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Shabbat
The first time I chanted torah in the remodelled sanctuary I read from the largest scroll we have, the reading started at the top of the column, and the adjustable desk was set very high, which meant I was practically lying on the desk to get close enough to read. (No actual contact with the parchment, which I was careful about, but it was a challenge.) This time, the reading again began a column (easy to find! yay!), but it was in the small scroll and the desk was set very low (for the bar mitzvah, I gather) -- which meant I was leaning way over. This was noticed by the shul director, who told me that next time we'll figure out the correct height for the desk for me beforehand. :-) (Most people do not have the problem I have in this area, because most people can read text from a couple feet away instead of 8-10 inches.) The real challenge of leaning way over is actually breathing more than appearance, though apparently it was the latter that caused people to think "we've gotta fix that". I should ask the cantorial soloist for advice on the breathing part. I have a new appreciation for what -- I'm told -- is the Sephardi style of reading torah: the scroll is held upright (in a case), so I presume the reader can stand up straight and read. (Does he do so with his back to the congregation, I wonder? Otherwise you wouldn't be able to see him at all, I'd think.)
I chanted again this morning and that, too, went very well. Leading the service also went well, but then afterwards someone took me aside and said I'd read the wrong haftarah. What? It's not Rosh Chodesh or a holiday (the times when you swap in special readings); I read the haftarah for B'midbar, this week's portion. Somehow, I had been completely unaware that when Rosh Chodesh is, specifically, on Sunday, there is a special haftarah for the previous Shabbat. Um, ok. I don't know why, but at least now I know to be on the lookout for this circumstance. (And, sight unseen, I would have taken it over the harlot imagry I read from the regular reading today...)
On the Shabbat of memorial-day weekend my rabbi always does something to acknowledge the holiday. Last night he read excerpts from a moving eulogy given at Iwo Jima by the first rabbinic chaplain in the Navy. The rabbi prepared the eulogy for a general memorial service (all religions), but chaplains from other religions objected to a Jew being allowed to speak at a combined service, so they ended up splitting people up by religion and only a small group heard the eulogy. Ah, here it is. Thank you, Google.
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Yay!
I have a new appreciation for what -- I'm told -- is the Sephardi style of reading torah: the scroll is held upright (in a case), so I presume the reader can stand up straight and read. (Does he do so with his back to the congregation, I wonder? Otherwise you wouldn't be able to see him at all, I'd think.)
I've also been told that that's the Sephardi style, and I've seen sifre torah that are in cases of that sort. I'm guessing a Sephardi reader would have his back to the congregation (or at least to the back of the room*) 'cause that's what I've seen in every Orthodox Ashkenazi synagogue I've been to.
*Sometimes Orthodox synagogues (Ashkenazi or Sephardi) are set up with the reader's table in the middle of the room so some people are seated to the sides and/or forward or it.
Somehow, I had been completely unaware that when Rosh Chodesh is, specifically, on Sunday, there is a special haftarah for the previous Shabbat. Um, ok. I don't know why, but at least now I know to be on the lookout for this circumstance. (And, sight unseen, I would have taken it over the harlot imagry I read from the regular reading today...)
It's the section in Shmuel I where David isn't at Shaul's table in celebration of rosh chodesh and Yonatan is there to check Shaul's reaction and then goes and warns David that yes, Shaul really is a danger to him... There's a phrase in it that "tomorrow is rosh chodesh" which is what links it to rosh chodesh on Sunday.
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I didn't realize that Ashkenazi congregations tended toward this. (If the reader is at the front of the room, I mean -- if he's in the center then he's always facing the ark in my experience.) Most of the times that I've been in Orthodox congregations, if the reading is happening at the front of the room the women's section is configured such that I can't see the reader, so I have no clue which way he's facing.
There's a phrase in it that "tomorrow is rosh chodesh" which is what links it to rosh chodesh on Sunday.
So it arose because there was a passage that made a date reference so the creators of the cycle decided to use it in that case? As opposed to someone deciding that the day before Rosh Chodesh should have a special reading and then looking for one? I suppose that makes more sense. When I heard this yesterday, I found myself thinking flippant thoughts like "so is there a special reading for the Shabbat before Chanukkah if and only if Chanukkah begins on a Tuesday?". Because it made about as much sense to me. :-)
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That seems a bit odd to me, but I have (recently) been to one synagogue where the main women's section is a balcony and if you're not in the front row you can't see the floor of the men's section.
So it arose because there was a passage that made a date reference so the creators of the cycle decided to use it in that case?
I don't know why that day has a special reading, but that's the part that connects that reading to that day. It might have started because when haftorahs started being read it was because public torah reading was outlawed. If keeping to Jewish law was difficult in general, this would have been an additional way to make sure that everyone knew what the calendar was up to (i.e. that the next day was rosh chodesh and that holiday X was therefore N days away).
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I'm short enough that many mechitzahs completely hinder me. Even if the sections are set up side-by-side instead of putting the women in the back or in a balcony, if a high mechitzah runs all the way to the front of the room, the reading desk is on the men's side, and I'm not in the very front row, I can't see squat. Even setting aside all theological and philosophical issues, that factor alone would keep me out of those congregations on a regular basis. (That is, even if nothing else stood between me and Orthodoxy, I wouldn't regularly attend a congregation where I couldn't see the service leaders. Visits, sure -- I like exploring new places and am not looking for "just like home" when I travel. But not as a regular thing.)
Y'know, this just occurred to me, but since the mechitzah is there to keep men from looking at women, and not the other way around, has anyone who does walls rather than curtains given any thought to one-way mirrors?
If keeping to Jewish law was difficult in general, this would have been an additional way to make sure that everyone knew what the calendar was up to
That's a good point.
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At a synagogue where I was involved in making the curtains for the (then-)new mechitza, one-way glass was discussed very briefly as an option, until the cost was researched. Then it was "ok, what kind of curtains?" In this particular case, the bottom half of the mechitza is wood (roughly waist height) and then the top is curtains in wood framework. (I think the total height is less than 6', although it's been a while since I was there so I don't quite remember.) The curtains don't really block the view very much (they're lace) and they're pushed aside for torah reading, the rabbi's speech, and the announcements at the end of services so those aren't obscured at all. (Pushing aside or otherwise opening the curtains for those segments is something I've seen at a bunch of Orthodox synagogues.)
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In the Sephardic shuls I've been in, the reading desk is in the "middle" of the room, and the reader faces the ark while reading Torah. Since the seating is usually in a U shape, the reader has his back to some, but not all, of the congregation.
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[1] I'm thinking of a particular unaffiliated congregation that calls itself this. It seems to mean Ortodox minus mechitzah, which is consistent with UTJ, but as I said, they're unaffiliated. (I'll be going back there in a couple weeks, actually; this is the congregation I had a good experience with in Toronto.)
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literally