liturgical choreography (geeking)

[cellio]

A question came up after services this morning about choreography rather than text, and I realized I don't know where to look such things up. Ok, some (most? all?) siddurim from Artscroll contain some instructions for choreography ("bow here", etc), but I'm looking for a bit more than that. Ideally there'd be discussion, as I'm interested in intended symbolism, history, and variation. Elbogen is text-centric (though I haven't looked for choreography info there so maybe those bits are there too), and Klein doesn't cover liturgy much at all.

The specific issue that prompted the question is this: In most congregations I've been in (including my own), the barchu is done thus: chazan says "barchu..." while bowing, congregation responds "baruch..." while bowing, and then you go on. In Sim Shalom, though, they specify chazan, then congregation, then the chazan repeating the congregation's response. So when I'm the chazan I've been deferring my bow until that repetition, because it makes sense textually -- first I say "let's praise", which is a call to worship, and then we all bow when we actually praise (the next line). When there is no repetition by the chazan the chazan has to bow during the call because otherwise he'll be left out (unless he joins the congregation in the response, which I haven't seen anywhere). (Hmm, I wonder which approach is older -- is Sim Shalom innovating or returning to an earlier practice?) So that was my assumption and my reasoning, but this morning someone suggested that I should be bowing during the first part. Hmm. (I have, by the way, seen both in this congregation -- there's no strong minhag. And this person only brought it up because I'd raised a different question with him and he said "oh by the way if you're interested in these questions...". So not being pushy at all.)

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Having grown up in (and still belong to) a Conservative shul, the second practice is what I'm familiar with (although the chazan does the bow on the first barchu rather than the second); Siddur Sim Shalom is just following the normal Conservative/Masorti tradition.

I admit that I'm a bit surprised that a Reform congregation would be using Sim Shalom. There are a fair number of textual differences between it and the books I've seen at Reform services.

[cellio]

Thanks for the information.

I admit that I'm a bit surprised that a Reform congregation would be using Sim Shalom.

It's not. Sorry for the confusion. I belong to (and am something of a leader in) a Reform congregation. I also attend a Conservative congregation for (some) weekday shacharit, and I now lead that service once a week. (I've never put myself forward there; they twisted that arm for a while before I said yes.)

There are a fair number of textual differences between it and the books I've seen at Reform services.

Indeed there are. When my rabbi and I talked about my leading services there, his main question was how I felt about reading some of those passages. Now as it turns out, some of them aren't as relevant as it would appear; this congregation, in contrast to every other Conservative congregation I've seen, doesn't do a chazan's repetition of the Amidah. So we do the first three brachot together and the rest individually, and I just swap in the R'tzei I'm used to while doing so. I can accept "meitim" in G'vurot as metaphorical rather than literal. The other textual differences seem easy to cope with; I'm sure it helps that this congregation does about as stripped-down a service as you can do and still be legal.

[arib.livejournal.com]

I was taught the following bit:

Chazzan: bows at borchu, rises at Hashem
Cong: Bows at Baruch, rises at hashem
Chazzan: repeats congregation.

[cellio]

Thanks. Bowing in both places hadn't occurred to me but makes sense as a "better safe than sorry" measure, at least.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

As already commented, yes, the practice is for the hazzan to bow when saying the first "barechu." That's universal halacha, as far as I know. You bow when repeating the congregation's response as well; you're showing that you, too, are participating in the response in the same way that they are.

first I say "let's praise", which is a call to worship,

I think it's imperative, as in "Praise..." and they respond "Praised is..." Logic is not what drives these kinds of things, though; it's one of the most ancient parts of the service. The commentary on Sim Shalom says that it originated in the Torah service and that the logic of bowing and so forth is based on verses in Psalms

[cellio]

I agree that the role of logic is sometimes shaky in cases like this. It appeared that bowing is something you only do when talking to God (or imitating the text you're saying, like in Aleinu). But "barchu..." isn't either of those; it's more like saying "hey everyone -- listen up; we're going to pray now".

Thanks for the informaton. I'll be happy to start doing it that way.

Any ideas on the broader question of where one can look up things like this other than the siddur itself (which might or might not have the notes)?

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

(got cut off there) ...where we should praise God while bowing, but we're not "bent," ie groveling. That's why in the Amidah you bow and then straighten up before saying Hashem.

[goljerp]

Some thoughts:

1. The Or Hadash (commentary to the slim shalom) may have more information about this. My copy's a couple of miles away from here, so I can't verify.

2. The Jewish Catalog has articles about choreography; they might talk about the origins thereof. I suspect it'd be in the First Jewish Catalog, but Joy lost her copy, and I never had it, and my copy's also a couple of miles away from here, so I can't look in the index.

I suspect that tracing the history of choreography might be a bit tricky. After all, other than someplace like the Talmud, where anything and everything's up for discussion, it probably wouldn't be written down. People in community A would just know, and if what they did was different than community B, well, different minhag. The previous Conservative prayerbook (Silverman - came out in, um, the 1930s?) didn't have any choreography at all, as far as I recall; everyone knew what to do (or at least, everyone followed the leader, who made announcements as needed). Sim Shalom (first edition) gives some of the larger, more universal bits of choreography, and I haven't used the Slim Shalom (new edition) enough to note what they do. Artscroll (and this is one thing that bugs me about it) gives choreography for one particular minhag but does it as if were all undisputed, universally accepted halacha which brooks no deviation. Grrr...

My feeling is that there are things which are undisputed: one stands during the Amidah, Barechu, and when the Ark is open and when the Torah is being lifted/carried around. Then there are other things which I have observed to be less universal: Does one stand during a non-mourner's kaddish? Certain psalms?

There seem to me to be some traditions about when to stand that have evolved organically: everyone stands during the Amidah; if there's kaddish beforehand (which there is usually), doesn't it make sense to stand up then so you're ready for the Amidah? Ah, people stand during this kaddish; people must stand during every kaddish!

[goljerp]

While I wait for Windows Update to do its nefarious thing, I might as well update this:

The Second Jewish Catalog has a big chart on choreography: Pgs. 293-295, by Shulamit Saltzman. Actually, it's two charts: one is "Types of Movement", with "When", "What", "How", and "Why" columns. Due to the format, it's not exactly what you want; as an example:
When: Borkhu What: bowing How: bow from the waist as the hazzan says "Borkhu" and as you respond "Barukh..." why: to bow before the King

The other chart is a "Stand up chart", which just has "When" and "Who" columns: for example
When: Prayer for the new moon Who: in some shuls you stand

There are also comments about Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox practices in some parts of the table.

No sources, though.

Wait, hold on. I missed the beginning of the chapter, starting at pg. 265. On pg 291, there is a short bibliography:

1. The best book on prayer and the service is Abraham Millgram's Jewish Worship (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1971). It's lucid, complete, and very readable.


2. Take a look at the Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter, 1972) articles on the Synagogue and Liturgy and Prayer. They're all good.


3. Finally, look at the Bibliography under "Prayer" in Catalog 1 (in the chapter on Creating a Jewish Library)

I hope this helps!

[cellio]

Thanks. I have the three Catalogs; I'd forgotten that they might contain information. As you said, their article is kind of sparse -- but the bibliographies you mentioned look useful. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of Millgram to look at; that might be just the thing for this sort of question.