Friday night

[cellio]

At the oneg I received a rather effusive compliment on my torah reading on Rosh Hashana. I'm impressed that this long after the event someone sought me out to praise me. Nifty.

During the service I realized why I have a reaction that I do to one small bit. Our service leaders almost always face the congregation. There are points in the service where one is supposed to bow toward the ark (which is at the back of the bimah); the norm is for the leader to turn around at that point and do so. Someone on our bimah (not my rabbi) sometimes does the bow but doesn't turn around (so bows toward the congregation). This bugs me. I understand why it was happening (the reasons no longer apply but the pattern persists), but it still bugs me.

Last year after the Sh'liach K'hilah program there was a discussion in comments in my journal about which way the chazan faces, though not this particular detail. The article I'd read (that started the discussion) asserted that when the chazan faces the ark (to lead much of the service, not just these bowing bits) it facilitates more private prayer than when he's facing the congregation. That may be true, but it's just part of it.

When the chazan stands in the front of the room, faces the ark, and bows, he is leading us in prayer. He is our representative, our sh'liach tzibur, almost our stand-in, before God. Whose representative is he when he bows toward us?

I had this epiphany Friday night. It is as if the person bowing toward the congregation is representing God in the transaction. And that's just wrong. We do not presume God's participation and response in our prayers.

I don't mind the chazan conducting most of the service facing us; I understand how seeing a back for the entire service could be alienating to some. But there are parts where I'd rather the person turn around and be our representative.

Comments

[goljerp]

It is as if the person bowing toward the congregation is representing God in the transaction. And that's just wrong. We do not presume God's participation and response in our prayers.

A bit of a digression -- this is one of the reasons why I don't like the "birkat cohanim" (blessing of/by the cohenim) and fought against my minyan starting it up. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, there's a part of the service where the cohanim (priests) get up in front of the congregation and say the priestly blessing, while facing the congregation and holding their hands in a way somewhat similar to the vulcan salute from Star Trek. (Nimoy didn't pick that at random.) Anyhow, although it's very clear that the cohanim are not blessing, but rather are acting as the conduit for God's blessing, it is as if they are, and I really don't like it. (In some Sephardic communities it's done every week on Saturday; in most Conservative congregations it's not done at all, or if it is, only a few times a year. I think Reform has probably dropped it.)