of such hints over the week. That would be good; I wonder if anyone will actually do it. :-) (Yeah, I'll jot down the ones that seem relevant to me or otherwise interesting, but I'm not promising to be the recording secretary for the group.)
Text study
This morning's text study was led by one of the rabbis. The real lesson was a meta-lesson: while yes, I learned interesting things about some of the psalms, the real point was to demonstrate one way of conducting a text study. (The rest of them will be led by us. I pity the people who have to go tomorrow; they got very little time to prepare.)
This morning's rabbi did a very good job, in my opinion. He kept it participatory while maintaining control; in fact, he may be the best I've seen so far at keeping the folks who tend to go on at length or go off topic in check. He used humor liberally but carefully, which I think helped maintain the rapport. He had a good structure -- setting the stage and providing background, and then studying several carefully-chosen psalms with different themes and styles and talking about both their content and how they're used. (I have better notes on this. Ask me later.)
Classes
The second half of the worship class was today. We talked about considerations that go into planning a service (who are the people, where are they coming from emotionally, what's going on in the world, what's going on in the Jewish calendar, etc). The rabbi stressed several times that change should come slowly; don't hit them with too many changes at once. Yup, learning that back home. :-)
Novel idea: one congregation does this: When they go around and say names for the misheberach for healing, they offer pre-printed postcards to the people who bring up names (or maybe new names?). The postcards say something to the effect of "we wanted to let you know that we at [congregation] are praying for your health, and [other comforting words here]". The shul's return address is on it, and the person can mail it to his friend/relative himself (so no confidentiality issues). They got a lot of positive feedback and a few donations.
[Much more to come... low-battery light just came on.]
Random bits
Q: Who's the most important person at a bar-mitzvah service?
A: The caterer. :-)
(This was a comment about service length and people's impatience.)
"The god of soccer is a vengeful god." (Comment on Saturday-morning conflicts for some kids.)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-19 07:08 pm (UTC)S